Fridge Raider Veg Stew

So I was nearing the end of the week, and had a load of veg kicking about in the back of the fridge. The easiest way to use up all this eg before it goes off, is throw it all in a pot with some cupboard essentials - chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and of course paprika and chilli powder!
I managed to get 3 meals out of this, and served it with mash one night, bread another, and one night had it alone because I was in a rush to go out on the town with my housemates.
It's so easy, and since it's one pot, leaves little washing up.

Ingredients - for 3 meals
1 Aubergine
2 Courgettes
2 Onions
2 Carrots
A couple of potatoes (optional - omit if serving with potatoes)
Can of chopped tomatoes
Can of kidney beans
2 Stock cubes
1 Garlic clove
Sprinkling of paprika and chilli powder

1) Prep all the veg by roughly chopping/slicing/cubing/whatever you fancy doing.

2) First fry off the onions and garlic in some oil in a large pan or stock pot, once softened, add the carrot, aubergine and potatoes. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes.

3) Add the stock (about 1L in total - I just filled a bowl up each time since I don't have a measuring jug!) and the chopped tomatoes and kidney beans. Season and add the paprika and chilli powder to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 25 minutes. Cover to retain the liquid.

4) Remove cover and add the courgettes, continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes until the courgettes are softer, then serve!

Carrot + Coriander Soup

So I managed to get a cheap hand blender for a £10 to make soups with in the summer, and I have to say... I'm sightly impressed. Other than scratching the bottom of my stock pan off a little, it worked well!
I didn't have any ground coriander in, so it was a bit of a struggle, but the old mixed herbs never let me down!

Ingredients (for 3 meals):
750g of Carrots (or 3/4 of a kg bag) - £0.55
1 Potato - £0.10
1 Onion - £0.08
2 tsp of mixed herbs
Handful of fresh coriander
2 Vegetable Stock cubes - £0.20
Total price per meal: £0.31

1) Chop the onion roughly and add to the stock pot or large saucepan, with some butter. Sprinkle the mixed herbs over as they cook. Continue to stir so they don't stick, and cook for about 10 minutes.

2) Add the chopped carrot and potato to the pan, followed by enough stock to cover all the veg. I found that two stock cubes was enough (about 750ml to 1L), but feel free to use more if you think it's needed.

3) Bring to the boil then simmer for half an hour.

4) Use the hand blender (try not to blend the bottom of your pan like I did!) and blend until smooth, or the consistency that you prefer.

5) Garnish with a handful of coriander and serve.

Potato and Spinach Gratin

This recipe was in a budget recipe book, and to be fair, it does quite well at keeping ingredients to a minimum, and using commonly found and cheap ingredients. I have made a few tweaks to the recipe however, to make it more tasty, as the original recipe I found had too much egg (not nice) and was quite bland. So this one should be better!

I made this on a Sunday, so I had it for lunch and dinner, and had leftovers for lunch the next day. Yes, I was pretty sick of it after that haha!

Ingredients - 3 portions
Half a bag of potatoes (1kg ish) - £0.60
Half a bag of spinach (about 200g) - £0.54
300ml double cream - £0.69
Two eggs - £0.16
Mozzarella - £0.50
2 Tomatoes - £0.25
1 Onion - £0.07
1 Clove of Garlic - £0,03
Price per portion - £0.95

1) Slice the potatoes about 0.5cm thick, and boil for about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, take them out and add to a bowl. Put the spinach in to boil for another 5 minutes.

2) Whilst sorting out the spinach and potatoes, add some diced onion to a frying pan with the finely chopped garlic. Fry in oil for about 10 minutes.

3) Whisk the eggs with the cream, and set aside.

4) Layer the potatoes on the bottom of an oven proof dish, followed by spinach (try and press out some of the water whilst transferring from the boiling pan, with the back of a spoon), some onions and garlic and finally some mozzarella. Repeat the layering again, then for the final layer do potatoes, mozzarella and sliced tomatoes.

5) Pour the cream and egg mixture over, and transfer to a preheated oven at 180c for 40 minutes or until golden on the top.

Chicken and Mushroom Stew

So last year I invested in a slow cooker, which I used a couple of times, but never really got into. This year I'll try, I do prefer actually standing over the hobs and actually doing it in the moment, not waiting 6 hours for my dinner, but we'll see how it goes.
I got to the house and since the original recipe said it takes 7.5 hours, and it was already 2.30pm, I had to make some adjustments, because 9pm is pub time!!

Chicken thighs and legs are so much cheaper than breasts. if you can bear a bit of bone, try it. For stews, casseroles and tagines, they're great, probably go for the breast for curries etc.
The original recipe had wine and fresh basil in, which I omitted, because for me, I'd prefer to drink the wine rather than out it in my dinner! I can't afford to glug it into my meals, so I swapped it for veg stock and used a sprinkling of mixed herbs for the fresh basil. Not the same effect, but I haven't had chance to get fresh herbs yet (apart from coriander which I intend on using later on in the week!)

Ingredients - makes 3 meals
6 Chicken thighs (or legs/quarters) - £1.99
Chopped tomatoes - £0.31
2 Veg stock cubes - £0.20ish
2 Onions - £0.15
2 Cloves of Garlic - £0.06
Punnit of mushrooms - £0.59
To serve: Ciabbatta (or rice/potatoes/pasta etc) - £0.69
Cost per meal = £1.33

1) Brown off the chicken thighs in a pan - I just left it a couple of minutes then turned them over. Once that's done, move them into the slow cooker (if you don't have a slow cooker, put them in a stock pot or casserole dish.)

2) Fry the onions and garlic on a low heat for a little while, so they're soft, and add to the slow cooker/pot/casserole dish.

3) Pour the tin of chopped tomatoes over, and add the two stocks cubes (in water, I usually use a mug for each.)

4) Leave the slow cooker on a low setting for 7 hours or medium for 5 hours/ high for 4 hours. For a stock pot, I'd leave it on a low heat for maybe an hour and a half, and for a casserole dish that can be put in the oven, perhaps 2 hours at 180c.

5) Once those times are up, add the mushrooms, and cook for a further half an hour. Serve with ciabatta or if you prefer rice, pasta or potatoes.

So I have dinner for another two nights this week!

Back to Uni - First Shopping List

So it's been a while, we didn't keep up last year as we were coming up to assignment deadlines and exams. I plan on carrying on the recipes this term! Over summer I bought a couple of recipe books to get the inspiration flowing, but mainly to look at how I could make their recipes more affordable (who needs marjoram anyway?!)

My first shop was expensive because I had to buy some basics, and get some cleaning products. But I was happy I could slip some chicken into the budget this week because I've got to gradually get used to not having meat every day (which we do at home.)
There's a picture of my receipt below, and I'll be writing up about my first meal back at uni in the next post!

Home Sweet Home - Leicester version

So it's our Easter break now, Marianna is stuck in Norwich still, but is soon to be venturing to Morocco for a surf trip. Totally rad man,
Whilst she's exploring the cultural edible treats of Morocco, I'll be sampling the old recipes of my childhood. Sunday lunches is what I've missed the most, and I've had three in the last three days. I was greeted home to a roast chicken, then we had roast lamb, and finally roast pork. Whatever people say, my Dad makes the best roast dinners!

Since I can't blog about being a student for a while, I thought I'd do a quick post about what we usually eat at home - when the rents are paying!
I obviously eat a lot more meat. We are one of those households that will eat meat every day of the week, except one, on which we'll have fish. We're also very seasonal, for example, salads we only really have when summer comes around, with some nice cheeses, cured meats and crusty bread, the rest of the year we have soup, soup, and more soup.
Anyway, I'll post a few pictures of my Dad's recent roast dinners. I'll ask Marianna to do a quick post too when she's back in Norway, it's interesting to see what each of us eat when we're not cooking together!

Roast Pork (with crackling!) and stuffing and roast veg, (We also had 'potato straw' which is just a simple fried potato cake type thing  - not on the picture because I was told I was getting in the way!)

Roast Lamb studded with garlic - I actually started this trend in roasts, I saw it on a recipe for 'Greek Lamb'. We had it with mashed potato yorkshire puddings (you can see how we make them below), veg and a red wine and cranberry jus.

To make the mashed potato containing yorkshire puddings, you simply make the mashed potato and pour the batter mix over them. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Ensure that the oil in the yorkshire tray is hot beforehand, by placing in the oven for 5-10 minutes before assembling.

Veggie Lasagna

So it's been a while since I've done a blog post. We've been busy lately, since it's the end of term we've got a lot of deadlines (I keep failing my lab classes and having to resit them over and over - most stressful thing ever. Seriously, who thought that making creams and ointments would be so hard.) Marianna is busy saving the world as usual, and has been playing a lot of gigs.
This was one of our very early recipes that is truly a delight! It's one of my favourites!

Ingredients for 4 portions:
1 Courgette - you can throw in whatever veg you have left over!
1 Onion
2 Spring Onions
1 Aubergine
1 Pepper
Half a punnit of Mushrooms
Lasagna Tomato Sauce - I found these at Aldi real cheap, for both jars it was £1.50. Alternatively use  pasta sauce, pasata or even just bog standard chopped tomatoes.
Lasagna Cream Sauce - I have no idea how to make a creamy cheese sauce, and I can't afford to try right now. Nor do I have the time to try! Alternatively, use the cottage cheese between layers too, it's just as good! We only used a third of the jar for this recipe.
Pasta sheets - we got a box of these for like 80p and they've made about 5 or 6 lasagnas!
Handful of spinach
Cottage Cheese - we always head straight for the low fat cottage cheese with added chives. Yum!
Tomatoes (optional)
Price per portion: £0.75 (crazy, I know check out our shopping lists to see how it's done!)

1) Start by prepping the veg (except spinach), try not to chop it too large or it'll be a hassle to get out the dish when you serve. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2) Cook in a pan, with a little oil, for 5-10 minutes until soft. Add the tomato sauce (or chopped tomatoes, a 'lil garlic and some herbs - basil or oregano will do, or if you're lazy like us, the classic mixed herb tactic is the way to go!)

3) Let it simmer for another ten minutes.

4) Add a layer of the lasagna mix to the bottom of an oven proof dish. Pop some lasagna sheets on the top, then layer with the cream sauce (or cottage cheese if you skimped out on the cream sauce.)
Repeat until you've ran out of lasagna mix - if you run out of space, save the mix - either freeze it or make a pasta with it the next day..

5) On the last pasta sheets (on the top), spread the cottage cheese over it, sliced tomatoes (if wanted, we only added it because we had some leftover!) and a handful of spinach. Pop in the oven for ten minutes, cover with foil to prevent the spinach going black (we made that mistake before!) then cook for another 40 minutes Be patient, it;s worth it.

6) Serve up and enjoy!

(Sorry for the lack of a picture, it's getting late here and I don't want to bother Marianna in case she's sleeping - she's the expert photographer. I'll add one when I get it!)

GOT IT!

Brunch and lunch ideas

Hey guys, sorry for being bad bloggers. We might not blog every single day as we are busy students with lots of coursework, LCR nights and hangovers.... But we will (a couple of times a week maybe?) try do a little post to get you guys going on your cooking and hopefully inspire you to eat healthy and yummy food!! oh I am sorry if this blog post is poorly written as Charlotte is not here to help me out with spelling mistakes, grammar etc.... don't judge!

This post is basically about ideas for lunch and brunch!
This sunday we had a very simple brunch: toast, scrambled eggs and a fresh salsa on top made of tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, lime juice and salt and pepper! Simple, healthy and so damn good (like the LCR on tuesdays hah lol).

Another brunch we had, you could also have as dinner or lunch, was some roasted veggies with sunny side eggs on top. We used sweet potatoes, onions, courgette, brussels sprouts and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. SO YUM, especially when you cut the yolk and it kinda becomes a sauce over the veggies! mhmhmh (errrm no I'm not flashing my tattoo if that's what you're thinking.......)

The last thing I will write about in this post is this weeks bulk lunch! So we had the pasta salad last week which was so good. This week we made a tuna paste, and we made loads so it will definitely last for the entire week. This way we don't have to think about lunch everyday, it's just there!! in the fridge!!! We use it as a spread to put on toast, crackers or rice cakes, or if you have some salad leafs you could make a nice little salad of it, or if you feel extra hungry: a tuna sandwich!! We used flavoured tuna from aldi (black pepper and lemon), celery, sweet corn, grated carrots, some lime juice and light mayo!

Enjoy your lunches/brunches guys!! Lot of love from Marianna, the rice cake addict!

Winter Veg, Bacon and Pearl Barley Casserole

I'll tell you a little story of a stupid idea I had one sunny Wednesday afternoon, when I thought it would be a brilliant idea to go on a bike ride. Bear in mind that my bike doesn't have any breaks or gears, it's pretty much broken. I get pretty far, and I'm about 40 minutes away from campus, riding down a country road, and then some klunking noise starts going on and the pedals feel weird. My bike had given up on me. For some reason, perhaps it was fate, I carried on walking. After about ten minutes, I came to a garden centre. BUT IT SOLD EVERYTHING. Seriously. My shopping basket comprised of garlic mayo, thai chilli and yoghurt and mint sauces (I could run my own takeaway now), a pack of four wine glasses (we had an esteemed visitor joining us at the weekend so we couldn't have her drinking wine out of our mugs) and, best of all, PEARL BARLEY.

But what is pearl barley? It's some kind of grain apparently. I only bought it because it had a Scottish flag on it and it was making me feel nostalgic of the bird scaring job I had up there (don't judge, it pays well!)

Ingredients - for 2
Pearl Barley - it was 99p for 500g, I think we used about 200g in the recipe.
2 Stock Cubes - Preferably vegetable stock cubes
2 leeks
3 Carrots
2 garlic cloves
Bacon - we used about 4 rashers of smoked back bacon but trimmed the fat. The smokiness makes it taste real good.
Any more winter veg - Since we had some brussel sprouts and kale to use, I threw a handful of each in.
Price per person: £1.03

1) Start off by chopping all your veg up. Soften them with crushed garlic in a pan for a couple of minutes, adding the bacon halfway through (about 5 minutes in).

2) Once the bacon looks cooked and the leeks are softened, add the stock and pearl barley. (The stock should cover the top of the veg.) Leave to simmer for about 25 minutes.

3) After 25 minutes, do a quick taste test to ensure the veg is soft enough and the pearl barley not too hard - it's meant be a soft texture, kinda like rice. If everything's good, serve up!

Asian Cod with Oven Baked Veggies

Okey I am writing from a PC and it is really confusing, I am used to a Mac and this thing doesn`t make sense, at all, AT ALL..... Anyway, anyhow, any who, any when, we made a really yum yum dinner today :) We had some cod in the freezer and decided to bake it with veggies and spice it up with some Asian flavours!

Ingredients:
We used cod, but you could use any type of white fish, or actually salmon would be great, but lets be honest, white fish from Aldi or Tesco is much cheaper than salmon from Scotland, and we are students (as you probably have figured out, or not, depends how look at it lol).
1 courgette
2 leeks
1 pepper
1 garlic clove
1 chilli
A bit of ginger
Juice from 2 limes
Soya sauce (lots of it!!)

£ 1.2 each !!!

Since the cod was frozen we baked it for 5 minutes by itself. After that you can throw your chopped up veggies in an oven dish (again throwing is our favourite thing to do hah). Then put the fish on top, drizzle the chopped chilli and ginger on top of the fish, squeeze some lime juice and add soya sauce.

Put some foil on top before baking this cute little dish, because you want to keep the fish moist and yummy. Oh you don`t need any salt because the soya sauce is already salty enough, but if you like it salty you could do, but that`s not good for your heart, and you need a heart to function and be a good student and save the world. Enough random talk from my side, sorry, I like to talk, even though I am not talking, I am actually writing if you haven`t figured that out yet. LOL.

Aaaaanyway, bake the fish and veggies for 30 minutes on 200 degrees and that`s about it  :)

Enjoy the dish with even more soya sauce because it is sooooo goooood!! The picture is from before baking everything and pouring soya sauce on top! :)

BULK LUNCH

So usually we make lunch everyday, but this week we've tried making a bulk salad each, to eat throughout the week. This way we don't have to worry about what we're going to eat and we can feast EVERY DAY. It also stops us from going to the campus kitchen and spending money that could be spent on VKs at the LCR.

I'm not going to bore you about how to make a salad, because anyone can do it, just use the ingredients you like. Ours had sun-dried tomatoes, olives, mini pasta (Marianna got it from Norway on her recent visit back - "This pasta is the best pasta ever. It tastes like butter.") cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrot and lime juice. So for us we probably spent about £1.50ish each and it will last us 3-4 days (I tend to eat more than Marianna...).

This is quick, easy, healthy and yummy in our (and hopefully your) tummy :) Sneak in a glass of red for lunch and you`ll have an even better feast (it also helps you through the day, lectures are more fun that way, not that I have tried... eeeerm).

Smoked Salmon and Pulled Turkey Rolls

Yooooo people, long time no talk, yea? I am still in Norway, heading to Norwich tomorrow, fuuuun. Okey, soooo me and my mom are having a homemade veggie soup for dinner tonight. However, the fun part is the cute little side dish I prepped in literally, LITERALLY 5 minutes. The ideal would be to use norwegian potato flat bread, but you will unlikely find this at Aldi's or in Norwich for that matter, so you could either make savoury pancakes, or buy tortilla wraps (but it won't be the same, so I recommend you guys to take a little trip Norway and fill your suitcases with potato flat bread, oh and Toro brownies mix, but thats another story lol).

Ingredients:

Smoked salmon and pulled turkey (you get really nice and cheap Scottish smoked salmon from Aldi, but pulled turkey is a bit more tricky to find, you really don't need it, you could use parma ham, or just normal ham, or tuna, the flavoured ones from Aldi are really nice, especially the one with black pepper and lemon. You know what? Use whatever you fancy).
Cream cheese (this is kinda essential)
Spring onions I you feel like it
Parsley or any other herb (oh maybe not rosemary, don't know why, just not feeling rosemary).
You could shove in some arugula or spinach (I didn't use it this time).

Spread the cream cheese around the whole wrap/pancake/potato flat bread, put 2-3 slices of smoked salmon inside (depends on the size of your wrap/pancake/potato flat bread), sprinkle some herbs, spring onions, arugula or some green stuff on top of the salmon, and roll the wrap/pancake/potato flat bread. If you are feeling a bit Gordon-Ramsey-Jaime-Oliver-Nigella-Lawson today, garnish with some parsley or any other herb (not rosemary please), do a little mhhhm and aaah (like Nigella) and it should look like this ish :-)

Pancake Party

So, with Marianna in Norway, we were going to do a Norway vs Norwich pancake bake off, but unfortunately, Marianna was too busy saving the rainforest. The Norwich team however, soldiered on alone, and now sit smugly in their rooms with full bellies and a smile of success.
Ok ok ok, we did cheat and use batter, but I don't have room in my cupboard for bags of flour that I'll only use once a year. Plus we don't have any scales....


Ingredients - for 2
Batter mix - we used two packets and are STUFFED. Seriously, I'm glad this only happens once a year. They were 260g packets and cost 15p each!!
4 Eggs  - 2 for each batter mix
CONDIMENTS/TOPPINGS - We had the classic lemon and sugar, maple syrup and nutella. But have whatever you fancy - add some fruit to be healthy or whatever. I have a friend who has gravy if that's your kind of thing - certainly not mine!

1) I'd do one batter mix at a time. So empty it out into a bowl, crack the two eggs in and stir in. Add the required amount of water (I think it's abut 500ml per pack - so in student measurements, that's about a mugful.) Do it bit by bit so that you don't go past the smooth batter point to sloppy mess.

2) Heat one teaspoon of oil/butter in a pan - any more and you risk your pancake tasting like olive oil. Do this on a notch or two below the max heat - you don't want your pancakes to burn.

3) When the oil is hot, tilt the pan to spread it around and add the batter mix. We used a ladle-full for each one. Again, tilt the pan to spread it evenly across the bottom.

4) When it's looking a little more solidified, use a spatula to ease the bottom up, checking that it hasn't stuck to the pan. If it looks golden, it's time to flip (if you dare - we can't afford to lose the precious food source so stuck to the old spatula-flip-over technique.)

5) Use the spatula to keep checking the bottom side, when it looks done. Slide onto a plate and add your topping. Repeat for each pancake until you run out of batter mix, then get a new packet out!)

Vegetarian Fajitas

Marianna is back at home in Norway for a couple of days, so I've banded together with the vegetarians to make today's dinner. Communal cooking is a great way to save money, this time I've contributed an onion and some extra wraps (Aideen wouldn't accept my courgettes.) The best part is if I cook, I don't have to wash up. Winner winner vegetarian dinner.

Ingredients - serving 3
Kidney beans
Fajitas kit
3 peppers
1 onion
Handful of mushroom
Extra wraps - Or you could put on some wedges in the oven (if you're lucky to have one) and make a little side salad

1) Chop up all the veg and fry with the fajitas seasoning. When soft, add the kidney beans.

2) Meanwhile microwave the wraps for about 1 minute so they are warm.

3) Serve and eat like mexicans.

Leftover Jalfrezi

Heeeey guys, Charlotte went home today, so I decided to make curry with Aideen and Chloe. I had some leftover curry from yesterdays dinner, soooo to expand it you can simply add some more veg (we added broccoli, lentils, pepper, courgette, green beans, onion and garlic), some more Jalfrezi sauce or any other curry sauce, boil some rice and you have a fancy leftover dinner (Chloe managed to boil rice for 5 people, which was waaaay to much, so make sure you boil for the amount of people who are gonna eat the curry). LOL.

I don't have any pictures because it kinda looks similar to yesterdays curry :-)

Never EVER throw away food!! Always appreciate leftovers, cus they usually taste better the next day, well not rice, but deffo a curry or some kind of a stew, soup etc.

Lot of love from a forever alone chef (miss you Charlotte) xxx

Veggie Jalfrezi

After a bottle of red, and a rather delicious, and moorish meal, I've finally gotten round to writing the blog post. I can't say that this is a culinary feat for us, but we were craving curry. We're in a kinda weird mood, Marianna is attempting to read, but chatting away about Sierra Leone (as per usual), and there's some kind of conversation going on with the rest of the flat about how babies smell like milk. (Of course I'm just sat here, trying to concentrate - I'm being pretty boring I guess.)  But anyway, this is our easy peasy, cheap and (word that rhymes easy) vegetarian curry.

This was before alcohol was involved...

Ingredients: - I guess we could have made 4 meals out of this tbh
Left over veg - we used a pepper, aubergine, courgette and onion.
Chickpeas
Jalfrezi sauce - ok, we cheated here, but its so much easier and cheaper to buy a ready made sauce than make your own - I can't afford all the different curry pastes and wouldn't know the first lace to buy them!
Rice
Price per person: £1.22

1) Chop up all the veg and throw into a pan with a little oil and keep on a high heat for a bit, stir it so it doesn't burn.

2) Boil water for the rice, and add rice to the pan - it's like 75g per person - but we have no scales so guess.

3) When the veg is soft, add the chickpeas and sauce, reduce to a medium heat until the rice is done.

4) Once the rice is done (takes about 15-20 minutes in our student slums), serve up and eat... then get Marianna to wash up.

(Marianna wanted to show off her tattoo)

Tom Kha Gai

Soooo tonights dinner was a thai chicken soup with coconut milk, lots of veg and a spicy broth. Sooooo goooood, trust me, you will end up licking your soup bowl, or the pot, but thats a bit weird so make sure you are the only one left in the kitchen when doing so. Or just bring the pot to your room, and lick as much as you want. I am just saying, not that I know what I am talking about.......

Anyway, this is very simple to make. Remember that Tom Yam soup paste our flat mate Jerry brought to us from Hong Kong? Well, you are gonna use it again, but this time with coconut milk :D This reminds me of when I was backpacking in Thailand; hair gets lighter, skin gets darker, water gets warmer, drinks get colder, music gets louder, nights get longer, life gets better..... Yeye I didn't write this poem if you were all wondering, but it just describes the good summer feeling you get when you have a bowl of Tom Kha Gai. Okey lol this was so weird, I am getting all nostalgic....

Ingredients:

Tom Yam paste

Coconut milk

Chicken (that was already cooked and prepared)

Baby corn

Green beans

Mushrooms

Pepper

Rice

Prise per person (3 bowls each!!!): £1.50 ish 

Boil water in the kettle, mix the boiled water with the tom yam paste in a pot (obviously). lol. Mix in the coconut milk, mix mix mix. Mix in the vegetables, that you have already sliced in cubes or stars or hearts or triangles. Stir until the veg is soft, and then throw the chicken in the bowl. We like to throw stuff. While the veg is being cooked, you can start boiling the rice.

When the rice is done, and the soup is done, you can eat (logically enough). You can put some curry powder in the soup if u want to give it some more flavour. Eat eat eat. Yum yum yum. Enjoy!!!!!

Chicken and Bean Quesadillas with Salsa and Guacamole

AI AI AI, it`s Monday, and we are having quesadillas for dinner! The only work is basically the chopping and flipping the wrap (not recommended though, might end up on the floor). So yum, so good, so tasty, so (not) healthy (minus the cheese, but lets be honest, we all like a cheesy quesadilla). And it is Monday, MONDAY, and we all could use a little comfort food at the beginning of the week. Sooooooooo this is the ingredients chicos e chicassssssss!!!!!

Price per person - £2.07 

Ingredients for two generous meals!

Guacamole: 
1 avocado
A bit of onion
Lemon Juice
Salt, pepper

Some chilli

1) Cut the avocado lengthways, twist to get the two halves and de stone. Chop into cubes and use a spoon to smush it up. 

2) Finely chop the onion, we used the side off an onion, so I guess like a fifth. Who knows? "Onion to taste" would be a better way to describe it. Throw it in with the avocado.

3) We used one chilli pepper for the whole recipe. So a third for each component of the meal. Again, finely chop and add to the mix.

4)  Half a lemon, and squeeze some lemon juice over the mixture. Season and it's SORTED.

Salsa:

Some tomatoes - we used plum tomatoes, but it doesn't matter, might be easier to use bigger ones cus it is easier to chop them

A bit of onion

Some chilli

Lemon Juice

1) Roughly chop the tomatoes - I think we used about a third of a punnet of plum tomatoes. 

2) Finely chop the third of a chilli and the chunk of onion. 

3) Mix together and squeeze the other half of the lemon over.

For the quesadillas:

Bean salad - we used half a tin of sweetcorn, half a tin of kidney beans (simmer them for 5 minutes before using) and another chunk of onion (we used half an onion for the whole recipe.).

Chicken - we bought a small chicken from Aldi for £2.99 and popped it in the slow cooker for a few hours - should last us 3 meals/lunches/random post-LCR night snack.

Grated cheese - we used red Leicester, because Charlotte is from Leicester, I would prefer the Norwegian cheese Norvegia, but oh well, doing it the Charlotte way.

Chilli Pepper 

Wraps - we bought garlic flavoured, because it is the best, and we like garlic, and we don`t have any boyfriends so we can eat garlic yeeeeea, *imagine me head banging now*.

1) Pour a little oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Pop the wrap in flat, sprinkle cheese over, and spoon some of the bean salad over it. Throw some chicken over it if you're feeling particularly carnivorous.

2) Fold over the wrap and allow it to cook a little. If you're brave enough, flip it when you think the bottom is cooked nicely (took about 5 minutes) and cook on the other side.

3) We had some leftover cheese so sprinkled it on the top and put it under the grill for a bit to melt.

4) Serve and eat generously with the guac and salsa!

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie

Marianna and I, are very hungover, and can't be bothered to cook. A while ago, when I was meant to be revising for exams, I procrastinated by making bulk meals and threw in the the freezer for days like these. Days when you can't hold your eyes open, and it actually aches to walk - hence why it took us 3 hours to do our food shopping today. Don't shout at us today because we have no peas in our pie, I can't physically listen to that frequency of sound today. It's just an unconventional vegetarian shepherd's pie.

Ingredients - for 4 people
Chickpeas
Kidney Beans
Chopped Tomatoes
Stock cube
Carrots - think we used about 2 or 3 carrots
Mushrooms - half a punnet
Celery
Onion - we only used one
Potatoes - we used 3 medium sized potatoes.

1) Dice the onion, and roughly chop the carrots, mushrooms and celery. Start softening in a pan with a little oil.

2) After 10 minutes of 'softening' add the chopped tomatoes, a mugful of stock (we don't have a measuring jug, so a mugful is our standard measurement for stock.) And the chickpeas, and kidney beans - gotta get our protein!

3) Simmer for another 15 minutes on a low heat. In the meantime start boiling the potatoes.

4) Pour the shepherd's pie mixture into an oven proof dish. When the potatoes are soft enough, this usually takes about 20 minutes. Mash them, adding a little butter can help make it easier - especially if you're hung over.

5) Layer the mashed potato on top of the shepherd's pie mixture, you could even sprinkle a little cheese on the top if you're feeling well enough to get a grater out - not us today.

6) Bake for 10-15 minutes and eat copious amounts, then go back to bed.

Sorry for the poor quality photo - Marianna's camera was upstairs and we're too weak to walk that far.  Promise tomorrow we'll take better pictures.

February - Week Shopping List

Sunday, SUNDAY! This sunday is pretty boring as my purse was stolen last night, with my phone and everything, so I have been a bit depressed the whole day..... I wish there was a day between sunday and monday, how good would that be?? Charlotte managed to cheer me up a bit by taking me on a walk through the woods on the way back from Aldi, which was very nice. We hugged the trees, we made friends with a squirrel and enjoyed the sun glimpsing through the woods. It totally made my day.

Anyway, sunday is our weekly shopping day, including a lovely walk in the woods and all the way to Aldi. We just looove Aldi. Aldi4ever. Usually we try to plan what we are gonna make during the week, and then we make a shopping list on the basis of our meal plan (which we never stick to, cus we like to be crazy and adventorous yolo). We will try to post our shopping list every sunday and then how much it costed us. Oh and btw, the good thing with Aldi is that they have weekly offers on fruit, veg and meat.

Aldi shopping list

Apple, banana, orange, blueberries, spinach, babycorn, chick peas, green beans, salad, plum tomatoes, sweetcorn, peppers, onions, carrots, aubergine, courgettes, cucumber, avocado, lemos, broccoli, mushrooms, pasta, rice, coconut milk, curry sauce, sundries tomatoes, cream, cottage cheese, tea, tortilla wraps, hot cross buns, 12 pack egg, small whole chicken.

= 28.11 pounds for a whole week (lunch, snack and dinner) for two people.

Pretty good huh??

Courgetti with Chorizo

Saturdays are our final dinner days before the next big shop, and so usually we see what's left in the fridge and get creative. We had some leftover chorizo and carrots, and a pack of courgettes we hadn't yet delved into. Tins of chopped tomatoes are always in our cupboards because they're a cheap alternative to pasta sauce - why spend £1.50 on a jar of tomato sauce, when you can spend 30p on chopped tomatoes and it basically taste the same!
So today we made Courgetti with Chorizo, a must have before a night out at the LCR/town/anywhere that involves excessive alcohol consumption.

Ingredients:
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Any leftover veg - we used carrots, but something like peppers would work even better!
Courgettes - we used 3 between the two of us
Half a ring of chorizo
Price per person: £0.78

1) Cut the courgettes into thin strips - it takes a lot of patience, so much that Marianna refused to do it this time, and left me to do it all alone sob;sob. Put some water on to boil.

2) Chop the chorizo and left over veg into slices, chunks, or whatever you fancy and throw it into a frying pan and soften for about 5-10 minutes. Then add the tin of tomatoes and reduce to a low heat.

3) Put the courgette strips into the boiling water, and boil until it softens. We like ours a little al dente, so it has a nice crunch, this usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes.

4) Serve up in generous amounts because you'll never want to stop eating it.

Banana Pancakes

So this is happening in our kitchen saturday morning after a night out: strong, black coffee, some Jack Johnson on the speaker and banana pancakes on the making! We are pretending that our view is a sandy beach, with some nice waves, palm trees and turtles; when the truth is the LCR, a laundry and a bike rack. We have a good imagination!

This is the easiest recipe ever, EVER, which is very convenient when you are hanging and don't have enough brain cells to think. All you need is one banana, 2 eggs, cinnamon and some butter.

A mixer will be very handy as you don't want any banana bits in the mix. Put the banana in the mixer, and let the banana almost become liquid (ouuuufff sounded a bit weird, but trust me, this will be good). Mix two eggs in and cinnamon. Mix mix mix! Add some butter in a preheated pan, on medium heat and start making pancakes;-) It was so so so yum, and so easy!!! We kinda burned ours because I (Marianna) was not patient enough to wait, so I put the pan on a very high heat, but realised I didn't want burned pancakes, I mean who does?? So I turned the heat down, and the pancakes turned out to be so much better!

The best thing to put on a banana pancake is Nutella, but we didn't have any left (ehem Charlotte), so lemon and sugar kinda worked as well! Enjoy guys!

Leftover lunch

It's the end of the week and the fridge is starting to get a bit empty so this is when we have to start being creative with the things we have left. We had some leftover risotto from yesterday's dinner, so we decided to make risotto cake for lunch. We also had a bag of salad, some veg and fruit and goats cheese to make a fresh and healthy salad on the side.

Ingredients:

Leftover risotto
1 egg
Salad, veg, fruit, whatever you have to make a side salad (we used mixed salad leafs, tomatoes, cucumber, blueberries and an orange).
Some left over cheese or meat to put in the salad (we used goats cheese)

Beat an egg in a bowl, stir in risotto. Add some olive/veg oil in a pan on medium heat, and kinda like spread out the risotto mix on the pan like showed in the picture. The picture is showing a finished product, but just for you to have an idea.....

Fry the risotto for 6-7 minutes, and then you can put the whole pan in a preheated grill just to "fry" on top as well (about 6-7 minutes). If you don't have a grill then just stick to the stove, but the result might not be the same. I mean, you could always try to flip it, but I wouldn't recommend that... And the timing on how long you should fry the risotto is kinda "by eye" so pay attention along the way. You probably don't have to season it, as it has been seasoned the day before when making dinner. 

Meanwhile you can prep the salad. Fruits in a salad is so yum and delicious and super healthy! You can literally put anything you want in a salad, and that is the beauty of it! Perfect for a leftover lunch. If you have some leftover chicken, cheddar cheese, mozzarella, dried fruits or nuts; shove it in the salad!! You can season with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice :)

Risotto on a Baked Pepper with Stir Fried Vegetables

Risotto rice is something you should have in your cupboard. It will last forever (ish) and you can make so many different recipes with it. We had some risotto rice with tomato and basil flavour in our cupboard so we decided to make something yum with it. Oh and don't forget to buy some red wine. I mean, what is a meal without red? Especially when it is risotto. You can get a cheap and nice bottle of red wine from Chile at Aldi, don't remember the name, or the one from South Africa at the shop. Oh yea I really know my wine. Or not. Please don't read this dad, I know you like yours Italian. 

Ingredients: (for two)

Risotto Rice 200g -  the risotto rice we have is a tomato and basil risotto from Norway, next to the 13 tram at the shop called Grønn. BUT, to save money on flights, baggage, travel insurance etc. you can buy the seasoned risotto from most stores, at ALDI it's 99p, and Tesco £2. 

Pepper - We only had a green pepper left, in hindsight, a red one would have been better as the green ones are quite bitter.

Leftover Veg -  towards the end of the week we tend to use leftover veg, it could be anything. We used kale, aubergine, mushrooms, onion, green beans and garlic.
Price per person: £1.60

The first thing you start to do is to start on the risotto. If you don't have seasoned risotto, you'll have to add stock and some butter, but with seasoned risotto just add boiling water and stir.

When the rice is ready, like "al dente", you put some butter in, let it melt and stir. Risotto is a dish you have to be patient with. It can take up to 20 minutes to make, but it is so worth it. And the bonus is that you can drink red wine meanwhile!!!! Or you can prep the veg. I recommend prep the veg, then have your glass of red wine, unless you want to lose fingers in the process.

Cut one pepper in two, so you have to halves of pepper, pour a bit of olive oil and bake them on a preheated oven (220 degrees) for 12-15 minutes. We put them on a tray with some foil around.

Cut the leftover vegetables into cubes, or squares or heart and stars, however you want them and throw them into a wok pan (classic Charlotte style), or just a normal pan with olive oil/veg oil. Season with salt and pepper, chilli flakes, or whatever you have :-) when the veg is ready, the pepper is a bit soft, but still a bit crispy, and the risotto is "al dente", you are ready to eat!!

Put one of the halves of the pepper on the plate, put some risotto in the pepper, kinda filling it, and then as much veg you want around this little masterpiece :-)

The Amazon Rainforest Smoothie

So I got this really cool smoothie maker for christmas, and have been experimenting a bit. I have been trying to find the perfect recipe for the perfect green smoothie. As I was studying in the library, reading about the indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, I had a realisation. I ran straight to the shop and back to my flat. When you sit and read about forests and plants, lots of green stuff is happening in your mind (not in that kinda way), and suddenly the perfect green smoothie recipe pops into your head. Never happened with you before? Well, that is why you are reading this blog right? So you can make the perfect green smoothie!

The thing is you kinda need a blender or a mixer of some sort, so if you don't have it, you can stop reading right now, or get a very cheap one from amazon, it is very handy trust me. If you have some fruit or veg leftovers you can just put it in the mixer, some left over cranberry juice you didn't manage to finish from saturday when you where making vodka-cranberry for predrinks (because you make it so strong...), make a smoothie/juice and bam you have something yum and healthy, but the best part: you didn't throw away any food.

Ingredients

Juice from half a lemon

One green apple

1 celery stick

1/5 of a cucumber ish

Slightly less than a handful of curly kale or spinach

Some fresh ginger

Juice (not cranberry in this case, cus you want it to be green, so it could be orange juice, pineapple juice, or like I did: a bit of pineapple, orange and lemon squash mixed with water).

Cut the apple, celery and the cucumber into cubes, grate the ginger, squeeze the lemon juice and shove this in the mixer with the rest and well, yea mix, surprisingly enough. 

Remember this before you mix: peel the strings of the celery as they can be a bit annoying to drink, watch out for lemon seeds and no kale sticks. 

I am enjoying mine right now, and it is so yum!! :D

Triple H - (Healthy Hangover Hash)

In honour of the well known wrestler Triple H who we all aspire to be.

Okay, really, this has nothing to do with wresting. Last night Marianna partied too hard, and woke up a cracking hangover, so tonight, we cracked some eggs, and made the Healthy Hangover Hash. It's really easy, cheap as chips, and tastes better. 

Ingredients - For 2 people

4 eggs - We can get 15 eggs for about £1 or something from Aldi. 

3 sweet potatoes -  normal potatoes work pretty well too if you want the cheaper, and more available option. 

1 onion

Chorizo -  We used half a chorizo ring for this recipe, can be taken out for an even cheaper meal.

Chilli pepper

Handful of kale - optional - we had some left over so thought we'd throw some in!

Total cost per person: £1.22

1) Grate the potatoes and finely chop the onion. Cut the chorizo and chilli into slices. Heat the oil in a frying pan.

2) Throw it all in the frying pan, and fry for about 10-15 minutes, or until soft. 

3) Use a spoon to make holes for the eggs, and crack them in. Sprinkle the kale on the top. Cover with foil until the eggs are done and serve.

Utmramvakhrnvukayig eygrnay - looking good.

Aubergine Pizzas with Kale Crisps

Since Tuesdays are LCR nights, we like to line our stomachs before the onslaught of predrinks. So tonight, we're making aubergine pizzas with a small side salad, and kale crisps. Much healthier than Dominoes, and ok it isn't exactly the same, but at least it's costing us about a 10th of the price - we need to save our money for the night out!

Ingredients: (For two)
An aubergine
Chopped tomatoes (half a tin)
Mozzarella
Kale
Chilli Flakes
Olives (optional - we like to use them in our salads, so they're quite a frequent item in our cupboards.)
Side salad (whatever your preference is, ours was carrot, sweetcorn, tomato and cucumber, with a drizzle of Marianna's fancy balsamic vinegar from Norway, "you can take the 13th tram to Lilleaker and find the shop called Grønn" - it means Green.)
Price per person: £1.35

1) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Prepare the aubergine by cutting into slices - we cut ours so that it was flat to prevent any pizza toppings falling off later. Place in an oven proof dish/tray and coat with oil. Bake for 5 minutes.

2) In the meantime, put the kale in another dish - it always shrinks so add more than you intend. Usually we'll use a handful of a 200g bag and cry when we want more. So this time we've used about quarter. Drizzle with oil, season and sprinkle chilli flakes on them.

3) Add the kale to the oven, preferably the bottom shelf if you're lucky enough to have shelves! Flip the aubergine slices over. Continue to bake for another 5 minutes.

4) After the 5 minutes, take the aubergine out - leave the kale in there for now, you might need to turn them over if they start browning a little - or if you're happy that they're ready take them out. (It's hard to judge when you're making it in a microwave oven because the heat is never distributed evenly!)

5) Put a dollop of chopped tomatoes on the top of each slice, then a slice of mozzarella. Add olive slices to the top if wanted. You may want to remove the kale from the oven at this point. Return to the oven, and bake for another 5-10 minutes (or until the mozzarella has sufficiently melted.)

5) Once the aubergine pizzas are ready, serve up!

Mobile gallery !!

So we have a mobile gallery with pictures (taken with our smartphones) of dishes we make for lunch or busy days when we don't have time to blog... Hope you enjoy that as well :-)

Click here for a link to the gallery, or just click on the side of the blog where it says mobile gallery, logically enough :-)

Tom Yam soup with rice

Monday, our not-so-favourite-day of the week, so we decided to spice the day up with some Tom Yam soup for dinner. Fuuun!! Tom Yam is a clear, spicy and sour soup, and it is a dish you will find in Thailand and Laos, but also in their neighbour countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Flat 1 Nelson Court, University of East Anglia, Norwich (lol). You will DEFINITELY need rice on the side, cus it's very spicy, like very spicy..... but so so yumm :-)

Ingredients:

Tom Yam paste (we didn't get this from Aldi, as if. Our lovely housemate Jerry who is from Hong Kong, brought back some Tom Yam paste for us when he was back home over christmas. I reckon you can find this at the market, if you are in Norwich, or at that Thai shop in Oslo at Brugata where the 13 tram stops ish, or just google it hah)

Lots of veg (we used mushrooms, baby corn, green beans and peppers)

Herbs (we used dried coriander, the best would of course be fresh coriander)

1 filet of white fish (such as cod. Or you could use salmon, which would almost ALMOST be like the Malaysian dish Laksa. King prawns is definitely the best ingredient but it is a bit expensive, anyway if you use king prawns the soup will be called Tom Yam Kung, and you could get if from Aldi for a bit less.)

Lime (we didn't have lime, we had lemon, but we kinda forgot to use it, and it wouldn't be the same).

Rice

Price per person: 1,30 pounds (without lime and herbs)

So, how do I make this soup then? It is so so simple, you won't believe it:

1) boil water in a kettle (if you don't have a kettle, just boil water in a pot) and add the boiled water into the pot, pretty easy so far? Then add the Tom Yam paste and stir a bit.

2) Cut the fish filet into medium sized pieces and throw them in to the pot (you don't have to throw if u don't want to, but listening to happy music while cooking makes u just wanna throw everything everywhere). 

3) Okey enough of my weird dance moves: while the fish is cooking, boil some more water in another pot and add enough rice for two. I reckon the rice needs a good 12-15 minutes,  I tasted it along the way to make sure it didn't get overcooked. Overcooked rice is so boring....

4) Add veg and herbs

5) When the rice is ready, the fish is cooked and veg is soft, but still a bit crunchy, you are ready to serve up. 

6) Take a soup bowl, serve the rice and then pour the soup over, add some fresh coriander on top and a squeeze of lime and you are ready to go! 

Homemade Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients - Serves 2
Whatever veg you have (We used an onion, broccoli, courgette, garlic and peppers, alternatively you could make a homemade salsa and guacamole)
A pack of mince (turkey, pork - we used beef because it was on offer.)
Half an onion 
An egg 
Sweet Potatoes 
Total price per person: £1.16 (may be more with the guac.)


1) Finely dice the onion and add to the mince. Mix with an egg to bind it. If you have any herbs, you can add them in - we have a jar of mixed herbs that has oregano, basil and all the other green stuff in, handy because you don't have to buy all the separate herbs.)

2) Form the burgers. From a pack of 500g of mince we managed to make 6 burgers, so enough for 3 meals. Leave in the fridge for half an hour to firm up. They can then be frozen for future use. We put ours into separate freezer bags so they didn't stick together.

3) Preheat the oven to 220 degrees - unfortunately we don't have one, so we had to make do with the oven setting on our microwave.

4) Prep the sweet potato, cutting them into chip-sized slices. Use an oven proof dish or tray and place them on. Drizzle with oil and season - we use chilli flakes.

5) Once the oven has preheated, put the sweet potatoes in. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

6) Prep the rest of the veg and stir fry. Cook the burgers on a medium heat with only a little oil (alternatively you could grill them to be a bit healthier - our grill is student style so we don't use it too often.) 

7) Once everything is cooked, serve up and enjoy!