Free? Yes please!

Tonight (14 January) I made dinner for two - for free. Let me caveat this: while this blog is predominantly for my own low-cost recipes, often using leftovers, this recipe is neither my own, nor was it using any leftovers. But it was free, and for that reason it gets a mention here. 

This evening my husband carried home with him a brown paper bag. When I asked him what was in it, I got the succinct reply: "food". It transpired that as part of a PR exercise, several bags of 'food' had been delivered to the office, and a couple of days later, the final one - ours - was finally on its way home.

I had been planning to use up the veg in my house, but when I opened the bag it became clear that the contents would not keep. For within the brown paper bag lay a variety of vegetables, including a rather ripe avocado and some downcast spring onions. 

The bag also contained a press release and a recipe. The bag had been delivered from a new healthy eating venture called Mindful Chef.  Its mission is to encourage good healthy and delicious recipes suitable for vegans or those with gluten intolerances. The recipe card I had was for Chipotle black bean burger with parsnip and sweet potato fries, accompanied with an avocado, parsley and cherry tomato salsa. 

Every ingredient had been measured to perfection, from the tiny pot of chipotle paste through to the parsnip and sweet potato. No waste, nothing left over. Exactly enough for two people and I didn't need to add anything to bulk it out (except, of course, for the obligatory tomato ketchup!) 

Rather than write out the recipe I trust the photo (s) to the left and the right will suffice.

They're not very clear but I don't have a decent camera. Or a decent smartphone.

What I loved: 

1) the black beans were lovely and full of flavour. I'm not sure where these particular organic beans can be bought but I suspect they will be relatively expensive compared to a supermarket's brand. I will do a test to see how brands compare as I will do this recipe again.

2) The fact every bit of food was used, with no wastage. You don't need hundreds of ingredients to make a delicious meal.

3) I will be honest. When I first saw it was a vegan recipe, I swore. Effing vegans and their cardboard-tasting no-meat crap. I am not sure why we meat-eaters get so antsy about vegans. Partly because every single thing is healthy and we feel guilty? Or because old habits die hard? I was also a little sad that there was no cheese melting over the burgers. But as tempted as I was to adulterate the recipe with a bit of Snowdonia's finest creamery cheese, I obeyed the recipe and was very glad of it. My husband and I both thought it was delicious, filling and after it, we felt satisfied, without the bloating that often comes with eating rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. 

4) The sweet potato and parsnip fries were enjoyable and we did not miss 'real' chips (even though I make my own potato chips).

5) The recipe was quick and easy to follow. In fact, it was a delight to follow.

Vegan meal. Pic credit SimoneySunday

What I did not like

1) Probably as a result of the bag being left in the office for two days, the avocado was just too mushy to form a proper salsa. Everything in the salsa bowl was covered in a little green slush. I thought it still tasted lush, but I would have preferred a firmer, crisper texture to the salsa. 

However, the lime dressing was a little too sharp for my husband, so perhaps in future I would not use the whole lime.

The slushy avocado and cherry tomato salsa @SimoneySunday

2) I was indeed confused by the very first instruction to 'boil a kettle'. There seemed to be no reason why. Was it to make a cup of tea while waiting for the burgers to cook? Was it to wash the veg? We shall never know. Perhaps MindfulChef could shed some light? 

With those two minor caveats, I have to say I loved this recipe and the idea of creating healthy, gluten-free meals. Indeed, I often cook meat-free meals to make sure we vary our diet and do a little bit to save the planet, but the fact we ate five portions of fruit and veg each in this meal, with no extra naughties save some salt and ketchup, means I am going to introduce more vegan meals into our weekly routine. 

While I would not buy the meal packs from Mindful Chef - we are attempting our own wee garden and have a good local grocer supporting local farms - I applaud and support its endeavours. I just wish there were something similar but cheaper for the people my blog aims to support: those on the breadline, struggling to meet daily bills. This is the sort of healthy, waste-free food so many families need, but cannot always afford.

Christmas Cake Ice-Cream

Icing the cake is getting more and more complicated every year - and more competitive, as people post perfectly smooth and detailed cakes on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I attempted a Snow Globe and it didn't work very well. I think I bit off more than I can chew. Still, while I am no icing queen, I do know how to bake a flavoursome, moist and boozy Christmas cake and it does taste a lot better than it looks!

And I do know a bit about basic icing techniques. One of the first things to do is to level off the top of the fruit cake once it has cooled/is ready out of the cupboard, by taking a sharp knife - I use a bread knife - to create a flat base for the marzipan and icing.

This left me with the equivalent of a large slice of fruit cake from the top of the cake. Did I jettison this leftover? Did this anti-waste campaigner throw it away? Mais Non! I kept it to one side. And today I finally did something with the crumbly goodness: Christmas Cake Ice-Cream.

I followed the same recipe that I posted earlier this year - 600g of whipped cream, 1 tin of condensed milk (with a bit of spoon and finger-licking when nobody was watching) and once this was mixed, I crumbled the cake into the mixture. It was enough to permeate the whole ice-cream so that every scoopful, once it has set (approximately 8 hours), will be full of cakey deliciousness.

Of course not everyone has the time or the patience to make their own fruitcake, so I would suggest this is a good way to get rid of the last one or two slices of the shop-bought Christmas cake, rather than throw it out once 1 Jan and its 'good intentions' come in. After all, ice-cream can be stored in the freezer for a few months.

Oh and here's the strange-looking cake... links to my Instagram page

Turkey Troubles

I love a bit of roast turkey at Christmas time. We get it from our local butcher, from a known farm where the animals are treated well, and I think the flavour of a 'happy turkey' really does come through.

However despite asking for a turkey that would serve 3-4 people, I still ended up with quite a large turkey - maybe our appetites in this country have grown too much because mum and I both recollected that turkeys never used to be so big, even the organic ones. Anyway. Like many families in the UK and no doubt any Western country, we have the age-old problem: What to Do with the Leftovers.

Turkey Troubles. Pic credit: wklw.com

Apart from the ubiquitous turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day, how can one maximise the use of all the meat on the turkey without any waste?

Generally I clean the whole of the turkey, cutting the flesh and putting it into a tub to freeze for a later date. I then get the bones, skin, remaining jelly/fats from inside the roasting pan, breaking some of the bones to get to the marrow, and then boil this up in a large pot to create some delicious stock - either to freeze or to use as the base of a soup.

However, even with this tub full of turkey and the pots of stock inside the freezer, I still have a lot of meat leftover. Here are some of my top five easy recipes guaranteed to whet the appetite; also with turkey being a lean meat, and veg being good for you, these are relatively healthy.

1) Turkey broth 
This is a great way of using up leftover veg, turkey etc on Boxing Day, to accompany the sandwiches.
In my broth, I used the following leftovers:
Roast parsnips (chopped up)
Roast carrots (chopped up)
2 pigs in blankets (chopped up)
Some turkey (small pieces)
All the leftover gravy
Leftover sprouts and chestnuts (chopped finely)
Some of the fat and 'jelly' from the Turkey roasting tin
Some cabbage.
Basically, everything except for the roast potatoes (which were all eaten), the stuffing (which went into the sandwiches) and the Yorkshire puddings.

As everything has already been cooked, the broth only needs to be boiled up once and then left to simmer for 5 minutes (while the sandwiches are prepared).

2) Turkey Tagine
This is not strictly a tagine as I don't own the earthenware pot from whence the dish gets its name. But I couldn't think of anything else to describe the dish - 'Turkey in a pot with cous cous' doesn't have the same kind of ring.

Ingredients:
Chopped up carrot
1 chopped onion
1 courgette
Turkey pieces (chopped)
4 tablespoons of Turkey jelly/fat from the roasting pan
1 cup of water
1 cup of cous cous
Seasoning to taste.

Put the chopped onion, carrot and courgette into a hot, deep pan with some olive oil, stirring continuously. Add the turkey and the turkey stock/jelly from the roasting pan. Stir until the vegetables start to soften and brown.
Add the cous-cous, seasoning and water, and stir
Put a lid on and slow-simmer it for about 5-10 minutes or until the cous cous has expanded and there is no more water in the pan.

3) Turkey shepherds pie
This is another great way of using up Christmas leftovers
Chop up remaining veg, some turkey and some of the turkey stock/jelly from inside the roasting pan and stuff into the bottom of a deep dish. Pour on a little gravy - not too much.
Add some mashed potato to cover the lot, and bake for 20 minutes or so until the top of the potato is brown.

4) Turkey omelette
Fancy brunch? Break 3 eggs, beat them in a bowl with some seasoning - salt, pepper, dried oregano or sage, put into a frying pan. Tear up some turkey and spread over the top of the omelette base. For additional punch, add some of the cooked bacon from the turkey. Grate cheese if you wish. Gently fold in half and cook for a few minutes on one side until golden brown, then flip to the other side and repeat.

5) Turkey pie
There is usually a lot of pastry left over from the mince pies/cheese straws/strudels that are baked up before Christmas.

Take the pastry and roll out to cover the base of a pre-greased pastry dish. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or so with some ceramic baking beads so it remains flat after being cooked.

Take some turkey, chopped up veg and some of the leftover jelly from the roasting tin. Fill the pastry base with plenty of filling. Roll another thin crust and put the pie back into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes or so, until the top is glazed and brown. Best served hot - but can be cooled and frozen!

March of the Penguins

I LOVE Lakeland.

I often ask for presents from here because there are often good sales on items I'd like, and I can use them again and again to create wonderful food.

One such thing I treated myself to was a set of stacking star-shape cookie cutters, so that I could create a stack of stars that looked something like this. This photo is from Lakeland's own website as I have not yet decorated and stacked my own stars.

Credit: Lakeland. Star cookie cutters. Beautiful!

Another thing I like about Lakeland is that with certain items they also provide basic and easy-to-follow recipes. So the recipe that came with the star cookie cutters can be found here  or I have reproduced it below.

You will need:
300g unsalted butter, softened
300g caster sugar
2 small eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract - I found that this was not enough so used 2 teaspoons in my Penguin batch
a pinch of salt - I did not use salt; I used slightly salted Flora Light
600g plain flour, sifted - Sifting does not really matter much (sifting is a bit of a Women's Institute-style myth. It's the mixing that does it, not the sifting. However don't use self-raising flour, it makes the cookies too puffy and dry.

How To:
Reheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas 4.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla and salt and mix well. Gradually add the flour and mix until incorporated. Bring together into a dough, divide into 2 balls, wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 3-4mm. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use. You need 2 cookies of each size. Arrange them on prepared baking trays.
Bake the cookies on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until firm and golden, swapping the trays over if necessary. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOW for the PENGUINS. I do like penguins! I made some last year to adorn the 2014 Christmas Cake  - as can be seen below:

Which way to the South Pole? Penguin alert. Credit: SimoneySunday

Having purchased a cute little penguin cookie cutter from Biscuiteers in Notting Hill a year or so ago, I was keen to try to make iced penguin biscuits this year - but needed a good recipe. I toyed with the idea of gingerbread but I'd already made a gingerbread house and, I liked the basic nature of Lakeland's easy recipe.

So with a few tweaks - as I mentioned - I found it a little too low in flavour for my palate, I added extra vanilla flavouring and a teaspoon of cinnamon to make it a little more punchy. I also reduced the sugar element slightly as the icing itself will be sweet enough.

I used Fondant icing for the black and royal icing for the white, but I think next year I will try to learn liquid icing techniques as this took AGES to shape and cut the icing. I also used a small piping bag of red icing to fill in the beak, and some gold balls for the eyes.

And here are the end results - the march of the penguins.

Hallo mate! @SimoneySunday

Marching onward - the Penguin brigade @SimoneySunday

Tropical fruit cake

One of the (admittedly many) things in life that winds me up is the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables jettisoned routinely in this country.

According to campaign group LoveFoodHateWaste, ordinary households throw away almost 50 per cent of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK.

This approximates to a staggering 7m tonnes of food and drink a year, more than half of which is food and drink we could have eaten.

The group claims that wasting this food costs the average household £470 a year, rising to £700 for a family with children, the equivalent of around £60 a month.

As long ago as 2008, the Institute of Food Research highlighted the appalling waste of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Here are some statistics: 

• 359,000 tonnes of potato goes uneaten every year, including 177,400 tonnes of potatoes thrown away whole and untouched (49%). 
• There are 190,000 tonnes of apples thrown out each year, including 178,800 tonnes thrown away whole and untouched.
• The food that is bought and then thrown away uneaten in the greatest proportion is salad; in the UK 45% by weight of all purchased salad is thrown away (60% by cost). 
• 26% of fresh fruit is thrown away untouched. 

Source: IFR report 2008

With this in mind, I have sought to minimise any waste in my house, going to great lengths to, for example, blanch and freeze vegetables, pulp apples into jams, sauces and puree (which can be frozen) and use up any leftovers to create tasty dishes.

Wasting food costs the average household around £60 a month

Last night, I decided I had seen enough of my remaining top quarter of a pineapple, some sad grapes and sorry-looking figs loitering in my fridge. But instead of throwing them out, I turned them into a delicious Tropical Fruit Cake. A note: I always wash fruit before eating/cooking with it.

Tropical Fruit Cake. Photo credit: SimoneySunday

Ingredients
1/4 slightly less fresh pineapple, finely diced
2 slightly less fresh figs, peeled and then finely chopped
1/2 cup of Raisins (fresh and leftover from the Christmas pudding and Christmas Cake)
Grapes, chopped in half
2 tablespoons of spiced rum
3 cups self-raising flour
250g of Flora Light (slightly salted)
2 cups of Demerara sugar
3 medium eggs
1tbsp of ground ginger

How to
Pre-heat the oven to 180.
Whisk the butter and sugar together until it creates a smooth fluffy paste
Add the eggs and stir well
Add the fruit, rum and ginger and stir thoroughly
Slowly fold in the flour until the batter is mixed well
Put into a pre-greased baking tin (I used a 30cm loaf tin)
Bake on 160-180 (depending on your oven) for 30-40 mins or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean*
Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then wrap in silver foil to keep it moist.
Tuck in with a nice cup of tea.

*bear in mind if your knife enters a chunk of pineapple, it will streak, so try stabbing it twice. Go on, it can be quite cathartic. I promise.

The result was a lovely, fruity, spicy cake, soft and moist and crumbly. You can also pretend it is healthy because of the fruit. Ahem. I might also try adding glace cherries next time for some additional lift.

If someone could also please recommend a good camera for food pics, I'd be grateful. I don't currently have a working camera and my Samsung 3S is not great at capturing photos of food or anything remotely close-up. Thanks!

A Lidl Christmas magic

Never underestimate the value of German confectionery at Christmas time!

Having scored this wonderful gingerbread house for FREE, simply because TSB Bank kindly took me to the Biscuiteers last Monday so I could ice and build my own gingerbread house, I needed to adorn the rest of the 'Christmas Snack Table' with some Christmassy goodies.

Biscuiteers Gingerbread House, iced by me @SimoneySunday

Lidl does a wonderful range of coated nuts, soft gingerbread cookies, chocolates, truffles and mini-stollens. The Ferrero Rocher and Pringles also came from Lidl - so it is not just selling brands you do not know, but brands you do know.

I bought a vast array of such goodies for approximately £10.00 on Saturday - including a whole frozen lobster ready for the Christmas Eve lobster bisque (a tradition in our household).

I cannot express how brilliant Lidl is for Christmas goodies - and they make lovely, cheap stocking fillers, too.

Easy Sausage Casserole

Nothing looks sadder than a couple of lonely carrots, half a green pepper or some slightly less crunchy celery left in the fridge. The temptation to ditch is great - but RESIST!

To avoid throwing out vegetables that are still good, even if they are not quite as fresh as they once were, consider turning them into a casserole or hot pot. This is a great way to use up leftover veg.

If you have a slow cooker, you can throw everything in at once and leave it to cook itself while you are out or at work. This can be very cost-effective. However, for people without one of these, creating a casserole can traditionally mean using up a lot of gas or electricity. I therefore created this 30-minute bake as good way of part-roasting the food before turning it into a casserole, so the flavouring is still strong and the vegetables are soft while the meat is well cooked within 25-30 minutes. It might not be traditional, but it is cheap, easy to make, and can be very filling.

Vegetarians can pack out the ingredients by adding two cups of lentils, which will bulk up the dinner so that it is filling. Simply soften the lentils first by boiling for a few minutes in water before adding them to the vegetables. Obviously the vegetable version costs less than the meat version, but for the meat-lovers, here's my recipe for a basic sausage casserole (serves four).

You will need: 
1 pack of sausages. I used Tesco's British Butcher's Cumberland Sausages for £1.50 but you can get cheaper versions. I often buy on a deal and freeze them; defrost them thoroughly before cooking.
2 Carrots
2 Parsnips (or Bell Peppers, Cabbage, Peas, etc)
4 Celery sticks (I buy a whole head/stalk of celery as it lasts longer than pre-cut packaged ones, and it goes further for less money)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 brown onion
Some seasoning - basic/value stock cube, pepper, salt, oregano (I have a huge bag of this from the Greek relatives).
A dash or two of olive oil

How to:
Chop the onion roughly - leave it chunky - and put into a Pyrex or other oven dish with the olive oil. Clean and chop the celery, and add it to the onion.
Clean and cut the carrots and parsnips into thin dials and add to the celery and onion.
Chop up each sausage into half. Add these to the dish.
Add the seasoning.
Put into the oven for about 15 minutes on a 160 heat, so the meat starts to cook and the vegetables start to roast.
After 15 minutes, take out, add the tin of chopped tomatoes, and stir thoroughly. Add two-three tablespoons of water to the mixture, to make sure it is moist and covering all the other ingredients.
Put in for a further 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven, until the sausages are cooked through.

Serve, and enjoy!