50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

suziewuzie

Can anyone let me know where I'll find the recipe for lesley's spicy chicken cakes? Had a look through the recipe thread and couldn't see it.

Elfinwings

Thought I'd share with you the rather tasty (if I do say so myself) dinner I made last night. It was a take on a veggie moussaka: 2 small aubergines, sliced and lightly fried (reduced to 40p each), two large potatoes boiled and sliced, layered up with lentil and tomato sauce. The sauce was an onion and garlic clove, chopped and fried until soft, then add a couple of handfuls of lentils and some boiling water and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add a tub of passata, a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs, squeeze of chilli-in-a-tube stuff, and a couple of bottle-end red wine ice cubes. Simmered together for another 15 minutes, then layer up with the potatoes and aubergine. Topped off with cheese sauce (knob of butter, table spoon or so of plain flour, 1/2 pint milk, black pepper and grated cheese) with a bit more cheese sprinkled over the top. Bake at gas 5 for half an hour - scrummy!

It made four 'greedy person' portions, and you could probably make it stretch to six with some greens / salad / bread alongside, but OH and I were too piggy for that!! Not sure what the accurate costings would be, but I reckon it came in about the £2.30 mark, so roughtly 40-50p per portion depending on greed

I also spent a couple of happy hours picking and freezing an ice-cream tub's-worth of redcurrants from the garden of the house I'm trying to sell. There has to be some silver lining for it not having sold STILL!! There's a great recipe for redcurrant meringue in one of Nigella's books, and I might even have a go at redcurrent jelly. Hmm.

Elfin

p.s. Confuzzled, doh, here's me assuming you live on two storeys! I don't think I've seen terranced bungalows, teach me to make assumptions!

Seakay

Confuzzled: re your blunt hedge shears - I get mine sharpened at the local shoe menders and key cutters. He charges £1.25-£1.50 an item, with the understanding that he can't guarantee the job as he can't take them apart etc.

Lesley_Gaye

suziewuzie wrote: »

Can anyone let me know where I'll find the recipe for lesley's spicy chicken cakes? Had a look through the recipe thread and couldn't see it.

SuzieWuzie, when I first tried them I just substituted chicken for fish in a fishcake recipe.

For 2 people, I would use mashed potato 400g should do it (just potato, no butter/spread, it would make it too soft), chicken picked from a chicken carcass that has been used to make stock (80g or so?) a chopped and fried onion. Then to that basic mix I would add whatever spices we fancied. Sometime I just use a big dollop of grainy mustard, sometimes some cumin, paprika, coriander and garam masala sizzled first in a little oil. Sorry, bit vague about quantities. I usually do them when I am stretching a small amount of something and work by eye.

Then I shape them into burger sized rounds, you can use hands or whatever, dust them with flour for a nice crisp finish and sizzle them in some oil.

I have tried these with lots of different flavourings and have found that most things work paired with the right extras.
smoked mackerel and gherkins
chorizo, dominant enough on its own, and you only need a little bit
tinned tuna, best served with tartare sauce
tinned or fresh salmon if you have the cash, great with a tomato salad and fresh basil (from the garden)
tiny bits of bacon, snipped and crisped
a little turkey, had these with cranberry relish, scrummy
corned beef - well that's just hash really I suppose

any relishes on the side add a lot of flavour, sweetcorn relish, tomato salsa, coriander and parsley relish etc

HTH

suziewuzie

Thanks for that, Lesley. :beer:
Loads of brill ideas. Will do a roast chick next Sun and try these cakes later in the week. Sounds yummy.

ps - you've done well with the weight loss - keep going. You're right - it does take a lot of concentration.:rolleyes:

boredofbeingathome

Has the lesser spotted Weezl gone Awol?

In_Search_Of_Me

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Has the lesser spotted Weezl gone Awol?

hope not bob cos were having her for dinner on sat and we'll be mighty hungry if shes gawned! Think shes just been busy being a mummy!

nopot2pin

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Has the lesser spotted Weezl gone Awol?

Hmmmm.............. I did wonder this myself :)

ceridwen wrote: »

Its too late for me now - these sort of courses will only be pretty much the norm in about 10 years time I anticipate - and I am now very near retirement -

But is it Ceridwen ?
If its too late now, then what will you think in 10 years when they are the norm ??



I have been away for the weekend, camping.
To Oban, and midge land
I was ok though...as I had the secret weapon in midge repellant :cool:
We walked for miles.. up, down, round, in rain, in sunshine.
To Mull, and Tobermory
We even went on an open air, walking theatre, about Clan McDougall, at Dunollie Castle... which was very entertaining....the rain held off which was good, and the wind was slight, which keep the midge's with the boots on at bay

Camping... It is great fun... but I am soooo looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight

Confuzzled

sounds like a grand time nopot2pin (love that name btw )

i managed to get my hands on some of the morrisons 6p/jar curry sauce and i had my first curry with it last night

i put in two clearance chicken breast/wing portions (huge! and only 49p each)
1/3rd package of coconut creme
handful of sultanas
2 handfuls of lentils
2 shrinkly carrots i got for free
2 small onions
3 small tomatoes that were going to go off if i didn't use them
and the 6p jar of curry sauce
and a jar full of water to get every last drop of sauce! (oh and for the lentils of course)

chucked it all in the slowcooker and left it on low most of the day. for the last 40 minutes i removed the chicken breasts to allow them to cool and to give me some room to add some rice, about 2/3rds of a cup. i stirred it all back in and let it cook another 40 minutes. when it was ready i took all the chicken off the bones and tore it into pieces and threw it back into the curry stirring well

the results? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :T

i estimate it cost around 2 quid for the lot which in turn became 5 BIG portions over 2 meals so at 40p a portion it's def better than ready meals or cheap takeaway curry and tastes better too!

next time i think i'll skip the coconut cream as i couldn't really taste it. i must say i was surprised at how nice the curry sauce tastes on it's on, pleasantly surprised
i forsee me eating much more of this mmmm mmm mmm

thanks to all of you that have been discussing the curry wars!

anyway just wanted to share that, hope everyone has a lovely day

Kittikins

Hi nopot2pin....could you share the anti-midge secret with us please? The little blighters love me