cake but not cake

The budget reins are getting tighter as pay day looms closer, always the way.

So, try this one taken from 101 cheap eats if you fancy a veggie tasty treat. It seems so simple but is really delish and costs about £3.50 to serve 4 people. Not bad at all mr bank manager.

Pesto rice cake with tomato sauce

For the rice cake...

350g arborrio rice
half a jar of green pesto
1 big leek
blob of butter
2 eggs
ball of mozarella
1 litre veg stock

1. Soften the leeks in the butter, add the rice and then keep adding stock in short amounts and stir until evaporated and keep adding till all stock used (takes around 20 mins) and then stir through the pesto and eggs.
2. Add half the mix to a frying pan, slice the mozarella and lay over the top then add the rest of the mix and cook for about 5 mins.
3. Then turn it out onto a baking sheet and return flip side down to the pan and cook for another 5 mins. It's then ready to serve.

For the sauce...

1 can chopped toms
3 shallots chopped
1 chilli finely sliced
few basil leaves
1 clove garlic crushed
splash olive oil

Soften the shallots and chilli for a few mins, add the garlic and then the toms and the basil. Just let it all bubble away for about 20 mins and serve with rice cake. Yum!

Viva la France

When embarking on the life of poverty stricken parents hubby and I devised a cunning plan to keep us in the land of happy couples...£10 dinner challenge night... a night of food, fun and where possible a bottle of wine. Just the two of us, the table all set, candles lit and some quality kid free time - if we're lucky.

All the supermarkets have this £10 deal, 2 courses and a bottle of plonk for ten quid - I say pah to that! Not for us pre-packaged same old same old. Oh no, we have to create a 2 or 3 course meal, with or without a bottle of plonk all within a £10 budget. Taking turns we cook up a storm for each other, spending a lovely afternoon in the kitchen while the other is on kid duty. Cookers and toddlers not being a happy combination.

So yesterday was my turn. And I went all French on his ass. We had onion soup (topped with the compulsory gruyere and french bread - top tip to stay on budget buy exactly the amount you need from a deli rather than buy the pack) followed by stuffed cabbage, with a grand finale of crepe suzette, all washed down with a bottle of bordeaux. Stuffed cabbage may not sound all that fab but honest to goodness it is. It oozes taste sensations with smoked bacon, pork, herbs, toms and pine nuts and looks well groovy served up at the table looking like a huge savoy cabbage but new and improved.

The rules are:

1. You can't spend more that £10
2. If you have ingredients in or can get them from your garden/allotment it doesn't count to the cost
3. It must be at least 2 courses
4. Nothing can be ready-made
5. You can't cheat by buying stuff you need a few days before to have in when it comes to the challenge cook-day
6. Basics like potatoes, carrots, onions don't count towards the cost unless they form the main element of your dish as they are usually in the house anyway
   

I came in at a grin inducing £9.59 - oh yes she's a winner this time.

Not only was the meal taste-tastic it was my big thankyou to hubby for being on perma-kid-duty these last 7 weeks while my broken elbow healed. Today sadly, alack, alay he is back at work. Still, at least he has scrummy leftovers for lunch.

Next time hubby promises me he's going all Eastern European to knock my French socks off...the game is afoot...

Soup of the day

Okay, today I made a yummy soup with a bunch of odds and ends of food I had in the fridge. It's this annoying cold I have, nothing like a good home made soup to chase the buglings away, so I had to make the most of what was in...

Ingredients

4 chicken drumsticks (roasted in advance)
1 medium potato diced
1 sweet potato diced
3 carrots diced
1 leek sliced
1 large onion chopped
half a cabbage (any cabbage is fine) shredded
half cup of peas
half cup of sweetcorn
1 dried chilli
10 peppercorns (can add more or less if you fancy)
1 clove garlic crushed
2 and a half pints of water (can add a bit of veg stock to this if you feel like it)
1 heaped teaspoon dried thyme
1 bayleaf
1 tablespoon red pesto
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil (or veg oil)
salt and pepper to your own taste

1. Remove the meat from the drumsticks, then boil the bones with bayleaf, chilli and peppercorns and skin for 1 hour in 2 pints of water.
2. Soften the onion and leek in the butter, oil and add the garlic.
3. Drain the bones into a seive and keep the stock to put back in the pan. Pick off any remaining meat.
4. Add everything else to the stock, bring to the boil and then let simmer away for at least another hour.
5. Put half the mix in the blender and blitz, then add back to the pot - voila a yummy full of goodness soup.

I love soup for its versatility, pretty much any veg will go into it and it can be as cheap as you want. This one makes around 6 healthy servings, perfect for a cold autumn night.

One big bowl later and I already feel the cold shifting. Could be wishful thinking but my money is on the food...