Chicken and salami pasta bake

This is a real cheap skate recipe again, because it stretches out one chicken breast between two people and if you go to the deli counter in sainsburys, then 50g Danish salami is ridiculously cheap.

I've also included a recipe for home made garlic bread.

Ingredients

Serves 2 (plus leftovers for lunch)

Pack of 2 part baked baguettes

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 lump of butter (about 50g)

Several good shakes of dried basil and oregano

A few sprays calorie controlled spray/ 2 tbsp oil

200g pasta, any shape

1 onion chopped finely

1/2 red chilli chopped finely

1 chicken breast, chopped finely

50g salami, sliced

A butt load of cheese (100g maybe) grated

Method

Preheat your oven

Cook your part baked baguettes to the instructions on the packet. Allow to cool.

Mix together the butter, 2 garlic cloves ad a shake of both basil and oregano. Wrap in tin foil and put in the fridge until later.

Put your pasta in a pan of boiling water and cook to pack instructions.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a pan. Add the rest of the garlic, onion and chilli and fry for 5 minutes or until the onion is golden.

Add the chicken and salami to the pan, and fry until the chicken is golden and cooked all the way through, about ten minutes. About now the pasta should be ready, so cover with the lid and leave to the side.

Add the chopped tomatoes and several shakes of basil an oregano. Let heat.

Drain your pasta and mix together with the sauce.

Put everything in an ovenproof dish and cover with the grated cheese.

Put in the oven for 20 minutes. After ten minutes put your garlic bread.

Lamb with redcurrant and rosemary butter

Lovely tender lamb steaks, that are infused with the lovely sweet flavour of redcurrant. I like to serve this with crushed butter beans, to make this a nice carb free meal. This meal is also ridiculously easy, so much so that I feel a but daft writing it down!

Ingredients

Serves 2

Pack of three lamb rump steaks

100g butter

2 tsp dried rosemary

2 tbsp redcurrant jelly (plus more to serve)

Tin of butter beans

1/2 bag of mixed salad

Method

In a bowl, mix together the butter, redcurrant jelly and rosemary. Cover the bowl and put in the fridge to chill.

Heat the oven to 200'.

Put each of the lamb steaks in individual tin foil packages and spread the butter on top liberally (aka fuck loads of it on each steak to guarantee a nice gravy)

Seal up the packages and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

When you have five minutes left of cooking time, pour your tin of beans into a pan and heat on a medium heat.

Serve on a plate with the salad. Open the packages on the plate, so that the sticky gravy doesn't end up being stuck onto the baking tray. (See, I told you it was easy)

The best turkey breast burgers ever!

Really really delicious.

Turkey is a lovely lean meat, and is usually very cheap as well, so win win really.

The next time you want to indulge in a toxi KFC, or any deep fried burger, try making these babies instead. Not only will you save money, but you can control why goes in them, meaning no scary additives and they don't include more salt than the Atlantic Ocean. 

Ingredients

Makes 4 burgers

4 turkey breast steaks

125g flour

2 tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 ginger

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp basil

1 tsp marjoram 

Oil (enough to cover the surface of your frying pan)

4 bread buns

2 eggs, or 1 egg whisked with milk

Condiments to serve e.g. Cheese slices, ketchup, BBQ sauce.

Mix together the flour and all the spices, and shake well so it is all blended. 

Cut each of turkey steaks in half, then dip into the whisked egg until they are completely covered.

One by one, place all your burgers into the spice mix and shake until they are thinly and evenly coated.

Heat the oil in the pan until very very hot. To test if your oil is ready, drop a pinch of the spare spice mix into the pan and see if it sizzles. 

When ready, drop the burgers in the oil a few at a time. Don't try and cram them all in at once, just do them in batches. Give the burgers three minutes on each side, or until the coating is crispy and golden.

Put two halves of turkey in each bun, top with a slice of cheese, sauce and salad.

I like to serve with corn on the cob.

Sweet chilli and mango pork loin, with couscous and raita

Not the most presentable, or attractive plate of food, but the pork is really lovely. Couscous always photographs terribly, especially on my rather low tech camera, and as you can see I dropped quite a bit of my glaze when I was dishing up. I do not claim to be an artist!

For months now I have been obsessing about this bottled table sauce that is sweet chilli and mango sauce. To me it sounds like the perfect, zero hassle marinade for anything, and today I finally cracked it out and prepared this. 

The result was not as spicy as I was expecting, but the sweetness of the pork was perfectly matched with the flavours. 

Ingredients

Serves 2

Pack of 4 pork loins (Usually available on 3 for £10 deals)

100ml Colman's sweet chilli mango sauce , plus extra for serving

100g couscous

1 knob (haha) of butter (optional)

1/2 cucumber

1 1/2 tbsp dried mint

200ml natural yoghurt

Splash of cider vinegar

Method

Put the pork loins in a Tupperware box, and squirt them all with a layer of sauce. Turn them over and repeat on the other side. Leave them in the fridge for a few hours, of course the longer, the better.

Next make your raita. Combine the cucumber, yoghurt, mint and cider vinegar. Mix and put in the fridge. Easy

Turn on your gill/barbecue.

Place the pork on your grill and, using a knife spread some of the excess marinade on top. Grill for about 5/10 minutes on each side, or until the sauce is starting to glaze and the pork is cooked through. When you turn over the pork, spread more sauce over each time.

Meanwhile prepare your couscous and if you wish stir in the butter to make it a bit softer.

Plate it up, and enjoy.

Calories: 501

Cheesy, chilli prawn pasta

The beady eye amongst you will notice that there is two different types of pasta on my plate. That is because this recipe is best served with a lovely egg tagliatelle, but because I only had half a bag of that left, I bulked it out with spaghetti. It feels like my progress through my endless store cupboard is going much too slowly but two bags of pasta out in one day, that is success!!!

This meal is perfect as it has everything I am looking for in my tea; few calories, low fat and just a few ingredients. The key to making this extra delicious is lots of black pepper, slow cooking and lashings of lemon juice. (Isn't lashings an awesome word, filled with the middle class and scones and cream)

Ingredients

Serves 2

200g prawns, any kind you wish

1 chilli, finely sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

200g tagliatelle/spaghetti, whatever you have really

50g Parmesan

1 lemon

1/2 bag watercress, spinach and rocket salad.

A few sprays of calorie controlled spray

Black pepper, as much as you dare

Method

Fill a pan with boiling water and put your pasta into boil. Cover and leave for 10-12 minutes.

Spray your calorie controlled spray into a frying pan and heat. Then add the chilli and garlic and fry for a few minutes. Then add the prawns and fry until they are cooked through. Add a squirt of lemon juice and a few twists of pepper, and then turn the heat down low and leave until the pasta is cooked through.

Next, drain the pasta and add to your frying pan. Grate over the majority of Parmesan and stir through. Finally stir in the salad and let it wilt for a minute.

Divide between two plates then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Chilli and garlic are a really delicious combination and the lemon juice really gives the prawns a bit of zing.

This recipe is not rocket science and probably not original, but it is so tasty that I would give it a go. 

Calories: 476

Mini Thai pork burgers, homemade chips and thai salad

These little mini burgers are delicious, and are really easy to make. I know this is quite a long list of ingredients but I am struggling to use up all of my store cupboard ingredients before I move house, so I am a bit prone at the moment to throw in a splash of anything I think will taste good and hope for the best!

I am trying to cut down on my bread, so I made these as little mini patties this time, but if you want, just make them a little bigger and serve them in buns. 

One final thing, if you don't have all the ingredients in your cupboard, then sainsburys sell something called "fragrant  thai base" which you can mix into the burger, and then turn it into a salad dressing by adding water. 

Ingredients

Serves 2

Handful of any potatoes you wish. Enough for two portions of chips

500g extra lean pork mince

Small pinch of fresh, chopped coriander

I red chilli, chopped finely

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp soya sauce

3 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp chilli powder

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp dried mint

1/2 bag of watercress, baby spinach and rocket salad

1 orange pepper, sliced

1/2 cucumber, sliced into ribbons

Sweet chilli sauce, as much as you want

Salt and pepper to serve

Method

First prepare your chips. Preheat your oven to 200'.

Peel the potatoes, chop them into wedge shapes. 

Then up them in a pan of cool water and bring to the boil. Then drain your chips, place them on an oven tray. Drizzle them with the olive oil and liberally shake salt and pepper all them. Place them in the oven for 30 minutes, taking them out and shaking them halfway through the cooking time.

Whilst your chips are cooking, start on your burgers. Mix together the soya sauce, 1 tbsp lime juice, 1 tbsp fish sauce, the red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp chilli powder, 1 tbsp sesame oil and the basil. 

Put the pork mince, half of the chilli and the chopped coriander in a large mixing bowl. Pour in your mixture then mix everything together with your hands. Next shape them into six small burger shaped. Put them on a plate, cover and leave in the fridge until your chips have 10 minutes left.

Next prepare the salad and dressing. Mix together the rest of the oil, lime juice, fish sauce, chilli powder. Then add the sugar and mint and a splash of water. Combine  the salad, pepper and cucumber and set aside.

Preheat your grill.

After 20 minutes, place the burgers on the grill and cook them for 5 minutes on each side or until cooked all the way through and dark on the outside.

Put everything on a plate then drizzle with the sweet chilli sauce

Calories: 660

 

Party night chicken nachos

Obviously this is not the healthiest meal in the world, but sometimes when you are craving a take away filled with thousands of calories, then making your own version, then controlling what you put in is the best compromise.

Ingredients

Serves 2

1/2 red onion

1 garlic clove

Few sprays of calorie controlled spray/olive oil

1 pepper (I like green for a contrast in colour, but whatever you have is great)

Tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tsp chipotle paste

1 tsp sugar

2 chicken breasts

50g cheese

Bag of nacho crisps

Method

Heat the oil in a pan.

Chop your onion, pepper and garlic finely, then throw in the onion and garlic.

When the onion is starting to turn brown, add the pepper to the pan and cook for a   few more minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar and chipotle paste.

Place the chicken into your pan, and cover with your sauce. Put the lid on your pan and leave to simmer for 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

After 20 minutes, take the chicken out of the pan and shred it with two forks. Return the chicken to the pan, and turn on the grill.

Lay a handful of nachos into a heatproof dish, then spoon some of your chicken onto the nachos. Place the rest of your nachos on top, followed by the rest of the chicken. Grate your cheese over the top.

Place the dish under the grill until the cheese has melted. Serve with sour cream, then eat!

(I recently discovered the jalapeño dip, and have to eat it with everything, that's what the green stuff is. It's so delicious it's untrue)

Calories: 696