I'm trying to cut back on our pretty indulgent weekly grocery spend at the moment (blue cheese, good champagne and fresh fish were becoming staple items), and it's kind of fun! I love to cook so I get home every night, open the pantry and the fridge, and treat it like an invention test (or that Greek guy that used to call salt Harold Holt - who was that??). Best way to learn more.. and last night I was pretty chuffed with my efforts and thought I might share it with you. Healthy, vegetarian, and tasty -
Clockwise from top left -
Snow Peas. Pretty self explanatory. I always have 'something green' so this is my something.
Mexican inspired beans. Fry up a brown onion, a de-seeded red chilli, a couple of tomatoes, a garlic clove or two, some smokey paprkia, some dried oregano, 1-2 diced fresh tomatoes, a can of well rinsed lentils and a can of well rinsed kidney beans and the finely diced roots of a bunch of coriander. Fry for a while so the beans dry a bit and add vegetable stock (get some nice stuff or, failing that, some salt reduced stuff) or water to keep everything softening and serve once everything else is ready (I kept mine going on the stove for a good half hour - first on high heat, then low).
Leftover Cheese Sauce. This is totally uneccesary and can be replaced with some grated mozarella/tasty/whatever you have in the house, but I had left over bechamel sauce from the night before (well, a healthy variation, as always - a little butter, some olive oil, some healthy flour, a little milk but mainly water and a little grated mozarella and parmesan). I am not the kind to throw out food so I always try to use everything.
Home made flat bread. People, stop buying flat bread. A little fat, some liquid and flour and you have flat bread. I used about a tablespoon of butter and half a tablespoon of oil for these (melted and mixed), a few grinds of salt, a dash of milk and flour. I also added water to get the right consistency (recipes say to keep adding milk or more oil etc, but that's not for me). Once you have a dough, knead knead knead! At least for 3-5 minutes, then wrap it in cling filk and let it rest on the bench while you prep everything else. When you're ready to cook it roll out little balls into giant flat rounds (the thinner the better in my opinion) and cook on a super hot non-stick fry pan. So easy, so yummy and so damn cheap. Flat bread in the shops cost a fortune for a bit of flour! And sometimes a whole lot of chemicals (apart from Mountain Bread which I love, but again, not cheap).
Greek Yoghurt. Greek yoghurt is a staple in my house and apart from on a traditional dish of M's parents, I never use sour cream.
Tomato Salsa. Chopped fresh tomatoes (these little ones are amazing from my fruit market and only $2.99 a kg as they are small but as soon as I smelt them it was love!), the chopped up fresh coriander leaves left over from the stems used in the beans, a grind of salt and a dash of olive oil. Doing this kind of thing works so much better if you mixed it all in a big bowl together first then throw it in a serving dish rather than sprinkling things on top.
We tore pieces of bread and piled beans, tomato, cheese sauce and yoghurt on top and it was super good and the beans made it so filling. I'm not into eating heavy at night so I left most of the bread to Max and ate the different elements like a salad - also worked so well.
Nothing better than having someone you love love eating something you've cooked them.
Do you ever do random meals like this?
Just grouping whatever is in the fridge and going for it...
Happy Thursday & have a beautiful Friday!
x
