Cheap healthy meal- Lentil bake

I said I would share some more inexpensive recipes for people trying to save money so I thought I would show this recipe for lentil bake. It is just something I make and not from any book. We had this yesterday with our lunch ( me and my son are vegetarian) my husband and younger son had chicken. This is a favourite if you want something to put with the Sunday lunch instead of meat.  It is good for you due to the lentils however if you are watching the calories  you will need to  use less cheese.

100g dried red lentils  rinsed  (20p)  from 500g bag from asda £1
40g of cheddar cheese ( 25p ish)  cheese from Aldi £1.99  350g
1 medium red onion  (10p ) Bag from Aldi 7onions for 69p
1 desert spoon dried basil  (6p)  Aldi 55p pot

Serves 3 good portions ( or make double and save some for next day) 61p for this side dish, so 20p per portion is much cheaper than a pack of quorn sausages!

That is all. Put a pan of water to boil then add the lentils for 15 minutes, keep it bubbling. Chop your onion and fry it in some olive oil for a few minutes.

 While these are cooking you can be grating your cheese.  I like to use this amount of cheese as I like the flavour and I do not have a lot of fat in my diet due to my vegetarian meals so some of them may have a lot of cheese or the coconut milk but as I don't have any other animal fat there is not a problem for me or my son.  I also don't drink milk I have Soya but I cannot get along with the dairy free cheese!

When the lentils are cooked drain them in a sieve, and put them in an oven proof dish. Stir in the fried onion, dried basil and grated cheese,  also sprinkle some of the cheese over the top.  I then put it in the oven at the bottom but on 240 fan while the yorkshire puddings cook, about 12-14 minutes. 

If you are like us and some of the family are vegetarian but not all it can make meals expensive if you are buying the meat for the meat eaters and the alternative stuff for the vegetarians.  A lot of the pre packed vegetarian stuff is expensive, poor quality and you don't get much. It is better to make your own.  I do buy the quorn mince as when we have that the whole family has it in bolognaise.  I have moved away from the rest of the sausages and quorn pieces though as I  am finding better alternatives for us.  I don't think this is any trouble to make so you could have it with anything really, I' ve not tried it with pasta and sauce but I might now, just a bit of garlic and tinned tomatoes would probably turn it into a pasta dish.

Fabric Brooch Tutorial

I thought I would show step by step what I did with the fabric scraps I mentioned the other day.  I decided on a brooch and here is how I went about it.
I laid out the shapes I had cut out onto scraps of denim.

Doing this gives the cotton a bit of stability if you just back it in another cotton it is too floppy. When you have the pieces in place zig zag around your shapes neatly ( I find its better to do this first, if you cut the denim out first then zig zag your shape isn't as good)

When you have gone around all your pieces cut them out carefully making sure not to catch any of your stitching. It is best to leave a very fine denim border then you can run your finger along it to make any frayed bits stand out, then gently trim with small sharp scissors.

Now you need to arrange your pieces on the table to see if you are happy with it.  I have backed the orange circle in green felt, looking at it I decided I didn't think the little white button and pale pink fabric did anything for the overall look.  I found a small piece of hot pink felt and a gold button in my sewing box (well two actually) with lots of colours in it.  I decided to add these.  If you like the arrangement you can n ow start to sew the petals on by hand, or machine if you wish.

Keep adding as you go working around a felt circle, I think if you do this by hand you can move it better, also its something you could do while sat watching the T.V. When all the petals are on place your central circles, stitch through using small invisible stitches where your button will go, then securely sew on your button.

Now turn it over and sew on a brooch fastener on the back, I got mine from hobby craft a while ago for £2.40 I think, you get 24 in a pack though so they are inexpensive. I stitched this bit by hand also as you want to make it secure through each of the little holes but don't catch through to the good side. 

I like the way the petals naturally want to curl just as they would on a real flower, you will see what I mean if you have a go.  I have a bag my parents bought me and the buckles keep coming away as they just sloton the bag. I tries this brooch over one to keep it in place and found the colours go perfectly!  I didn't plan that when I cut these bits out the other day. I like it when things work out like that.  Here it is on the bag..

This is the first bag i have used for years that I haven't made myself, it was a gift from my parents but adding this brooch makes it more mine.  I like the splash of colour.

Frugal Cashew, Cauliflower and Broccoli Korma

After reading Frugal Queens post on sharing our skills so people can make better use of their money I thought I would share this gorgeous recipe I have been making from my lovely cookbook 'Rose Elliot Vegetarian Supercook'

 (I bought it from Oxfam) I made it last night and took the photographs but after reading frugal Queens post I have sat down and worked out the prices so you can see how cheap it is (and really healthy!)  I have changed a couple of bits, like I didn't use the specified oil, I used olive oil as we always use that. Also didn't add fresh curry leaves or okra but it still tasted gorgeous and my very fussy teenage son has had it twice now and eaten it.  You have no idea what a good recommendation that is!

Ingredients
Splash of olive oil
I red onion chopped 25p
2 garlic cloves crushed  8p (ish)
1tsp tumeric  6p ( probably less!)
1tbs ground cumin  8p
1tbs ground coriander 20p
50g cashew nuts   33p  (£1 bag  for 150 g at Aldi)
400ml can coconut milk  50p  Aldi
1/2 cauliflower   75p (£1.50  at most  a full one)
 250 g Broccoli    25p-30p

Rice to serve with it  25p.

I use the boil in the bag ones 4 in a box for a pound at Asda or Aldi 80p.  They are just quick and cook perfect I think 1 bag serves 4 but it depends on your portion sizes.

It is quite easy to make, fry the onion in the oil for a few minutes, stir in garlic, tumeric, cumin and coriander fry a little longer ( don't burn)
Grind the cashew nuts, now I don't have a fancy grinder so what I do is just put them in a plastic freezer bag and just bash them with the wooden rolling pin, its quite stress busting also, after a bit you can roll over it, my son even came in to have a go at this!  If you have a food processor use that  but more washing up.
Add the ground nuts to pan along with the coconut milk..
Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes but keep stirring. I found 20 minutes to be enough.
You can steam the veg but I just microwave it for about 6 minutes then add to curry just before serving for a few minutes to cook through and coat.  I think you can use more veg if you want it to go further, also the recipe states to add 400ml of water but I didn't, maybe with more veg and more simmering you would.

Of course make sure you are boiling your rice while you are doing all this!  I then made a a raita dip to go with it, my way is just chop some cucumber, add some mayonnaise and a spoon full of mint sauce and stir.

You can see another curry on the go in the background as my husband and younger child both have a chicken curry. 

We also had some naan bread 2 between 4 the little fresh ones are 25-30p each. I worked the prices out roughly and the spices probably cost less per portion so about £2.55 for 4 people or 63p each only 88p with a naan each!  If you don't have the spices bear in mind that once you buy them you can make this curry for weeks.  I always have mayonnaise , cucumber and mint sauce in so this was not an additional expense.  You can also do chopped tomato, chopped red onion and a spoon of mint sauce that is good too.

Well I hope this  has helped someone or maybe stopped them from buying a take away tomorrow evening.  It is the weekend so why not try it and let me know what you think.  

I will be trying more recipes from this book so I will post on any I feel are tasty and good value.  I always change things if I think some ingredients are too pricey though.