Diary of a Frugal Foodie: Middle eastern style lamb

About ME!

HELLO!!

I'm Christine. I'm a busy mum to 5 year old twins, Robin and Evie and wife to Ian. I also run a property management company. We live in a small village in beautiful, rural Northumberland. I love spending time at home with my family, running and exercising and socialising with my fabulous friends.

When I'm not busy with work, family or friends, my favourite pastimes are cooking and eating (often a combination of family/friends and food). I particularly get so much (too much?!) pleasure from making healthy, nutritious meals from nothing (well, whatever I've got in the house!), making leftovers exciting and not wasting a thing. I HATE waste. I've wanted to start a blog for a few years but time just hasn't allowed it. But I'm very excited about getting it going now and sharing my passion for food with the world!!

I'm very health conscious and want to feed my family good food, on a budget. As you can imagine, time is not something that I have a lot of so my cooking has to fit in with my busy life. Weekday cooking has to be fuss-free and speedy but I still want it to feel indulgent.

I am also a keen vegetable gardener. There is little better than creating a whole meal from produce that you raised with your own fair hands. And in the British weather, it's not always easy. It makes you appreciate it even more though! I would urge anyone to have a go at growing their own. Even if it's just a few of your favourites in pots or some herbs on the windowsill. Do it!

I'm going to try and share some of the recipes that I create and any tips that I have along with general ramblings about food and the good life!

Don't expect fine dining, just homemade, tasty, healthy and wholesome food. Always on a budget! Maybe with the odd flashy, entertaining number thrown in for good measure. The budget won't go out the window though.

I'm very new to this so please bear with me until I find my feet!!

I hope you enjoy it. All feedback very much appreciated!!

Thanks y'all!

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Middle eastern style lamb - leftover heaven

I had defrosted some lamb chops that I'd found in the bottom of the freezer and I needed to use them so I marinated them in lots of grated ginger, fresh mint, garlic, chilli, ground cumin and oil and fried them on a griddle pan then i put them in the fridge until i was ready to use them. I then stripped the meat off them and used them in this recipe.

Ingredients

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp coriander seeds,

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

I used the meat from 5 lamb chops

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin chickpeas

Leftover gravy from the roast chicken we had the night before but you could use stock

Serve with couscous

Method

Fry the onions and garlic in some oil until soft.

Pound the dried spices up in a pestle and mortar. Add them, together with the ginger, to the pan and stir. Add the meat, tomatoes and gravy or stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins. Add chickpeas and cook for a further 10 mins.

If I had had any fresh herbs handy I would have added some at this point - coriander or mint would be best.

Serve on a bed of couscous.