Aubergine and chickpea lasagne

Ingredients 

For the tomato and chickpea sauce:

1 tbsp oil

A couple of inches of chorizo sausage, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped

A handful of mushrooms (but I only had 3!), chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped 

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp mixed herbs

Half glass red wine

2 carrots, chopped

1 yellow pepper, chopped

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 chicken stock cube

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

Salt and pepper

1 tin chickpeas

1 tbsp pesto

For the aubergine:

1 aubergine, finely sliced lengthways 

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp oil

For the cheese sauce:

Approx 40g butter

Approx 3tbsp plain flour

Approx 500mls milk

Lots of grated cheese

Salt and pepper

A grating of nutmeg

Method 

Dry fry some chorizo and then add oil, onion, celery, mushrooms and garlic in a large pan with chilli powder and mixed herbs.

 If you have some leftover wine (see tip), add this now and let it boil for a couple of mins so the alcohol cooks off. Add the carrots and any other veg that you want to use. I used a yellow pepper. Add tins of tomatoes, chicken stock cube, tomato tins filled with boiling water, balsamic vinegar, sugar, tomato ketchup, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 45 mins.

 Add a tin of drained chickpeas 10 mins before the end. 

Stir in 1 tbsp pesto, if you have any. 

Slice an aubergine, lengthways, and pop the pieces in a freezer bag with 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp dried oregano. (You'll prob have to do this in 2 goes) Give the bag a shake and make sure all the aubergine slices are coated. Now fry these in a hot pan on each side. I'll use a griddle pan. 

Prepare a cheese sauce - make a roux with flour and butter in a saucepan. Whisk in warmed milk, season with salt and pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Add lots of grated cheese and stir it in until it's melted. 

(See cheesy tip re cheese rinds for extra scrummy sauce)

When all of the components are ready, assemble the lasagne in a large oven dish. 

Start with your tomato and chickpea sauce, sprinkle some grated cheese over it, add aubergine slices then cover with cheese sauce and repeat. Finish with a good top layer of cheese sauce and some grated cheese. 

Bake gas 7, 220c for around 25 mins until golden and bubbling hot. 

Serve with garlic pizza and a green salad. 

I'll make pizza in the same way as my other recipes but I'll just use garlic butter and cheese as toppings. 

Tip: if you ever have any leftover wine (well, you never know!!! ;-)), freeze it in an ice cube tray and just use as many cubes as you need, as and when you need them!

What I ate/ bought this week....

Hi,

So, I'm nearing the end of my £50 budget and thanks to inventive cooking, no waste and a backlog of ancient food in the bottom of my freezer, I have managed it! 

Here's what I ate this week!

Monday:

Breakfast

We always have cereals/ homemade bread/ eggs

Lunch

Husband (Ian) and I - sandwiches

Kids always have school dinners (i don't include those in the budget). They will hopefully be FREE from Sept! 😄

Supper

Chicken and chickpea curry

(Leftover chicken and gravy included. I also made stock from the chicken carcass and loads of soup from the stock!)

Tuesday

Lunch

Ian - sandwich 

Me - Linguine with homemade wild garlic pesto 

Supper

Everyone except me: Linguine with homemade wild garlic pesto (I wasn't very hungry so I just had a bowl of soup)

Wednesday 

Lunch 

Ian and I - leek and potato soup with homemade bread (leeks and pots from garden, stock from last week's chicken)

Supper

Toad in the hole (frozen cocktail sausages from freezer, eggs from our hens)

Strawberries (from bag of frozen), boudoir biscuits and condensed milk (both store cupboard) Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Thursday

Lunch

Ian - leek and potato soup

Me - leftover toad in the hole 

Supper

Roast lamb (tiny joint left from when we bought a lamb in march 2011, found at bottom of freezer!! I struck gold!)

With Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes (both from garden), roasted carrots and Yorkshire pudds (eggs from our hens). 

Friday

Lunch 

Out - I know it's not frugal but it was a treat!

Supper

Linguine with lemony prawns and wild garlic pesto (I always have a big bag of raw prawns in my freezer) with a crunchy, cheesy breadcrumb topping

Saturday 

Breakfast 

Remainder of the sausages from freezer

Pain au chocolats from freezer (that were free, as were going to be chucked out, from my local bakery!)

Poached eggs on toast (our eggs, h/made bread)

Cereal 

Breakfast is always a mammoth affair in our house. It's the kids' best mealtime!

Lunch

Homemade tomato soup and h/made bread

Supper

Homemade pizza with tomato base, leftover lamb, finely chopped, garlic butter, mint and mozzarella (recipe to follow - this is a new invention so will see how it turns out!!!)

What I bought this week:

2 x Milk (had some in the freezer too)

1 carton of apple juice 

2 bottles Pepsi max (my addiction)

1 cucumber 

1 bag bread flour

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. 

Wild garlic and chilli hummus

Another super-simple, super-speedy one. And it's freezable so you can be prepped ahead of time if you've got guests coming round! Mine went straight in the freezer for future consumption!

Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas, drained

Juice of half a lemon (use the other half for the pesto!)

Approx 100g wild garlic

As many chilli flakes as you can handle! About quarter - half a tsp is good. 

Approx 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Approx 4 tbsp water

Method

Stick everything, except the water and oil, info the food processor. Add a little oil and water and whizz. Keep adding the oil and water until it is smooth but still thick. Serve in a nice dish and sprinkle chilli flakes over the top. 

Serve with flat breads or breadsticks. Or crudités. Or anything that you can get your hands on. A spoon is good ;-)

A nice warming Spanish Style Chorizo, Prawn and Chickpea Stew

Calories: approx 291 per person based on 3 sharing. This does NOT include the bread or any extra oil. 

Hello!  Hope you've all had a great day.

Well, today has been a challenge! A very hyperactive, spotty 5 year old hanging off me all day whilst I've tried to work... Roll on bedtime!!

So I wanted something easy and comforting for supper.  I wanted minimal chopping so happily used dried chilli flakes instead of the chilli that is in the fridge (I'll use it for a curry over the weekend) and tinned tomatoes rather than fresh. 

I always have raw king prawns in the freezer as they are a quick, low fat option even with defrosting them. I speed the defrost time up by putting them in water to defrost the ice casing.  I also always have chorizo in the fridge. It's about my most used ingredient. I absolutely love it and it goes in most things I make. I love how it transforms a meal. 

So with those ingredients mind, I thought I'd make a Spanish style prawn stew. I also chucked some chickpeas (storecupboard staple!) in too to bulk it out. I made it up as i went along with nagging  children next to me, so it definitely doesn't require much brain work! 

Ingredients

• Approx 3" piece of chorizo, sliced
• 1 red onion (if you only have white, that's fine), sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes. More or less, if desired. 
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• A couple of splashes of med sweet sherry - prob about 100ml
• 1 tin of tomatoes - Use fresh if you'd like but I simply couldn't be bothered today!
• A large dash of balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained but not rinsed 
• Raw king prawns - we had about 8 each as they were big and we are greedy!!
• Chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• My sun dried tomato and olive bread or other crusty bread to serve (optional)

Method

Heat your pan up (dry) until nice and hot. Add the chorizo to the pan and let it release it's fat for a min or 2. Don't let it burn. Turn down the heat to low. Add the sliced onion to the pan and slowly cook.  Add a little salt with the onions to help them cook off a bit quicker. If you need to add a little more oil, feel free to add it. Add the garlic, chilli and oregano to the pan and cook for another 2 mins. Don't let the garlic go brown.  Add the sliced pepper and the sherry.  If you don't have any you could use white wine and then add a spoon of sugar later on with the tomatoes.  Raise the heat and cook for a couple of minutes until the alcohol has cooked off, then lower the heat and cook for a further 5 mins, stirring a few times.

Add the tomatoes and also a tin full of water.  Add the balsamic vinegar (and sugar, if necessary). Season with sea salt and  black pepper. Bring to the boil. 

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Let it cook for approx 40 mins. Keep an eye on it and stir a few times to make sure that it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan.

10 mins before the end of the cooking time, add the chickpeas. About 2 - 3mins before the end of cooking time add the prawns.  Make sure that they have turned thoroughly pink and are nice and hot.

If you have some fresh parsley, sprinkle some on the top and serve.

I served this with my sun dried tomato bread and ate far too much. Also couldn't wait for it to cool down so didn't follow my advice and had it hot with butter melting on it. 

Hope this tickles your fancy!  It is honestly one of the nicest flavours and proper comfort food. And the only fresh ingredient was a pepper so it's v handy too!

If you serve it with lots of bread this would serve 2 adults and 2 little people.