Frugal dieting - super scrummy spicy soup

I just made such a scrummy lunch, I had to share it! It was SO tasty! So tasty, in fact, that I forgot to take a photo! I'll be making it again this week so I'll try and remember then!

Ok, you could definitely serve this to 2 people. Especially if you serve bread with it. I'm greedy though and am calorie counting and knew I was allowed all of it!

Total calorie count is approx 355 so you can indulge yourself and scoff the lot or share it (grudgingly) and only use 177 calories! 

I chopped the veg in the food processor so it was super speedy. 

Ingredients 

A little olive oil

1 onion, slices

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1/2 a yellow pepper, finely chopped

1 tsp of each: ground cumin, ground coriander, mild chilli powder, mild curry powder, dried thyme 

1/2 a tsp ground cinnamon, turmeric, crushed chillies

400g tin of tomatoes

Salt and pepper

1 heaped tsp coconut milk powder 

100g mixed bean salad 

1 tsp balsamic vinegar 

Method 

Fry the onion in the oil until softened. Add the chopped veg and all the herbs and spices. Cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, keeping it moving. Add the tomatoes and about half a tin of water. Add the salt and pepper and the coconut milk powder and stir. Add the bean salad and balsamic, bring to the boil and reduced to a simmer for about 5 mins. 

Scoff!

My week of meals w/c 7th April 2014

Weekday breakfasts consist of cereal, bread/ toast and eggs

Monday

L: ham, cheese, tomato and chutney (homemade, obvs) toastie

S: Ian and I had a spaghetti and wild garlic pesto 

Kids were at Lucy's for sups

Filo tarts for pudd 

Tuesday 

L: I had courgette, mint and feta soup from the freezer, kids had tomato soup with garlicky croutons, Ian forgot his soup and had something that sounds entirely rank from his drawer at work!!

S: We all had leftover sweet and sour chicken (see recipe) and I made special fried rice to go with it. I fried 3 spring onions, 3 mushrooms, 1 celery stick, half a tomato (all chopped) and a handful of frozen peas with some cooked long grain rice. I added a few chilli flakes and a sprinkling of Chinese 5 spice and some salt and pepper then I added beaten egg and, when it had started to cook, stirred it through the rice. 

I enjoyed it more the second time!

Wednesday

L: kids and I - leek and potato soup, Ian - wild garlic and mushroom soup

S: aubergine and chickpea lasagne with garlic pizza bread (see recipe)

I'm going to make a bolognese sauce with chickpeas to bulk it up instead of mince. 

Served with salad and garlic pizza bread. 

Update: It was delicious! Thumbs up!

Thursday

L: kids and I - omelette with chorizo, spring onion, chopped tomato and feta. If I have any green pepper left, I'll add that. 

Ian - sandwich

Jelly for pudding

S: Leftover aubergine and chickpea lasagne

Friday

L: Ian and I - soup from freezer 

S: bangers and mash with a warm tomato and caramelised onion chutney.  Kids at Lucy's 

Saturday

B: poached eggs on toast

L: homemade pizzas (my 8 and 10 year old nephews will also be here)

S: chicken (cooked chicken from freezer) in a tomato and olive sauce with couscous 

Sunday

B: scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (from freezer - great find!) on toast

L: beans/ spaghetti on toast 

S: wild garlic pasta 

I will only need to buy some more potatoes and I may need another pack of butter, this week. 

I had an anonymous food drop of some bread flour, yeast and tinned tomatoes from a true friend, thank you Gail :-) - I worked it out!, yesterday so won't be needing those this week! And my brother in law, thanks Dom :-), borrowed my rotovator and gave me a bottle of white as a thank you! Barter away, frugal foodies, barter away!

My week of meals

Weekday breakfasts are cereal, bread/ toast and eggs

Monday

L: leek and potato soup

S: Ian and I had a full-on leftover meal. Yorkshire pudds, sausages, roasted veg and gravy. The kids were at Lucy's (their amazing childminder) for tea. 

Tuesday 

L: Ian had sandwiches (with homemade bread, of course!) with ham and my speedy coleslaw. I ate out. 

S: kids had mince and mash. I couldn't face it after eating too much for lunch (out with my family).  So i had wild garlic and mushroom soup, topped with toasted seeds and breadcrumbs and crumbled feta and served with homemade bread. 

Tip: I made a large pan of mince from 500g beef mince. I made it with garlic, finely chopped onion, celery, mushrooms and carrots, lots of beef stock (2 cubes), 2 tbsp flour and a few tbsps breadcrumbs to bulk it up a bit. 

Split leftovers and make half of it into bolognese sauce, bulked up with lots of tinned tomatoes and have as Spag Bol or lasagne (make loads of cheese sauce to bulk it up further) and make the other half into cottage pie, covered in lots of cheesy, garlicky (i add my wild garlic butter) mash and topped with crunchy breadcrumbs. 

Wednesday

L: me - toasted sandwich. Ian - ham, cheese and coleslaw sandwich 

S: lasagne with baked potatoes and wild garlic focaccia 

Tip: when the oven's on for the lasagne (or for the homemade bread) chuck in a few potatoes to have for lunches or as a healthy side at supper. 

Thursday

L: Ian and I - baked potato with cheese and coleslaw 

S: cottage pie with garlicky, crispy crumbed grated turnip, cheesy leeks and carrots. 

Tip: make extra (buttery 😄) mash and use it for fish cakes 

Friday

L: Ian and I - soup from freezer 

S: leftover lasagne with salad. 

Saturday

B: poached eggs on toast

L: tuna fish cakes. 

Sauté a chopped onion and garlic. Combine with a drained tin of tuna, the mashed potato, a beaten egg, a good grating of cheese, 2 tbsps breadcrumbs, a tbsp mayo and salt and pepper. Shape and cover in more crumbs. Fry or bake. Serve with peas! I'm going to cook them with some mint from the garden and crush them slightly. 

S: homemade sweet and sour chicken with rice. 

Tip: use chicken thighs. They're much cheaper, won't dry out and have loads more flavour. I very rarely buy chicken breast. 

Make stock out of the bones. Freeze them if you can't make it straight away.

Sunday

B: bacon croissants (both from freezer)

L: fried rice (leftovers from sweet and sour) with ham, peas, mushrooms and leeks and a beaten egg. 

S: tomatoey pasta 

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

Speedy, Cheapy, Leeky Soups!

I have quite a few leeks left in my garden so I decided I'd use the stock I'd just made from the chicken carcass (from last week's roast. I used any leftover meat in a chicken and chickpea curry the other night) to make some soups for the freezer. 

I also came across some potatoes, in the  ground, that I'd missed. They were still in great shape so I used them too. 

Leek and Potato Soup

I sautéed a sliced onion in my wild garlic butter and a splash of olive oil. Then I added 3 diced potatoes, the sliced leeks (approx 6, medium), a pint and a half of the chicken stock, a few slices of chorizo and salt and pepper. I brought it to the boil and then let it simmer for about half an hour. I removed the chorizo at this stage and put it in the other soup (you don't have to though! I was just being super frugal!!).  I added milk (because that's what I had) but you could use cream. 

Whizz it in the blender. 

Yum. I had a bowl straight from the blender because it smelled so lovely. 

Leek and asparagus soup 

Whenever we have asparagus, I always put the woody ends in the freezer and then use them for soup at a later date, when I've got enough. I hate throwing perfectly good veg away. I find a way to revive most other sorry-looking veg too!

I sautéed the leeks in the wild garlic butter, added the frozen asparagus, a diced potato, the chorizo that i had taken from the leek and potato(!), about 1 pint of chicken stock and some salt and pepper. Again, I brought it to the boil and then let it simmer for half an hour before adding milk and blitzing in the blender. 

Both fab additions to the freezer and my other half (and my) lunch tomorrow. 

Ps. We've also got some of the chicken curry in the freezer too. So, that's 2 nights of roast dinners, 1 curry night and 1 frozen curry and 2 different soups that will  make quite a few portions. I love how much you can make from a single chicken!

Beetroot and Apple Soup - SO much better than you'll expect, I promise!!

Calories: Approx 138 per serving. Serves 4.

Bear with me on this one!  It is honestly the nicest soup I have tasted.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but I had some beetroot from the garden that I needed to use and I wanted a low calorie recipe.  

The vibrant colour alone is enough to brighten up any dreary day and it is warming and feel-good.  I've adapted a recipe by Allegra McEvedy.

I roasted the beetroot last night and popped it to one side until I had decided what I wanted to do with it so it was all ready today and it was super-speedy.

Ingredients

10g butter

Approx. 350g beetroot, roasted and peeled

3 Granny Smith apples 

1 1/2 Onions

1 stick celery

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 litre chicken stock

1 star anise

Pinch of dried chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

Serve with a swirl of fat free natural yoghurt and some toasted seeds but make sure you add these to the calorie count, if you're counting! I only used about a tsp of each so we're only talking about 30-35 calories.

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the caraway seeds to the melted butter.

Whizz the celery and onion in the food processor. Add it to the pan with a pinch of salt and sweat over a low-medium heat with the lid on for about 5 mins.  Don't let the onion brown. 

While the onion is sweating, grate the beetroot (I used the food processor). Add the beetroot to the pan with the chilli flakes and pop the lid back on. 

Whizz the apples in the food processor (no need to peel).  Add them to the pan straight away.

Add the stock, star anise (PLEASE don't leave this out - it makes it!) and seasoning and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins.

Remove the star anise and blitz the soup in the blender. Add some water if it's too thick.

I swirled a tsp of fat free natural yoghurt into it and toasted some mixed seeds in a dry pan and sprinkled them on the top.

ENJOY!  And try not to eat it all at once!  It really is GORGEOUS!

Scrummy but Skinny Tomato Soup

Calories: Approx. 116 per serving. Serves 4. 

To counteract the gluttony of pancake day, I promised a scrummy but very skinny soup. So here goes....

Ingredients

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 yellow pepper (or red is fine)

5 tomatoes 

1 tin tomatoes (you could just use 2 tins rather than fresh too)

Chicken stock made from stock cube (fill tomato tin)

1 inch chorizo, sliced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

A small handful fresh basil 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp sugar

Tabasco sauce to serve 

Method

If you've got a food processor, use it! It'll massively save you time. 

Chuck the celery and onion in and chop for a few seconds. 

Heat a large pan and fry off the chorizo for a couple of mins. Add the chopped onion and celery and a pinch of salt. Crush the garlic into the pan. Keep it moving. Add the paprika and oregano. 

Pop the pepper and carrots in the food processor and chop.

When the onion is translucent add the pepper and carrots. 

Chop the tomatoes in the processor along with the basil and then add them to the pan along with the balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and tinned tomatoes. Use the empty tin to make the chicken stock in and add it to the pan too. Season. Add 1 tsp sugar if required.  Bring it to the boil then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 mins. 

Tip it into the blender and blitz. Et voila. 

I put a little Tabasco sauce on it when I serve it.