Credit Crunch Cooking

My secret to feeding my family tasty and healthy food during these crunchy times? Knowing how to joint a chicken. yep, that's it, jointing a chicken. It's simple really, I buy the largest, best quality chicken I can afford, then I joint it and use the thighs, legs and wings in a casserole/stew/curry or I roast them etc. I then use the breasts for stirfry's/fajitas/pies/pilau's etc and then I use the back bones and rib cage and any left over bits to make stocks or soups and broths.
Another tip is to eat less meat - use it as an additional ingredient rather than the main event. I sometimes cook a curry for all of us using just one breast piece. I add lots of spinach and potatoes and I have a delicious chicken Saag Aloo.

A tasty and very healthy broth can be made - which Ben is a big fan of - by making a stock with the bones and then simmering the stock with soy sauce, finely grated ginger and garlic. We often eat this as an accompaniment to noodle dishes or fried rice. Otherwise you could add noodles and vegetables to this broth for a light main meal.

Flipping Good!

Excuse the title, it's actually the name of the recipe we tried from a cookbook Ben and Jas got for Christmas!

Mixing together the ingredients.....

Jasmine carefully chops the bananas

Licking the bowl and spoons

Ben pours the batter into the frying pan - supervised of course!

FINISHED RESULT:

The original recipe vs our interpretation

Ingredients:

150g self-raising flour

2tbsp caster sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

175ml milk3tbsp thick, plain yoghurt, plus extra to serve

275g frozen mixed summer fruits, defrostedmaple syrup, to serve

we substituted the frozen mixed summer fruits for 2 medium bananas, sliced and then caramelised in a pan with some butter, ground cinnamon and a drizzle of golden syrup.we also substitued the youghurt for serving with double cream which we whipped up with vanilla essence and icing sugar

Method:

1. sift flour into a bowl and add sugar

2. mix together egg, milk and yoghurt, before adding to the flour and whicking until smooth and lump free

3. slice bananas and caramelise in a pan as described above

4. add 5ml of vanilla essence to small tub of dbl cream, and icing sugar to taste then whip up.

5. serve and enjoy!

We ate these for pudding and throughout Jasmine kept exclaiming: 'mmmm these pancakes are flipping good!' Parental instinct had us wanting to make her say something other than 'flipping', but as it was the recipe title we held out tongues!