Organic Food

Many years back (gosh, I'm actually old enough to say that!) I used to only buy organic.  The older two children were only babies still so didn't eat much, which is what you need to be able to feed a family organic food on a budget.  Not only is it more expensive, but the portions are much smaller.  I had to get used to not being able to afford it as they got older and other things took priority financially.  But it has never been far from my mind - every time I watch a program about how our chickens/pigs/eggs/milk are made/treated I start to calculate how I could afford to feed my family of four (now five) a diet of higher welfare, if not organic, food, before giving up when I realise that my shopping bill would increase by almost double.

So, I started to look recently, at how I could introduce organic elements into our diets and have decided that our meat, poultry and dairy should be the first to be 'converted'. And I have finally found a company that I am happy to give over my hard earned cash to provide us with local, organic or higher welfare meat and dairy, as well as vegetables.  Now, I have done veg box schemes before when I lived in Leicester.  And when we first moved to Oxfordshire I did one again for a short while.  My downfall is that I like to cook such a variety of food, that there isn't a box out there that can provide everything I need for a week that would be anywhere near affordable.  So I end up going to the supermarket for the rest - and then I spend more money on other things that happen to look good.... or are on offer.  And my hard earned cash dwindles yet further..... I am going to have to be very strict with myself, therefore, and plan my week's meals around the contents of the veg box.  The only things I will just have to buy extra are staples like garlic, ginger, chillies and onions if they aren't in that week's box. I will still buy our fruit from the local market or supermarket though.

Blog of note: I love the idea of food 'cycles' as mentioned in these blog posts.  It's something that I have done for years, but never to that extent.....I shall be definitely looking to find new ways of eeking out as many meals from the food I buy from A&C.

But, I am going to give it another go.  This time I will use Abel & Cole.  Not only because their boxes seem to offer the best value and quality for money, but also because they offer meat and poultry that, whilst not strictly organic (in that they don't have the official certification), are reared to the same standard as organic meat and are free range.   Their chickens also come with giblets - something which has all but completely disappeared from the supermarkets.  No more little bag inside the cavity that you could roast and use to make wonderfully rich, delicious gravy..... I want giblets!  I am already envisioning the lovely stocks I'm going to make :-)
I'm also going to try some of their buffalo mince and a large veg box.  If I commit to at least 4 boxes, the 4th will be free - I do love a freebie!

Onion Bhajis

Yummy, scrummy and so easy (and cheap) to make.

I didn't have any gram flour (not so easy to find in a little town like ours) so I substituted for plain. Anyway, here's what I did:

Ingredients:
plain flour
chilli powder
turmeric
ground coriander
ground cumin
ground ginger
black pepper
salt
pinch of baking powder
1 large spanish onion, chopped
water
vegetable oil for frying

Method:
1. using approx 1/2 - 1tsp of all each of the spices and seasonings, add everything to a bowl except for the flour and water.
2. stir to coat the onions, then add approx 4 tbs flour
3. add small amounts of water gradually until you have a thick, sticky batter.  If it gets too wet, just add more flour - that's the great thing about this recipe, it's almost impossible to get wrong.
4. heat some oil in a pan (about 3 inches or so deep) and fry dollops of the mixture until golden on all sides.

Serve! (I served with some yoghurt and mint)

For our main, we had a quick potato and pea curry with boiled basmati rice.

chicken, vegetable and rice noodle soup

This was basically a meal I made by winging it - but it was actually really tasty, and healthy to boot.  Also it's very cheap as I used only one chicken breast (on the bone) that I'd saved from a whole chicken I'd cut up.  I was pleased to see Ken Hom on This Morning talking about how chinese food is healthy because they use such little meat in comparison to the typical western diet.  Well I'm certainly sold on this concept and regularly use as little as one chicken breast to make a dish that feeds all 4 of us comfortably.

Anyway, I digress, here's roughly what I did:

Ingredients:
spring greens
1 chicken breast on the bone
chopped fresh mint and coriander
thumb sized piece of ginger
2 large cloves of garlic
a couple of carrots
a broccoli stalk (no waste on this challenge!)
pinch of 5 spice powder
soy sauce
salt

Method:

1. simmer the chicken breast in water with some salt until just cooked
2. meanwhile shred the spring greens, trim and thinly slice the carrot, ginger, garlic cloves and broccoli stalk
3. remove the chicken and shred the meat from the bone and reserve
4. add the sliced vegetables to the stock and continue to simmer, meanwhile heat some oil in a pan and fry the shredded chicken with a good pinch of 5 spice powder and soy sauce.
5. add the rice noodles to the stock and vegetables, then add the fresh herbs (in my case I had previously chopped and frozen them, but it makes no difference) and a good glug of soy sauce
6. ladle the soup and noodles into a bowl and top with some chicken
7. serve!

NB. If I wasn't also cooking for the children I would have also added some fresh, sliced chillies.....

Brussel sprout and potato gratin

I needed to find a way to use up the bag of brussel sprouts that I got from the reduced section in sainsburys, in a way that would make them palatable to a family that, quite frankly, has no real love for brussel sprouts.  And, apart from Ben who doesn't like 'bakes' of any sort because they invariably have creamy sauces and are topped with cheese, it was a big success!

I basically just sliced the sprouts, grated about 4 medium potatoes, minced a couple of cloves of garlic, finely sliced a medium onion, then mixed it all up in a large baking dish, seasoned it with salt pepper and some rosemary from the garden poured in a small tub of cream, topped up with a little stock (made from a cube) and dotted a little butter on top.  After baking in the oven under foil for about 1 hour or so, I removed the foil, grated some cheese on top and finished cooking it until the cheese was all brown and bubbly. Yum!

what I really like is that you could use pretty much any vegetable and potato combinations for equally delicious results.  Maybe potato and courgette, or the obvious potato and leek....or add some bacon to it.....mmmm

Food challenge week 1

And the shopping list:

the pineapple, lettuce, aubergine and brussel sprouts were in the reduced section...pineapple has been cut up and frozen, the rest will keep ok in the fridge for now....

so that's a grand total spend of.......drumroll......£43.49

Now, "how on earth is she going to stick to £100 for a whole month if she has spent almost half in the first week?"  I hear you ask.... well, my plan was to stock up on certain items that were on offer at the start, and just topping up each week with fresh fruit, veg, bread and milk.  So I now have a budget of £18.83 to spend each week for the next 3 weeks.  It also means that our total meat for the month consists of: a whole chicken (approx 1.4kg), 2 packets of chicken drummers and thighs* (containing approx 4 drumsticks and 2 large thighs each), a packet of pork loins steaks (5 in the packet) and a packet of minced beef (777g).  Meat is now a luxury and I will be using it as an ingredient (as I have said before).  I will be making a little stretch a very long way.....

* I was on rota to cook a meal for a lady at church who has just had a baby.  I therefore used 3 of the large thighs from the two packets and deboned them.  I then chopped them up and made a caribbean chicken and potato curry, and some rice and aduki beans cooked in coconut milk (from storecupboard items).  It looked pretty substantial and would easily feed us four, so I think it'll be plenty for her and her husband and toddler.  As for the other thigh, I also deboned and chopped it up, marinated  it in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and oyster sauce, then used to make saturdays meal for us.  It was more than enough with the beansprouts and chopped veg (even some leftovers actually!)

As for the rest of the meat I bought, I divided the mince into 3 portions of approx 250g each and froze them seperately.  The pork chops are in the freeser and I will use the chicken to make 2 meals and some stock (to freeze for soups etc).

As you can see from the menu above, we will be eating leftovers for our lunch (me and Nick).  This is usually what we do anyway.  I haven't got a lot of bread in my shop, so I will bake some by hand from the bread flour I already have.  Snacks will be either cheese and crackers (already got the crackers), or homemade cake (already got flour, bought the eggs, sugar and margarine), fruit or veg sticks.

Anything else mentioned in the menu that I haven't bought whilst shopping, is stuff I already have in my cupboard/fridge/freezer.  I planned the menu around those items to keep the shopping bill low.

So anyway, I think that covers it.  This week the fridge and cupboards are overflowing, it remains to be seen if we will have such bounty available when the budget shrinks next week.......

Yoghurt marinated roast chicken

As a practice for my upcoming challenge, I decided to see how far I can make a whole chicken last.  Sadly I forgot about the stock I made in the slowcooker using the carcass and had to throw it out, but on the saturday I used one of the chicken breasts to make chicken and broccoli in blackbean sauce with stir fried noodles and beansprouts.  It was delicious and the kids both heartily approved - Ben even had seconds (practically unheard of!) In order to have even the slightest chance of completing the challenge, I need to make meat less of the 'main deal' and more of an ingredient, and find ways to bulk out our meals without using so much.  So this is what I did with the joint portions of the chicken.

Yoghurt marinated chicken

Ingredients:
2 x chicken thighs, 2 x legs, 2 x wings - skinned
few tbs of low fat yoghurt
roughly 1 heaped tsp each of paprika, ground cardamom (my most prized spice), ground coriander, ground cumin and black pepper
pinch of turmeric
couple tsps salt (you need extra to compensate for the yoghurt and lemon)
juice of a lemon
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Method:
slash all the pieces of meat with a sharp knife and put in a bowl.
In a seperate bowl mix together all the rest of the ingredients.
Pour yoghurt mix over chicken and mix well to coat all the pieces.
Cover and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.
When you are ready to cook it, bring it out of the fridge and let it come back to room temp, before putting in a pre-heated oven.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and cook on about 180 degrees for approx 40 mins or until cooked and the juices run clear.

I served this over a bed of rice which I had cooked with lemon, and sprinkled fresh coriander all over it, a garlic yoghurt sauce and peas and broadbeans with mint

We could all have eaten twice as much as was on offer, but cutting down on our portion sizes (me and Nick) would not be a bad thing.....

£100 food challenge: Setting the scene....

So, I feel I should make a few things clear in preparation for this challenge, namely that:

1. the kids have school lunches so I will not have to include their lunches during the week in this menu.  However it will include both mine and Nick's weekday lunches, and all weekend ones. 
2. during the challenge, there will be a half term holiday.  During this week, I will have to factor in lunches and snacks for the kids during the day.
3. We are away 5th-6th of February visiting family and attending the chinese new year celebrations in Trafalgar square and London's west end.  I will, for obvious reasons, not be including the food eaten during this time in the challenge.
4. I have a pretty good store cupboard including, amongst other things; a variety of dried beans, bulgur wheat, wholegrain rice, LOTS of spices, dried lentils and odds and ends of pasta. In the freezer I have some frozen berries we picked last autumn, some frozen apple sauce we made, a few wild Alaskan salmon fillets, a couple of tubs of cannellini beans I cooked up in a batch, various assortments of vegetables and some home made chicken stock.   Whatever I haven't used up before the start of the challenge will definitely help me to achieve it!

With all this in mind, I am already collating ideas and recipes - I still think it's gonna be nigh on impossible, but I WILL give it a good go......

February Food Challenge 2011

£100 budget for food for one month for a family of 4.....

Yesterday, whilst preparing a whole chicken for roasting, I boasted to Nick that I reckon I could feed us all for a week from one chicken....I was actually completely exaggerating somewhat, but he somehow turned that into a challenge and told me to see if I could feed us all for a month on a measly budget of £100.  Well, I like a good challenge me, so despite reservations as to the actual probability of being able to stick to such a minute budget (especially with food prices rising as quickly as they are), I have been mulling it over ever since.  And I must say, I am quite intrigued to find out if I could really do it.  Technically I could just feed us all beans and rice, rice and beans for the next month and stay well within budget, but that's not any fun.  I want to see if I can do it bearing in mind the following:

• the food has to be balanced (in terms of healthy/some treats)
• the budget has to include ALL meals, drinks and snacks
• the food has to be able to satisfy two hungry, growing children (who eat most things, but are suspicious of others), a permanently hungry, lactating mum and a dad who works out 5 days a week and walks/cycles to and from work every day.
• the food must be interesting and varied, drawing influences from various types of cuisine - as this is how we like to eat normally

So, my budgeting and cooking skills are going to be tested to the absolute limit with this one I think!  Though my recently restocked storecupboard will undoubtedly help.....

For the sake of ease, the challenge will run from one pay day to the next, therefore it will begin Saturday 29th January and end Friday 25th February. Each week I will post my menu, shopping list and total spent - along with some recipes and reports on how we are doing.

First post will be coming up soon......

Lamb, coconut and lentil curry

I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer to cook for dinner, so before getting the kids from school the other day, I popped into Sainsbury's to find something cheap and easy to cook. I decided to go for the ever economical stewing lamb, but knew that I’d be up against it time-wise to get it cooking so that it could be on the table at a reasonable hour. On the drive home I was trying to think of what to do with it, and came up with this curry. It is not the usual way that I would make a curry when time is on my side (slowly browning the onions and spices to make the base), but it was so delicious I don’t think it matters at all.  Sorry, no picture - with a new baby in the house, it's enough to even write this down, never mind faffing about with a camera, lighting and angles!
Ingredients:

Stewing lamb (I had about 400g) cut into bite sized chunks

2 large onions

5 cloves of garlic

1 inch fresh ginger

Tin of tomatoes

1/3 of a block of creamed coconut

Curry powder (I used a kashmiri blend that is extra hot, so only used a little to keep it kid friendly)

Garam masala

Tsp black mustard seeds

Tsp cumin seeds

Small cup of red lentils, rinsed

Salt and pepper


Method:

1. Season lamb with salt and pepper and lemon juice and set aside to marinate for ½ hour (If I wasn’t in a rush, I would have added some garam masala and left for at least 2 hrs, but the flavour was great nonetheless)

2. Heat vegetable or sunflower oil in a heavy pan and add the cumin and mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the lamb and brown

3. Meanwhile, roughly chop 1 of the onions and add to the browned lamb

4. Next, finely chop (I used a mini chopper thing I have) 1 onion, the garlic and the ginger and add to the pot, mixing it all about

5. Add the ground spices and stir

6. Put the tinned tomatoes into a blender and blend til smooth, then add to the lamb

7. Add the block of creamed coconut and stir until it has melted in

8. Add the rinsed lentils and season with some salt and pepper, then cover and cook on a medium high heat for 30 mins (stirring occasionally as the lentils will thicken the sauce) add water as necessary

9. Turn to a lower heat and continue cooking for another hour/hour and a half, or until the lamb is tender, again adding water as/if necessary.  Check seasoning

10. Serve. We had it with basmati rice cooked with cardamom pods, cinnamon and butter, and a salad


Ps. This curry tasted even better a couple of days later. I know because I had it for lunch!

Pak Choi with garlic and oyster sauce

This is one of our favourite accompaniments when we cook chinese, or even Thai, food. When I made it most recently for Valentines day, I had no more oyster sauce left, so used dark soy instead. It still tastes delicious, but I must admit, I prefer the depth that the oyster suace brings. THis dish is really simple and takes just minutes to cook.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large pak choi, leaves separated and washed, then cut into strips horizontal across the base (this sounds particular, but the base is thicker and takes longer to cook than the leaves - which I leave in bigger strips)
• soy sauce or oyster sauce - good glug
• black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

METHOD

• heat some oil in a pan (not olive!)
• when hot add the garlic and, almost straight away to prevent it burning, the pak choi
• stir fry for a minute or so and add the black pepper and the oyster/soy sauce, stirring to coat evenly
• SERVE!

And that really is it. Yummy! I don't have a picture, but you can see it in the picture I posted for Steamed fish with ginger and spring onions.

Stuffed, barbecued mackerel

(Serves 2-3)

Method:

1. Get your fishmonger to clean and gut 2 whole mackerel, leaving the heads on (or just buy them already done from the supermarket!)
2. Brush the outside of the fish with olive oil and sprinkle them inside and out with salt and pepper
3. Chop up lots of fresh coriander, a few red chillies and a few cloves garlic really finely, mix together and stuff it into the cavity of the fish with a few slices of lemon then close the fish up with cocktail sticks (that you’ve soaked beforehand!)
4. Cook on the barbecue for about 5 mins per side (more or less time depending on size of fish)

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.