Cranberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

My freezer is full of cranberries (and other frozen fruit), and I had some cream cheese in the fridge so I thought I'd try this recipe for cranberry and cream cheese muffins, with a couple of tweaks.

Ingredients:
175g frozen cranberries
250g caster sugar
100g soft cheese
200g self-raising flour
Pinch salt
2 eggs
75ml sunflower oil (it's got to be flavourless! i.e. not olive oil)

Makes 12

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
2) Put the cranberries in a saucepan with 25g of the sugar, and heat until they are soft. Mash them then put them aside to cool
3) Mix the cream cheese with another 25g of the sugar in small bowl and put it aside
4) Put the flour, rest of the sugar, salt, eggs and oil in a large bowl and mix
5) Stir the cranberry mash into the large bowl with the other ingredients
6) Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cases, and cook for 20-25 mins
7) Leave to cool

Budget:
Cranberries = 30p
Sugar = 40p
Soft cheese = 25p
Flour = 30p
Eggs = 40p
Oil = 15p
Total = £1.80, 15p/ muffin

Poached Egg on Toast = Breakfast of Champions

I got a 1/2 hour lie-in this morning, so decided to treat myself to a tasty breakfast.

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 slices of toast
Strawberry jam
Pinch of salt

Serves 1

Method:
1) Boil a saucepan of water, filled about halfway up
2) Put the bread in the toaster
3) I used a silicone pouch thing to make my egg, in which case you put the lid on and cook on medium for 5 mins. Otherwise, crack the egg in whilst stirring the water (tricky) and boil with the lid off for 5 mins
4) Butter the toast, and spread jam over one
5) Slide the egg on to the other, with a pinch of salt

Budget:
Egg = 17p
Bread = 15p
Jam = 3p
Salt = 1p
Total = 36p, 36p/ person

Apple Crumble

I'm really struggling with switching from cooking for five to cooking for one...this is my mini version of apple crumble (which tastes great hot or cold).

Ingredients:

Apple sauce (1 cooking apple, splash of water, sprinkle of sugar)

25g margarine

25g plain flour

25g sugar

Serves 2

Method:

1) Make the apple sauce - peel and chop the apple into chunks, and tip it into a saucepan with a splash of water. Simmer gently until it looks like sauce, then add sugar to taste. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C

2) Make the topping - mix the margarine, plain flour and sugar together until fine

3) Pour the sauce into a small ovenproof container, then tip the topping over the apple

4) Cook for 30mins in the oven (until golden on top)

Budget:

1 apple = 40p

Sugar = 10p

Flour = 5p

Margarine = 10p

Total = 65p, 33p/ person

Homemade Pizza

There are two parts to making your own pizza:
1) Making the dough
2) Adding toppings and cooking

I based my pizza dough recipe on Jamie Oliver's but halved the quantities and tweaked it a bit.

1) Dough

Ingredients:
7g sachet dried yeast
340ml warm water
1 dsp caster sugar
2 tbsp olive oil

500g strong white bread flour
Pinch salt

Makes 3 pizzas

Method:
1) Mix the yeast, water, sugar and oil together and leave for 5mins
2) Tip the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the middle
3) Pour the liquid mixture into the middle and work the flour and liquid in together, starting with a wooden spoon
4) Then lightly flour a work surface and tip the dough onto it
5) Knead the dough for about 15 mins
6) Leave it to rise in a warm place for about 1h, until it doubles in size:

7) Poke all the air out of the dough, and divide it into 3 balls

At this point you can freeze the dough if you don't want to use it all at once

2) Pizza

Ingredients:
About 200ml passata
Vegetables (I used some sliced tomato and pepper)
Grated cheese (I used cheddar, but you can posh it up with mozzarella if you have it to hand)
Mixed herbs

Makes 1 pizza

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degC
2) Stretch out the dough into a circle or rectangle
3) Use a palette knife to spread the passata
4) Top with vegetables
5) Finish off with a sprinkle of cheese and mixed herbs

6) Cook in the oven for 15mins

Budget:

Yeast = 7p
Sugar = 5p
Oil = 5p
Flour = 25p
Salt = 2p
Passata = 20p
Cheese = 20p
Tomato = 10p
Pepper = 30p
Total = £1.24 (if you eat 2/3 now, and 1/3 later then about £1/ person)

Back to uni

Since I'm back at uni with a couple of days to spare before term starts, I thought I'd get some batch cooking out the way to set me up for when things get busier. Here's what I made today:

L to R: 3 x sweet and sour sauce, 6 x tomato sauce, 2 x apple sauce, 1 x cranberry sauce

Recipes to follow when my internet's less sloooooow...

Tomato-Gazpacho Soup

I was going to try gazpacho soup until I discovered you don't cook the tomatoes, and I am not the biggest fan of uncooked tomatoes. So I took a couple of the ingredients you'd use in gazpacho (spring onions, red pepper, garlic) and a couple from traditional tomato soup (onion, carrot, celery, tomato puree) and combined the two.

Ingredients:
1kg tomatoes
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 spring onions
Half a red pepper
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1tbsp oil
1tbsp tomato puree
1tbsp sugar
2 bay leaves
2 pints of vegetable stock

Serves 6

Method:
1) Prep all the vegetables - peel and chop roughly. Quarter the tomatoes, and then scoop out the seeds and stems with a teaspoon
2) Heat the oil in a large pan, and tip in all the vegetables except the tomatoes. Heat on medium with stirring for 10 mins

2) Squeeze in the tomato puree, and add the garlic. Stir until everything is red

3) Boil the water for the stock
4) Then add the sugar, some salt and pepper, and 2 bay leaves. Tip in all the tomatoes and cook until they are squishy and the skin is coming off

5) Make up the stock, and tip it in
6) Cook for 25 mins with stirring

7) Remove the bay leaves and leave to cool for a couple of mins
8) Puree the mixture and serve

Budget:
Tomatoes = £1
Carrot = 8p
Onion = 10p
Celery = 20p
Spring onions = 15p
Pepper = 30p
Garlic = 7p
Oil = 3p
Tomato puree = 10p
Sugar = 4p
Herbs = 4p
Stock = 30p
Total = £2.41, 40p/ person

I've entered this recipe into Made with Love Mondays:

Homemade Hummus

I was clearing out the cupboard this week and found a kilo of dried chickpeas at the back. Rather than chuck them out, I thought I'd try an experiment and make some hummus out of them. Delicious with pitta bread or breadsticks!

Ingredients:
55g dried chickpeas (these will double in mass to 110g when they've been soaked, which is the correct amount. Not 220g as I discovered)
5tbsp tahini paste (ish - it's pretty hard to get it out of the jar)
3 cloves garlic
3tbsp olive oil
2 lemons
2tsp cayenne pepper or paprika
1tsp salt

1) Soak the chickpeas in water overnight (leave about 6cm water above the top of the chickpeas because they will expand)
2) Boil the chickpeas in fresh water for 1.5-2h over a low heat with a pinch of salt
3) Blend the chickpeas and garlic in a (large) food processor until they look more like a paste
4) Add the tahini and olive oil and blend
5) Juice the lemons and add the juice, followed by the spices, and blend again. Keep going until it's smooth

Serves 4 

Budget:
Chickpeas = 20p
Tahini = 50p
Garlic = 10p
Oil = 5p
Lemons = 30p
Spices = 5p
Total = £1.20, 30p/ person


...now what to do with the remaining 890g??

Bargain Bruschetta

More bruschetta than bread?

Traditionally more of an appetiser, I like to double up and have these as a proper meal with a bit of salad and mozzarella (if I'm lucky). There are lots of ways to save money here too.

Ingredients:
Old bread - I had half a stale French stick that was perfect
Tomatoes - if using whole/ salad tomatoes, budget for about 1 tomato/ slice (I used 3 anaemic salad tomatoes + 5 squishy cherry tomatoes). I reckon you could use tinned tomatoes here if you strained off the liquid
1 small onion - red is better, but if you only have brown then go with that
1tbsp tomato puree if available
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Splash of oil (olive is better), about 1tbsp
Splash of vinegar (balsamic is better, but malt will do)
Basil - dried is OK but fresh is a lot better

My basil plant passes through a death/ regeneration cycle once a week when I remember to water it

Quantity variable - 1/2 a French stick gives about 8 slices

Method:
1) Slice up the bread and lay out on a baking tray. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
2) Roughly chop up the tomatoes. I like to leave a couple of larger chunks in there too, and I'm not fussy about the seeds. Feel free to take them out if you are
3) Finely chop the onion (a mini food-processor is perfect if you have one)
4) Stir the tomato and onion together in a small bowl. Add the tomato puree if your tomatoes were a less-than-vibrant red like mine
5) Mince the garlic into the bowl
6) Add the oil and vinegar and stir so everything is evenly distributed
7) Scoop the mixture onto the bread. Sprinkle basil over the top if using dried
8) Cook for 10-15 mins. Add the basil leaf after if using fresh

Budget:
Tomatoes = 50p
Onion = 8p
Tomato puree = 5p
Garlic = 5p
Oil = 4p
Vinegar = 5p
Basil = 2p if dried, less if fresh. I grow mine from a pot I got for £1, and it's given me >50 leaves so far
Total = 80p, 13p/ person if one each as an appetiser, 40p/ person if as a whole meal

Toast Pizza

One of my favourite snack creations - I'm eating it right now whilst typing one-handed.
Double it up for a simple lunch.

Ingredients:
1 slice of bread
2tbsp ketchup (I used the homemade ketchup I made earlier in the week, but bog-standard is obviously fine)
15g of cheese (aka the manky double gloucester I found lurking at the back of the fridge)

Serves 1

Method:
1) Make toast
2) Spread ketchup on toast
3) Grate cheese onto toast

Budget:
Bread = 8p
Ketchup = 4p
Cheese = 6p
Total = 18p

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

We had burgers for tea last night - it was the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with ketchup recipes, one of which I found here. The end-product is very different to Heinz - but still completely delicious!

Ingredients:
2 cans of tinned tomatoes
1 medium brown onion
2 cloves of garlic
2tbsp oil
1tbsp tomato puree
Spices - I went with 1/2 tsp salt, 1tsp actual mustard (we were out of powder), 1tsp paprika, 1tsp mixed spice (if you have cloves, use those too), 1/2 tsp turmeric
100g brown sugar
About 70ml vinegar (I used cider vinegar)

Makes 2 medium-sized jam jars

Method:
1) Chop the onions whilst heating the oil in a large saucepan, then sautee for about 7 mins until soft and transparent.
2) Crush the garlic and add to the pan, cooking for 1 min
3) Stir in the tomato paste
4) Add all the spices, and stir thoroughly so they are evenly distributed
5) Add the sugar, vinegar and tinned tomatoes and stir
6) Heat gently for about 45 mins, until the amount of liquid has reduced
7) Use a blender (hand-held is best) to puree the sauce (NB: beware hot splashes of sauce - I wrapped a tea towel around my arm)
8) Transfer the sauce into clean jam jars - although it smells a lot like chutney when you're cooking, I doubt it would last as long on the shelf. But it's so tasty it wouldn't anyway!

Store in the fridge

Budget
Highly dependent on which spices you use, but the tomatoes, onion, garlic, sugar and vinegar add up to:
2 tins tomatoes = 75p (don't get the cheapest ones)
Onion = 10p
Garlic = 7p
Sugar = 25p
Vinegar = 8p
Total = £1.25

Homemade Pesto

I can't believe I've only just discovered how great pesto is - it makes even the most boring pasta dishes exciting. This recipe is inspired by Delia's but I didn't have much luck weighing basil leaves. I tweaked the quantities, and substituted cheddar for the pecorino (I know, sorry) which worked surprisingly well.

Ingredients:
As many basil leaves as you can get hold of/ approx. 1 handful
2 garlic cloves (I love garlic, but if you're less worried about warding off vampires then 1 clove is fine)
2tbsp pine nuts
4tbsp olive oil
Some grated cheese (ideally pecorino romano, but cheddar worked)

Serves 3-4 on pasta

Method:
1) Tip everything except the cheese into a blender and whizz it up until there are only small bits of basil leaf left (add extra oil if necessary to make it go further)
2) Transfer to another dish and stir in the cheese

Budget:
Basil = £1
Garlic = 6p
Pine nuts = 40p
Oil = 3p
Cheese = 30p
Total = £1.79, 45p/ person

Roast Vegetable Pasta

Great for when you feel like pasta but don't have any tinned tomatoes left - a colourful dish that works in summer and winter! I like it with root vegetables in autumn.

Ingredients:
50g pasta (spaghetti/ those twirly ones/ etc. all fine) per person - the packets typically recommend 70g/ person but I have never met anyone able to eat that much pasta in one sitting
Oil for roasting
1 carrot/ person
1 parsnip/ person
2 cloves of garlic/ person (leave the papery skin on)
1tbsp creme fraiche/ soft cheese per person
Optional - 1/2 red pepper/ person
Optional - 1/4 onion (red or brown)/ person

Method:
1) Peel and chop the root veg into chunks about 3cm long
2) Set the oven to 180 deg C and roast the veg and garlic in the oil for about 45 mins, until soft
3) After 30 mins, boil the water and tip in the pasta, cooking for about 12 mins (see packet for details)
4) Drain the pasta, take the veg and garlic out of the oven and tip into the pasta saucepan (you might want to take out some of the oil if there's loads)
5) Stir in the creme fraiche/ soft cheese - you might need to heat the saucepan a bit until it all melts nicely
6) Serve!

Budget:
Pasta - 3p
Oil - 2p
Carrot - 7p
Parsnip - 10p
Garlic - 5p
Creme fraiche - 10p
Total = 37p/ person

Fail-safe Tomato Sauce

One of my freezer staples - I'll make a big batch and freeze it in portions to whip out when I get back from the lab and am too tired for anything more challenging than reheating this, and cooking pasta!

It's really flexible - use up whatever veg you have left at the back of the fridge or freezer - and is a great way to get in several of your 5-a-day.

For a change, I won't list ingredients but instead suggestions of things to include. The only compulsory component is the tomatoes.

Makes 4-5 portions

Method:
1) If adding onion and/ or garlic and/ or celery, put 1tbsp of oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and fry gently for around 8 mins
2) Add the 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
3) Add everything else:
        Fresh veg - carrots, broccoli, mange tout/ sugar snaps, mini corn, bell pepper, celery,                         mushrooms
        Frozen veg - peas, sweetcorn, broccoli
        Meat - cooked bacon, leftover cooked sausages
4) Heat until the liquid in the centre is bubbling
5) Done - use straightaway or leave to cool

Budget:
Obviously the final cost depends on what you put in.
2 tins tomatoes = 62p

Recipe No. 1: Carrot Soup

My notoriously-picky family were initially highly suspicious of this vegetable-based concoction. But after much persuasion, I managed to get them to try it.
The verdict? 'Delicious and not too carrot-y' - whatever that means. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1tbsp oil (sunflower/ vegetable/ olive)
1 small/ medium brown onion
500g-ish of peeled carrots (start with about 1kg of carrots to achieve this end-weight)
1 medium white potato
1L stock (chicken or vegetable)
200ml orange juice

Optional extras:
Coriander
Soft cream cheese or creme fraiche to finish
Bread roll

Makes about 5 portions (6 at a push)

Method:
1) Peel and chop the carrots, aiming for a thickness of about 3mm because they'll cook faster. It's best to do this step first because it's not speedy
2) Heat the oil in a large pan (casserole dishes also great)
3) Meanwhile, chop the onion (doesn't have to be too fine because the end product is going to be pureed) and add to the oil. Fry gently for about 8 mins, until it softens
4) Whilst the onion is frying, if you are using stock cubes put the kettle on to boil. Peel and chop the potato into small-ish chunks. Make the stock
5) Add the carrots and potato chunks to the onion and heat for about 5 mins with stirring
6) Add the stock and juice and leave the pan on the heat until the liquid in the centre starts to bubble. If you are in a rush, then leave the pan on medium heat for about 15-20 mins - until the carrots are soft when you stick in a knife in them. If you have longer and used a casserole dish, you can put it in the oven on a low temperature (about 120-140 deg C) for 30-45 mins - make sure to check the liquid level occasionally.
7) Turn off the heat and let it cool for 10 mins (washing-up opportunity!) *
8) Dig the blender/ hand-held food processor/ other pureeing gadget out of the back of the cupboard and use it to puree the soup. This will probably have to be done in batches and can get a bit messy
9) Done!

* If you are using coriander, add it in step 7 before pureeing

Meal suggestion: great for lunches and re-heating at work. It freezes well too.
Add a bread roll for a more filling meal. To finish it off, I like to add a spoonful of soft cheese (or creme fraiche if I'm lucky enough to have any left in the fridge) - the colours look delicious too!

Budget:
Oil = 3p
Onion = 12p
Carrots = 80p/ kilo
Potato = 10p
Stock = 8p
Juice = 13p
Total = £1.26 for 5 people (25p/ person)
Total with cream cheese and nice bread roll = 50p/ person