Quorn Fajita Lasagne

I first made this dish back in November 2010.  I had a packet of Fajita seasoning but never managed to get any chicken in, so it stayed in my cupboard for a while.  I also had some Quorn mince and lasagne sheets and thought I'd make lasagne with a twist!  This worked very well since Quorn is very bland so you need to make the sauce extra special.

Lasagne

I made enough for 8 servings minimum but still had mince sauce leftover so room for more!

Ingredients:

 

Mince:
2 tbsp Oil
1 large Onion, diced
5 cloves Garlic, crushed (peeled) and sliced
1 Red Pepper, deseeded and diced
1 Green Pepper, deseeded and diced
300g packet Quorn Mince
2 tins of Tomatoes (use chopped, I had plum  so had to faff around chopping them up)
About 1 tin of Water (swooshed/rinsed in the empty tomato tins)
1 packet Fajita Seasoning
2 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Your Secret Ingredient aka Tomato Ketchup
Salt to taste
1tsp Cornflour, slaked with water

Béchemel:
25g Butter
3 tsp/25g Plain Flour (I used 3 tsp for ease but found my sauce was a bit on the thin side)
400ml Milk (ding it in the microwave with an optional bay leaf)
100g Mature Cheddar Cheese, grated
Salt and White Pepper

And 250g Lasagne Sheets

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Fry onions until soft on a low heat, add garlic.

2.  Add the peppers and fry until slightly softened.

3.  Add Quorn and both tins of tomatoes with extra water.  Stir thoroughly and cook for 15mins.

4.  Add the packet of Fajita Seasoning and add sugar, ketchup and salt according to your taste.

5.  Add the cornflour mix to thicken sauce.

"Meat" Sauce

Set this saucepan aside to cool while you make the béchemel.

6.  Get a smaller saucepan than the meat sauce one and melt the butter.

7.  Add the flour and with a wooden spoon, keep stirring, almost beating it.  Let the flour cook a bit on low heat (this paste is the roux).  Meanwhile, you can ding the milk in a microwave container, add a bay leaf to pep it up if you have them.

8.  Add a little milk and beat into the roux.  Add a little at a time and beat quickly so you don't get lumps.  You can use a whisk but I just used a wooden spoon (less washing up!)  The key is to not put all the milk until you get to the point where the texture is okay to plonk all the liquid in.

9.  Cook for about 10-15 mins until the sauce thickens.  Don't just "stir" the sauce, make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan so you don't get a burnt sauce crust on the bottom.  I grate the cheese about now.

10.  Once the sauce is thickened, turn the heat off and let it cool.  This is where you can add the cheese but I prefer to save it for the cheesy topping.

11.  Let the building commence!  Grease/oil the lasagne dishes.  I ignore the instructions on the packet that says sauce first...I did pasta first (easy to dish up) mince, pasta, if there's room, repeat and top with the béchemel.  I know a traditional lasagne layers the béchemel as well but I personally think the layers get lost flavour wise so prefer just topping it with the sauce.

My pretties

I baked it for 20mins at 180c initially but the cheese was still yellow so I added another 10mins at 200c.  (Fan oven).

Done!

Review:

My favourite part was the cheesy top!  There was no need to precook the lasagne sheets but by not doing so, the sauce in the lasagne was not as juicy as I would have liked.  I will balance this next time by using more water so I can account for the pasta drinking up my water (the juicy factor).  I will make more béchemel and make it slighter thicker in consistency.  I will also keep an eye out for ANOTHER baking dish since I had so much Quorn sauce leftover.  This dish makes great freezer fare for those lazy days.

Raspberry and Lemon Muffins

This is an adapted recipe inspired by:
http://www.channel4.com/4food

I had previously made blueberry muffins and lemon muffins successfully so thought I'd use up the raspberries I bought.

Muffins

Makes enough for 12 muffins (but I get worried about overfilling and end up with 3 cake sized muffins as well)

Ingredients:  

  

300g Self Raising Flour

100g Caster Sugar (I used Unrefined Granulated Sugar, np)

1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

175ml Milk (I used Soya Milk, np)

125ml Vegetable Oil (I used Corn Oil)

1 Egg
1 Lemon Rind, grated

165g Raspberries (125g to 150g is fine, I wanted to use the surplus up, I used slightly thawed frozen ones)

Method:

1.  Take a tsp of flour from the measured amount and mix with the raspberries.  This will help dry them up and stop them sinking.  Set aside.

2.  Sift flour into a large bowl, add baking powder, sugar and the salt.  Stir thoroughly so the baking powder is distributed evenly.

3.  Measure the milk and oil into a measuring jug, add egg and beat together. Add the lemon zest.

Zesty goodness

4.  This is when I turn the oven on.  It's quick because it's a fan oven, heat to 170c.  Line the muffin tin with 2 paper cases for each hole.  When it is hot enough, you can mix the wet and dry ingredients together.  Don't forget to line a few extra (cake or muffin in case of excess), you get the luxury of hindsight :p

5.  Quickly add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the mixture is 'just' mixed. I got a few flour pockets but that is ok.

Left teaspoon, right dessertspoon

6.  Spoon about 2 dsp into each case.  Put the muffin tray into the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  If you're baking cakes, 20mins will definitely do.

Transfer the muffins from the tray to a cooling rack.  My cooling rack is just an extra that came with the microwave.

Review:

The muffins came out slightly blue due to the frozen raspberries.  I should wait until they are fully thawed and dry before I use them (even better, use fresh!).  The lemon was nice, they left brilliant yellow specks in the muffins.  I was going to make a lemon drizzle icing if it wasn't sweet enough but they were fine.  The presentation would benefit from setting aside a few raspberries and placing on top after you have put the mixture in the cases so you get lovely peeks of fruit.

I enjoyed making these but personally prefer them with blueberries.

Naan Pizzas

This was my first lunch after the challenge.  I didn't want to buy something convenient to eat, I wanted to use my renewed interest in making food at home and make something.  Using a mixture of fresh, frozen and tinned food, I came up with...

Naan Pizzas

Makes enough for 4 people (3 "Pizzas" each)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Olive Oil (I ran out so used Corn Oil)
1 Red Onion, diced
3 Cloves of Garlic, crushed (peeled) and sliced
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes (I used Sargona Spicy Toms from Lidl)
A little Water to rinse tomato tin
1 tsp Sugar
160g Sweetcorn (Iceland Frozen)
Basil and Oregano to taste (dried)
6 Mini Plain Naan (one packet from Sainsbury's)
Mature Cheddar Cheese, grated
Halloumi Cheese, sliced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Black Pepper

Method:

1.  Heat the oil in a medium saucepan.  Put in the onions and fry until soft.  Add the garlic.

2.  Open the tomatoes and pour in, put some water in and swoosh around to "rinse" the can and pour into sauce mix.  I found the sauce a bit too spicy for me so sweetened with sugar.

3.  Let it simmer and reduce slightly.

4.  Pour in the sweetcorn (if frozen, make sure it is cooked).

5.  Put as much basil and oregano as you like.  I prefer to put in more basil to oregano.

You can switch off the heat now and let the sauce cool slightly.  It is now the time to make your pizzas! 

6.  Put the grill on.

7.  Pop the naan into your toaster so that the outside is starting to crisp and the inside is steamed.  You can now split into two easily with a knife but be careful since they are fragile.

8.  Place naan halves inside up and lightly grill to remove moisture (this will stop pizzas being soggy).

9.  Spoon 1 dsp -1 tbsp of sauce mix onto each naan half.  Sprinkle cheddar and arrange halloumi.

Before they soak up the rays

Basking in the glow

10.  Grill until the halloumi starts to pop and blister.

11.  Finish with a drizzle of e.v olive oil and freshly ground pepper.

Done

Review:

I really enjoyed these!  My carnivorous brother commented how these were nice as well.  I didn't add any salt since I had cheese and halloumi is quite salty.  I will cover the edges with sauce and cheese so the bread doesn't get too burnt next time.

 

One more for prosperity!

Live Below the Line: Conclusion

Finishing this 5 day challenge was a bit of an anticlimax.  I was expecting to be more annoyed through lack of food or more excited that it has finished.  Thoughts that have crossed my mind include:  Why don't I add another day to make it more "challenging" or even why not do it until all the food is gone?  I have decided against this because this is not a "game" and you should know your limits and not go beyond them (sadly this is life for many people)  The aim of the challenge is to raise awareness of what (looks for figures) 1.4 billion people have to live on a day (less than £1) and that does not include housing, transportation, education, clothes and healthcare.

This has also highlighted the issue that you can eat healthily (at least from a fruit and veg point of view) on a budget.  I wish people would stop using the excuse of "it's too expensive."  It was really easy including fruit and vegetables with each meal.  I did find myself having a headache recently.  I think it's a mixture of not drinking tea and a sickly/eye straining experience sitting in the front row of the cinema (never again!).

Out of my shopping list (of which the tinned spaghetti remains unopened but I buy and eat that anyway so it's good) I would buy the products again minus 3 items:
Pasta Sauce: If only you didn't have saccharine!  Otherwise, you tasted nice but I like to make my own from tinned tomatoes.
Custard Powder: I think I'd have a on/off relationship with you.  You taste ok but should I?  With the whey powder and milk proteins most probably derived from cow's milk of the lowest quality?  For now, I have to finish my tub of Birds custard powder which is vegan.
Caged Eggs:  What to say without sounding like a hypocrite?  If I was in a supermarket and HAD to buy eggs, I would get free range because I can afford to upgrade.  Since I don't buy my eggs from supermarkets and get them from work (they are battery eggs) it sounds like I wouldn't buy them otherwise.  This is a slightly complicated area.  When I do buy eggs from a supermarket, they are free range.

I feel like this (my) challenge is an endorsement for Tesco, maybe I should rename it to the Tesco Value challenge?!  It highlights the ridiculous supermarket price wars going on.  Cheap for you but at what cost to the producers?  I am not sick of pasta or porridge but it will be nice to have the option to eat rice again.

I look forward to food becoming a social and joyous occasion again.

Day 5 aka FINAL DAY!!!

Breakfast:
Porridge with grated apple and sultanas.

I quartered and cored the apple.  I grated it, skin side facing out and discarded the skin.  I then stirred into the ready made porridge.  It didn't look that great so sprinkled my old favourite the sultanas.  It tasted slightly sour, the sweetness of the apple is definitely lost in the porridge.  I seriously struggled eating the last spoonful but I talked myself into the idea that you do not waste food.

Lunch: 
Penne with baked beans and veg with omelette.

Monster Egg!

Monster side folded inwards to display underside

I only boiled 50g of pasta with 100g veg today using the remaining half tin of baked beans.  This was a strange combo for me, beans and rice=fine, kidney beans and pasta=fine but baked beans and pasta?!  Should it ever have to happen?  It was fine but strange all the same.  My omelette was an experiment to see if you could fry an egg without any oil or fat.  To reduce the risk of failure I thought I'd better whisk it first rather than attempt sunny side up.  To help it cook more quickly and thoroughly, I placed a lid on the frying pan and it bubbled up beautifully.  But alas, it was all an illusion akin to the marshmallow trick where you pump air in (or was it out?) of the container for as soon as I lifted the lid, it deflated back to how it should look.  The underside resembled a crepe/pancake.  The flavour reminded me of those Chinese Phoenix Egg Rolls but without the sugar and the crunch factor.

Dinner: 
What I should have eaten yesterday penne with pasta sauce and veg
Boiled egg
Apple
Sultanas
5 Digestives

The egg was nice.  Notice the lack of stock cube today.  I guess I could have spruced the egg up with a sprinkle of it but it was fine.

Day 4

Breakfast:
Porridge with peaches, syrup and sultanas.

What a difference some fruit and a little artistic flair can make!  How much more appealing is the second picture compared to the first?  I used some of the light syrup from the tin of peaches to add some sweetness.  Normally I would drain off the syrup but you must use all you can!  The peaches weren't hard but more firm compared to fresh peaches.  An enjoyable breakfast and oh so pretty!

Lunch:
Lunch was a bit of a disaster since I ran out of time.  I was supposed to have pasta again but had to go out so I made do with munching on an apple and a digestive washed down with water.

I do not encourage eating like this.  This is another example of planning ahead.  In this modern life, we are cramming our eating time in the little time we have.  This is why fast food and ready meals are really popular.  I felt fine but my stomach was making weird noises of which I was self conscious.  I confessed to my friend but I needn't have since she didn't notice!  Should have kept my mouth shut!  Even if you don't feel hungry, stomach noises is a way of your body telling you that what you have eaten isn't enough.

Snack:
4 biscuits and some sultanas

Dinner:
Penne with pasta sauce and mixed veg topped with sliced boiled egg.

This is what I should have had for lunch.  I used the remaining jar of sauce with some water sloshed around the jar to use up all the sauce and give the jar a rinse.  To multitask and do less washing, I boiled 2 eggs in the pasta water (if this sounds yukky, just make sure you rinse the pasta after cooking).  Nuked the veg and saved the other portion for tomorrow's lunch or dinner.  My presentation leaves a lot to be desired but the egg was really nice!  I thought it would be more rubbery because it's a caged egg but I must have got my timings good because it was nice and soft.

Dessert: 
Peaches and custard

A few hours after dinner I made a dessert.  I put too much water into the custard powder but it still tasted nice.  It made me think I could make a sweet drink with the custard powder.  I then placed some more of those peaches in there.

Day 3

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs with baked beans.

I could have easily had porridge again for breakfast but a part of me wanted to show you that you can be creative and have some variety.  I picked the 2 smallest eggs from the box and cracked them into a bowl.  I then whisked it with a fork and added a splash of water.  I then microwaved it in 10/15 sec bursts, whisking after each blast.  Funnily enough, I had always done scrambled eggs the proper way in a frying pan with butter and only watching Heston Blumenthal shake his head at the people at Little Chef did I pick up this trick!  You could do it without fat but make sure it's a non stick pan.

The beans were nicer than expected.  I used half the tin.  I noticed one of the ingredients was paprika.  I tried some beans cold and it wasn't unpleasant.  I don't normally like smokey flavoured food but the sauce was slightly sweet with just a hint of smoke (paprika?) and it was nice.

Lunch: 
I had pudding first so posting that first :P
Peaches with custard and digestive crumble topping.

Yeah, it's a more grandiose way of eating custard, peaches and digestive biscuit!  Once again, I wanted a go at being creative.  The only thing hot was the custard, I just fished a few peach pieces and placed on top and just crumbled a biscuit on top.  It was a nice concoction but had to be eaten quickly since the biscuit went soggy and it's best eaten when crunchy.

Soupy pasta with veg and kidney beans.

I could have improved the presentation but I just used the bowl I microwaved the veg in hence the little broccoli flecks near the rim of the bowl.

I want to show you a before and after picture of the vegetables:

Seeing the pictures side by side makes it easier to compare them.  I seem to remember it appearing to shrink a lot more than the picture shows.  The veg is ok, it would have been nicer to have some sweetcorn in the mix to give it a little sunshine.  I think the cauliflower was a bit on the crunchy side for my liking though.

Dinner: 
Same as lunch with some crumbled stock cube (that silver thing with the sultanas) to season the pasta
4 Digestives
Apple
Sultanas

Today's been ok.  My brother isn't being very helpful goading me with food (eating something in front of me and showing me the contents of his mouth after chewing it and then breathing on me...) but I've managed to resist temptation.  If I'm perfectly honest, it's been too easy so far.  I've not had any hunger pangs or any food cravings.  I think I've been getting 3/4 fruit and veg with a little protein and carbs.  I think tomorrow (Day 4) will be the hardest because it's my day off so will have to find things to do.

Day 2

Breakfast:

Porridge with sultanas and custard!

The custard was really nice! A good find for only 6p. It had a slightly chalky texture to it but was very sweet, salty and a slightly buttery flavour.

Lunch:

Penne with pasta sauce, veg and kidney beans.

Not happy about the pasta sauce. Sure it was only 18p and cheaper than making your own since I don't have to account for flavourings but I am against artificial sweeteners and this contains saccharine. I will still eat it (well, worse could have been aspartame.) I guess this shows that when poor, you do not have the luxury of having principles and being picky.

I boiled 100g pasta, used half the jar sauce and half the tin of beans with 200g veg.  I am worried about starving in the later days of my challenge so am keen to ration/stretch the food further.

I'm going cycling for leisure today. I have decided to not use this challenge as an excuse for not doing things (apart from eating, a bit hard to go out for dinner and not eat anything) I know I will be expending more energy so despite having breakfast not long ago, I know I should eat something substantial in order to keep hunger at bay. Also, I have to cook now otherwise I'll starve! Seriously, work is hard with the food around, it's much easier to be prepared. Having the sultanas and biscuits is a godsend to my snacky nature. Low in nutritional content but high in calories is what you need in order to feel full and keep going.  I have read many articles that say protein keeps you fuller for longer but unless you enjoy eating beans and legumes, you're kinda screwed!

Dinner:

Same as lunch

5 Digestives

Apple

Sultanas

Water 

The biscuits are really nice.  I'd buy them to eat in normal life.  I rather like the apples as well.  I am managing on about 3 out of my 5 a day which shows that you can get some fruit and veg on a budget.

I tried to make a stock drink using hot water in a flask (convenience) but it tasted disgusting!  I might give it another go using just boiled next time but I did end up pouring it down the sink.  I know the cubes are nice cos I nibbled a corner to try it before I made my lunch yesterday and the soup lunch was nice.

Day 1

Breakfast:

Bowl of porridge made with water served with sultanas.

Glass of water.

I joked to my mother that I was eating wallpaper paste. The sultanas definitely helped in giving it some sweetness and chewiness. I enjoy the action of masticating. Just shovelling and swallowing porridge wouldn't be as appealing without the sultanas.

Handy tip: For the same price and more variety, you could sub the sultanas for mixed dried fruit.

 

Lunch:

I boiled 100g of penne pasta (packet says 75g per person but I have 500g to last me 5 days so I boil 100g for 2 meals so only 50g a serving) I also microwave 200g frozen vegetables (1kg divide by 5 is 200g for 2 meals so my serving is 100g per meal).

Soupy pasta with poached egg. The soup is made with about ½ a stock cube. Discard pasta water but boil fresh water to poach egg. Then make the stock using that water (don't worry about eggy leftovers, scrape em in the soup!) By now, you should have pasta and veg in bowl, place egg on top and pour on soup

Dinner:

Pasta and veg from earlier with some crumbled stock cube.

5 digestives (26 in packet divide by 5 with 1 remainder)

Sultanas

Apple

Water in bottle 

The thing in my sultana container is the remaining stock cube and is there in case of extra flavouring or to make a stock soup drink.

Snack

Anything from dinner can be eaten as snack

I went to a bar/club at night to help celebrate a birthday. It was after work and I had to rely on what I ate earlier to get me through the night.  I managed to get to 3am with yawning but no stomach growlings.  It was easy to explain why I wasn't drinking since I was driving but it was too noisy to explain my challenge (also, in the infancy stages).  

Live Below the Line challenge

Saturday 7th May 2011

Hello there. I woke up today at 9am. I tried to go back to sleep but my head hurt too much. I figured that if I slept some more, my head would hurt some more so I got myself up. This was fine since I had 8 hours of sleep.

I couldn't stop thinking about the Living Below The Line challenge. This is where you live for 5 days on £1 a day to crudely simulate what life would be like on a very tight budget. I admit, I've never been in a situation where it was my dinner or say getting your car repaired but I think that's down to good self education. I know about budgeting, nutrition, making things go further and not to waste things. I also know about saving up and questioning yourself to see if you really need something.

Last week has been, not quite all junk but yes, a food fest. In one week I have had: Herbies (the Fajita pizza not as good as before) ,barbecue (lovely!) KFC (not as good as I remember), Nandos (best to eat in, good for what it is but imo a tad overrated) and frozen oven food that you cook.(good) So in a way, this is a nice way to get back to food I have to prepare a bit.

The first time I heard about it was a thread in the Money Saving Expert forum of which I frequent quite regularly. I found it interesting the creative ideas people had for living on a budget. This self knowledge really gets you further in this “game”. So I did some research, took some inspiration from a few posters and played around with my Tesco basket. I'm lucky that I have a car and have access to Tesco.

I have to admit, I've become less snobby about things as I get older. I did worry a little that some people might judge me because I had a whole shallow trolley full of Tesco Value items but I was confident in the fact that a) I had a list and b) I was doing this challenge! I had my reply ready if people were going to comment, oh, I'm doing this Live Below the Line Poverty Challenge! And then explain it to them.

I've tried some Tesco Value products with varying success due to curiosity. It took posters on MSE to encourage me though rather than seeing the prices. You are led to believe, oh, it MUST taste awful since it's so cheap but egged on by some real opinions I tried it. I think the best way to get recommendations is by word of mouth. Sometimes, people say something is really disgusting but if it is really cheap, there is this morbid curiosity in me that wants to try it to prove the theory (or taste buds) wrong!

So, I have decided to start the challenge on the busiest day of my “working” week which is Saturday! My Mum was a bit worried, thinking I wouldn't have enough strength to work since I'll be dashing around but I think working hard would be a good distraction to not think about me personally eating food all the time (I'll think about the customers eating food all the time!!!)

So far, I have told my family with an excited feel! My Mum was impressed with how much food I managed to buy with £4.81. I'm still annoyed that I didn't get another tin of kidney beans (18p) it would have filled me up. But what am I to do when I have self checked out and finished? I'm lucky that I could meticulously plan what I was going to eat.

Home!

Welcome to my first proper blog thingamijig.
This is where I let my foody musings for the whole world to see!  It's about time too!  I have a tendency to keep things to myself when sometimes, I just want to desperately share something yet not bore people to death so read as little or as much as you like.

This is where I place my soul onto a (tem)plate for you to devour! nomnom!

Kit