Simple foods part 2

 Another simple meal I love to make is lentil bolognese. I make this up, we have it for one dinner and then I adapt it for a few more meals. 

All you need is

1. 1/4 bag of dried green lentils 

2. Several carrots

3. 2 tins toms

4. Dried parsley

I pop it all into the pressure cooker for 20 mins. Let the pressure release naturally then serve with cooked pasta and garlic bread. 

Using some of the left over lentil bolognese I then make lasagne. I add some extra tomatoes to the mix. Then make a simple white sauce. In the pot I put a layer of bolognese, top with lasagne sheets, add white sauce then another layer of lasagne. Repeat until dish is full. Ending with white sauce on top. Then sprinkle with grated cheese. 

Always a little more lentil mix left so I make one more meal the next day. I cook some dried pasta. Then mix the lentil mix with some passata then mix into the cooked pasta. Pop in an oven proof dish. Top with cheese and bake for 20nmins or so. Serve with home made garlic bread. 

I use dairy free milk and cheese to make these dishes so all are vegan. These meals are for two of us, you may not get as many meals out of that first portion of bolognese if you have larger appetites or a larger family eating this. 

I usually have enough left of each variation for a few lunches to take for work. 

Side note: I don't season with salt/pepper so we can do this to personal taste. You may wish to add to your meals when cooking if that is how you prefer to cook. 

Simple meals- version 1. Jacket potato salad

 Following on from my post the other day I thought I would share some of our simple meals that we have. They are low cost, low effort so perfect on busy days, or indeed if like the South of England at the moment you are in the middle of the summer week!who knows when the sun will go again so I send as much time as possible out enjoying it!

Jacket potato and salad with home made coleslaw. 

I love this meal as so low effort. I cook potatoes in microwave for around 7 minutes depending on their size, then it o the oven to crisp for 20 mins. 

The coleslaw is home made, it contains red cabbage, white cabbage, red onion and carrot. All grated. Then mixed with some mayonnaise, white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Most of what is in this plate is from the reduced section of the supermarket, the vegetables last way longer than the supermarkets say. 

Costings for this obviously depend on how much you pay for the veggies but guesstimate this at 

Potato 10p (from a bag costing 50p)

1 carrot 2p (1kg bag reduced to 23p so prob even less!) 

Salad leaves 20p, cheaper soon when out of my garden! 

Tomatoes 1/4 bag that costs 55p so say 15p

Cucumber a few slices from a 50p cucumber say 5p worth maybe 

Olives from a jar I don't remember cost but from aldi so not a lot! 

The cheese is around £2 a bag, it's free from due to my intolerance so the most expensive part prob around 40p worth on my plate. 

So this meal comes in at around £1. It's very filling and so full of yummy goodness. 

I'll share another tomorrow. 

Rubber chicken!

No, my cooking has not got that bad! I am going to see how many meals I can get out of one small chicken. It was one I bought on yellow sticker for £2 last month. I cooked it nice and plain in the slow-cooker yesterday.  Teengirl and I had some with a jacket potato and salad for dinner, we had one breast shared between us. Today I am cooking some potatoes in the airfryer and steaming some veg to go with some more of the cooked chicken. I have saved every scrap of the chicken and plan on doing something with all of it. No waste!

This is what is left after yesterday's dinner. The bigger tub is the chicken, then the bones and then the juices left in the slower cooker after I took the chicken out. I'm determined to use it all- any suggestions on any of these?
What do you do with all of the left over bits from a roast chicken?

I'll fill you in as the week continues to what I do and if I use any of your ideas.