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. 

Leftovers

 Do you find it hard to eat, or even have inspiration to eat when it is hot? I do. I really struggle to eat in this weather. I love the sunshine but I don't want to eat in it. I have a daughter who is the same, I end up having to find fast simple meals that will entice her to eat as much as me!

The other day I cooked a roast chicken and we had some left in the fridge that needed eating so I made today's dinner using it.

I also found this box in the cupboard.I'm not sure where it came from, I don't even remember buying it. It was quite easy to make, you dissolve the powder into a little water, coat your chicken in it and fry until cooked. Nice and easy, just what was needed today.

I coated my chicken and then popped it in the air fryer for ten minutes. I just needed the coating to crisp as the chicken was already cooked. Whilst this happened, I chopped a quick, simple salad and added some tortilla crisps which were open in the cupboard.

Plain, simple and tasty. Just what was needed on this hot day.

There was still a little of the chicken left. I decided to make a treat for the dog with it. A simple pate, if you were making this for humans you could use butter, maybe garlic and little lemon juice to liven it up a little. As it was for Smudge I kept it plain as he has a sensitive tummy and he will stink us out! Haha

Chicken and a little water and into the blender until smooth.

I should have used a little less water maybe as it was a little runny. It will be fine though as I will be spreading it onto his licky mat and freezing it as a cooling treat another day.

There is no chicken left now so I will need to decide on something else quick and simple for tomorrow's dinner. I'm thinking maybe some pesto pasta.