The wonder of the humble bean

Around six weeks ago my housemate came back from his mum's house with two tins of kidney beans and one can of chick peas. Knowing my food tastes he said 'I won't be eating them, you can have them if you want them'.

So I stored them at the back of the cupboard, knowing I would probably use them one rainy day.
The tin of chick peas I made into a whole tub of hummus, complete with some roasted red pepper and chili flakes. This made dozens of healthy sandwiches/pittas for work when combined with grated carrot and courgette.

Then last night I really fancied doing a spot of cooking, so I whipped up some kidney bean burgers using the left over tins of kidney beans. One and a half tins made six burgers; two for dinner with some left over salsa from a fajita kit and coconut rice, two for today's lunch with leftover coconut rice, and two are in the fridge ready to be eaten as a pre-gym  snack tomorrow evening- seeing me nicely through to payday!

Here's my improvised bean burger recipe:

Ingredients (All items you can probably find lurking at the back of the cupboard or the bottom of the fridge)

• One and a half tins of kidney beans
• One mushroom
• Half a yellow pepper
• Half an onion
• Garlic powder
• Olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• Sprinkle of stuffing mix
• Flaked almonds (for added crunch)
• Flour 

Method

1. Pour all ingredients into a saucepan and leave to heat until beans are soft
2. Mash all ingredients together, use flower to thicken the consistency
3. Spoon out onto a baking tray into little round patty shapes
4. Grill/oven to cook as desired 

One step forward, three steps back....

So there I was yesterday feeling sort of smug with my month- £70 squirreled away and half my Christmas shopping done- all on about three weeks pay,and with three days worth of lunches packed into the fridge and just a few days away from my first full pay check in a couple of months and well, things took a bit of a turn for the worst on the financial front.

I woke up early to move my car as I had the day off and can't park out the front of the flat during the day as there are restrictions. After turning the key for about five minutes it was clear that Mary the micra as my sister says was not going to start. So I called the rac guy out, and spent the following hour in my pink fluffy sleepsuit, coat and boots watching him trying to get my car started. I thought it would be a simple case of me not using it enough which combined with the cold weather was making her an unhappy lady. And that the miracle mechanic man would we able to work his magic and I would have my little car back. However, after 60 minutes of failed attempts to get the ignition to work he gives up and says he'll have to tow me to the garage.

Alarm bells started ringing about the cost of the repairs and I thought about £70 would cover it- a bit annoying but I could cope with it.

After a few hours I get a phone call from the garage, waffling in technical car jargon and informing me I now owe them somewhere in the region of £270- I nearly fell off my chair :(.

So I went to the bank (Santander just to warn you!) for another complaining session- this time lodging an official complaint and I tell them I want a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience of then failing to send me my new pin number three times! Four weeks I haven't been able to user debit card (a right royal pain in the ass in the lead up to Christmas, going away for the weekend and the final straw- the car breaking!). I tried to withdraw the money for the car repair from my savings account but the woman couldn't do that so my overdraft took a battering- luckily it's interest free for another three years! I guess it's better to do that and pay it off about £50 per month then lose money in interest from the savings account. I was so looking forward to a full paycheck on Friday too, and have even got some part time bar work lined up on Saturday and over Christmas in which I hoped I could piggy bank away...

Anyways after a bit of a shitty day yesterday I was on an excel course today. I took left over fajita wraps with me, to find out lunch was going on expenses! So I had a nice pret lunch, diet coke, edamae beans and a prawn noodle salad courtesy of tmp, I got a text from my housemate telling me I had had a beautiful bunch of flowers delivered from Santander with an apology (makes me laugh how they get my address right to send flowers, but have failed three times to send a pin number!) and arrive at work to find my desk and chair decorated, with a card and two presents neatly stacked on top of it. Even the wrapping paper had been customised which I thought was nice seeing I have only been with the company about six weeks. They gave me some new reading material for the train, because they wanted to improve my choices! Hehe, so my bookcase will be happy for the latest additions to the shelf.

What a couple of days! X

Winter stew

Inspired by Frugal Queens most recent post I decided to make a warming soup/stew in the slow cooker, ready  to be divided up into individual portions which will be eaten over the course of the next week. I was half following a recipe from a cook book, half improvising- so here is my final recipe.

Ingredients 

1. One tin of smart price chopped tomatoes 
2. Teaspoon of tomato puree
3. Sprinkle of Italian seasoning, garlic and paxo stuffing powder
4. Handful of pasta
5. Some roughly chopped green beans
6. Mushrooms
7. Sweetcorn
8. One carrot
9. Half a tin of kidney beans
10. Half a white onion
11. Vegetable stock

Method

• Chop all ingredients which need it 
• Make stock
• Place all ingredients into slow-cooker, sprinkle seasonings 
• Cook for approximately five hours
• Serve with some chunky bread/baguette 

This little lot made four portions; one for tea, one for lunch tomorrow and two are in their plastic tubs ready to be taken to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Simples. 

Christmas krispy kreams have arrived

A box of Christmas krispy kream donuts have just arrived in the office from total jobs. Nestled safely inside the packaging are a variety of donuts including one in the shape of a Christmas tree and one with a snow mans face.

I've only ever had half a plain, glazed krispy kream before quite a few years ago. I carefully selected toffee glazed donut which was a lovley (free!) substitute to my lunch and was delicious accompanied by a free office coffe. Yummy! I cut it into tiny pieces to nibble throughout the day to hopefully avoid the post-sugar rush slump.

Hopefully more foodie freebies will keep coming my way until payday next week which will keep my tummy feeling Happy :)

Meal planning

Saturday-

Breakfast- Bagels, scrambled egg, beans & OJ

Lunch- Home made carrot soup & pitta bread

Dinner- Left over curry

Sunday-


Breakfast- Bagels, scrambled egg, beans

Lunch- Pitta bread, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and olives

Dinner- We ended up in our local spoons eating a kids 'roast' (microwaved?) dinner. Was pretty nice at half price, setting me back just a couple of pounds. A further two more pounds for a drink and £1.70 spent on pudding. After being thrifty over the last few days it was a nice way to finish off the weekend. Headed home in a food induced coma and swiftly fell asleep shortly after!

Monday-


Breakfast- Porridge, cinnamon, flaked almonds & sultanas & coffee

Lunch- Home made carrot soup & pitta bread, yoghurt & apples

Dinner- Chicken fajitas

Tuesday-


Breakfast- Chocolate ready-made porridge & coffee

Lunch- Home made carrot soup & pitta bread

Dinner- Home in the evening

Wednesday-

Breakfast- Whatever I can rummage from home

Lunch- Same as above

Dinner-  Chicken stir-fry with vegetables and coconut rice

Thursday-


Breakfast- Porridge, cinnamon, flaked almonds and sultanas & coffee

Lunch-Home made carrot soup & pitta bread, yogurt

Dinner- Chicken Korma & rice

Friday- Off work


Breakfast- Toast & peanut butter

Lunch-

Dinner- Pasta with tomato sauce

Meal planning

Over the last few years while I have been trying to save money I've found it's essential to do a big weekly food shop, usually at the weekends to stock up on food for the next week. This is because otherwise we tend to find ourselves nipping to the local, rather more expensive shops or reaching for the take away menus or heading out the door to eat out.

Since moving to our new flat six months ago, which is situated on top of a shop amongst a parade made up of every type of takeaway food you can think of its too easy to think sod it lets just go to the fish and chip shop- however, I don't particularly want to eat fast food for dinner every day, nor do I want to spend a fiver on food at lunchtime. Therefore, having the cupboards stocked up means I can (usually) rustle up something relatively healthy in a hurry.

Here's my meal plan for the next week:

Monday-

Breakfast- I had a half day so made sure I used up the last egg and the last of the milk which went off today. I made scrambled egg and baked beans on toast, washed down with a coffee.

Snack- Some sushi from the big pack I bought from the Korean supermarket at the weekend. The sushi from here tasted sooo much better than supermarket sushi and at £3.00 I got three servings out of it too. Two apples from my mum's apple tree sliced. A packet of Halloween pickled onion Pombears stashed in my desk draw.


Lunch- I made some thick Japanese noodles and put them into miso soup which I took into work. It wasn't one of my tastiest combinations and think I will stick to noo

dles with stir fries in the future.

Dinner- I chopped up the last of a courgette and red onion clearing out the vegetable draw, cut up some tofu and stir fried with fahita spices. I wrapped the mixture in tortillas smeared with some mayo, and it was delicious!

Tuesday-


Breakfast- Porridge with cinnamon, sultanas and flaked almonds with a thermos of coffee for the train.

Lunch- Pasta with homemade tomato and vegetable sauce from the freezer which I made a few weeks ago.

Snacks- Two apples from the apple tree. These are the last in the cupboard, so tomorrow I'll go home to re-stock my supplies.

Dinner- I'm heading home for dinner tomorrow so it will be something homemade by my mum.

Wednesday-


Breakfast- Ready made Chocolate porridge from a sachet, or perhaps something more interesting depending what I can find in my mum's kitchen cupboards.


Lunch- From home.


Dinner- Tofu, frozen stirfried vegetables and coconut rice.

Thursday-


Breakfast- Porridge/cereal/toast and coffee.


Lunch- Leftover dinner from last night.


Dinner- Jar curry sauce, rice and chicken (need to buy)


Friday-


Breakfast- Porridge/toast/cereal


Lunch- Out for lunch at Nandos with Monster.co.uk, there's nothing tastier than free food!


Dinner- If hungry after Nandos will probably have something simple and light like baked beans on toast.

What will you be eating this week? Do you plan your meals in advance? xx