Simple Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon

My wife loves Cauliflower Cheese, and with bacon added it is a sure winner every time.

Serves 4
Cost - Approx £1.11p per portion *

*Note it is the bacon that drove up the cost of this simple dish otherwise it would have been approx £0.61p per portion

Ingredients:

1 Large Cauliflower
6 Rashers of bacon
1 pint of milk
50g of plain flour
50g of butter
126g of Cheddar cheese

Method:

• In a frying pan, add a little oil, and cook the bacon until well done but not to crispy, set aside to cool **
• Once cool, remove any rind still soft and discard and cut the bacon into small pieces, and set aside
• Next take you cauliflower and give it a wash then remove the leaves and cut the florets up into mouth size pieces, discarding the large hard stem in the middle
• Fill the pan with cold water and place on a high heat to bring it to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes then drain the cooked cauliflower
• Add the bacon to the cauliflower and mix well
• Place contents into a large oven proof dish
• For the sauce, add the butter to a pan and melt on a medium heat, once melted, add the flour and stir in well, and cook on a low heat for 1 minute
• Remove from the heat and gradually add the milk, one bit at a time, and stir into the butter and flour paste, once all the milk is added return to a medium heat and heat up stirring all the time until the sauce thickens
• Add half the cheese to the pan and stir until melted in, then pour over the cauliflower and bacon
• Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220 Degree C for 50 minutes

** Whilst the world is all about healthy eating, I do have one pleasure, do not throw away the bacon fat  from the frying pan, use it for beautiful fried bread or try adding it to mashed potato

The cooked bacon

The chopped bacon

The cooked cauliflower and bacon mixed and in the dish

The butter and flour mixed and cooked through

Adding the mix gradually

The sauce after adding a bit more milk

The finished cheese sauce

The Cauliflower cheese and bacon ready for cooking

Chicken with Pasta, Peppers and Cheese Sauce

Today has been a busy day, decorating the kids room, so after nipping out to get some well deserved beers. It is time to open the fridge and work out what we can have for a quick tea.

Inside the fridge, a couple of chicken breasts that have been defrosting have caught my eye. This meal can be so easily adapted to whatever you have lurking in the fridge.

The finished Meal

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts cut into bit sized pieces
3 TBLSP of oil for frying
2 peppers diced
2 tsp of dried parsley
1 tsp of black pepper
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
12.5g of butter
12.5g of flour
1/2 pint of milk
80g of cheese
150g of dried pasta

Method

• Add oil to frying pan, add the diced peppers and fry over a medium heat for 5 minutes
• Add the chicken, garlic, peppers, pepper and dried parsley and fry, turning occasionally
• In a pan add pasta and cook as per instructions on the packet
• In a separate pan, whilst the pasta and chicken are cooking, add the butter and melt
• Add the flour to the butter and stir in and cook gently for 30 seconds
• Slowly add the milk, a bit at a time, stirring in after every addition to ensure no lumps form
• After adding all the milk, turn up the heat to medium and continue to stir, after the milk comes to the boil and the sauce has thickened slightly add the cheese and stir in until it has melted
• Drain the pasta and return the same pan
• Add the cooked chicken mix
• Add the cheese sauce and serve

Enjoy...

The Chicken and peppers cooking

The finished Meal

Breaded Pecorino Cheese Chicken Breasts and our Tesco Order for the Week

Our Tesco's order for the week got delivered today - so the blog can really begin.

Tesco charge a delivery fee for bringing your groceries to the door, the off peak delivery charge for today's order is £3.

The aim of the listings below is to try to decrease the build up of food over the weeks and thereby reduce the weekly shopping bill further, by only buying what we need for the week, using up what we have and also reducing the amount of food we throw out.

Food left over from the previous tesco's orders:

• 3 Chicken breasts
• 4 pork shoulder steaks
• 500g of pork sausage meat
• 2 smoked kippers
• Chillies - which I have chopped up and frozen, they are easy to pull apart and use
• 3 eggs
• 1 very very large piece of ginger (I got the order wrong on the weight), so I am going to store it in the freezer cut into usable chunks for when I need it - http://www.wikihow.com/Store-Ginger
• 250g of cheddar cheese
• 150g of pecorino cheese
• 6 Onions
• 250g butter
• 5 bulbs of garlic
• 900g of Trex
• 250g of Halloumi

Things like jam, tomato sauce and store cupboard items I have not included, otherwise the list would go on forever.

Total cost of this weeks food order: £44.32p

Items on this weeks food order:

1 X Savoy Cabbage - £0.76p
2 X Chicken breast quarters - £2.38p
4 X 250g of butter - £4.00
2 X 300g Unsmoked thick cut back bacon - £4.00
2 X 410g Diced beef - £7.00
1 X 400g closed cup mushroom - £0.95p
1 X 943g bagged chicken breast fillets - £9.99p
2 X 350g mature cheddar - £4.00p
1 X 1.065KG pork belly - £5.33p
1 X 2.5KG white potatoes - £1.35p
1 X 1KG long grain rice - £1.39p
2 X Strong white bread flour - £1.75p
4 X loose brown onions - £0.37p
2 X baking potatoes - £0.58p
5 X loose carrots £0.47p

During the week, I will show recipes with what I have done with the food, and see how much I have left over by next Tuesday, and see how much we can reduce the next order by.

Recipe

Tonight we are having breaded pecorino cheese chicken breast with pasta and cheese sauce, as I have a couple of chicken breasts left over from my last order, plus some pecorino cheese lurking in the fridge. This is a very cheap meal, and it can be stretched further if you have young children by halving the chicken breasts after they have been flattened.

Ingredients

Servings for 2 people

For the breaded chicken:

• 2 Chicken breasts skinless and boneless
• 8 TBLSP of breadcrumbs
• 3 TBLSP of finely grated pecorino cheese
• 1 Egg - whisked
• 2 TBLSP of plain flour
• 2 TBLSP of butter for frying

For the cheese sauce:

• 12g of plain flour
• 12g of butter
• 150 ML of milk
• 90 g of cheddar cheese grated

For the pasta:

• 150 g of dried pasta

Method

Method for the breaded chicken:

• Trim any excess fat of the chicken breasts

Chicken breasts about to be trimmed

• Lay a strip of cling film on the work surface, place chicken breasts on the cling film and put another strip of cling film over the top

The chicken breasts covered with cling film

• Take a rolling pin and gently hit the chicken breasts to flatten them out

The flattened chicken breasts

• In a separate dish, mix the grated pecorino cheese and the bread crumbs together

The mixed breadcrumbs and pecorino cheese

• In separate dishes lay out the flour, whisked egg, bread crumbs and cheese mix in front of you for ease

The ingredients ready for coating the chicken

• Take your flattened chicken breasts and dip them in the flour
• Then dip them in the whisked egg
• then dip them into the bread crumbs and pecorino cheese mix
• Melt the butter in a frying pan, and place the chicken into the pan. Note. Set the heat to low-medium, if you have the heat too high the outside will cook before chicken
• Cook the chicken, turning occasionally for approx 20-25 mins or until the chicken is cooked through and the outside nicely browned

The chicken cooking

Method for the cheesy pasta:

The sauce ingredients ready to go

• Put your pasta on to cook as per the instructions on the packet
• whilst the pasta is cooking, in a small pan melt the butter
• Add the flour and mix, over a medium heat and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring all the time

The flour and butter combined and cooked through

• Take the pan of the heat, and add the milk gradually and stir. Note - if you add the milk to fast you will get lumps, so add it bit by bit and stir into the paste
• Once all the milk has been added, return the pan to a medium heat and keep stirring all the time
• Eventually the sauce will thicken
• At this point add the cheese and melt it into the sauce
• Drain the pasta and return it to the pan, and pour the cheese sauce into the pasta and stir to coat the pasta
• Plate up, pouring any remaining butter in the frying pan over the chicken
• Serve and enjoy

The finished meal