Sunday 22 May 2011

Cookbooks & Meal planning

For my Birthday I was given a £20 book token and I decided I wanted to get as much for my Money as I possibly could. So with a bit of careful planning and also some offer watching I managed to get 4 cookbooks!
I purchased:
  • Mums Know Best - The Hairy Bikers Family Cookbook
  • One Step Ahead - Mary Berry
  • Home Cooking - Rachel Allen
  • Favourite Food at Home - Rachel Allen
I was quite pleased with my haul, and think I did very well. I do have quite a few Cookbooks now but use them often, I meal plan so am constantly in need of ideas to stop my menus getting stale. I have saved so much money by meal planning as it stops me having to guess on the hop in the supermarket what I might need. It also means I can ensure we have a balanced diet and can suit meals around my schedule for the day, for example if I know I am travelling a lot for work I make sure we have a quick tea like Pasta planned for that day.

I am always on the lookout for a cheap, healthy and quick meal for us and tried "Chunky Mediteranean Pasta soup from Rachel Allens "Favourite Food at Home".

Ingredients: 250g Chorizo, 1 large onion, garlic, tin chopped tomatoes, 900ml chicken stock, 2 tbsps chopped herbs, 250g dried pasta, 150g shredded spinach.

Fry the Chorizo, Onion and Garlic until softened.
Add tomatoes, stock and herbs and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the pasta and continue to simmer until the Pasta is cooked
When Pasta is read add in the spinach and boil until it has wilted
Ladle into warm bowls and sprinkle with grated cheese.

It was inexpensive to make yet delicious and very quick and simple to make, yummy!

3 comments:

  1. Hi PFVicky
    Well done on your birthday cookbooks!
    That recipes sounds delicious.

    Sft x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Vicky,thankyou for finding me and for your lovely message.I wanted to learn crochet for sooo long but just coulnt get the hang of it.I joined a class and had one lesson but found it really difficult and then the night coinsided with hubby' s karate night. So I taught myself with youtube video's of all places ,if you can get a quiet hour and just keep re-running the video I m sure you will get the hang of it. Let me know how you get on?I love your blog,its so pretty.I dont know whats happening with blogger but I cant seem to join any ones blog as a new follower,will try again tomorrow.ttfn,julie.xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Julie, I did try with a youtube video actually but still didnt get anywhere! My Nan even attempted to show me but I just kept ending up with a kind of worm rather than any kind of useful shape! We were out today and I saw a beautiful Pastel coloured crochet blanket, just beautiful. Will have to stick with knitting I guess!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments, I love to read them :-)