Onto what I was going to post about in the first place. Money is now tight in this household until we are paid next Friday. It's been a 5 week month and there have been things to payout this month we don't normally pay for like daughters short break with school. All my shopping money has now gone. I have everything in for meals up to Sunday. Come Monday I need to stretch what's in the cupboards and freezer to try and make something eatable for the coming week. Don't think I have any meat in the freezer except one portion of liver which only daughter No 2 likes. Just remembered I had a few ends of gammon which I can rustle something up with. I need to get creative and have a very small shop next week.
Tonight's meal was something using up leftover chicken. I'm sure everyone is fed up of what I usually make with leftover chicken so I thought I'd try something different. I rooted around in the freezer and found about 60g sliced chorizo that had been in there since last year.
I found a pot of portioned tinned sweetcorn and some frozen peas. I found garlic in the fridge with a pepper & an onion. A tin of tomatoes from the store cupboard and ground cumin and smoked paprika from my spice rack.
I chopped only half the onion and pepper because the meal was only for daughter No3 and Hubby tonight. I fried these in a drop of olive oil to soften them the added the chopped chorizo, garlic and half teaspoon each of cumin and paprika. Cooked this for about 8 minutes to release the fat from the chorizo.
To this I then added half the tinned tomatoes, peas, sweetcorn and about quarter pint of my homemade chicken stock. Brought this to the boil then thickened with a tablespoon of flour mixed with a little water to make a paste. Seasoned and then I added a squeeze of lime juice. Finally, add the cooked leftover chicken. Cooked until piping hot and served with boiled rice.
I did think daughter No 3 would leave the meal because of the chorizo and paprika in the meal (she hates spicy food, wimp) but she said it was actually nice and Hubby enjoyed it too, result.
Very frugal and greatly inventive.
ReplyDeleteVery frugal - I'm not at all inventive when it comes to cooking.
ReplyDeleteWell done Karen, looks lovely. No matter how frugal we normally are, when money is really tight, its amazing how more creative we can get!
ReplyDeleteI'm in no doubt that you'll manage on whatever you've got in, Karen, you rustle up some wonderful meals from things you find in the feezer and store cupboard. Last night's meal looks delicious.
ReplyDeletesounds like my kind of meal we love chorizo here :)
ReplyDeleteThat looks lovely, I would leave out the meat and use an alternative - possibly chopped hard boiled eggs and/or a tin of chickpeas.
ReplyDelete"Why change something that was perfectly okay?"
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"