$10 poached egg salad

This was a delicious combination of left overs that needed sprucing up! I have been eating out (or at least not in my home) a lot recently so I was craving something clean and simple.

This salad takes a little longer than your average cold salad but is well worth it!
 

1.  Grab some salad greens and chuck them in a bowl 
2. Grill some tomatoes and bread with a bit of fennel seeds and a generous amount of salt and olive oil (I used some left over tuscan salad from Jaamie's 30 minute meals). It is optional to put in anchovies also if you are in to that sought of thing.
3. Bring some water to the boil and poach an egg - as you can see along with the simple task of making buttercream icing, poaching an egg still alludes me so I use a pouch thing.
4. Assemble salad! I added half a cucumber then piled on the warm bread and tomatoes topping it all off with an egg!

Dressing is optional but a touch of a light vinegar wouldn't go astray and voila! Yummy and filing salad for half the price of a cafe cesar!

Shopping list max 2-3 salads with some left overs:

Spinach or mixed greens small bag $3.00
Hard crust dinner roll 60c  each
Punnet of cherry tomatoes $3.98
Six-pack of free-range eggs $3.29
Fennel seeds $3.15
Cucumber approx $1

Cost price per salad: approx $4.50

Happy eating! xx

The things we do for love....

This week it's my mum's big 5-0! To help out with prep I went with her to IKEA before uni the other day....

This is what I had for lunch.....

It tasted about as good as it looked- for all the hullabaloo about the 'world famous meatballs' they tasted like cheap skinless sausages. Thank goodness for mashed potato! I also got a side salad, sans dressing, which was in a 3L pump bottle and was a weird fluoro colour.

The whole thing WAS under $10, mainly because I only had $10, but it was no Tra Mi.

If you are ever stranded and hungry in the desert of IKEA maybe opt for the lamb shank and cous cous...apparently that is world famous too, according the to continual announcements through out the store... Or hold out for Harry's Cafe de Wheels now conveniently down the road!

Lazy night dinner!

You have just come home from work, school, play and have a bunch of things to catch up on/ don't want to do anything but watch TV, but want to eat real food, as opposed to fake/ toast. 

Solution, plastic bag marinade! 

Of course you can make any marinade you want, all of which are super delicious and can be made with a number of left over ingredients, but last week I surprised myself with a really simple Teriyaki marinade. 

1 part soy sauce, 1 part caster sugar, and 1 part mirin seasoning  the recipe is nearly impossible to get wrong!

I had a left over fillet of salmon in the freezer so took it out to defrost when I got home. After it had defrosted I mixed 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin seasoning in a bowl until the sugar disolved and popped the marinade into the resealable bag with the fish and let it marinate. 

The recipe I found here, indicated you should marinate for at least 30 minutes but I got super busy and forgot about it and so pulled it out of the fridge the next day. Then all you have to do is bake for 5 minutes! The benefit of leaving it over night also meant I didn't need to open the oven and brush the marinade.

Simple, easy, and delicious!

Of course you can substitute the salmon for anything, chicken, beef, etc. Harry ended up making the same and only marinating it for 20 minutes with a minute steak and had the same delicious result. 

If you don't have mirin seasoning, I heard on the grape vine that you can either put more sugar or leave it out entirely for a saltier marinade. 

We also quickly sauteed some zuchini and kale that was about to turn, with a little oil and chilli, as a side. Yum!

$10 Puff Pizza!

It's been too long between drinks - I'm sorry! But finally here is another installment of the $10 food challenge!

So, I know what your thinking, everyone knows pizza can be under $10 - especially considering my rather leniant rules, but does everyone know you can make an exciting puff pastry show off pizza for under $10? They do now!

This pizza recipe is awesome, because not only is it super cheap and easy but the flexibility of ingredients makes it timeless! In compiling my own I mainly used left overs but if you went out and did a shop it wouldn't be too much anyway. 

Toppings are always a personal thing but I have outlined my recipe below, the main thing to buy then is Frozen puff pastry. Each sheet of pastry makes more than enough for one and plenty for two too! So for a pack of 10 sheets for $6 or less if you get home brand, the pizza base is probably as much as if you were to make your own... but so much less messy!  Depending on the toppings you pick an average toppinged pizza would cost about $4. 

Balsamic Mushroom and Fetta Puff Pizza

For this particular recipe I sauteed my mushrooms and red onion with a touch of balsamic just keep in mind the aroma is pungent so maybe do this with all windows and doors open.   

Ingredients:

2 sheet of puff pastry (thawed)

1 - 1/2 (depending on taste) red onion sliced 

200 g of mixed mushrooms sliced

25 g of Fetta

Tomatoe paste

Tomatoe

Mixed Greens

Some melted butter or eggwash

Balsamic vinegar

Method:

1. Caramalise the onion in oil until wilted. 
2. Add the mushrooms and a swig of balsamic vinegar (it would be ideal to use the thicker vinegars but invariably they are more expensive) also remember about the smell! 
3. Cook off the mushrooms for about 5 minutes and let cool slightly so they don't eat through the pastry. 
4. With a fork poke holes into the pastry where you will place your toppings, leave a border of about 2cm around the edge to ensure you get some delicious crust!
5. Pile on toppings like a regular pizza! I only put a teeny bit of tomatoe paste as the "dough" will be less bready so the sauce isn't really necessary. 
6. Use melted butter or an eggwash to rub on the perimeter of the pizza for that exquisite golden brown look!
7. Cook in an oven as per packet instructions or until the pastry is golden brown. 
8. Remove from oven and add mixed greens! Voila your puff pizza is ready!

Something I learnt from this process is to put a sheet of baking paper under the sheet of pastry while you thaw it out. That way you can put the pastry on the over tray, fork it, add you toppings, cut it AND it won't stick to the tray - hooray! I repeat baking paper, not tin foil. 

This pizza is perfect for parties too, you can serve it up with any toppings you like cut it into smaller squares (probably 6 from one sheet of pastry) and pass it around as a nibblies - yum! 

$10 Fettuccine with Lemon, Garlic, and Thyme

Success!! We have success!

Only a few nights ago Harry and I made the most delicious pasta! It contained colour, "balance," and seemed to be nutritious, a salad would probably have added value, but you have to start somewhere. 

We made Fettuccine with lemon, garlic, thyme, and mushroom (no I'm not ripping off the Nigella Lawson recipe - it IS the Nigella recipe but we didn't have linguine). The recipe is so amazingly simple I barely believed it. In fact I didn't believe it! It involves such minimal cooking - literally just boiling up some pasta) so it's super easy for even the most uninspiring cooks!

You can get Nigella Lawson's original recipe here. We followed almost to the letter....AND IT CAME TO A WHOPPING $13.90! (admittedly we were given a lemon from a friend but that would only have added a dollar).  There is one thing I would suggest add the cheese to individual portions because when we added the cheese according to the recipe all the cheese clumped at the bottom, but it is an amazing simple and meets the criteria of the $10 food challenge!

(see! You may also note we bought paper towels etc) 

So go forth and enjoy, this amazing and delicious pasta!

The rules...

The aim of this game is a simple fun way to try and eat good meals when you move out of home. Think of it as a nice break between instant noodles and cereal. 

1. $10 per person - this does not include staple things, for obvious reasons - if you buy soy sauce or oil for one dish your not going to use the whole bottle then and never again, so these things are staples. 
2. $10 is the maximum per person you are more than welcome to blow me out of the water and cook a kick as dish for 2 for a total of $10. 
3. The main aim of the game is to do as much as you can to make a nutritious and balanced meal - by laypersons standards, for example I like to think of it like this - if food is colourful it is balanced! If I am full it is nutritious :)
4. The ingredients don't have to be cheap, just within budget. I have been known to travel to get great ingredients for next to nothing... hello, 3kg of duck marylands for $10, who wouldn't travel for that?! Mind you I only needed to travel about 10 minutes away but I didn't just go to my local grocers. 

Get set... GOOOOOOOOO!

Another delicious snack I have recently is pictured above... Lavosh, fab brie, roasted walnut, and a drop of honey! mmmm. In fact this little bite is so amazing I have started eating nuts... well nut - walnut, for the first time in my life!  Handy hint, apparently extra tasty with a little mint!

The $10 Food Challenge!

*

Recently, my darling boyfriend** moved out of home. Since moving he’s lost a bucket load of weight… I’m a little jealous. However, let’s face it, it’s not so healthy.

I am beginning to see this quite often as more and more of my friends move out and no longer get to rely on home cooked meals and a packed pantry. Recently, I bought 500 grams of mushrooms, a head of ginger, and a bulb of garlic and it cost me $10 – no joke, $10!! So, I’m trying to find meals that are nutritious, balanced, and of course yummy meals!

Honestly, we already trialled it… maybe three times. It has been awful!

But I will continue!

For one, I found inspiration here… Spicy Coconut Chicken Soup for $9.80!!

Schweeet. 

*NB image not actually a part of the $10 meal challenge but super delicious snack!

** No insincerity intedended