Will you look at the time?

That's one thing about the summer holidays; time starts to merge and before you know it, it's 10pm, rather than the usual, strict limits of school days. I'm not complaining; it's lovely in fact. I got up late today for the first time in ages. I mean, really late...for a mum. I got a cup of tea in bed and read a bit of a book before coming downstairs to the smell of pancakes, made by Brian to be greeted by happy children, instead of the usual wail of "what's for breakfast? I'm STARVIIIIIING!!!!"

For lunch, we had soup. I made watercress and spinach soup for Brian and I and tomato soup for the kids. I offered them each a £100 to try the green sludge soup but to no avail. In the photograph below is Fraser's response to being offered £100.

The answer was clearly no. Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, I think Lucy said. "Not for a £1,000,000!" Kelly replied. Even I was dubious. I used two full packets of the leaves, thinking of all the goodness but it did begin to look like pond water. I adjusted it a bit and actually, despite the appearance, it was lovely.

The kids were still in their pjs come lunchtime, as you can clearly see from the photo; I know, I'm a terrible mother...not to them obviously, they think it's wonderful....and in holiday time, that's all that counts.

We had a really tasty meal of lamb chops cooked with sticky bbq sauce. I decided to use my own recipe and serve it with rice instead of mashed potatoes...a good choice. The bbq sauce was really delicious and I have loads left.

Lamb Chops with Sticky BBQ Sauce, Boiled Rice,Yoghurt Raita,Roasted Baby Plum Tomatoes, quick Caramelised Onions and warm Pitta Bread.
4-8 lamb chops (we had 6-3 each and a bit much)
For the BBQ Sauce:
olive oil, tablespoon
1 finely chopped shallot
1 finely chopped, fat garlic clove
Half red chilli, seeded and finely chopped (huge fat chilli so use more if preferred)
Approx. 2oz dark muscovado sugar (it's worth buying this, great for caramelising)
Approx. 2oz soy sauce
Approx. 10 fl.oz. tomato ketchup
For the raita:
Low fat yoghurt
chopped cucumber to taste
Squeeze lemon juice
salt and white pepper
Sprinkling parsley and coriander, fresh (don't buy 'specially though)
For the onions:
1 onion, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt
Teaspoon muscovado sugar
For the tomatoes:
Handful baby plum tomatoes, halved or quartered
Teaspoon olive oil
Half teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper
Sprinkling parsley

Basmati rice or rice of choice

Pitta Bread

Make the BBQ sauce first. Heat the olive oil in pan over a medium heat, add shallot, chilli and garlic, stir and leave for a few minutes. Add the sugar, soy and tomato ketchup...I admit to using different amounts of tomato ketchup each time but I usually put in about two huge squeezefuls. Stir and taste...add more tomato ketchup if you prefer. The sauce should still look quite dark and only a little red...that's how I like it but using the full amount of sauce will taste just as great if a little milder. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Stir and then place in a bowl.

Put oven on medium/high for plum tomatoes. Put on rice and cook as per instructions. Place plum tomatoes in an ovenproof dish and pour over a mix of all the tomato ingredients. Place in oven for around ten minutes. Once ready, leave in oven so they stay hot but turn oven off.

Make raita by adding all the ingredients to the yoghurt and mix.

Onions: heat oil in small pan over a medium heat. Add onions and cook until brown. Add salt, stir and then add sugar. Stir, leave on low heat until required. Once soft though, turn off.

Chops: place oil in pan over a medium heat...add chops and fry for around 4 minutes until brown. Pour bbq sauce on to uncooked side of chops and turn over. Add some more bbq sauce to browned side and cook for another 3-5 minutes, depending on how you like them.

Place pitta bread in toaster until warmed and slice in two.

Plate up, sniff with pleasure and eat 'til stuffed!

The kids turned their noses up at my lamb chops, the little...cherubs...so they had leftover chicken cooked in a stock of chicken and tomato puree served with rice and cucumber slices, as requested. A bit bizarre, possibly but they were so happy with the presentation...kids are so easy sometimes...and ate it all up.


I was going to bake but ran out of steam. It happens.

What Soup?

Yesterday I spent £46.28 on the weekly shopping bill. Brian and I will be going out for dinner tonight so there will be a few less meals to think about. But first, last week....

I have been cutting down on what I eat the last few weeks as I'd like to lose a bit of weight; I've lost four pounds so far. When 'dieting' before, I found that the cost of fresh, healthy and low fat food could sometimes be high but in fact, with a bit of organisation, dieting or in my case, changing some of my eating habits can be cost effective: lose pounds and save pounds!

The best discovery I've made so far to eating healthy but feeling full and being able to eat when you want without spending a lot of money is...wait for it....SOUP! Every day this past week I've made soup which I've had for my lunch with bread and occasionally for dinner. A large pot of soup costs approx. £1.00. Seriously. Here is an average ingredient and cost list for a pot of soup:
Knorr Chicken stock cube approx cost. 16 pence (Using home-made stock £0.00 pence)
Lentils approx cost. 18 pence for 100g (£3.78 x 2 kg)
Carrots x 2 approx cost. 20 pence
Onion, large approx cost. 16 pence
Turnip,small, half approx cost. 30 pence
Leftover chicken/ham approx cost. 0 pence

Some soups are more expensive than others of course but I've used a lot of leftover ingredients which have already been costed for the week so a lot of items haven't cost much at all. This week I had the following soups:
Chicken & Rice
Watercress & Spinach
Lentil
Tomato and Basil

Chicken & Rice
Home-made stock was used for this but a Knorr chicken stock cube is great. Chicken carcass was boiled with a bay leave, half a carrot, half onion and a few black peppercorns and leftover herbs. This was then simmered for a few hours, drained and left to get cold. Any 'scum' or fat that had risen to the top was scraped off and then I re-simmered it to concentrate the flavour.

I threw a carrot and quarter of leftover turnip into the blender. I chopped an onion and all of this was added to stock. Boil and then simmer. Any leftover veg can be used as the base for this soup (except green veg!). If you like to blend your soup then make sure you do this before adding the rice and chicken; I've made this mistake and it isn't good. I then added a cup (approx. 100g) of basmati rice, washed. I cooked the soup for approx. 15 minutes on a simmer and then added the chopped up leftover chicken. After a few minutes, the soup was ready. Brian, wee'est 'un and I loved it; the other two are not huge soup fans.

Watercress & Spinach
I do have a nice recipe for this but on this occasion, I added leftover leaves which I'd used for salad to the leftover pot of chicken and rice soup with an added cup of chicken stock (Knorr this time). It was delicious and very healthy not to mention ready in 2 minutes. For adults only!

Lentil
Knorr Chicken stock cube, lentils washed and added to stock, brought to the boil and simmered whilst preparing rest of vegetables. Two carrots and half turnip were washed and chopped small and added to pot alongside a chopped onion. Once it was almost ready, leftover ham was added to the pot. Again, Brian, wee 'un and I loved it.

Tomato & Basil
There are many recipes for tomato soup; this one is a very quick version. A chicken or vegetable stock cube is dissolved in a small cup of hot water and added to approx. 350g passata (sieved tomatoes, Asda sells jars at approx. 90p for 700g and smaller cartons) and bring to the boil, immediately turning down to a simmer. An onion is blended so that it is almost mushy but finely chopping would do and added to the passata. You could add a chopped garlic clove at this point too. The tomato soup is simmered for five minutes and then I add a teaspoon of sugar and a good pinch of salt (sea salt somehow works better) and a very good grinding of black pepper. I also add a fine grating nutmeg but don't buy it just for this. It is important to taste this soup and make sure it is to your liking...add more salt if you feel it is too bitter and more pepper for spice. At the end I add a handful of chopped basil leaves and give it a quick blend with the hand blender. I then serve with a few chooped leaves sprinkled on top. There is virtually no calories in this and if you add a chopped up chili then you have spicy tomato soup.