Fried rice!

Another quick and easy meal I've found is fried rice. It's great for students because apart from the basics ingredients you can pick and choose whatever veg you want to put in...usually depending on whatever you have sitting at the bottom of your fridge!
The basics are: rice, soya sauce and chicken stock cubes...which together come to a grand total of €4.08. It might seem like a lot but if you buy the ingredients I've found they should last you up to ten meals!

On top of that it's just up to you to add whatever vegetables you want...so far I've tried onions, garlic, frozen peas, fresh carrots, broccoli and green beans, which all fry in well with the rice.

For a healthier option, although more expensive, feel free to add in chicken or beef. The easiest way to do so is buy chicken breasts and chop them up into bite size pieces. Just make sure to fry them for about 6 minutes longer as they won't cook as quick as the vegetables will!

Ingredients and prices:

Euroshopper Basmati Rice Loose 1kg. €1.89. Superquinn.
La Romanella chicken stock cube 120g. €0.90. Tesco...same as last weeks.
Amoy reduced salt soy sauce 150ml. €1.29. Tesco.
VEGETABLES:
Market Value carrots. €0.99.
Green Isle Petit Pois 450g. €1.59...same as last weeks.
Market Value broccoli. €0.75.
Market Value Garlic, 3 pack. €0.69.
Tesco Whole green beans 400g. €0.69.
Onions in a net 1kg. €1.00. Superquinn.
#all market value products are Tesco products.

METHOD:

1. Pour one cupful of rice into pan of boiling water. Leave for 12-15 minutes.
2. Mash chicken stock cube with 1 large teaspoon of boiling water in a cup, Once
mashed add 1 teaspoon of soya sauce.
4. Start adding prepared veg to hot frying pan. Begin with the onions or garlic and
add as many as you like. Fry until golden brown.
5. Sieve rice and add to frying pan. Add cup (no.2) to pan and stir well until
entirely mixed.

Including the preparation, the entire meal takes 20-25 minutes and costs (with all ingredients listed €9.79...however I've listed much more veg than this meal needs so its just up to you to pick and choose which you prefer!

Being a student is hard and living on your own for the first time isn’t as easy as it sounds. One thing you shouldn’t be worrying about is whether you’ll be able to afford your next meal. That’s why I’ve been looking into coming up with some new cheap recipes of my own to follow each week. I suppose I can’t take the credit for coming up with the meals, what I’m actually doing is taking recipes from ordinary cooking websites and adjusting them to make them student budget friendly. I’m just sick of finding a nice recipe that sounds cheap enough but soon realising its full of ingredients I don’t have or if I did choose to buy, I’d only use once. This blog should help you realise a few adjustments to a recipe can really help with your student budget and take at least some of the stress away but still leave you with a great meal!

This recipe, for Spring Chicken in a Pot, I found on the BBC’s Good Food website: http//www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10052/spring-chicken-in-a-pot. A great comfort meal I think and when you realise how cheap and easy it is to make it tastes a lot better! These are the ingredients listed:
1 tbsp olive oilolive
1 onion, chopped
500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
300g small new potatoes
425ml low-salt vegetable stock (such as Kallo low-salt vegetable stock cubes)
350g broccoli, cut into small florets
350g spring greens, shredded
140g petits pois
bunch spring onion, sliced
2 tbsp pesto

To make this less complicated, leave out the spring greens, the onions will give the meal enough flavour, and with the peas and broccoli that’s still plenty of veg for a meal! Some recipes list brands, such as here Kallo stock cubes are listed but it’s really not necessary to shop by brand. Here are the cheapest prices I could find:

1 loose brown onion.19c.
Spring onion bunch .79c.
Skinless chicken thighs can be found in Dunnes stores for €2.99, usually I’d recommend freezing half but in this case I’d cook all 8 and use for dinner two nights in a row…saves you cooking everything twice!
Loose broccoli. .95c
Country Crest Baby Potatoes. .89c.
La Romanella Vegetable Stock Cube 120g. .90c
Green Isle Petit Pois 450g. 1.59. (or 2 packs for 2.50)
Apart from the chicken all other ingredients are from Tesco, where I found its 25% cheaper on most groceries if you shop online.

The method is similar:

1.Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan. Add the onion, gently fry for 5 mins until softened, add the chicken, and then fry until lightly coloured. Add the potatoes, stock and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, then bring to the boil. Cover, and then simmer for 30 mins until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked. This part of the meal can be frozen at this point.
2. Add the broccoli, petit pois and spring onions, stir well, then return to the boil. Cover, then cook for 5 mins more, stir in the pesto and heat through.

It takes about 45 minutes once u start and costs €8.30 which is great considering it serves 4, you will still have a few of the ingredients left over (petit pois, baby potatoes and vegetable stock) and if uneaten the meal will last in the fridge for about 2 – 3 days.

Enjoy!