Breakfast!....again

Porridge is a healthy option. In the morning I give myself a little pat on the back for being healthy before I've even left the house. But it's also a little boring being so healthy and the extra toppings lose their appeal quite quickly.
But since I've gotten used to "breakfasting" I've had to go looking for another easy, warm and cheap breakfast. Scrambled eggs on toast might sound a bit done but it's something I've never tired of for lunches so I hope you enjoy it too!

Ingredients and method:

Milk. Tesco low fat milk, 1 litre. €1.00.
Eggs. 2 per person. Tesco eggs, pck of 6. €0.99
Butter. Tesco, Butter Me Up 500g. €0.85.
Bread. Brennans Half Pan Preiumwhite, 400g. €1.19.

Method:

Place two slices of bread into the toaster.
Melt a little bit of the butter on the warm non0-stick pan. Whisk the eggs in a bowl to break up the yolks and add 2 tablespoons of milk. Add the eggs and milk to the saucepan.
Stir gently until the eggs start to coagulate. Keep stirring, don't allow the egg to stick to the pan. Once formed take it off the heat immediately, add salt and pepper to taste.
Butter the toast and place the eggs on top.
Eat immediately.

Scrambled eggs on toast is a simple breakfast, it's more filling than porridge but it's also more expensive. It costs €4.42 altogether.

Enjoy!

Breakfast!

Breakfast is a meal which I usually forget about. There are two reasons for this, a) I have to be in class early and I just don't have the time or b) If I have nowhere to be I'm never usually awake before lunch.
But I do live life by my stomache and when someone mentioned I was missing a great meal I decided to set my alarm clock and for once enjoy my breakfast.

Porridge is what I decided on first. I always thought it was a plain sort of breakfast, but since it never seems to be warm in my apartment in the mornings, a warm breakfast was slightly tempting.

Ingredients (+ one suggested topping) and pricing:

Porridge. Tesco Scottish Porridge Oats, 500g. €0.99.
Milk. Tesco low fat milk, 1 litre. €1.00.
Strawberries. Market value strawberries. €2.99.
Honey. Tesco value clear honey, 340g. €1.39.

Method:

Place the oats, milk, 300ml water and a pinch of salt salt into a pan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Cook the porridge slowly for a couple of minutes, then pour into warm bowls (which will prevent it setting instantly).
Pour extra milk around the edge, then add the topping of your choice and serve immediately.

Topping suggestions:
1. Blueberries with sugar.
2. Nuts and seeds with golden syrup.
3. Bananas and maple syrup.
4. Strawberries and honey.

This breakfast costs €6.37 which is alot but it includes strawberries and honey. Basic porride and milk costs €1.95 and should last you a few mornings at least!

Couscous with tomatoes and chicken...heres one I made earlier...

...Ok so what I made didn't look quite that professional, but what I did cook wasn't very photogenic so I decided this photo was alot easier on the eye!
Just because you may not have heard of couscous, it dosn't give you the excuse to not try this meal. Once you get used to it, its just as cheap and as easy as pasta and with the right ingredients it can taste great too.

Ingredients and prices:

1 chicken fillet. T Market Value Chicken Breast Fillets small, 297g. €2.85.
1 loose tomato. Tesco class 1, €0.22.
Boxed cous cous. Erin Vegetable and mixed herb cous cous, 110g. €1.59.


Method: (easier than you'd expect!)

Cook couscous according to package directions. Chop the chicken fillet into small pieces and fry on a heated pan with a drop of oil. Chop the tomato into small pieces. Once the chicken in cooked through (no pink showing) add chopped tomato and chicken to cous cous. Serve immediately.

Cous cous can be a good alternative to pasta once you learn what ingredients mix well with it. (brocolli maybe?!) This meal cost €4.66.

Roast chicken

A roast is definitely not a typical student meal. The perception of a roast is a good Sunday meal with your family that someone spends about 3-4 hours slaving over in the kitchen, but actually trying to make my own at home proved that perception wrong.
Peeling vegetables and potatoes is defnitely the downside to a roast but once the preparation is out of the way apart from checking up on your chicken/lamb/beef roast from time to time the meal cooks itself!

Ingredients and prices:

Chicken. Tesco Finest Free Range Whole Chicken 1700g. €6.99
Potatoes. Rooster potatoes loose. €1.89 per kg.
Parsnips. Loose class 1. €0.37.
Brocolli. Market Value broccoli. €0.75.
Stock cube. La Romanella chicken stock cube 120g. €0.90.
Flour.Odlums Cream Flour 1 kg. €1.29.
Butter. Tesco, Butter Me Up 500g. €0.85.

Method:

Begin by peeling all vegetables and potatoes you will use for the meal.
Roast: Boil parsnips for ten minutes, dry with a tea towel and place on a baking tray with the chicken and potatoes. Baste (sprinkle) with a little oil and salt. Re-basted every 20-25 minutes if necessary. Cook for 50+ minutes. Make sure no part of the chicken is pink when eating!
Gravy: Place a small ammount of butter (less than a tablespoon) in a hot pan, add 1.5 tablespoons of flour, the stock cube, a splash of water and stir until you make a light paste. Add more water (approx. half a cupful) and continue stirring until the paste has entirely disappeared.
Brocolli: Cut the brocolli into small florets and place in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of water. Cover in clingfilm. Pierce clingfilm with holes using a fork and microwave for 3.5 minutes at full heat.


Ok i lied...this meal is more expensive and takes alot more time than the rest of the student recipes I have posted. In this meal I could have cut more cornors, such as it wasn't important that I made my own gravy but I felt if I was going to the trouble of cooking a roast I may aswell make the effort with everything that goes with it!

If you take my advice and do decide to make your own gravy, you can add more flavour to it by adding the cooking juices from the meat and potatoes...or a little wed wine if you have any.

This meal costs €13.04, the large price I blame on the chicken itself! But realistically this is not the sort of meal I would cook for myself and hope it would last for the next few days. What I recommend is to share the price with three of four friends for a night in...you can thank me later!

sweet-corn and cheese pasta?!

Although the name might put you off this really is a good, cheap meal so I reccommend reading on! I can't beileve this is the first pasta recipe I'm adding to the site because for my first year in college it was the one meal I knew I could make and afford every week!
But what I never did was get creative with what I put with the pasta and its the extras that make a better meal. Meat, like bacon and chicken always help to make a more tasty dinner but its how creative you can be when you have literally nothing left in the cupboard thats most important!
I found this recipe on a website and unusually I happened to have the random ingredients listed to make the pasta. Although it dosn't sound like the most appetising meal I'm been convinced by the cheap recipe that it's good enough for students!

Ingredients and prices:

1 serving of dried pasta. Tesco Farfalle Pasts Bows 500g. €0.99.
1 tin of sweetcorn. Tesco value sweetcorn, 325g. €0.57.
3 slices of cheddar cheese. Tesco value Mild Cheddar slices (10) 240g. €1.57.
3 sachets of your preferred cup soup. Oaktree estate chicken and vegetable Cup of Soup, 84g. €0.69 (*3)
Water.


Method:

Place the pasta and the cup soup mix in a microwavable bowl and add about three cups of water.
Microwave for 15 to 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Once its done add the cheese quickly and stir in well. Add the sweet-corn. Wait 2-3 minutes for the dish to cool.

This pasta meal costs saprox. €5.20 and I really reccommend it, it's worth it because it tastes alot better than it sounds and like most pasta dishes you can really vary the ingredients.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

This recipe should be on all student handbooks when they enter college. It takes literally 5 minutes from start to finish, its cheap and its actual chocolate cake!
The recipe can be found easily by googling it but I've changed it slightly, from the original recipe by only using one teaspoon of oil rather than the 3 most recipes list. If you find this leaves your cake too dry you can always add a little more next time or just have some icecream on the side instead!

For the cocoa flavour it's not neccessary to buy a whole jar of cocoa, for a cheaper price to begin with purchase only the small sachets used for a cup or two of cocoa, and then depending on whether you like the recipe or not you can purchase a larger jar.

Ingredients and prices:

4 tablespoons of flour. Odlums Cream Flour 1 kg. €1.29.
4 tablespoons of sugar. Tesco Caster Sugar 500g. €0.69.
2 tablespoons cocoa. Options instant Belgian chocolate sachet 11g. €0.99.
1 egg. Tesco eggs, pck of 6. €0.99.
3 tablespoons of milk. Avonmore fresh milk, 330ml. €0.52.
1 tablespoon oil. Tesco Pure Sunflower oil, 1 litre. €1.35
1 mug!

Method:

Mix the flour, sugar and cocoa. then stir in one egg.
Next pour in the milk and oil and mix it well.
Put mug into the microwave for three minutes on maximum power. Once the time is up wait until the contents of the mug have stopped rising to take out it out of the microwave. Tip the contents of the mug onto a plate and enjoy! Feel free to add ice cream, fruit or any sauce.

The cake costs €5.83 but ingredients such as the flour and oil will last a long time even if unused.
Enjoy your 5 minute mug cake!