Lettuce Pray For Tomatoes

If the words lettuce and tomato strike the fear of God into you, then you might be like my husband and class yourself as a 'salad dodger'. I will give you two of the simplest methods of throwing together a quick, delicious and dare I say healthy meal, that do indeed involve the normally sneered at couple of salad items. It's been a long time since we had a takeaway in our house other than fish and chips-well you have to take advantage of the amenities on your doorstep, right?-The one thing we do love,especially the teenager, is a char-grilled chicken kebab with all the trimmings. She's going through that phase, where a delicious and nutritious meal means a pot noodle. The lower half of her face is sponsored by Walkers and Cadbury, as she can be seen most days with one of their products hanging out of her mouth. So imagine the sheer look of joy on her face when I presented her with a chicken kebab, okay she grunted something and didn't look suicidal, for a second there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes. So if you want to trick your family into eating something healthy here are a couple of ways, just make sure to hide the lettuce and tomatoes in the salad drawer under the chocolate....

B.L.T 

I love a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich but mine has to be on seeded bread. I love Aldi's seeded loaf it goes perfectly with this!

2 slices of bread

2 slices streaky bacon 

Sliced tomato

Shredded iceburg lettuce

Mayonnaise

Grill the bacon until crispy

Spread the bread generously with mayonnaise

Line the bottom slice with lettuce and tomato

Top with the bacon and the top slice of bread

Eat it somewhere where nobody can look at you, like my son does, with those eyes that say feed me please mummy I'm starving-even though he's had a five course breakfast, still has half a banana hanging out of his face and chocolate round his mouth!

Chicken kebab

Chicken cubed

Pitta bread

Lettuce shredded

Tomato thickly sliced

Pickled cabbage

Chilli sauce

Garlic sauce

On a really high heat in a griddle pan, barbecue or grill cook the chicken until almost blackened on the outside

Heat up the pitta bread and slice open

Plate up the salad and sauces

Fill the pitta with chicken and serve. I also managed to get extra healthy points serving it with corn cobs.

Cheap Chicken Fajitas

We love a Mexican night in our house. It certainly helps with the decision of what to have for tea. As with my Banging Bargain Burritos, I wanted to show you with the same few spices you can make the fajitas without buying the kits. Don't forget to buy the wraps from the bread aisle, not the section near the Mexican food kits they do cost more. These are so tasty and can be altered to almost anybody's liking. Like B.B.Q fajitas? Use half B.B.Q sauce and half passata. Like them hot? Throw in some jalapenos or up the heat of the chilli powder. Play around with food and make it your own, experiment with flavours and involve the family. Have a themed night each week to help with tea ideas, we tried Mexican Monday, Meat free Wednesday and Fish Friday!

For the fajitas:

3 chicken fillets cut into strips

3 peppers sliced

2 red onions sliced

300ml passata 

3 tsp cumin

3 tsp garlic powder

3 tsp paprika

3 tsp mild chilli powder

Tbsp oil

Wraps

After you cut the chicken shake all the spices onto the meat to marinate for 30 minutes or more covered in the fridge.

In a frying pan with the oil fry off the chicken for 15 minutes.

Add the peppers, onions and passata and cook for a further 15 minutes until the sauce reduces.

Spoon the mixture into a warm serving dish and take to the table with the wraps, salad and trimmings for everyone to make their own.

Healthy and humble honey and lemon chicken

This is a delicious meal that is not only cheap and yummy, wait for it.....it's healthy too! So if there are any of you wanting to lose pounds, not money, and you don't want to spend a lot, or sacrifice taste either, then this is for you. If you don't have fresh rosemary, use dried. If you don't have any dried rosemary, use thyme, if you don't have that then leave it out, it doesn't matter. I've tried all ways and all are as tasty. I serve this with garlic potatoes and salad (I know I said it's winter, however coupled with the warm honey and lemon sauce it's a must) I've always found when I eat this I'm full, even though it doesn't look a lot, as it takes longer to eat with having to pick at the chicken. The kids love it too...bonus!

1Kg chicken thighs

2 lemons

5 cloves of garlic

Rosemary

Tbsp honey

Baby potatoes

Bag of salad

Preheat the oven to 200

Place potatoes, unpeeled garlic cloves and some rosemary in a pan and cover with water

In an oven proof dish put the chicken and lemons and rosemary together

Pour over the honey and squeeze the juice out of the lemons (leaving the lemon in the dish to cook with the chicken)

Put the chicken in the oven for 50 minutes 

After the chicken has been in for 30 minutes baste with the juices and leave to cook for a further 20 minutes 

Turn the potatoes on to boil for 20 minutes

When the potatoes are soft and cooked drain off and remove the garlic

Gently squeeze the cloves and the garlic should easily pop out of it's skin

Season generously with salt and pepper and mash with a fork

Coat the potatoes with the garlic and some butter 

When the chicken is cooked drain off the juice into a small pan on a high heat and boil

Serve on the salad with the potatoes and pour over the sauce 

Posh nosh for less dosh!

Firstly, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for taking the time to read my posts and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! I hope none of you are planning on rushing out and buying the latest exercise gimmicks for the new year, new you con, as I will be doing healthy lifestyle for less posts in January. As promised on my Facebook page, I'm going to share my goats cheese tart with you, definitely not for slimming this one. It's not the cheapest as the goats cheese was £1.70 per person however the end result is nothing short of spectacular (if you like goats cheese that is, otherwise it will be gross!) A child could put it together it's very simple. The onion relish is the perfect accompaniment. Another fancy looking meal that's easy to throw together for a special occasion costing very roughly £2.00 per person it's a cheap alternative to eating out!

4 circles of goats cheese
Block of puff pastry
4 small/med red onions
2 tbsp sugar (I use brown but white will work to)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
20g butter
Salad to serve

Preheat the oven to 200 and place a handful of salad on each plate

Stand the goats cheese on the rolled out puff pastry and cut a circle an inch wider than the cheese, as you can see I did a cheddar and tomato one for my son Chase
Scrunch (it's a technical term) the pastry around the sides of the cheese so it's surrounded
Season with pepper
Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden
While the tarts are cooking slice your red onions and place them in a frying pan with the butter on a med/high heat

Add the sugar and balsamic and cook until sticky and soft

All that's left is to plate up make pretty and enjoy!