I have noticed in the few months a change of habits in my food ingestion which is having an impact on my wallet. Generally every day I attempt to have a dinner as I know that I am too lazy to cook anything when I get home and will probably just get a takeaway. Indeed I have often had a dinner at lunch time and a takeaway in the evenings - such as yesterday evening for instance. As a result I am spending a lot of cash.
Yesterday evening I bought stuff for a stir-fry, chicken fillets, onions, mushrooms, pepers, rice and a jar of smelly stuff. That is the only thing I can cook - well that is the only thing I could be arsed cooking. Vegetables, potatoes etc all take too long. To save money I just had a chicken baguette from Dunnes which was horrible and which makes me wish that I had a dinner. I plan on having the stir-fry later if I get home well before the match.
Does anybody have any tips on this? Like what are their eating habits? Are there any dishes that are easy to cook that I have missed out on? I will eat almost anything.
Ditch the mushrooms. Fry the chicken at a low heat, and chop the peppers and onions reall small (real small is a personal preference). Season the chicken with whatever you have, add the peppers/onions, fry again briefly adding the contents of the jar (get some little Blue Dragon sachets - they’re alright and they’re cheap), and serve with a cool bottle of Stella.
Pasta, chicken and pesto. Pasta really is the way forward for simple evening cooking. Get yourself a breast or two of chicken and fry it in a pan. At the same time do a nice pot of pasta for yourself - the chicken will take slightly longer. Chop the chicken after a few minutes into decent sized chunks. When they’re both cooked drain the pasta and put it and the chicken together into the pot. Add a couple of spoonfuls of Pesto (Scala being the brand I go for) from a jar and stir it around. Cracking taste and good for you to boot.
Other things worth considering are making a stew type dish at the weekend which you can use during the week. At the moment I’m a big fan of coddle. I make a quite superb coddle in a casserole dish and leave some for the next day or two. Heat it up when I come home just by adding a small bit more liquid and it’s as good as fresh. Quality, quality food but that applies to all stews and the likes.
Other than that try a few frozen dinners or something. The Bird’s Eye stuff is quite good - they never have artificial colours, flavours, preservatives etc. as a rule so you’re getting frozen quality food instead of a load of processed stuff. The meals from Tesco and Marks and Spencers can be quite good too.
Ditch the mushrooms. Fry the chicken at a low heat, and chop the peppers and onions reall small (real small is a personal preference). Season the chicken with whatever you have, add the peppers/onions, fry again briefly adding the contents of the jar (get some little Blue Dragon sachets - they’re alright and they’re cheap), and serve with a cool bottle of Stella.
Cheers Hammer. I love mushrooms though.
Also are you basically not just saying a stir-fry apart from seasoning the chicken and taking away the mushrooms?
Pasta, chicken and pesto. Pasta really is the way forward for simple evening cooking. Get yourself a breast or two of chicken and fry it in a pan. At the same time do a nice pot of pasta for yourself - the chicken will take slightly longer. Chop the chicken after a few minutes into decent sized chunks. When they’re both cooked drain the pasta and put it and the chicken together into the pot. Add a couple of spoonfuls of Pesto (Scala being the brand I go for) from a jar and stir it around. Cracking taste and good for you to boot.
Other things worth considering are making a stew type dish at the weekend which you can use during the week. At the moment I’m a big fan of coddle. I make a quite superb coddle in a casserole dish and leave some for the next day or two. Heat it up when I come home just by adding a small bit more liquid and it’s as good as fresh. Quality, quality food but that applies to all stews and the likes.
Other than that try a few frozen dinners or something. The Bird’s Eye stuff is quite good - they never have artificial colours, flavours, preservatives etc. as a rule so you’re getting frozen quality food instead of a load of processed stuff. The meals from Tesco and Marks and Spencers can be quite good too.
Cheers - the pasta one seems like a goer. I am very much into things that are good for me.
Presumably this coddle thing is the same as a stir-fry only you put all the stuff into a pot instead of a pan? As in a stew?
A superhandy and tasty one which is perfect for football is roasted veg.
7.00 Peel whatever veg comes to hand. My personal favourites are carrots, onions, peppers, broccoli, tommytoes and mushrooms but you can throw in any veg you like.(i strongly recommend the peppers, onions and carrots though as they roast superbly. Put them in a roasting tray.
7.15 turn on oven to 150c
7.15 Pour any or all of the following into your roasting tray: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, some wine, honey.
Also add herbs, garlic and chilli at will. Feel free to add or subtract new ideas.
7.18 Give them a good shake so the juice can get round.
7.19 Cover with foil.
7.20 Proceed to couch to catch Dunphy mid rant about why the Pool are pants and how Voronin looks like a girl.
7.23 Feel your ire get higher.
7.25 Post your thoughts on the free kick.
7.30 Put veg in the oven.
7.45 Kick off.
8.32 Frankly disappointing first half but at least you’ve some super tasty veg ready…
When I was working I managed to make a cooked breakfast every morning (french toast, scrambled eggs or the full Oirish sometimes). I also managed to make a packed lunch aswell, both in less then 10 minutes. Thankfully my Irish Mammy had the dinner on the table when I got home in the evenings. When she wasn’t at home or when I worked 14 hour shifts in the port I lived on meat that is easily cooked, pork chops, steak or chicken fillets, vegetables can be cooked in less then 10 minutes, broccolli, carrots, beans and mixed frozen veg are quick and easy. Be creative, Flano has the right idea with minced meat, it goes with any sauce and rice!!
Reminds of when my Canadian friend was in a Chinese take-away one night and he asked me what I was getting. I said a 3 in 1. He didnt know what that was. After I explained he said “Where’s the meat?” the accent made the moment. That was 3-4 years ago and I still laugh at it
Are you saying that you leave the veg for 10 minutes before you put it in the oven and then you put it in the oven for 62 minutes?
Coddle guidlines:
Fill a pot with boiling water
Place 5 rashers and 8 sausages in pot.
As they boil for 5 minutes peel some large potatoes and chop them into large pieces.
Chop up 1 carrot into coin pieces
Chop up 2/3 of an onion
Take the rashers and sausages out of that pot and put them into another pot/casserole dish
Put all the potatoes, onion and carrots in on top.
Add some black pepper
Give it a good stir with a spoon so it’s all mixed up
Pour the water that you used to boil the rashers and sausages with over the mixture - enough to cover it all
Put in some fresh parsley if you have it
Cover with greaseproof paper and then a lid
Leave that simmer away for 35-40 minutes
Add a stock cube (try and get a low salt one because the processed ones aren’t healthy_
Stir it up and replace lid and leave for another 15 minutes
Remove the lid and serve with brown bread and cans of Guinness.
I’ve been making this every week for the last couple of months now and it’s a cracking meal. You need to buy greaseproof paper because it dries out too much otherwise but other than that it’s very straightforward. Also it’s important to choose good sausages for it - cheap sausages don’t hold much flavour when they boil. I use Ispn from Clonakility.
That should make about 3 large portions in the quantities I’ve used there.
Reminds of when my Canadian friend was in a Chinese take-away one night and he asked me what I was getting. I said a 3 in 1. He didnt know what that was. After I explained he said “Where’s the meat?” the accent made the moment. That was 3-4 years ago and I still laugh at it
Are you saying that you leave the veg for 10 minutes before you put it in the oven and then you put it in the oven for 62 minutes?
Coddle guidlines:
Fill a pot with boiling water
Place 5 rashers and 8 sausages in pot.
As they boil for 5 minutes peel some large potatoes and chop them into large pieces.
Chop up 1 carrot into coin pieces
Chop up 2/3 of an onion
Take the rashers and sausages out of that pot and put them into another pot/casserole dish
Put all the potatoes, onion and carrots in on top.
Add some black pepper
Give it a good stir with a spoon so it’s all mixed up
Pour the water that you used to boil the rashers and sausages with over the mixture - enough to cover it all
Put in some fresh parsley if you have it
Cover with greaseproof paper and then a lid
Leave that simmer away for 35-40 minutes
Add a stock cube (try and get a low salt one because the processed ones aren’t healthy_
Stir it up and replace lid and leave for another 15 minutes
Remove the lid and serve with brown bread and cans of Guinness.
I’ve been making this every week for the last couple of months now and it’s a cracking meal. You need to buy greaseproof paper because it dries out too much otherwise but other than that it’s very straightforward. Also it’s important to choose good sausages for it - cheap sausages don’t hold much flavour when they boil. I use Ispn from Clonakility.
That should make about 3 large portions in the quantities I’ve used there.
Superb Rock - much obliged. I will try that this weekend.
I will applaud you as well - actually I will drop you to the DART in my car next Monday again. That will mean more to you.
Christ I made that DART by the skin of my teeth. Didn’t spot the entrance on that side of the gates for a few seconds then wandered in aimlessly until I saw a northbound DART stopping. Vaulted the barriers, up and over the bridge and stumled in the doors as they were shutting.
Are you saying that you leave the veg for 10 minutes before you put it in the oven and then you put it in the oven for 62 minutes?
You don’t have to but it may help to marinate the veg in your juices/flavours.
How long it takes depends on injury time in the football match. This is of the utmost importance. I also believe that the better the game the tastier the veg.
As regards the lack of meat, I can see it might perturb. The beauty of roasting veg is that you get that old roast taste which reminds you of family roasts where you probably had meat. The phsychological link is made and you feel the same satisfaction as if you had carnivored it up.
Christ I made that DART by the skin of my teeth. Didn’t spot the entrance on that side of the gates for a few seconds then wandered in aimlessly until I saw a northbound DART stopping. Vaulted the barriers, up and over the bridge and stumled in the doors as they were shutting.
Nothing better to kickstart your morning and put you in a good mood, catching the bus or train by skins teeth!
