Sausage and Pasta Pieces

This is one of my favourite thrown together dishes! It really doesn't require much effort, nor any fancy or expensive ingredients! (Anchovies are optional!)

At just x£1.10 per portion its the perfect dish for any student!

Pricing (based on Asda basics range unless otherwise specified)

Sausages 21p, pasta 5p see my post on Mackerel and Cream Cheese Pasta for proof on just how cheap pasta is these days!, pasatta 25p, olives 19p, red onion 8p, yellow pepper 30p, garlic 2p

Total = £1.10

The only thing I would recommend, is using a pasta that has a big whole in the middle! For example large sea shells! This type of pasta is perfect for chunky sauces as the hollow of the pasta fills up with pieces of sausage and bits of veg - hence giving the dish the name Sausage and Pasta Pieces!

Here's the recipe I hope you enjoy!

Beef Chilli

Any students out there in need of a winter warmer? Then this chilli is for you! If you like it hot, turn up the heat and add more chilli, if you like it cool, why not serve with a dollop of sour cream?

You may notice that the recipe does not include kidney beans, and that instead I used borlotti beans. Personally I think these make the chilli even tastier and now I've started using them I certainly won't be going back!

After being blown away by just how delicious they were (and in anticipation of writing this post) I thought I'd do a little bit of research about them, and I found out that they are actually a variety of kidney bean! Who would've thought!!!

Their flavour is nutty and they have a creamy texture. Apparently they are more commonly used in Italian and Portuguese cusine, but they worked perfectly in this chilli!

Of course I won't be offended if you go back to the standard kidney bean! 

My favourite thing about this recipe however is not just how delicious the beans make it, but how versatile it is. I've already made suggestions for turning up (or down) the heat, but it can also be served in a variety of ways.

This Guy Fawkes Night a made dinner for my mum, dad, sister, boyfriend and house mate, and served this chilli inside warmed taco shells! I've never seen plates left so clean!!! Last night I served it with fluffy white rice, but tonight I will be having it with a jacket potato and salad!

Bear in mind if you are someone who lives on your own this will serve two. It's a brilliant dish for batch cooking and you can either leave some for the next day, alternatively it freezes really well.

Here's the recipe...

Stuffed Aubergines with Bechamel Sauce

This has to be one of my favourtie recipes! Pefect for sharing with someone special, this dish is quick and easy to make at the same time as being very very tasty.

Sometimes it can be hard when you look in your fridge/freezer to come up with new and interesting ideas. You see a bag of mince and shpeherds pie/spag bol/lasagne springs to mind. When you see an aubergine it screams curry or mousakka! This is a twist on a few of these recipes to create something new!

Mackerel and Cream Cheese Pasta

One of the main things that stops me being a vegetarian is that I would miss fish too much! Red meat I can do without, though it is nice for a treat once in a while, and chicken and turkey are just nice for a bit of variety, but fish...I definitely couldn't live without! I need my brain food!

Not so long a go a friend of mine introduced me to this dish - I don't know his exact recipe, and didn't have him around to ask so I thought I would experiment, luckily for me it was a success!

The pasta is hearty, cheese is creamy, brocolli is fresh, and mackerel salty which makes it the perfectly balanced dish!

What's more, the combination of cheap ingredients and the omega 3 (a.k.a. brain food) makes it brilliant for students!

Spicy Prawn Noodles

When I first started this blog, I posted a delicious vegetable stir fry! This is a fishy variation of! It is delicious, simple and super healthy!

I love cooking stir fry's so much because they taste so authentic, with the right ingredients you can create a Chinese dish that could have come straight out of a chinese restaurant!

Enjoy!

Hot Chilli Bangers with Caramelised Onions

Halloweens been and gone and Bonfire night is just round the corner so that can only mean one thing - the clocks have gone back, and the cold dark nights are drawing in!!!

The sweet and spicy marinade on these sausages will keep you warm and put a spring in your step, even when its dark and dingy outside!

If you're on a budget, why not serve these in hot dog buns on fireworks night to keep friends and family warm!

Pricing (based on Asda's own brand unless otherwise specified):

Sausages 21p, Onion 8p, Honey 10p, Tomato Puree 5p, Chilli 1p, Garlic 2p, Water FREE!

Total per serving =  47p

Halloween Cookie Creations!

Halloween is just one sleep away and I am fully prepared for my Halloween party!!! Well almost...aside making the blood punch...getting dressed up...and buying sweets for the trick or treaters...but that's not the point!

Pumpkin is carved, and the cookies are done!

I chose a really simple egg free sugar cookie recipe, and after buying some £1 Halloween cutters from wilkos was ready to quite literally roll out the dough and get cooking!

The icing was the fun part...I'm not going to lie! With a box of Silver Spoon Royal Icing Powder and by watching the tutorials by The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle you cannot go wrong!

Since following her blog for just under a month, I have become OBSESSED! And will be honing my icing skills over Christmas - if you know me personally...expect a jar of Christmas cookies when I see you around the festive season!

My favourite icing tip however came from this website: Karen's Cookies.net - all you need is an icing bag...and some cling film...trust me this little tip is a godsend if you hate washing out icing bags!

So without further a do, here are my cookies and sugar cookie recipe!

Brie and Tomato Home-made Gourmet Paninis!

The University of Nottingham's Library Cafe sells hot panini's for just under £3...thats right £3!!! What student in their right mind has £3 to spend on lunch?! Thats's before even factoring in a drink!

That's why...I decided to invest in my own panini baguettes.

My boyfriend's sister's husband...(I may eventually be able to say brother in law?), as far as I am concerned is the panini king, and he inspired me to start making my own (Thanks Russ :D)

So, I nipped to the shops this weekend to stock up on ingredients so that I could eat gourmet sandwhiches allonsgide all the rich students in the library knowing that my panini cost half the price!

One of these delicious sandwhiches will set you back just 93p!

Two Ways with Trout

I love, love, love when things I can’t normally afford to buy are on offer in the supermarket! I don’t know why people don’t make more of reduced sections!!!

At the beginning of the academic year, as I did my first big supermarket shop I stumbled across a pack of two trout fillets for just £1. That’s right £1, saving me around £3.50!!! So with their best before date coming to an end I wacked them straight in the freezer!

Now, as the reading is piling up, and tutorials are kicking in, I’ve been in desperate need for brain food and I got my trout out to defrost...now all I needed were two delicious trout recipes to cook up a storm!

Here are my two ways with trout:

Creamy Sausage Pasta

My life at the minute is HECTIC! In true law student style, the moutain of reading is piling up, and evening networking events with law firms have meant that I've barely stepped foot in my kitchen for the last two weeks, but last night as I sat watching cookery programme after cookery programme I knew I had to get back into the kicthen and cook a delicious student staple - creamy sausage pasta.

I developed this recipe in my first year of uni - as you probably know Total Yogurt (0% fat Greek yogurt) is one of my favourtie ingredients, good for you but super creamy, it can make any dish feel extremely naughty, without piling on the pounds.

This is just another recipe where that magic incredient makes all the difference!

By combining sausages, plenty of garlic, mushrooms and onion with salt, pepper and vegetable stock cube and that creamy yogurt you are left with a rich and creamy sauce that will rival any carbonara!

But the best thing about this dish isn't the taste...it's the price.

Based on Asda's own brand (unless otherwise specified)

Yogurt 44p, Sausages 26p, Mushrooms 24p, Onion 10p, Spaghetti 9p, Garlic 6p, Stock Cubes 6p

Total based on 2 portions: £1.25

Total for an individual portion: 63p

Here's how you cook it!