I started the day rather late today after sleeping in past 10am. Bearing in mind I still had to get up at 6am with the dog - though came back to bed, obviously - and most other mornings for the last week I've been waking at an unearthly hour like around 5am, I am not going to feel guilty about it. It is the rarest occasion that I sleep as late as 10am (once every three months?!), but it meant by the time I'd had a shower, got the dogs out and so on, it was already lunch time.
So I ended up eating my lentil, sweet potato & pea curry, with rice as my first meal of the day, at lunch. It's not the first time I have had curry as my first meal of the day, and I'm sure it won't be the last. But it meant I had 'saved' some budget by not having porridge, so I decided to offer myself a generous three 'builder's brew' teas with soya milk today. Heaven! Though I still saved each of the teabags for weak, black, drinks afterwards.
I had a banana as a mid-afternoon snack, being that I began the day with lunch anyhow. And for dinner, I created a budget recipe of Chilli Bean & Carrot Burgers (scroll down for the recipe), which was inspired by the Carrot, Cumin & Kidney Bean Recipe on a A Girl Called Jack blog. I don't have a Sainsbury's near me so can't use their value range, so most of my costings are based on Aldi or Asda Smart Price prices. I am very happy of the fact that I stockpiled on Asda's Crisp 'n Dry oil offer- £2 for a 2 litre bottle of rapeseed oil, meaning that it is only a penny to use 10ml of oil in recipes, or half a penny (bring them back!) for 0.5ml.
Anyhow, these burgers turned out to be pretty nice. Enough that I am happy to share the actual recipe and give readers on a budget (or even if you're not!) a chance to try it out. I took some of the rice I already have cooked from the remaining portion of my curry, so tomorrow that will mean I've another 2p to play with, though a smaller sized portion of curry & rice (I can always cook up a bit more!).
Today, I also managed to pick up a mushy, over-ripe avocado from a reduced bin in a greengrocers for 20p, so I had that with my two tasty burgers and the leftover salad leaves I'd 'bought' from my friend's garden. It was a pretty damn healthy and filling dinner, and I will be making these burgers again regardless of my budget I reckon.
In fact, today has been the day I've enjoyed the most so far. Although I am sad that I have now used all the home-grown salad leaves up, as they were some thankful greenery.
This is how today looks, anyhow:
3 x teabags 4.5p
75ml soya milk 4.5p
Sweet potato, lentil & pea curry with rice 29p
Banana 10p
2 x Chilli Bean & Carrot Burgers 22p
Salad leaves 1p
Avocado, reduced price 20p
= 91p
I have eaten dinner relatively early again, due to only having one meal proper meal previously. So I may have some of my home-made soda bread later (1/8 portion, 4p) and a half banana (5p) as a light supper snack, which will bring me to my £1 daily allowance.
Anyhow, here's the recipe for the burgers, and just to note, these are big enough to serve one each with a burger bun and a side such as fries. Or serve two per person with salad:
Chilli Bean & Carrot Burgers (Gluten Free)
Makes 4, costing 11p each
1 can kidney beans, drained 21p
1 carrot, grated 7.5p
1 onion, finely chopped 8p
50g rice (dry weight), cooked & drained 2p
10ml oil (5ml for frying onion, 5ml for frying burgers) 1p
1 tablespoon (15g) tomato purée 2.5p
½-1 teaspoon extra hot chilli powder 1.5p approx
Salt & pepper to taste 0.5p approx
Total cost of recipe = approx 44p , therefore 11p per burger (cost depending on where you shop & where you source your ingredients!)
1. Ensure your rice is cooked by boiling according to the instructions, and drain and set aside.
2. Empty the contents of the can of kidney beans into a sieve then rinse with cold water and drain. Put them in a pan with some fresh cold water, bring to the boil then lower the heat slightly and boil for 5 minutes (this softens them). Once boiled, drain the beans and set aside.
3. In a frying pan, heat half of the oil on low-medium and sauté the onion and carrot gently for about 5 minutes until softened. Turn off the heat.
4. In a mixing bowl, mash the beans with a fork until well mashed (this will be easy after boiling), then mash in the rice, seasoning, tomato purée, and chilli powder. I like a lot of chilli, so added a teaspoon, you may prefer less! Stir in the onion and carrot mixture.
5. If the burger mixture is cool enough to handle, use your hands to form four burger patties. This amount makes a decent sized burger which will fit nicely into a burger bun.
6. In the same frying pan you used for cooking the onion, heat the remaining oil and then fry the burgers for a few minutes on each side, until nicely browned and heated right through. Serve with buns or salad. You can also dollop some ketchup on them!
I made these last night for tea; my boyfriend and I thought they were lush! Really easy to make and sooo much nicer than buying ready made. Yum!
Posted by: Lynne | June 29, 2013 at 11:25 AM
One of my friends is using found dandelion leaves as free greens - as long as they aren't somewhere that's open to traffic fumes or that gets sprayed, they should be OK if washed well. Another recipe that we shall be trying.
Posted by: Cathy Bryant | July 11, 2013 at 10:59 AM
@Lynne - thank you SO much for letting me know, am really glad you enjoyed!
@Cathy - I think this is a recipe to keep and reuse :) It's so simple and tasty, while being extremely budget-friendly!
Posted by: Andrea - Chocolate and Beyond | July 11, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Oh God, these are good... Used basic recipe, altered spices... Rather than Burgers, I made "Hash" ... YUM !!! :D
Posted by: Mikaela Larsen | April 20, 2014 at 03:02 AM