Abercrombie & Feast

Andy started his new job last week.  I was so excited for him… it’s great fun to take on a new challenge, to meet new people and to learn new skills on the job.  So far his  job is going really well, so HURRAH!

I was also excited for me.  I’m not working yet (I’m looking… but nothing great yet), so I’m around the flat most of the day.  I’ve been very busy unpacking our things, finding things we need for the flat and getting our stuff organised.  It’s been fun!  And the best part of my day is… lunch time!

When I’m on my own all day I can have whatever I want for lunch.  More often than not I make a little salad with beans or warm up some lentil soup.  But last week I was feeling adventurous and I decided to cook something for myself.  I opened the fridge to see what I might rustle up and there, on the door of the world’s smallest fridge, was 1/2 a red bell pepper*.  It was shiny and red and practically purred… “Stuff me!” 

Well, who can argue with that?  I had some tomatoes, some coriander, some leftover rice and some feta cheese kicking around the fridge as well so I threw them all together with  1/2 a chopped onion and a clove of garlic.  A drizzle of olive oil, a shower of sea salt, a crack of black pepper and a dance in the oven later and I had the perfect lunch for one. 

Stuffed pepper for one
(Bell peppers vary a great deal in size so adapt these measurements to fill the pepper you have)

1/2 bell pepper- any colour
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 medium or 8 small tomatoes finely chopped
1/4 cup cooked rice
1 large handful coriander (cilantro), chopped
2 tbs feta cheese, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to about 250F or 120C (or gas mark 5 if you’re me and getting used to a new, crazy gas cooker.)  Line a small baking dish with tin foil and set aside.

Mix onion, garlic, tomatoes, rice, coriander and feta together.  Place this mix into your bell pepper.  Make sure you really fill the pepper, as the mix will shrink a bit as it cooks. 

Drizzle the olive oil over the pepper and add salt and pepper to taste. 

Place the pepper in the baking dish and wrap the foil around the pepper to form a little package.  Place the baking dish in the oven.  Cook for 20 mins or until the pepper is soft.  Allow to cool for a few minutes before enjoying on the couch, perhaps whilst watching day-time cooking shows? 

*Now that we’re in the UK I can say bell peppers, instead of capsicum.  I do try hard to use the right terms for the country I’m in.  This means that eggplant and zucchini are both about to change.*

It’s all doom and gloom out there right now, isn’t it?  I can’t log into my email without seeing a story about thousands of people losing their jobs.  I can’t turn on the television without hearing about another business going under.  It’s all a bit scary.

Thankfully, here at our place things aren’t as scary.  I’ve been making little changes to save some money.  Nothing drastic… just things like taking our lunches to work more often, eating out a little less, cooking with some cheaper cuts of meat.  You’d be surprised how much you can save by changing a few small things. 

It seems that sometimes, when money gets tight, people switch to fast food, or pre-prepared meals in an effort to save some cash.  In fact, while businesses were sinking all around us and even huge corporations were posting losses last quarter, McDonald’s actually posted a 4th quarter sales increase.  

I find it surprising that people would choose to spend their even more limited budgets on food that is not actually a very good value.  It seems like now is the time for thrifty home cooking.  Our grandparents made it through the Great Depression without McDonald’s.  I think we can all rally around our own kitchen tables and make sure that a financial decline doesn’t also equal a decline in our health and well-being. 

So, in the spirit of creating meals that our wallets and our bodies can afford, I’m going to be posting a few recession busting dinners here in the next few weeks.  These recipes and meal ideas will be cheap and healthy.  They will also be tasty. Trust me, it’s going to take more than a global economic melt-down to get me to stop eating delicious food!

Sausage and Capsicum Rolls with Carmelised Onions

Serves 2
AU$5.40 per person

4 organic beef sausages
3 capsicums (bell peppers), cut into medium sized strips (about 1/2 inch across)
2 brown onions, very finely sliced into 1/2 moon shapes
4 bread rolls
olive oil
salt and pepper

 Heat a frying pan over medium/high heat.  Cut the sausages into bite sized pieces.  Add the sausages to the pan and cook until done.  You shouldn’t need to add any oil, because the sausages will release some of their fat.  However, if you find the sausage pieces sticking and charring too much, add a little dash of olive oil. 

When the sausage pieces are done, remove them from the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain.  Put about 1 tsp olive oil in the same pan and add the onions and a good pinch of salt.  Cook the onions, stirring frequently, until they are soft and browning nicely on the edges.  I really like the onions to be quite dark, so I cook them longer.  You can just cook them to your liking.  Taste them to see if you want to add more salt. 

Keep the onions in the pan and add the capsicum strips.  The pan should have plenty of oil still in it, but if it looks too dry, add a dash more olive oil.  Stir the capsicums with the onions until the capsicums begin to soften.  Then add the sausage back to the pan.  Toss everything together until the sausage has warmed back up.  I like the capsicums to have a bit of a crunch, but if you want them to be softer, just keep cooking until they are done to your liking.  Top the whole thing with a good grind of cracked black pepper. 

Pile the sausage, capsicum and onion mixture onto split, toasted rolls.  Add ketchup, mustard or bbq sauce if you’d like.  Andy likes his roll with some mustard, but I prefer mine plain.  

This recipe makes enough for two large rolls per person.  I can usually only eat one, so the second roll becomes my lunch for the next day.  That brings the cost per person for this meal down to only  AU$3.40!  How’s that for a value meal?