Cheesy toastie

I have a bit of a thing for cheese toasties, I have no idea where it comes from but they were pretty much all I ate during the first year of university. My george forman was my most used piece of kitchen equipment, which has since gathered dust because I now keep the fat that escapes from my food to cook something else. I spotted it the other day so decided to make a keto toastie for the first time, (well I tried it once with the seed bread but it was horrible).

Ingredients (2 sandwiches)

4 slices of seedless bread

1 Boursin portion (20g)
Cheddar (50g)

4 slices of bacon

Butter lots (less if your butter was soft, unlike mine)

1. Cook off your bacon in a pan or on the toastie maker. (I kept the fat and used it later)
2. While the bacon is cooking butter your bread on both sides, right into the corners.
3. On the two slices of bread spread the boursin evenly.
4. When the bacon is cooked layer it onto the boursin slices.
5. Grate cheese onto the top of the cheese.
6. Add the just butter slices of bread to the sandwich and cook on the toastie maker/forman grill.
7. Make sure to press down the grill half way through to full toast the bread and make the insides nice and gooey.
8. Cut the sandwiches into halves and enjoy!

Tip: This can also be done in the pan you cooked the bacon it just takes longer and tends to fill my kitchen with smoke..

Nutritional Information (per sandwich)

Calories 600 kcal
Carbs 1g
Fat 57g
Protein 17g
Fibre 5g

Minced beef jerky

I have finally settled on a basic jerky recipe that I like enough to make weekly, and doesn't take hours of preparation and overnight marinating etc etc etc. Lets face it when it takes 8hrs to cook I don't want to have to think about it 2 days before I want to eat it. 8 hours is long enough!!

For making jerky it is really important that you get the lowest fat content meat possible, not only does it make for jerky that doesn't go off, it actually means the jerky goes snap instead of perpetually being a bit soggy and covered in a not so attractive later of grease.

This recipe made enough jerky to fill half of my dehydrator, I'll be doubling it next time and probably adding extra spices so treat this is a base recipe for minced beef jerky and alter it as you wish!

Ingredients (makes 200g of jerky) 

500g Lean beef mince
8 tsp of course black pepper (or a lot of grinding)
1 tsp of salt

You will also need: a bowl for mixing, a flat surface for rolling, baking paper, a rolling pin, a sharp knife and either a dehydrator or the ability to leave your oven door open at 65 C for 8 hours.

1. Add the mince, salt and pepper to a bowl.
2. Get stuck in and mix those spices through with your hands until fully worked in.
3. Take a fist size chunk of the mince at a time, roll it flat onto baking paper. Do not try without baking paper it's a pain in the arse to scrape of a chopping board.
4. When the meat has been rolled to about 1mm thick slice it into long strips.
5. Remove each strip from the baking paper and put it on the dehydrator sheets.
6. Repeat 3-5 until all the meat has been used up.
7. Dehydrator on maximum for your dehydrator or 70 C in the oven with the door ajar to allow air to flow for about 8hrs until the meat has started to snap when bent.
8. When the jerky snaps turn the dehydrator/oven off and allow the jerky to cool completely before portioning or storing.

Tip:  Portion into 20g bags for a quick snack to grab as you rush out of the door.

Nutritional Information (per 20g)

Calories 98 kcal

Fat 5.9g

Carbs 1.2g

Protein 10.4g

Seedless bread

This started off as an attempt to make white bread, but I have since learnt that psyllium husk makes everything turn brown. So instead we have a seedless loaf that made 14 chunkily cut slices the boy dubbed "not quite bread, but it tastes good", which I will take as a great success.

Ingredients

60g Ground Almonds

5 eggs

20g Psyllium Husk Powder

100ml Unsweetened almond milk

2tbsp olive oil

2tsp Baking powder

Also needed: an electric whisk (or really strong arms) and a bread tin.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.
2. Weigh all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
3. Add the eggs, the almond milk and the olive oil.
4. Whisk all the ingredients together until a sticky dough forms.
5. Smooth the dough into a bread tin and try to make the top as flat as possible.
6. Cook for 45 minutes until if you tap the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow.
7. Leave to cook on a cooling rack.

Tip: Pre-slice and freeze this because it makes excellent toast and toasties, it also stops you eating the entire loaf!

Nutritional Information (per slice based on 14 slices per loaf)

Calories 80 kcal

Fat 6g

Protein 3g

Fibre 3g

Carbs 0g

(there's only 4g carbs in the entire loaf)

Bulk cooking

From time to time I get lazy, and this is normally in regards to lunch which I end up buying from a supermarket instead of taking my own. When this happens more than a couple of times in a week I know I need to bulk cook. My method for doing this is to make enough dishes for 16 meals, where bits and pieces can be added like jerky, nuts and cheese slices to maintain a bit of variety in my lunch life. Now the reason for 16 is quite simply that is the number of plastic containers I can fit in my freezer box (yes I do measure it). The downside of this is that I can't actually freeze anything for the first week until I free up some space in the freezer.

Last week I did a massive shop (I was hungry, much impulse buying), and restocked my fridge with lots of bits and pieces I had been denying myself during the budget month. This included Boursin, macadamia nuts, lemons, onions, some random spreadable cheddar which was on offer and, well, lots of cheese really. I fricking love cheese.

Now meals I was planning to make:

2 portions of chorizo and spinach mince. (ended up being 3 portions)
2 portions of sausage and mash. (ended up being 3 portions )
4 portions of special fried rice.
6 portions of Chorizo and chicken kitchen sink.

Ingredients

3 Sausage and cauliflower mash

                6 sausages

                400g cauliflower

                1 stock cube

                50g butter

4 portions of special fried rice

                3 pork steaks

   400g cauliflower             

                200g chicken

                200g spinach

                4 eggs

                33g cheese

3 portions of mince and chorizo

50g broccoli

200g spinach

100g chorizo

400g mince

6 portions of chorizo/chicken/cream cheese (made like my kitchen sink dish)

                100g chorizo

                200g chicken

                60g onion

                200g sprouts     

                200g cream cheese

                200g spinach

                200g broccoli

                100g Cheddar

Total Cost for all these ingredients was £15, so that's less than £1 a meal. Even if you add some nuts or extra cheese it is unlikely these lunches will cost more than £2. 

Review: Balance Milk Chocolate Lait Bar

Now, I had pretty much given up finding a keto friendly chocolate bar which I could just pick up at a moments notice and not have to worry about how much it cost or it throwing me out of keto. I've even gone so far as to order a huge amount of cocoa butter and try to make my own (which has yet to work). But now, I found this at the till at Holland and Barrett for a mear 95p.

They also do a stevia sweetened version for those of you who hold a disgust for malitol. But this version didn't have any horrible malitol after-taste or after effects. I could even pretend it was normal chocolate. It was a fantastic substitute, better than the atkins bars any day of the week.

I don't count poly-alcohols in my carb count, so for me this is a 3g chocolate treat with no sugar free side effects and stops me reaching for the cadburys. Win, win, win.

Nutritional Information (per bar)

165 kcal

12g fat

1g protein

16g carbohydrate (of which 13g polyalcohols so 3 net carbs!)

£80 a Month Budget Summary

What I used

3 packets of beef mince

1.1kg Frozen Spinach

480g Cauliflower/Broccoli stalks

500g Cauliflower florets

200g Broccoli florets

2 packets of Sainsburys basics Cooking bacon

 220g Mature cheddar

3 packets of Cream cheese

Slim rice 1 packet

2 Chicken Thigh Packets

27 Eggs

1 loaf of keto bread

250g Paneer

2 packets of Unsmoked Middle bacon

2 Smoked salmon packets

7 chicken breasts

12 cheese slices

1 mattessons smoked pork sausage

100g Chorizo

220g sprouts

2 portions of bacon

6 sausages

12 chipolatas

1 packet chicken drumsticks

1 kebab

Total Cost £62.35

Not to shabby considering that it is (nearly!) a months worth of food with a minimum of 2 meals a day, and I even had a bit of food left over. Even considering I took 3 days off from cheap keto cooking, there is no way it would have cost me £18 to eat for 3 days, so I can safely say that I stuck to my £80 for the month budget.

Now back to making new recipes!

£80 Budget Day 28

Lunch

I was at home for lunch today so I used the last of my eggs and made a cheese omelette with some spinach and cauliflower, you have all seen an omelette so no picture for you (also I forgot to take one).

Cost: 2 eggs 24p, 20g cheese 17p, 60g cauliflower 13p, 100g spinach 15p.
Total cost: 69p

Dinner

In a mild panic that I didn't have any food at home I bought 1 packet of chicken drumsticks which wer eon offer for £1 at the local sainsburys, cooked them and had that as my dinner. Inspiring? No. Tasty? Very much yes.

Cost: £1

Total Cost for the day: £1.69

£80 Budget Day 27

Lunch

Using up the last of all of these ingredients- Sausages and pancakes for the third day running, good job it is tasty.

Cost: 90p

Dinner

Same as yesterday because I wasn't in the mood to cook anything more exciting- Cauliflower cheese and chicken breast.

Cost: 82p

Total cost for the day: £1.72

£80 budget day 26

Lunch

Not one for a lot of variety this week I had chipolatas and pancakes for the second day running.

Cost: 92p

Dinner

A quick and very boring dinner without a picture for which I apologise- 1 Chicken Breast, 60g cauliflower oven baked covered in 20g of cheddar cheese.

Cost: Chicken Breast 50p, cauliflower 13p, cheese 17p.
Total cost: 80p

Total cost for the day: £1.72

£80 budget day 25

Breakfast

Black coffee

Lunch

Special fried rice portion

£1.19

Dinner

4 chipolatas and pancakes

Cost: 66p Chipolatas, 26p.
Total cost: 92p

Total cost for the day: £2.11

£80 Budget Day 24

Lunch

1 portion of special fried rice, 3 cheesy slices as a dip.

Cost: rice £1.19, cheese 18p.
Total cost: £1.37

Mid afternoon snack that turned into dinner

4 toulouse sausages.

Cost: 33p per sausage
Total cost: £1.33

Total cost for the day: £2.70

£80 Budget Day 23

Breakfast

2 rashers of bacon and cream cheese pancakes.

Cost: Bacon 50p, pancakes 50p
Total cost: £1

Lunch

Budget lunch but no cheese dip today!

Total cost: £1.28

Dinner

1 portion of special fried rice from my freezer, and 2 toulouse sausages because I really wanted to try some sausages that had practically no carbs in!

Cost: Rice £1.19, Sausage 66p.
Total cost: £1.85

Total cost for the day: £4.13

£80 Budget Day 22

Breakfast

2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon.

Cost: eggs 24p, bacon 50p
Total cost: 74p

Lunch

One of my frozen lunches, 2 slices of cheese.

Cost: Lunch £1.19, Cheese 12p
Total cost: £1.31

Dinner

Now what does one do when they haven't eaten for 12 hours, there are no supermarkets open and they are staying at a house where the cupboard is full of pasta and bread. Buy a mixed meat kebab and give the pita to the unsuspecting boyfriend! Which is what happened today, and I have completely blown my food budget for the week but it was tasty and worth it.

Total Cost: £5.40

Total cost for the day: £7.45 very pricey day!

Shopping Week 4

I don't need a whole lot this week as I've bulk cooked a few meals and still have some chicken and bacon.

Sausages were on offer so I picked two packets as I only buy them on offer too expensive otherwise.

6 Toulouse sausages £2
12 90% pork Chipolatas £2
4 packets skinny rice from holland and barrett in the penny sale £5
3 packets of tofu shirataki noodles from soho £4.50
Crunchy Peanut Butter £1.34

Total cost: £14.84

Special fried rice

Now I was out and about all today so as a result haven't used any of my food from my budget shopping. This has meant I've got a lot left over which needed to be used pronto, especially the rice and broccoli which were both beginning to take on a weird fridge smell. One of the things I have been wanting to recreate is special fried rice, and when better than if you have cauliflower rice, misc meats and some eggs left over. I portioned it into 4 and froze the portions so I can use them as lunch or dinner as I have a busy week coming up.

Ingredients (makes 4 portions)

300g Cauliflower rice
150g Broccoli Florets
100g Chorizo chopped
3 pork shoulder steaks cooked and chopped
4 eggs beaten
1tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp basil
1 glug of oil

You will also need: a knife and chopping board, boxes for storage and a large frying pan.

1. Chop everything, the chorizo/pork steaks and broccoli florets.
2. Beat the eggs and set them to one side.
3. Heat some oil in the frying pan and coat the pan.
4. Add the cauliflower rice and fry for roughly 5 minutes constantly turning.
5. Create some space on one side of the pan and pour the eggs into the gap.
6. Stir the eggs into the rice.
7. Continue stirring until the rice and egg is fully incorporated (don't worry if it forms massive clumps it will break up again)
8. Add the chorizo and continue frying.
9. Finally add in the broccoli then the pork steak.
10. Continue cooking with constant stirring to make sure the egg doesn't burn or stick.
11. When the broccoli is cooked but still has a crunch take off the heat.
12. Portion into 4 separate containers.

Nutritional Information

Calories 343 kcal
Fat 21g
Carbs 3g
Protein 35g
Fibre 2g

Total Cost: (13p*5)+(17p*3)+(1*£1)+(£2)+(12p*4)+ 10p =  £4.74

£1.19 a portion

£80 Budget Week 4 Summary

It was a pretty awful week on the actual cooking for myself front, but I think I managed to stick to my budget roughly even with the kebab debacle.

I used this week:


2 portions of bacon
5 portions cream cheese
12 eggs
4 Special fried rice portions
4 cheesy slices
1 kebab
6 sausages
12 chipolatas
2 chicken breasts
3 portions of cauliflower
3 portions of cheddar
1 portion of spinach
1 packet chicken drumsticks
1 kebab

Cost: £21.52

What I have left?

1 pot of peanut butter, 6 bags of shirataki noodles and rice, half a block of cheddar, and that is about it!

£80 Budget Week 3 Summary

The end of week 3, it is still amazing me how little I can actually use and be full if I put my mind to it. I'm also very thankful that I made lunch in bulk so I didn't have to think this week.

Chicken thighs- £2.50
2 cooking bacons portions- 72p
3 bacon portions- £1.50
1 portion cauliflower rice 13p
1 portion broccoli 13p
1 smoked salmon packet £1.49
2 portion cream cheese 52p
1 bulletproof coffee 50p
4 cheese slices- 24p
4 eggs- 48p
1 mattessons smoked pork sausage- £1.28
100g Chorizo- £1
100g Cheddar- 85p
2 chicken breasts- £1
300g cream cheese- £1.30
150g cauliflower stalks- 32p
115g broccoli stalks- 33p
220g sprouts- 68p
200g spinach- 30p

Total Cost for the week: £15.27

What I have left:

1 portion of bacon
9 portions of spinach
5 portions of cauliflower rice
6 portions of broccoli florets
5 portions of cauliflower florets
3 pork shoulder steaks
100g chorizo
13 portions of Cheddar
3 portions of cream cheese
3 chicken breasts
11 cheese slices
4 eggs

£80 Budget Day 20

Brunch

Saturday was finally here, that means one thing! A lie in and a very late brunch.

Cream Cheese Pancakes, 2 rashers of  bacon, sugar free maple syrup.

Cost: 76p

Dinner

Clearly a lazy day today as all I wanted to eat was an omelette, so I had a 2 Eggs and 2 bacon omelette.

Cost: eggs 24p, bacon 50p.

Total cost for the day: £1.50