Thai Green Curry - Who needs takeaway!

10^th July 2017

What you want exists. Don't settle until you get it.

Another gorgeous morning to wake up too after a very restful weekend. It was lovely to walk into a tidy kitchen this morning, yes I did do the housework which earned me some FitPoints. My cooking session was a success, the Speedy Thai Green Chicken Curry in the new Weight Watcher Chicken Cook Book was great, I made it using Quorn for a change and it worked really well, I've not had Quorn for a long time so was pleasantly surprised.

I made veggie burgers too, they weren't so successful, I need to play around with them, they weren't solid enough, but I won't be defeated! Especially as kidney beans are only 30p a can, McDonalds used to do a beanburger and it was lush, I need to work out how to make one as good.

https://cookingonabootstrap.com is a great website if you're skint, this recipe is her beanburger recipe, add a cob to that and you've still got a super cheap meal.

Bean Burger

Makes 4 generous burgers at 15 pence each (6 Smart Points each) or 6 good sized ones at 10 pence each (4 Smart Points each):

1 x 400g tin of kidney beans, 30p (7 Smart Points)
1 smallish onion (150g approx), peeled and finely chopped, 9p
1 large carrot (150g approx), grated, 8p
1 teaspoon (1.5g) ground cumin, 4p
a stem (1g) of fresh coriander, finely chopped (optional, replace with parsley if you don’t like coriander), 3p
1 tbsp veg (4 Smart Points) or sunflower oil, plus 2 tablespoons (9 Smart Points) to fry the burgers, 6p
1 heaped teaspoon flour (2 Smart Points), plus another to shape the burgers, 1p

Drain the kidney beans and rinse in cold water to wash away the ‘tinned’ taste. Put into a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes to really soften.

Put the onion, carrot, cumin and coriander into a medium saute or frying pan. Add the splash of oil and cook on a low heat to soften. When the kidney beans have softened, drain well and add to the carrots and onion. Remove from the heat and mash together until you have a smoothish puree, like a mashed potato consistency. Stir in the flour to stiffen.

Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan on a medium heat. With floured hands, take a quarter of the burger mixture and roll it into a ball. Make three more balls with the remaining mixture. Place one in the oil and flatten gently with a fork to make the burger shape. Depending on the size of your pan, you may be able to cook all the burgers at once or need to do them in batches – unless you’re freezing some of the uncooked patties. Cook for a few minutes on one side, before turning. The burgers need to be handled with care as they can be quite fragile before they’re done! When cooked and slightly crisp on both sides, remove from the pan and serve.

Tip: Make the burger mixture in advance and pop into the fridge for a few hours – it firms up nicely and is less fragile when cooking. It will keep, covered, for 2 days so can be made well in advance

That'll be my next one to try, but not today, I need to be organised today, I've got another busy week. I'm not buying any food that isn't absolutely necessary this week. It's my credit card billing day today so I'm going to see how long I can go without using it and when I do it'll only be for must have stuff like petrol. I have enough food in my fridge to easily last a week I reckon. Let's find out ay!

I've found me out a little notepad and I've wrote 'A month of me!' I'm going to use it to get to know myself and things like my spending and eating habits. Seems apt that I start it when my credit card bill restarts, I use that to pay everything then pay it off at the end of the month, so let's see what I'm spending that money on I reckon.

I need to start being sensible as I'm having a lot of work done on the house this year so any money I can save elsewhere will help massively. We're already nearly halfway through July and our wetroom is due to be done end August beginning September, that'll be here before we know. I'm also having the kitchen done because the washing & drying machine will have to go in there once the wet rooms fitted, he came to measure up yesterday so yeah I need all the money I can get! Exciting times, it's a good job I haven't been on holiday for 3 years really, so glad I saved that money, now to have a lovely house instead. Mom might not be able to get out and about but she can live in a lovely comfortable house.

Anyway, let's get today started, mmm I fancy beans on toast for breakfast, I was thinking meat free Monday but then I remembered what I fancied for my dinner so nah, not today, I did have a meat free Sunday though, which is good enough. My plan is to eat less meat, not give it up all together, I enjoy crispy bacon far too much to do that again.

Let's make today Motivated Monday, it's always a good day to do well BeYOUtiful – you in? We got this!