Here’s another wonderful recipe and blog post from Katie Bryson from her fabulous blog www.feedingboys.wordpress.com Budget and time conscious, this superb summery meal was rustled up with the help of some tasty leftovers that Katie found in her fridge. Not only that, this delicious meal was enjoyed again the following day as a packed lunch, with stock in reserve for two more delicious meals to follow. Here it is:

Roasting a chicken is one of life’s simple pleasures. Not only does it fill the house with delicious aromas, but it provides a bounty of food possibilities.
So for the basis of our summer supper I smeared a bird with lemon and thyme butter, then stuffed it with lemons*.

My chicken looks like it’s about to swim the channel!

And here’s the little beauty resting after emerging from the oven, golden and magnificent.

I foraged in the fridge for ingredients for a speedy potato salad to accompany the roast. I used up a bag of potatoes I’d started using earlier in the week. The dressing is mayo, the end of a jar of pesto, three random leftover streaks of bacon and chives from the garden.

And to complete the feast I made some fresh milkshakes. On these super sticky hot days in urbanville, there really is nothing finer than sipping on chilled frothy fruity milk.
I chucked a couple of bananas in a jug with a slurp of maple syrup and a pint of milk. Whizzed it all up with the stick blender until it was frothy – bang done!
It’s a fab way to use up fruit that’s about to turn. Strawberries, peaches, mangoes and nectarines all work well.

Here’s our dog Lily, waiting patiently for chicken scraps. It’s her favourite thing in the world when I’m stripping the bird down ready to make stock with the carcass.
So the meal was a total result on the budget front. There were enough leftovers from the meal for Matthew’s packed lunch for the next day. Enough chicken to put in a pot for a separate meal. Plus the stock I made afterwards.
I’ve since made a tasty risotto, a meat pie and a fabulous Thai soup all using the stock – and there’s still some left! The only way I could top this thriftiness, is if I’d raised the chicken myself

*full recipe ingredients

At Count On It, we love getting the most out of our food, keeping our grocery bills down and wasting less food, and we’re not the only ones. Katie Bryson who writes a fabulous blog www.feedingboys.wordpress.com knows exactly what it’s like to have a feed a hungry family on a budget and we are really pleased to have her guest blogging for us, sharing her tasty and budget-conscious tips and recipes. Here she shares with us a quick, easy recipe which you can rustle up with some of those tasty leftovers left unloved in the back of your store cupboards and fridge. Not only that, it’s a perfect snack for school lunch boxes and for when watching the football (or is that just me?). Enjoy:

Feeding boys who have bottomless pits for stomachs is my never-ending mission in life. Throw into the mix my firefighter husband who thinks we’re “haemorrhaging money” at the supermarket and it becomes something of a skill to keep everyone satisfied!

One of my most exciting discoveries last week was that a can of chickpeas costs a splendid 35 pence. I didn’t think you could buy anything in Waitrose at that price!

So with houmous on my mind, I found Rosie Lovell’s take on it in her fab cook book Spooning With Rosie.

Lots of Houmous
2 x 400g tins of chickpeas
6 garlic cloves
2 tbsps tahini
Juice of 2 lemons
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tsps maldon sea salt

Drain the chickpeas and rinse thoroughly.

Place all the ingredients in a jug and whiz up with a hand held blender.

I found this tasty but garlicky – we all reeked for 24 hours after eating it!

I’m going to make it again this week with half the garlic and enhanced with a leftover jar of roasted peppers – if I don’t use them now they’ll just rot in the back of my fridge. You could also use up old jars of olives or sundried tomatoes – that’s the beauty of houmous, it likes a tasty partner in crime.

This recipe made enough to fill three dip-size pots. I’m a bit of a container geek and wash out and re-use most things. This time I’ve re-used mascarpone, ricotta and parmesan containers.

Tasty AND budget conscious – result!

Katie Bryson   www.feedingboys.wordpress.com