The weekends here and it’s weird not going food shopping in the morning as it was delivered 2 days ago. At least that gives me time to make a lovely pudding for tonight, and my cheats chocolate brownies this afternoon.

To make this recipe work you need some nuts, and the cheapest way I found to get them is to buy two bags of the mixed fruit and nuts. The only trouble is I need to just the nuts, so I spend  10 minutes separating the fruit out, (This can be used later in the week for scones).

Even though the burgers are not made of meat we didn’t really miss it, and they came out great. We will probably cook them again.

The lemon Meringue pie is such a good cheat, and a great way of using up the egg whites after making the Aloli. That’s the best way to approach this challenge, use everything, nothing wasted. It feels like we are being rationed like in the war. I can imaging my grandmother saying “waste not, want not”.

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Saturday
Breakfast
Poached egg on toast or porridge with raisins

Lunch
Cheese sandwich and healthy brownie and apple

Dinner
Veggie Burgers and Rosemary wedges with Aloli and ketchup dips and A fresh salad plus A Lemon meringue pie

Snack
Chocolate chip cookies

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Ultimate Veggie Burgers

Serves 4

Burger Patty Ingredients

3/4 of 400g tin of kidney beans
1 small onion peeled and finely chopped
1 large carrot grated
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon oil, plus 2 tablespoons to fry the burgers
1 heaped teaspoon flour,
plus flour to shape the burgers

Burger Sauce Ingredients

2 tablespoons of ketchup and mayonnaise
A dash of Worcestershire sauce (or mushroom sauce)
Dash of lemon juice (optional)
Freshly ground Pepper

Plus Extra burger Ingredients

Iceburg lettuce slices
Red onions thinly sliced
Gherkins sliced (optional)
4 slices of cheese
4 burger rolls

Method

Drain the kidney beans and rinse in cold water. Put into a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes until soft.
Put the onion, carrot and cumin into a medium frying pan. add a splash of oil and cook on a low heat to soften. When the kidney beans have cooked, drain, and mix with carrots and onion for another 5 minutes or so. Remove from the heat and mash together until you have a smooth puree. Stir in the flour to stiffen the mixture.

While the burger mix is cooling, make the finishing touches to the burgers by finely slicing the red onion, shredding the lettuce and slicing the cheese.

Mix the burger sauce ingredients together to make to make the Marie-rose sauce.

Divide the burger mixture into 4 and roll in to balls, Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan on a medium heat, then place them each in the pan and flatten gently to make the burger shape.

Cook for a few minutes on one side, before turning. You need to be gentle as they can be quite fragile before they fully cooked! When fried on both sides, put a little of the cheese on top of each one and cook, with a lid on if you have one for another minute until the cheese starts to soften.

Meanwhile prepare the buns by slicing them in half and lightly toasting the insides. Then start building your burgers by putting a layer of the sauce and the lettuce on the bottom, then the burger, followed by the onions and the gherkin, finally the bun top.

Serve with your potato wedges and salad.

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Aioli
(Garlic mayonnaise)

This is an interesting alternative mayonnaise for sandwiches, salads or chips,

Ingredients

2 egg yolks
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
70ml olive oil

Method

Blend all ingredients, except the olive oil, in a food processor, or jug with hand blender.

Pour the oil into the blender in a steady stream, until it forms a thick sauce. The mixture, once blended, should be vibrant and yellow in colour.

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Cheat’s Lemon Meringue Pie

Cuts into 6 large slices

Ingredients

Cooked sweet pastry case
1/2 x 325g jar lemon curd
2 medium egg whites
100g sugar

Ingredients For the Pastry

125g plain flour
Pinch of salt
55g butter, cubed
2-3 tablespoons cold water

Method

Make the sweet shortcrust pastry by putting the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter.

Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining.

Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before using.

After the pastry has chilled, heat the oven to 180°C or Gas Mark 5.

Roll out the pastry and lay it in an 8 inch loose bottom tin and blind bake it by putting some greaseproof paper in and filling it with dried or ceramic beans you can see online how to do this. Cook for 15 minutes then take off the beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

After the base of the pie is slightly golden, spoon in the lemon curd and level the surface.

Put the egg whites into a large, clean bowl and beat with a handheld electric whisk until they hold stiff peaks. Gradually add the sugar, whisking constantly, until the mixture becomes thick and glossy.

Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the lemon filling, then bake for about 5-8 minutes or until the meringue is golden.

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Easy Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Makes about 12

Ingredients

100g butter
50g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
125g plain flour
50g broken milk chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C Gas or Mark 2.

Add butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well until light and fluffy.

Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix well with the broken chocolate.

Roll out to about 5mm. Cut into shapes.

Bake on a greased baking sheet for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

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