Credit Crunch Munch Round Up - July 2016

I have been very tardy of late and I am quite late in posting the round up of all the lovely recipes entered into Credit Crunch Munch for July whilst we were hosting.

                        

Credit Crunch Munch is the creation of Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours, as a way of sharing moneysaving or frugal recipes, which are low in cost but high in flavour and above all amazing food. Hosted both by the creators and other food bloggers in turn its a fun way of sharing recipes.

You can always find inspiration over on the Credit Crunch Munch page, for August the linky is taking a break but will be back with a bang in September,  so check out the page to find this months host.

On to our round up, all in all we had 11 lovely entries for July, not bad at all considering it the start of school holidays in the UK and lots of bloggers are away.

Our first link up was from yours truly with some pretty tasty (if I do say so myself) Lemonade Scones, ideal for a quick impromptu bake when you have guests.

                                 

Our next link up came from the lovely Shaheen who blogs at Allotment to Kitchen with Simple tumeric potatoes with fava bean and carrot chilli, a colourful tasty dish to accompany a hearty vegan chilli.

                                   

Our entry from Fab Food 4 All is some very summery Lemon and Elderflower curd cupcakes a perfect seasonal bake, ideal for afternoon tea or a summer picnic.

                                                       

Next we have a delicious fish dish of Crispy Grilled Mackerel with lemon and garlic from Family, Friends, Food. Wonderfully healthy and a perfect dish for alfresco eating.

                                                                 

EasypeasyFoodie joined in the fun with a Kale and Red Onion Dhal with buckwheat recipe, a tasty looking easy recipe perfect for the Sirt Diet.

                                                       

Camilla of Fab Food 4 All brought us another seasonal recipe perfect for sipping in a summer garden, a refreshing Old fashioned Lemonade recipe

                                               

Our next recipe is for Smoky Tofu Sandwiches from The Taste Space, this sustaining healthy sandwich looks amazing.

                                             

Our lovely linky party was then joined by Ren Behan with Kasza and lentil salad with griddled courgette and halloumi.  The beautiful dish sums up what makes for wonderful summer eating.

                                                             

The Veg Hog linked up with some very interesting Potato Spelt rolls, cleverly using some leftover roast potatoes in the recipe.

                                                

Roast Chicken and a Country walk shared with us a fab recipe for Quickest leftover chicken stir fry, which would make a great supper recipe when you need to get food on the table fast.

                                                    

Our final recipe is for a Smoky Butternut Squash soup from The Improving Cook , frugally made in the slow cooker.

                                                                 

So that's all folks for this month and remember Credit Crunch Munch will be back in September.

Lemonade scones

Lemonade scones, a slightly unusual recipe but a scone never the less and one that creates the prefect scone for afternoon tea in a flash. Scones in my humble opinion need to be fluffy and light and no so sweet as to be cloying when served with fruit jam, this scone has it all despite containing lemonade it fresh and light and slightly scented with lemon, a perfect accompaniment to a dollop of homemade jam.

The recipe only has three ingredients (if you use a self raising flour- 4 if you use plain and baking powder) and the science bit is that the fizzy acidic lemonade activates the baking powder in the flour to give a superior rise in the oven. And rise they do, they tower as long as you don't man handle the dough too much. Some recipes also use double cream, not something I normally have in the fridge so I use creme fraiche and it works perfectly.

What you need

• 400g self raising flour
• 175ml lemonade
• 175ml creme fraiche

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 200c fan /220c non fan
• Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, I use a stand mixer but you could knead together by hand
• Turn out onto a floured surface and cut using a round cutter to desired size, I use about a 2 1/2" cutter 
• Place on a lined baking tray and bake for approx 15 minutes until golden, the exact length of time will vary depending on the size of your scones
• Cool on a wire rack and serve when cold with cream (clotted, double whipping , your choice) and homemade jam, curd or honey.

I have also made these scones with gluten free flour (my own mix) and they work fine, they obviously don't rise as much but they are still very tasty, more of a scone meets shortcake, they could also be made dairy free if you can get hold of a dairy free cream substitute, its already egg free so very allergy friendly all round.

Gluten free version 

I recently discovered  a half used bottle of lemonade in the back of a cupboard, past its best before date but still fizzy so  that what I used in this recipe and they turned out fine. So I am going to use this post as my link up to Credit Crunch Munch this month.

                                         

Credit Crunch Munch is a blogger challenge created and hosted by Fab Food 4 all and Fuss Free Flavours.

Pear, ginger and cardamon loaf

This is a perfect recipe for this time of year, slight spicing adds a warming note to this delicious bake, great served with a steaming mug of tea after a wild and windy walk, but also great as a pudding cake served with custard.

This loaf cake isn't going to win any prizes in the beauty stakes but is definitely a prize winner in the flavour stakes, I just love the moist fruity pear chunks and the crunch of the flaked almonds. It does have the habit of swallowing the pears and almonds into the cake but I still love it, its frugal too as it a good recipe to use up pears that are starting to become overripe. I am using British Conference pears here which have a great flavour, they aren't in season very long so make good use of them while you can.

So go on embrace the season and create a beautiful warm spicy fug in your kitchen as a perfect antidote to the weather outside, the Danish have a word for it Hygge, give it a try......

What you need

• 175g softened butter or quality vegetable margarine
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 175g light brown sugar
• 3 conference pears - peeled, cored and cut into 1/8ths
• 2 free eggs 
• 175g self raising flour (gluten free works fine)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp flaked almonds
• 2lb loaf tin - lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in your stand mixer
• Add the flour and baking powder, spices,  and eggs to the bowl, mix until you a smooth mixture
• Place half the mixture into your prepared tin, roughly level with a palette knife, place roughly half of the pears (chopped into little cubes) in a layer on the cake mixture
• Top the pears with the rest of the cake mixture and places the rest of the pear slices on the top, sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and cooked through.
• Cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes or so, perfect warm on its on or with cream or custard. Cold its great with a cup of tea.
• If you like serve cold with a dredging of icing sugar

We are linking up to Recipe of the Week over on AMummyToo 

                                                                 

And to Casa Costello's Bake of the Week 

                                                          

JibberjabberUk - Love Cake linky whose theme this month is Best of British

                                           

And two of my favourites Credit Crunch Munch from Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for All, hosted this month by Elizabeths Kitchen and No Waste Food Challenge from Elizabeths Kitchen, hosted this month by Its not Easy being Greedy.


                                             




                                                             

Butternut Squash and butterbean soup - vampire fighting and frightfully good !

There is definitely and nip in the air, so soup is in order. A delicious tasty recipe perfect for warming your bones after a night out trick a treating  and also an ideal recipe for using pumpkin middle just substitute for the butternut squash in the recipe, no waste here ! This soup also improves with keeping, ideal for popping in the fridge and for taking to work the next day to be re-heated.

Containing lots of lovely vampire fighting garlic (also bug fighting too ! as the cold and flu season is now with us), add just a touch of chilli for a thrill !

What you need

• Butternut squash - 1 large , peeled and de-seeded and chopped into 1 cm pieces
• 1 white onion - finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic - peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1 small red chilli - finely chopped (optional)
• 1 can butterbeans - drained (retain juice if you want to use as Aquafaba)
• 1 large sprig fresh rosemary - leaves picked
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 500ml vegetable stock

What you do

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan
• Add the onion and cooked for a few minutes until softened
• Add the cubed squash, crushed garlic, chilli and rosemary, cook stirring for a few minutes
• Add the stock, maple syrup and lemon juice, bring to a simmer and cook until the onion and squash are soft
• Add the sherry vinegar and butter beans and bring back to a simmer
• Cool slightly and then blitz with a stick blender or in a a liquidizer to the desired texture.
• Bring back to a simmer and serve piping hot
• Delicious sprinkled with rosemary.

We are linking up to recipe of the week over at A Mummy Too. 

                                                         

Cook once Eat Twice - over on Searching for Spice

                                                       

No Croutons Required - co hosted by Lisa's Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes

                                                               

No Waste Food Challenge, created by Elizabeths Kitchen and hosted this month by Veggie Desserts.

                                                        

Legume Love Affair hosted by Lisa's Kitchen, created by The Well Seasoned Cook.

                                                          

And finally Credit Crunch Munch from Fab Food for All and Fuss Free Flavours.

                                          

Chicken, sweet potato and red wine casserole

Inspired by the most recent Jamie Oliver SuperFoods series and the fact that the weather is starting to cool and become quite autumnal, this comforting casserole was born. A delicious healthy dish which is great served with chunks of homemade bread or some great bread from your local artisan baker.

Its also a one pot dish which we love as it saves on washing up, the vegetable content is also infinitely variable depending on what you have in the fridge and frugal too as it uses the humble chicken thigh,  this cut is normally much cheaper and much more flavourful than the chicken breast.

What you need

• 4 Chicken Thighs - skinless and boneless
• Sweet potato (butternut squash would be a good substitute) - peeled and cut into chunks
• Onion - 1 large red, cut into chunks
• Celery - 2 sticks, copped
• Mushrooms - handful, chunky slices
• Red Pepper - de-seeded and chunky chopped
• 3 cloves garlic - finely sliced
• Couple of springs fresh rosemary - picked into stems
• Rapeseed oil
• Couple of fresh bay leaves
• 1 tin of plum tomatoes
• About 250ml red wine 
• 8- 10 blacked pitted olives
• Bread to serve
• Large cast iron casserole pot or similar

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Place the casserole on a high heat and add a little oil, add the onion and fry for just a couple of minutes until starting to colour, add the rosemary, bay leaves and garlic and stir fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken thighs, just to colour.
• Now add the celery, mushrooms, red pepper, lives and sweet potatoes to the pot, stir
• Add the wine, tin of tomatoes to the pot, stir and bring to a simmer, adding a little water if necessary
• Place in the oven and cook for an hour or so until the chicken is falling and the vegetables are soft and yielding. Taste for seasoning, you may not need any due to the olives.
• Serve straight from the pot strewed with more rosemary.

Banana and honey loaf cake - gluten free and no artificial sugars

Here at Lancashire Food we don't like to waste food and also where possible create recipes which not only taste good but do you good. This recipe ticks all the boxes for us, using ripe bananas for the majority of the sweetness for this cake and just a touch of honey its free from artificial sugars and being full of all things that are good for you it a "super" bake.  A great debate currently ranges in the food community about the amount of sugar in our diets and home cooking and baking gives you the control to adjust the amount of sugar added to your recipes. We like that, we use buckwheat flour here for its nutritional value but a basic plain gluten free flour would also work.

Please don't expect this to taste exactly like a normal banana loaf as it doesn't, but it still has some sweetness and as we are using honey you can adjust the sweetness level to your taste, I would suggest starting at 1/2 cup and reducing down from there as your taste buds acclimatise to less sweetness.

A couple of months ago we started hosting a local beekeepers hive in our garden and hopefully very shortly we might just (fingers crossed) get to taste some honey from our bees, its a fascinating process and has been very interesting watching the development of a new hive with all its trails and tribulations. In just a short couple of months we have had issues with wasps ( nasty things that attack hives ), the birth of a new queen and the balancing act of when to collect the honey. I have been stung twice once by a bee (yes a honey bee) and also by a wasp ( very painful and much worse than a bee sting).

So hopefully next time I bake this loaf we might be using our own honey .........

What you need

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (check gluten free if necessary as not all are)
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 eggs - free range
• 1/4 cup - coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of milk (any type nut, cows, goat)
• 1 tsp cider or wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of local honey
• 3 ripe bananas

2lb loaf tin, oiled and base lined.
If you don't have all the spices to hand sweet mixed spice or lebuken spice can be substituted

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mash the banana roughly in the bowl of your mixer
• Add all other ingredients
• Mix thoroughly and pour into prepared tin
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 minutes
• Cool in tin
• Delicious served slavered with butter

We are linking up to Bake of the Week over on Casa Costello

                                                             

Also to Recipe of the Week with Emily over on A Mummy Too

                                                            

Love Cake - Back to Basics over on Jibberjabber, as this is good basic banana loaf recipe at heart.

                                   

Simply Eggcellent - Theme being Cakes this month over with Dom at Belleau Kitchen (Happy Birthday !) which celebrates all thing egg.

                                                               

Credit Crunch Munch over at Fuss Free Flavours as once again we are using up manky bananas. A blog challenged created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for all.

                                                 

And finally No Waste Food Challenge blog hop over at Foodie Quine this month. This challenge was created by Elizabeths Kitchen Diary.

                                                             

Chocolate and Pear Torte - Gluten free and so very tasty

The other weekend as per usual I was clearing out the fruit bowl as I was drawing up my shopping list of what I wanted to purchase for the week ahead. Just a couple of of pears remained still juicy but on the overripe side, my mind flashed back to a wonderful chocolate and pear tart I had eaten several years ago in an amazing trattoria in Tuscany, Italy. It was the sort of place were there was no menu and the choices were what was fresh from the market or the oven.

This torte is inspired by that tart, this one gluten free and a torte not a tart but equally beautiful and also doing a great job using up pears.

Its a simple recipe and is actually diary free if you use vegetable margarine as the chocolate flavour is coming from cocoa not chocolate.

Ideally you need a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin so you can remove the cake easily from its tin.

What you need

• 150g plain flour gluten free 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150g soft butter or vegetable margarine (I like the Pure range)
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g ground almonds
• 2 eggs - free range
• 50g Cocoa - I like Green and Blacks Organic
• 2 tsp Choco inglese essence (optional)
• 2 Conference pears - peeled, cored and quartered
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Oil spray

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Prepare your pears and toss them in the juice of the lemon to prevent them from going brown
•  Prepare your tin, base line and oil spray so you are ready for the cake mix
• In a large mixing bowl or ideally a stand mixer, combine all the other ingredients until you have a smooth mixture
• Turn the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and then artistically place the pear quarters on the top, just slightly pressing them into the mixture
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 - 60 minutes until the torte tests cooked with a cocktail stick.
• Allow to fully cool in the tin and then remove. Serve as it is or with creme fraiche, cream or Greek yogurt.

The cake will store for a couple of days in a cool place covered with clingfilm or in a cake dome. A very satisfying bake and one that disappeared very quickly.

We are linking this post to Bake of the Week created by Casa Costello and hosted this month over at Jen's Food.

Credit crunch munch as it uses some past their best pears, created by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours   and hosted this month by Food Glorious Food

No waste food challenge over on Elizabeth's Kitchen

We Should Cocoa - who's theme this month is anything goes created and hosted this month on Tin and Thyme

Aquafaba chocolate mousse aka chickpea juice chocolate mousse

Recently I made some chickpea brownies (please see earlier post) and I had recently spotted a group on facebook for something called Aquafaba (!!!), intrigued I joined the group and discovered aquafaba is actually the liquid from tins of  beans / legumes (pretty much any bean and chickpeas). Wow I thought a way of using something that you chuck down the sink, I hate waste so I thought I would give this vegan egg substitute a try, little realising that I would actively start searching out recipes which used tinned beans / chickpeas just so I could experiment with the canning liquid.

My first success is with a delightfully tasty chocolate mousse, which has no earthy after taste what so ever and has pronounced delicious by all who try it, vegan or not. This recipe would also be great for people who have egg allergies too. The mousse is light and fluffy and keeps for a few days in the fridge.

What you need

• Juice from a tin of chickpeas
• 100g dark chocolate - melted ( good quality at least 70% )
• 1 tsp vanilla or coffee extract
• Cocoa nibs for decoration

What you do 

• Whisk up the chickpea juice in a stand mixer bowl until the soft peak stage
• Add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract
• Whisk again, don't panic as you will loose volume
• Pour into ramekins
• Place in fridge for 3 -4 hours
• Sprinkle with cocoa nibs
• Serve to admiring friends and family.

A perfect recipe for inclusion in Credit Crunch munch , created and co -hosted by Fab food 4 all and Fuss Free Flavours