The Everyday Kitchen

A blog about food, healthy eating, seasonal ingredients and how to eat well in a busy life.

Food advice for a busy life

Posts with Tag: budget meals

07 November 2012 ,07:26 Celebration meals on a budget

Last week a reader asked me about budget celebration meals. So I've put together some tips on how to prepare a special meal on a budget. You could use these for birthdays, anniversaries or when you wanted to impress someone new, without burning a gaping hole in your wallet.

To make a budget celebration meal there are some basic principles I follow:

Despite their budget status, celebration meals should still be luxurious and slightly decadent.
Making use of whole fish, cheaper parts of the chicken and the less glamorous cuts of meat will all significantly reduce the cost of the meal. The meat is often the most expensive part of a meal, so cutting back on the cost of this will reduce the overall budget.
It's easy to boost a meal up with legumes, or different types of grain. Chickpeas, lentils and barley are all great budget filler which are also good for you. While they may not seem very luxurious of themselves, they can be used to wonderful effect.
Plan a couple of courses. Dessert is a rarity in my house, so if I'm cooking a special meal I'll usually make a luxurious dessert. While cakes and puddings may take some time, they can often be made with some of the cheapest ingredients around.
Sit down to eat, lay the table and get the candles out. There's nothing like spending time over a meal and the softness of candle light to make any meal special.

What's your favourite budget celebration meal?

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30 April 2012 ,07:51 How to prepare sardines

By Kathryn Elliott

Sardines are a wonderful fish. They are packed full of health-enhancing Omega 3 essential fatty acids – containing more than both tuna and salmon. The fresh ones are fast and easy to cook. They're cheap and being low on the food chain, sardines are also low in mercury. Plus, because they reproduce rapidly, mo st populations are relatively abundant and well managed.

The only problem with the fresh fish, is they're sold whole and so you need to scale and gut them before cooking. If you have a good relationship with your fishmonger they might do it for you, but sardines are cheap so they often say no.

While it might sound difficult, preparing sardines is easy and only takes a few minutes.

If you don't like getting your hands dirty, wear rubber gloves. And if you're squeamish you can also remove the head, but this isn't necessary.
Place your sardines on a chopping board and rub the back of a knife over each fish, to remove any scales.
Hold a sardine in one hand, with its belly facing upwards. With a small sharp knife slice open the entire length of its underside.
Open the gut cavity slightly with one hand and then you'll be able to easily pull out the intestines with your fingers.
Wash the whole fish under the tap and pat dry with kitchen paper. Your sardine is ready to use.

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