Stew with pumpkin and carrots and served with quinoa

I walk through the isles of the supermarket and for the first time I really see how ridiculously expensive everything is. Not that I shopped blindfolded before, but we’ve always been in the somewhat luxurious position of not having to count every penny we spend. And especially when it comes to food we don’t really pay attention if something is maybe 10 cents cheaper then the brand next to it. But ever since Mona started her living leaner challenge that has all changed. I have renewed respect for the people that manage to live of a salary half that of ours and have four (or more) mouths to feed too. I feel spoiled and somewhat embarrassed for having lived so recklessly before.

It’s also coming at a perfect time for us to be looking more at our spending pattern. Tom is without a job and while he still gets paid until the end of the year, finding a job has so far not been easy. And December is historically the worst month of the year to find a job anyway so it’s not very likely that he will succeed before the end of December. That also means that as of January our income will dramatically decrease. Neither of us have never been out of a job before. Well I think I was at the age of twenty for a whole month.. but that doesn’t count. Tom doesn’t like it. Gets terribly frustrated that he can’t find anything.

And that is understandable but I think we will somehow get through this and come out stronger at the other end. I will be glad that 2011 is about to end as it has been the worst year ever with loved ones dying, holidays cancelled due to earthquakes and other reasons, Tom losing his job… lol.. you would get depressed over less. Still in the grand scheme of things I do realize that there are tons of people who scrape by on far less and are in situations I hope to never be in, so it’s all relative. And I’m a positive person so all will work out in the end!

But to come back to the topic at hand; we’re having a fun time trying to eat for under the 10 euro and sofar it’s going fine. We’ve had to make some choices which we would otherwise not have made but also some delicious meals as a result of that! This pumpkin meal is another delicious one and coming in at € 7,37 for the meal but it will feed us for two days I’m sure.

1. Butternut squash / pumpkin     € 1,75
2. Cilantro                       € 1,39
3. Canned tomatoes      € 0,28
4. lemon                           € 0,47
5. onions                          € 0,59
6. Italian sausage           € 2,89

Used out of existing supplies are all the spices and the quinoa so that would be a big dent in the budget but they do last for quite a while normally. In the photos the sausages are not appearing as they weren’t ready yet but trust me if I say they go well with this otherwise vegetarian meal. So leave them in or out (leaving them out would make this even cheaper!)

Trapani rigatoni

It was time… It had been too long ago that Charlotte and myself (and Winfried) cooked up something fun together.. Well actually that is not even entirely true as Charlotte is also part of our cooking club so it’s not really that long, but cooking with more then two/three in this case does not count.. And quite frankly it is more or less and excuse to get together and have fun. And what better way to do that then in the kitchen. It was also on the first day of spring so a gorgeous gorgeous sunny day (I love spring don’t you? Flowerbuds and blossom are still a bit hesitant, but promise is in the air for sure!) After my failure with the buns earlier I figured I needed to make a bread that I knew how to do and it was easy to pick my pumkin-walnut focaccia that we so loved the last time I made it.

Preparing the pumpkin, stretching the dough (still a bit too sticky!) and before it goes in the oven!

It’s almost become kind of thing for us to make a Jamie Oliver recipe everytime we cook together. Possibly because the only decent cookbook that Charlotte owns is a Jamie cookbook (o, hahaha… sorry Charlotte, couldn’t resist..) so the rest is history… I had gotten Jamie’s 30 minute meals for christmas and while I love browsing through it I hadn’t actually made any recipes out of it yet. So we very quickly agreed on what we were gonna make. That same morning while reading through my stack of cookbooks in bed (do you do that too? Read cookbooks in bed??) I had already seen the dessert I fancied, which was a trifle of sorts with limoncello. We still had limoncello in the freezer from our trip to Italy so I figured it would be perfect for this! It didn’t take long for Charlotte to be convinced (2 seconds maybe?) as one look at the recipe and she was convinced too. It is that good!

I’ve always been a little hesitant to really believe the 30 minute menus. I mean, sure I can do a dish in 30 minutes as I love doing quick dishes during the weekdays, but a whole 3-course menu in 30 minutes seemed a bit too much too handle. But since we made two of the recipes of this particular 30 minute meal (we skipped the salad) I am inclined to think that it can actually be done. The pasta is incredibly tasty and the only thing is that you do need a  kitchenmachine or blender to make this, otherwise it’s possibly much longer. But we all loved the pasta, which is virtually vegetarian apart from the anchovy that goes in the sauce. Tom – always a meat eater – did not even complain that he didn’t get any meat. (he did complain that we did not make a more fancier menu after having been in the kitchen the entire afternoon, but he doesn’t get the ‘girls-need-to-be-able-to-talk-too’ thing…

I will give you both the recipe for the limoncello trifle and the pasta and I would really encourage you to make both! (plus the focaccia too….!! Sooo good!)

Seriously good pasta!

LIMONCELLO TRIFLE

• 3 oranges
• 3/4 dl limoncello
• 100 gr ladyfingers
• 250 gr mascarpone
• 2 tbsp of icing sugar plus a little extra for dusting
• 1 dl milk
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp of vanillapaste or extract (which I didn’t have so I used vanillapods instead)
• 150 gr of raspberries or other seasonal fruit
• 100 gr dark chocolate (70% cacao content) for grating on top

Juice the oranges in a bowl you can use for the finished dish. Mix it with the limoncello and taste to check if the alcohol vs the sweetness of the fruit has the right balance. You don’t want the alcohol to be too overpowering. Add a layer of ladyfingers at the bottom of the bowl.

In a separate bowl mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar and the milk. Add the zest of 1 lemon, the juice of 1/2 the lemon and the vanilla. Stir until everything is well combined. Spread the mixture over the layer ladyfingers, add the raspberries and finish it of with a layer of the grated chocolate. Put the trifle in the fridge until you need it.

Note: I did find that the end result was a bit wet. It doesn’t look very pretty but it has no effect on the taste. So if that happens, don’t worry about it…