Good old January - the time of year we make endless promises on how we're going to better ourselves.
From exercising more to eating healthier, there's no end to what we start planning for the 12 months ahead.
Many families decide to take on the age-old battle of trying to get children to eat new things, but the last thing any of us need right now is to start splashing the cash on ingredients that could possibly end up in the bin.
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That's why I decided to try some of Aldi's budget recipe ideas, which rather impressively cost less than £1 a head.
The retailer has partnered with food blogger Becky Excell to create the meals, which also happen to be gluten free.
There are five to choose from, but I opted for the ones I thought my family would most likely eat - the sticky sausage stew, one pot smokey tomato rice and a sweet potato and chickpea curry.
I find the trickiest thing about trying new recipes is remembering everything, so I was armed with quite a list on my late night trip to Aldi.
Of course you could make it easier by simply adding them to an online basket, but you're unlikely to pay the same price as Aldi if you're getting them delivered. Along with its rival Lidl, it's particularly cheap for ingredients when you're cooking from scratch - a 40g pot of paprika at Aldi cost 59p for instance, whereas a 48g pot will set you back 95p at Tesco and 99p at Morrisons.
Likewise a tin of coconut milk, something that would rarely make it onto my shopping list, is 69p at Aldi, but £1 or more elsewhere.
Once I had what I needed, actually making the dishes was a doddle. I mean, with prep and cooking time, they're each around 40 minutes, so not something you'd probably attempt if it's one of those evenings where you're dashing around with after school sports or Scouts or whatever. But they're all doable on a general weekday.
My personal favourite was the sticky sausage stew, which was nice on its own but would also go well with some mash if you wanted to bulk it out a bit. I used Cumberland sausages rather than plain pork, as they were out of stock, but they were delicious drizzled with the honey mustard sauce, which gives the dish its name.
My only gripe was there are six sausages in the Specially Selected packs, and we're strictly a two-sausage per person household, three if you're lucky - unless the dog nabs it first. Next time I would probably swap for the Butcher's Select pack, which is not only bigger - with eight sausages - but cheaper too, at £1.49 a pack compared with £2.39. They contain wheat flour though so your dish would no longer be gluten free.
Usually our curries would include some sort of meat, generally chicken, so it made a change to have a meat-free one and it was surprisingly filling and flavoursome, thanks to the peanut butter. According to my other half, who loves a satay sauce, it was 'the best thing you've ever made' - and he's not easily impressed.
But the one that won us all over was undoubtedly the one pot smokey tomato rice, which even had my children unknowingly eating leeks, something they've never eaten before.
Mine didn't quite look like the photo - too much stock perhaps - but that didn't seem to matter. It had such a nice taste to it, with the cream cheese perfectly calming the strong flavours from the various spices. My kids won't eat anything that's particularly spicy so it was a winning combination.
The fact it was all done in one pot in around half an hour made it even more appealing, as there was less to wash afterwards. It's definitely one for the regulars list.
Here are the three recipes in full and you can see the shopping list and price breakdown on Aldi's website here.
Sticky sausage stew
Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
6 sausages or 12 chipolatas
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
1 tin (400g) butterbeans, drained
1.5 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp mixed herbs
500g carrots, chunkily chopped
Large handful of chopped spinach
Method
Preheat oven to 180C fan and lightly oil a baking tray.
Place the sausages onto the baking tray and cook for about 25 minutes until cooked and golden. You will need to turn them during cooking.
Mix honey and dijon mustard. Remove sausages from the oven drizzle the honey mustard all over the sausages, making sure they are well coated. Then pop them back in the oven for 5 minutes to get all sticky.
Whilst your sausages are cooking you can make the stew. Add your chopped carrots to a lightly oiled large pot (with a lid). Allow to cook for a few minutes before adding smoked paprika and mixed herbs. Coat the carrots and cook for about a minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes, stock and butterbeans, give it all a good mix then pop the lid on and cook for about 20 minutes till the carrots are cooked.
Remove the lid and allow to thicken up to your liking, this should take about 5 minutes.
Add the spinach and allow to wilt.
Add the sticky sausages and any of the sticky sauce from the baking tray to the stew and cook for a few minutes more. Then serve up.
Sweet potato and chickpea curry
Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
750g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tin (400ml) coconut milk
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp tomato puree
250ml vegetable stock
1 tin (400g) chickpeas, drained
large handful of chopped spinach
1 pepper
200g rice to serve
Method
Heat oil in a large pot (with a lid) and fry the cubed sweet potato for a few minutes.
Add the spices and coat the sweet potato, allow to cook for a minute or so more then add the pepper.
Pour in the coconut milk, peanut butter and tomato puree and stir together.
Then add the stock and chickpeas, stir once more and pop the lid on to allow the curry to simmer for about 15 minutes until the sweet potato is basically cooked.
Remove the lid and allow to cook for a further 10-15 minutes to thicken up to your liking.
Just before it’s done add in the spinach and allow to wilt down.
Serve with rice.
One pot smokey tomato rice
Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
half a red pepper
half a green pepper
100g leek greens, diced
400g chicken thighs (boneless), chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
200g long grain rice
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
850ml chicken stock
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp cream cheese
Method
Heat oil in a large pot (with a lid). Add the red/green pepper and leeks, fry for a few minutes. Add in the chicken and cook until just sealed.
Add the spices, then fry until everything is coated and the spices are fragrant. Then stir the rice in.
Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and stock to the saucepan and stir in. Turn down the heat and place the lid on for 8-10 minutes or until the rice is more puffed up and looking over half way done.
Remove the lid and continue to simmer whilst stirring occasionally, until all the liquid has evaporated and your rice is well cooked. Make sure you're stirring it every now and then so it doesn't stick to the pan. This should take around 15 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, add the cream cheese and stir in, then serve.
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