Good Simple Food...

I have rediscovered whilst trying to improve my health the spirit to be adventurous. As times are tough I am also looking at ways to eat well but try and avoid the increase in food prices in the shops which has shot up considerably of late. And try and cut back on meals that are prepared which often expensive or if at a reasonable price they could have hidden ingredients and be high on salt, sugar and fat.

So tonight I had the following and how simple could this be.

• Lean Lamb Mince
• Mixed Vegetables
• Diced Onion
• Bisto Lamb Gravy Granules

In a small amount of Olive Oil fry off(browned)the Mince, in a saucepan have half a pint of water with Bisto Lamb Gravy Granules warming up with some Diced Onion in the gravy.

When the mince is cooked...put the Mince into the saucepan and let it simmer for approx 20-25 minutes...but in theory as the Mince was cooked you probably could cut this time but I think it allows the flavour of the gravy to soak into the Mince and vice versa. It softens the Onion too.

Approx 5 minutes before serving empty the can of Mixed Vegetables into the gravy.

Let everything to continue to simmer.

Pour the contents into a couple of bowls and serve immediately.

And so little preparation there was no requirement to use a slow cooker(often if you want something similar to a casserole)it's suggested you set it away before work and when you return home hours later, it's cooked.

It tasted so good and could be called either a soup or casserole. I could imagine on a cold Winter's Day this warming you up.

I had expected to cook and add vegetables to the meal. I rarely buy tinned vegetables but I remembered I had a can in the cupboard and it happened to contain Turnip, Potato, Carrot and Peas. So I drained off the brine and rinsed the contents in fresh water, drained again and added it to the saucepan.

But the surprise was that the vegetables were already diced into small squares so there was nothing to do. The only disappointment was that there were so few peas and they were not as good as I thought they could be so I added a few spoonfuls of Bird's Eye Frozen Petite Pois Peas and that made enough of a difference.

I reckon each portion cost no more than approx 80p($1.35 US Dollars)

Perhaps you'd like to give it a go...

(Some ingredients may have to be substituted for similar items if you live outside the UK)