Cooking with kids – budgeting, buying and cooking 23

 in cooking with children / Mains / receipe  tagged cooking with kids / kids in the kitchen / recipe by

Welcome back to our A-Z ingredients cooking with kids series.  We are currently at H is for honey.  As an added challenge this week, we were asked to produce a three course dinner for four on a budget of £20 by Ffrees.  So I passed this over to Maxi who is ten and he certainly rose to the challenge in budgeting, buying and cooking us a fantastic Sunday dinner.

Sample text background notebook on wooden table

Sample text background notebook on wooden table

So to start with Maxi devised his menu.  All I told him is that it had to be three courses, under £20 and have honey in it somewhere! So this was what he came up with.

  • Grilled halloumi salad with honey mustard dressing
  • Spaghetti bolognese
  • Chocolate cheesecake with raspberries

We shop at Lidl and Aldi and this week Lidl have a greek week so halloumi with chilli was only £1.39 and baby plum tomatoes were part of the Aldi super six so only 59p.  Baby spinach is a great salad leaf to try with kids.  Spinach is simple to grow and has a mild, mellow taste.

Maxi set down with the Ipad to see what offers were on this week at Aldi and Lidl, which are where we shop.  He also thought about the fact that preparing and cooking three course would be a big challenge, so decided (with a little help from me) that preparing the bolognese in the slow cooker and also buying a ready made dessert was the way forward! Using the MySupermarket app, Maxi worked out how much his shopping would be and also what we had in the house that could be used such as the worcester sauce and mixed italian herbs.  He also used fresh basil out of the garden.

Our weekly food budget is £70 at the moment, so £20 for one meal is a LOT and maxi realised that.  Although he spent all bar 49p of the £20, we actually have enough bolognese for another meal, the same with the pasta and also enough salad for 2 more meals.

Ingredient list

Spinach £1.19
Cucumber £0.44
Tomatoes £0.59
Halloumi £1.39
Lemon £0.75
Mince £3.69
Passata £0.35
Tomato puree £0.37
Spaghetti £0.45
Onions £0.59
Garlic £0.79
Peppers £0.95
Cheesecake £2.99
Mustard £0.59
Halloumi £1.39
Olive oil £2.99
£19.51

Once he had wrote out his shopping list, we went to the supermarket and shopping.  Then once we got home it was cooking time!

 

Grilled Halloumi Salad with Honey mustard dressing

 

halloumi salad

 

Ingredients

Halloumi with chilli
Baby plum tomatoes
Baby Spinach leaves
Cucumber
Honey
Dijon Mustard
Lemon
Olive oil
Salt

Method

Cut your haloumi into 1cm thick slices
Slice your cucumber into thin slice

cutting cucumber

Half you tomatoes
Place your spinach leaves and other salad ingredients in to a bowl
Grill your halloumi or fry with a little olive oil until golden on each side and place in the bowl
Take 1 teaspoon of mustard and one teaspoon of honey and place into a small jar.
Add the juice of one lemon, pinch of salt and a glug of olive oil and give a good shake.
Serve

halloumi salad1
More H is for Honey Recipes from the Cooking with Kids Team

Honey Granola – Rainy Day Mum

Grilled Halloumi Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing – The Mad House

Honey Crispy Treats – Sugar Aunts

Fried Ice Cream Sundaes – Still Playing School

Homemade Honey Caramel Sauce – Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Slow cooker bolognese with Spaghetti

 

bolognese

Ingredients 

2 onions – finely diced
3 peppers – finely diced
2 cloves of garlic – crushed or chopped
pack of quorn mince or beef mince
jar or packet of passata
Tomato puree
teaspoon of sugar
Mixed herbs
Worcester Sauce

bolognese 2

Method

We make bolognese in the slow cooker as it can be prepared in advance, cooks slowly throughout the day and it is delicious.
Dice your onions and peppers and add to a prewarmed slow cooker
Add your mince
The the garlic, herbs and worcester sauce
Then add the pasata or a tin of chopped tomatoes
Cook on high power for four hours or low power for eight hours

maxi cooking

We ended our meal with a fab specially selected chocolate cheesecake from Aldi at £2.99 it was amazing!

Rp_Desserts_PD7a_4d6626fde5

5 from 3 votes
Print

Grilled Halloumi Salad with Honey Mustard dressing

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 4
Author The Mad House

Ingredients

  • Halloumi with chilli
  • Baby plum tomatoes
  • leaves Baby Spinach
  • Cucumber
  • Honey
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Lemon
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Cut your haloumi into 1cm thick slices
  2. Slice your cucumber into thin slice
  3. Half you tomatoes
  4. Place your spinach leaves and other salad ingredients in to a bowl
  5. Grill your halloumi or fry with a little olive oil until golden on each side and place in the bowl
  6. Take 1 teaspoon of mustard and one teaspoon of honey and place into a small jar.
  7. Add the juice of one lemon, pinch of salt and a glug of olive oil and give a good shake.
  8. Serve

honey mustard dressing

5 from 3 votes
Print

Slow cooker bolognese with Spaghetti

This is a great basic recipe for kids to master. Making it in the slow cooker is a simple way and also makes the finished recipe delicious
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 10 minutes
Servings 8
Author The Mad House

Ingredients

  • 2 onions - finely diced
  • 3 peppers - finely diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic - crushed or chopped
  • pack of quorn mince or beef mince
  • jar or packet of passata
  • Tomato puree
  • Teaspoon of sugar
  • Mixed herbs
  • Worcester Sauce

Instructions

  1. We make bolognese in the slow cooker as it can be prepared in advance, cooks slowly throughout the day and it is delicious.
  2. Dice your onions and peppers and add to a prewarmed slow cooker
  3. Add your mince
  4. The the garlic, herbs and worcester sauce
  5. Then add the pasta or a tin of chopped tomatoes and a good squirt of tomato puree
  6. Add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt and peper
  7. Cook on high power for four hours or low power for eight hours

slow cooker bolognese

 

Sample text background notebook on wooden table

honey mustard dressing

slow cooker bol

 

 

Disclosure – we were provided with £20 for our meal by Ffrees


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