You need not spend a mint on meals that would otherwise cost a small fortune in a local or even Michelin Star restaurant; and the secret to this is being creative with themes and trying them with confidence in out in the comfort of your own home.
We recently talked about what we would order were we dining at a nice beachfront restaurant with the waves splashing against the shore and the sun kissing our skin as it went down in the evening - the value of this type of joint and inclusive family discussion is covered in our previous post entitled "Give your Home an Identity that helps you StressBust™".
One common reply was that people wanted the best of both worlds - some fresh fish to immerse the sounds and smells of the sea with and a meat element as well.
The conclusion we came to was that some sort of "Surf & Turf" theme was the order of the evening!
Fast forward 5 minutes and with our freezer raided, we had pulled together the perfect combo from the items we already had in the house, namely:-
● Budget fish fingers @ 99p for 10
● smoked bacon at 99p for 6 rashers
● rocket salad at 79p per bag
● tiger bread at £1.49 per loaf
● "Utterly Butterly"
● tomato ketchup & lighter than light mayonnaise.
We put the fish fingers in the air fryer and started to pan fry the smoked bacon. In the meantime, we buttered our bread and added ketchup, avocado mayo, or both, according to taste.
On to the fresh tiger bread went the cooked fish fingers and bacon, topped with some rocket; et voila, a home created "Deep filled Surf and Turf Club Sandwich" created courtesy of HeadChefSantiago in around 15 minutes that fed a whole family fo, wait for it, around £1.00 per person 👌🙌, generating an estimated saving of buying this at a restaurant for the family of approximately £35.00 😲👍💥
The ingredients above could be easily replicable to suit a vegetarian or vegan diet by utilisation of the many spectacular meat, fish and mayo replacement items on the market to suit own taste and preference - see my earlier post on the most Stressbusting™ foods for vegans and vegetarians if of interest.
It is liberating to have fun with food and be creative on the cooking front at home in this way, not to mention amazing how many unique ideas you can come up with on the spur of the moment when you limit yourself to use only of ingredients you already have in your fridge or freezer; this is also a hugely enjoyable StressBusting™ exercise that we invite readers to try out themselves and share with us the resulting dishes by either commenting or reaching out via our "Contact" page.
If you are interested on accessing more cooking and diet related posts from yours truly, then just type "HeadChefSantiago" into this site's dedicated search facility.
Love,
Your very own HeadChefSantiago™💗❤ xxxxx