COOK ONCE EAT TWICE

Courgettes

“Why haven’t you posted anything this week?” a friend asked recently.

I started to talk through the list of what I’d been up to, how I hadn't cooked anything exciting, just lots of cook once, eat twice supper’s.

She looked rather confused until I explained it involved cooking enough for two different days. Cook once eat twice is always a bonus when you’re busy. 

It’s my ideal type of cooking. 

A little forward planning and you have straight forward, healthy wholesome meat and veggie meals for not much effort. 

The real joy is that you’re not eating exactly the same thing two days in a row.

 That has to be a winner.

This week we’ve used the good old staples, beef mince, and quorn for the Teen Veggie. From this we’ve had spaghetti bolognaise and stuffed courgettes.

With the ingredients below we have feed 4 of us, (3 meat eaters and 1vege) for two days plus left overs.

You can prepare both mince pots simultaneously as it is easy, just keep the pans separate!

MINCE AND QUORN BOLOGNAISE

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

500G mince beef

100g Quorn mince

1 onion ¾ in mince ¼ in veggie

1 red pepper

3 carrots - 2 in mince 1 in veggie

1 Courgette

4 cloves of garlic- 2 for mince 2 for veggie

1 tin tomatoes- you might want an extra 1/2 to make it go further

4 tsp Tomato paste – 2 in mince 2 in veggie

Slug of red wine(optinal)

5 pinches mixed herbs- 3 in mince 2 in veggie

You need two fying pans and two casserole dishes or saucepans

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Peel and chop all the vegetables (onion, pepper, carrots, garlic)

2.     Heat a small slug of oil in two frying pans and add the quorn to one and the mince to the other and let brown slightly.

3.     Then add  ¾ of all the veg to the mince and the other ¼ in the smaller pan with the quorn.

4.     Stir the browning meat/quorn until tender and the vegetables are soft.    

5.     Add the wine if using, mixed herbs, and the tomato puree.  Next stir in the tomatoes then transfer into the casserole dishes and let simmer for 45 minutes.

All you need to do is cook up some spaghetti and serve.

Quorn

Courgettes

Stuffed courgettes

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time 1 hour at 170 degrees

INGREDIENTS:

4 courgettes

Mince and quorn already cooked as above

40g bread crumbs

1 packet of Mozzarella

Salt and pepper

Grated parmesan to serve

You need 2 oven proof dishes.

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Preheat the oven to 170degrees. Slice the courgettes length wise and scrape the insides out with a teaspoon about 1cm deep.

2.     Lay the courgettes in the dishes..2 halves in one small dish the other 3 halves in a larger dish.

3.     Spoon the quorn mixture and mince mixture into and around the courgettes and then sprinkle with the bread crumbs

4.     Chop up the mozzarella and scatter over the breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper.

5.     Cover with aluminium foil and place in the oven for one hour.

Courgettes stuffed with Quorn

When cooked grate parmesan over the dishes and enjoy.