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Ten days to go till I can tuck into a nice roast dinner (without beans) and I must say that I’m looking forward to it. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I’m sick of beans...I just feel like I’m on the M6 (longest motorway in the UK) and getting tired and need a rest break.
Thanks to everyone who has recently been recommending me different meal ideas, I will try my best to get around to them all.
Tonight’s winner winner chicken dinner (it’s not actually chicken) is some Mr Brains Faggots with Tesco reduced salt baked beans. The name says it all doesn’t it? Faggots are made from off-cuts and offal with traditional ingredients being (pig heart, liver and belly meat) but Mr Brains Faggots is mainly comprised of just liver and onion which is largely due to the growing unpopularity of this type of food, so not including the classic ingredients is there way of trying to gain more customers...what next, is the word faggot not allowed just in case it could offend? Should I call my coffee light brown and not black???....either way I think this is a real shame and not because I’m trying to hold on to the old days but because I hate change and want to keep all retro things in production including the classic 600 Polaroid, mini cooper and of course the classic faggot.
The faggots didn’t look as unappealing as I thought they would, they just looked like large meatballs with gravy (ohhh noooo) but this was not the case, they were very fluffy and almost tasted like a large stuffing ball with no chewy toe nails or balls of gristle. The baked beans went very well with the faggots and I genuinely enjoyed this meal...just shows that the classic dishes passed down through generations really are the best ones.
This BBQ requires no charcoal or lighter fluid but simply a hand that is capable of effectively using a tin opener.
The front of the Hunger Breaks tin had a colourful picture of all the ingredients you would have for a classic BBQ (Sausages, burgers, Ribs and of course baked beans??) the picture did look appealing but when opening the can I realised that the marketing department really did have a few people who knew how to use Photoshop well.
Upon gazing down into the tin I noticed that everything had congealed together and looked something like you would expect to find in your small intestines (where a majority of the digestion takes place) but I have learnt to never judge a book by its cover from my run in with Mr Octopus. Once I had dislodged the contents from the tin into a saucepan I could see the five BBQ items that had been mechanically shot into the tin from what I think was a huge height (over 100ft) While eating the food I couldn't help but notice the flavour in the sauce that I think was supposed to trick you into thinking it had been over some hot coals but ended up tasting like I had slightly burnt it all in the saucepan (which I could have done) the ingredients themselves were very tasteless with the majority of the flavour coming from the baked beans. Don’t get me wrong, this was by no means close to the worst meal so far but it does rank close to the meatballs (unsurprisingly as they are both a similar product) great for explorers and campers and those who never have access to a BBQ and that’s about it.These were a present given to me so in some ways I wish I could give a more positive review of them but as always I’m very thankful and appreciate the help along the way in this experiment. I don’t have long left now and it’s hard to think of new and creative ideas but I’m heading back into the jungle very soon and will be exploring some never before tried concoctions’.
Cottage pie was introduced in 1971 for the “cottage workers” which in other terms means the lower class workers of that time. However since its humble introduction it has taken hold of the population as a classic dish which is now eaten by both rich and poor.Many variances of this dish have been created throughout the years depending on regional ingredients and I have come across other people who use baked beans in this dish but also people who have never heard of using this as an ingredient. I was cooking for my housemate tonight who was also recovering from the same bug that i had so i decided to spare her from the original planned meal of fried rat with beans and treat us both to a wholesome classic meal that would surely knock days off the recovery process. After cooking the onions, mushrooms and mince i was ready to add the tin of baked beans and then fill the dish and top with mashed potato and cheese...20 minutes in the over and it was ready to eat with some gravy. The picture doesn’t show the true amount of beans as most of them are snuggled away under the main body of potato.
I really enjoyed this meal but I’m sure eating it on a nice country farm with huge log fire and big oak dinner table would have somehow made it taste better. I’ll be getting back to experimenting with beans and random ingredients very soon but needed this classic dish to help me get back to 100% health :)
This one was recommended to me on my Facebook group by a person who I don’t know but fully respect for taking the time to detail a meal that I may well have overlooked and missed out on otherwise.
Most Mexican dishes use some type of bean in the ingredients so I was sure that having a little tomato juice would not negatively affect the overall taste of this classic cinema snack that is always excessively overprices (£3 for a small box- approx) but this Tesco credit crunch buster cost a grant total of just 60p (bargain)
The simplicity of constructing this meal even surprised me. Fill the bowl with the chips, cover in beans, add some grated cheese then put under the grill for 5 minutes and its ready to be served with a few dollops of salsa dip and Tabasco sauce.
The end result was a meal that has now taken the no1 spot for the best looking bean dish which is largely due to my organisational skills of the chips around the side of the plate (very Gordon Ramsay)I can’t say a bad word about this meal, I consumed the whole lot while watching Skins and it wasn’t a struggle like the meatballs or noodles. I’m always open to any further suggestions on future meals (mouth-watering or toilet grabbing) which I’m eagerly awaiting...
Probably one of the most versatile and popular dishes in the solar system......the omelette which is not only extremely filling, tasty and easy to cook but it can be combined with almost any other ingredient on earth with minimal fuss. It was only time until the baked bean met up with its soul mate and bubbled away together in a warm oily pan.
I was craving something nice and filling tonight and this did not disappoint. I got the idea while looking on YouTube at those DIY cooking clips and thought “I can produce the masterpiece that was just shown to me”...so off I set.
Three free range eggs (I’m very strict on not getting battery farm eggs as I know what the dirty old farmers do with them late at night, at least if they are free range then they have the chance to run away thus reducing my chances of consuming anything) add a slash of milk to give it that fluffy texture, a sprinkle of grated mature cheese and a tin of beans.
I added them to a hot pan but quickly realised that the omelette was about 3 inches thick and this was far too much for the small pan to handle but it was too late and I had to solider on knowing that it would be messy and hard to cook. After much prodding and moving around I finally managed to flip it over the best I could but the finished product looked like a large salmon had been run over by a juggernaut.
Eating this road kill look-a-like was a real pleasure, tasting so so good and it was cooked to perfection. The cheese added a little tang that proved to be the finishing touch.
I will once again be going to bed feeling very satisfied and looking forward to tomorrows treat..
A refreshing meal was required after last night’s gristle filled meatballs that I’m sure have taken years off my life and were not meant for human consumption but for animal feed.
I needed something that would regenerate by body and mind like a warm wave of love spreading across the world.
This dream was realised when I noticed some nice ripe avocados in my local shop...I was not expecting to find this as it mainly only stocks processed foods that have a shelf life of at least 100 years or more, but it seems my luck was in so I put them into my basket and headed back to prepare the food.
Avocados were a perfect visual accompaniment for the Waitrose baked beans which also came in the mysterious package the other day. Once the pip was taken out of the avocado it was ready to be filled with a few beans and the remainder were tipped along the outside of the plate for added looks.
This was a meal that could be served in a high class restaurant and probably not even get any funny looks (maybe I’ve been around beans to long as I do think this is true) I was unsure how the cold and hot mixture of foods would taste but I was pleasantly surprised...I didn’t expect the textures to go this well together.
The Waitrose beans were full of flavour and tasted unusually fresh for a tinned product while the cholesterol lowering avocado gave me that lift that I was looking for and added the years that were previously taken away back onto my life.
I think this is the most visually pleasing dish I have created during this experiment and will be one that may be hard to beat!!
Tonight’s meal features a special guest appearance of some organic baked beans which were mysteriously sent to me in a package from an unknown sender....whoever this person is must be a fan of the blog so I would like to say thanks for the kind gesture....just proves that some people have a genuinely kind heart.
These organic baked beans could not have come at a better time due to my current physical condition (man flu) which by the way is far worse than most illnesses but girls still don’t understand this!!! This delivery of beans has allowed me to stay indoors and thus increase the recovery time...however I am still limited to my local shop for ingredients which has impacted on my meals severely.
The baked beans looked great and having the organic element really made me feel like I was doing my bit for the world....that is until I threw the tin direct in the bin without any thought for recycling (oh well, one step at a time) I was actually looking forward to the meatballs until I realised I had purchased them in gravy which once opened looking very much like dog-food (even the realistic tripe smell)
I decided that cooking them separately would do little but add more washing up so I combined them both in the same saucepan. Once they were ready the beans had gone a little brown colour due to the gravy in the meatballs and it unfortunately didn’t taste that great.....some of the meatballs had little bits of gristle in which instantly put me off and made me think about what went into these unnaturally round balls.
I wish I had saved the organic beans for an ingredient that was worthy of them but you learn from mistakes right so tomorrows one will be a little bit better thought out...
