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Today’s meal came from the land of tigers, elephants, camels and of course the sacred cow....that’s right, it’s India which gave birth to all the different varieties of curries that are found around the world today, including the Heinz Curried Beans variety.
I was very surprised to find this particular variety of beans and never knew how big the baked bean market was until now...there seems to be a different variety of beans of almost everyone, the health conscious, the caveman hunter and the traveller who seeks out beans from around the world.
It really is astonishing and until you really take a close look at your supermarket baked bean selection your life will be that little bit duller than it otherwise could be.
The accompanying dish for today’s curried beans was a value curry for a staggering 79p...I really did question how this could be made for such a small price with any profit being made but after some deep thought on the walk home I decided that the chicken was more than likely abused on many different levels, this left me in a moral dilemma..."do I eat the abused chicken or not".............i quickly decided that I couldn’t let the chicken die for no reason and throwing the pieces in the bin would be a huge disrespect to the former Mr Chicken so decided to help fulfil his destiny, either way I put this to the back of my mind and served up the value curry and poured the curried beans over the top.
The meal was satisfying if not slightly hot on the taste buds but I could not pinpoint if this came from the baked beans or the rice!!
A very filling meal thanks largely to the rice, I feel this would be great after a night out on the town with your friends due to the quick cooking time and jokes that can be had regarding the bits of chicken that you are throwing around the room!!!!
After my last two meals I felt I deserved a treat, something that wouldn’t make me feel sick or depressed and this came in the form of a BBQ bean pizza.I chose a value pizza (Sainsbury’s 69p) this was because the cheap pizzas have the least toppings on and allow for more beans to be applied. Heinz BBQ beans were also purchased which when I found genuinely did excite me, I had been told about them before but could never seem to find them, they became a legend in my mind, a myth that I could not ever find but ohhhhhhhh nooooooo...their they were standing on the shelf at eye level for just 59 dirty pennies.. so “thank you very much” I said out aloud and quickly put them into my basket.
Cooking could not really have been simpler, spread the succulent beans on the pizza and insert into the warm oven!! “Brilliant” I thought. The 15minutes waiting time passed quickly while I made a pot of tea.
I was unsure how successful the beans would be in staying on the pizza base but to my surprise they had remained where I left them (this would not have been the case if I had used the value beans which were much more juicy) I decorated the pizza with some cheese to one again spice things up and then took it to my room for consumption.
The pizza went down really well, so well in fact that I could have had another one...the BBQ sauce turned an otherwise boring pizza into a titillating feast and a fantastic meal that left me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside (maybe the pizza is slightly undercooked) I would recommend this to everyone but especially people with injured hands and vegetarians as they are limited with pizza topping options and this one is a sure fire winner.....more tomorrow
Today’s dish of the day was Tesco healthy choice beans (with 30% less sugar than other beans 41p) and some Amoy noodles which are classically used for stir-fry’s. Adding an oriental twist to the meal really did excite me and almost made me grab my backpack and head off into the great unknown but then I realised that completing this experiment was far more important so I then hurried back to the stove where my noodles were now ready after just 2min’s of cooking with the beans close behind.
I toyed with the idea of adding some other ingredients but I was now extremely hungry and so settled with the ingredients in front of me. A high energy meal with bland colours and repetitive texture was now being consumed, this brought back depressing memories from last night’s meal (beans and pancakes) but a job is a job so it had to be eaten and besides with all the world hunger I would feel a little bit wasteful if its destiny was for the bin.
Even with the 30% less sugar in the healthy choice beans the flavor was the same as other beans I have tried, this leads me to believe that companies are putting too much sugar in beans for no apparent reason (I will have to look into this further) The meal had its high points (very filling and extremely quick to cook) and of course its low points (slight sickening feeling and bad flashbacks of the pancakes) Tomorrow’s meal must be full of more flavor and possibly have a longer cooking time as I am starting to miss the preparation of food although ideas for new meals are becoming harder and harder.....
My housemates today decided to cook me pancakes which I was extremely thankful for but had a great idea of combining them with beans!!.
The initial idea of this made me feel sick but variety is the spice of life right.....or so they say..so “what the hell” I thought. The choice of beans for today’s culinary delight were Sainsbury’s value baked beans (29p) these beans disappointed me on many levels which has now left me feeling slightly depressed.
First of all they were extremely juicy which caused a problem for this particular dish as I need the contents to stay within the pancake, this forced me to strain the beans after cooking and then spoon them into the circular delights. I then wrapped them up like you would with any other filling (lemon, jam etc) The first bite was hard for me to take, but once my mouth was full of beans and pancake the real hardship started. It was very bland and chewy and made me feel slightly sick but I knew that I would come across dishes that I would not get along with on this experiment. I would not personally recommend beans in pancakes unless it was to an enemy and even then I would think twice and would be nice enough to recommend them Branston beans (nice and thick sauce which is ideal for this dish). I must now go and have a cup of tea to help me get rid of the lingering taste...
My last post promised that the next meal would have more love, attention and artistic expression which i feel has been achieved with this valentine special.
A must for all men on a budget who are trying to impress their partners.
A single slice of white bread with a heart cut out of the middle with my nimble fingers (i sometimes think i should be a watch smith) and then filled with the luscious baked beans (Tesco healthy choice beans 42p) the beans could not be poured from the saucepan due to the preciseness needed and so were spooned in till filled.
This meal would never be complete without the added cupids arrow which was achieved by using some Heinz Ketchup (squeezable bottle) this was harder than i anticipated but i am happy with the outcome.
This was a great valentines meal although i would have liked larger portion sizes as i was not filled to the levels i would have liked which can be remedied if you can bake your own bread and produce a much larger slice of bread or alternatively stacking several bits on top of each other to allow for a deeper filling of beans.
Health wise i am doing fine, no strange symptoms as of yet, this proves the adaptability of the human body but i still have a long time left so i don’t want to speak to soon.
Emotionally i am also doing well, however i do spend a large part of the day talking/thinking about beans and potential meals that can be devised and i hope that this is where my emotional journey will stay but i have a suspicious feeling that this will not be the case
I would like to take this moment to apologise for the late post, however some friends from the land of Somerset came down for a night of bean fueled fun :)
Tonights meal was a tin of Branston beans which came in a beautifully presented tin which cost me 64p. I also decided to put a slice of fake cheese on top just to mix things up a little bit, but i would have liked to spend longer in the preparation of this meal and feel it was slightly hurried and lacked the passion that it deserves.
The Branson beans were extremely tastie with a very thick sauce. The baked beans were also larger than that of its rivals which in my opinion made for a much better tasting bean that is aimed at men who are looking for a bean with extra kick. The fake cheese melted tremendously over the top of the hot baked beans which added a whole new dimension to the meal that was very pleasant and overall a rewarding experience.
Tomorrows meal will be made with much more love and passion with an artistic element added :)
This is a must for all campers and one that i have been looking forward to since starting this experiment. Heinz beans with 8 pork sausages all sealed in a well presented tin that cost 89p.
I thoroughly enjoyed the meal but did feel out of place eating it indoors and not under the stars which got me slightly depressed but this did soon pass.
Today i started smelling beans for no apparent reason which is the first side effect i have felt yet and also a very strange one, the only reason i can think of is that im sweating some bean juice out of my system :) Im not sick of beans but i feel i will be hitting the wall very soon...stay tuned!!!
