Blog – Scran Plan

Recipes

Have it your way houmous

This is tasty and easy to make, and the chickpeas can be swapped for other beans in the cupboard for more variety.

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Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 3

Equipment

Hand blender

Ingredients

1 tin Chickpeas Drained – reserve the liquid
1 tbsp Olive oil
1½ tbsp Lemon juice
1 clove Garlic
½ tsp Ground cumin
1½ tbsp Tahini paste Sesame seed paste

Optional

½ whole Roast pepper
1 pinch Smoked paprika
1 tbsp Coriander Fresh, chopped

Instructions

Blend all the ingredients together with about 4 tbsp of the reserved chickpea liquid, adding more if needed to get the right consistency.

Optional

Take out ⅓ of the mixture to serve as-is, take out ⅓ of the mixture and mix in the chopped coriander. Add the roast red pepper to the remaining ⅓ and blend it in, then serve with the smoked paprika sprinkled on top.

Notes

Great with carrot and cucumber batons for an extra portion of vegetables, or small bread sticks for dippers.

Swap out the optional ingredients for tasty additions like jalapenos, capers or mini fire chillis for houmous your way.

Keyword 5-a-day, family friendly, healthy

Tags 5-a-day, family friendly, healthy

Recipes

Throw it Together in Three Minutes Lunch

Post author By ScranMa
Post date July 11, 2020
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Throw it Together in Three Minutes Lunch

This was a quick tuna salad thrown together a day I needed healthy food in a hurry and it worked so well I copied it again the next day again.

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Prep Time 3

Total Time 3

Course Appetizer, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 1

Ingredients

½ tin Chickpeas Drained – the other half tin with the drained juice put in a mug in the fridge for tomorrow
6 whole Cherry tomatoes Quartered
1 tin Tuna Drained
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
10 whole Black olives From jar in brine
1 tsp Capers From jar in brine

Optional½

6 leaves Basil Ripped into pieces

Instructions

Chuck it all together in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste, stir then enjoy!

Notes

This is about 3.5 of the 5-a-day target, here’s the working:

6 cherry tomatoes	168	g
10 olives	40	g
Basil	6	g
Total weight of veg	214	g
5-a-day per serving (80g = 1 portion of 5-a-day) of veg	2.5
Chickpeas	117.5	g
Plus portion of beans/pulses (no matter how much always 1 portion)	1
Number of servings	1	Servings
5-a-day per serving (veg plus beans/pulses)	3.5	5-a-day per serving

Keyword 5-a-day, cheap, easy, quick

Tags 5-a-day, cheap, easy, quick

Recipes

Wibble Wobble Fruity Jelly

Post author By ScranMa
Post date July 11, 2020
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Wibble Wobble Fruity Jelly

This uses frozen fruit to quickly set the jelly, and easily adds one of your 5-a-day to pudding.

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Prep Time 3

Cooling time 1

Total Time 1 3

Course Dessert, Pudding

Servings 4

Ingredients

1 packet Jelly mix
320 g Mixed berries Frozen

Instructions

Put the frozen mixed berries into a dish.
Make up the jelly mix in a jug according to the instructions and pour it over the frozen berries. Leave to chill for about an hour until it's set.

Notes

If you want it to set faster, then make up the mix with slightly less boiling water to dissolve the jelly mix, then add a couple of ice cubes, and mix until they’re melted, and top up with cold water to the level indicated on the packet. It’s easiest to make up the jelly mix in a glass or pyrex jug as you can see from the bottom if all the mix has been dissolved.

The kids can make this apart from the pouring of boiling water, as long as they stir carefully; they enjoy mixing in the ice cubes and hearing the cracking of the ice and watching it dissolve, then they’re more likely to eat the fruit.

Keyword 5-a-day, cheap, family friendly, kids cooking

Tags 5-a-day, cheap, family friendly, kids cooking

Recipes

Napoleon Slice

This is my granny's recipe, for a delicious traybake that's also gluten-free and nut-free.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

Course Dessert, Traybake

Servings 24

Ingredients

400 g Chocolate Milk or dark – your preference
200 g Dessicated coconut
200 g Glace cherries Check gluten free – quartered
200 g Sultanas Or mixed fruit, though check gluten free
200 g Caster sugar
4 medium Eggs Or 3 Jumbo eggs (~70g each)

Instructions

Line a large tin with tin foil, and try not to crease it other than theh 4 corners as it makes it hard to get the foil off at the end. The big roasting tin here is 21cm x 31cm across the bottom.
Break the chocolate into pieces and put into a glass jug, then put it in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir, then put back in for 45 seconds. Stir until it's all melted, putting it back in for 15 more seconds at a time if needed and stirring well so that it doesn't bubble.
Pour the melted chocolate over the foil and smooth it over (bash the whole tin on the work surface a few times so that it evens out across the bottom of the tin) and set aside to cool.
Put the oven on 160C (fan).
Break the eggs into a cup and mix with a fork.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix them up. Add the egg mixture in and stir all together.
Pour the coconut mix over the top of the cooled chocolate and smooth down so that it's even. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is light golden brown.
Leave to cool in the tin, pulling the tin foil down after about 10 minutes when the chocolate has started to cool but isn't yet solid. Leave until fully cooled before cutting with a sharp knife.

Notes

You can switch the 200g sultanas for 200g of mixed fruit if you like a slightly more bitter and varied taste, it’s also delicious (photos are of this tweak).

Keyword 5-a-day, gluten free, kids cooking, nut free, traybake

Napoleon slice with chocolate cooled and cherry, coconut and egg mix ready — Cherry coconut Napoleon slice traybake

Tags 5-a-day, family friendly, gluten free, kids cooking, nut free, traybake

Recipes

Banana Scrummies

Bananas, sultanas, oats and spices baked into scrummies

Banana Scrummies

These are a really healthy and filling treat for kids, which they can make themselves (though will need help for the oven bit).

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Course Pudding, Snack

Cuisine Scottish

Servings 16

Ingredients

4 whole Bananas Spotty ones are best for taste and easiest for kids to mash
125 g Porridge oats
60 g Sultanas
½ tsp Mixed spice

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 160C (fan) and either grease some baking paper or use silicon mats on 2 baking trays.
Mash the bananas, then mix in the oats, raisins and spices to get a thick texture.
Use 2 spoons to drop dollops of the mix onto the prepared baking trays to make about 16 scrummies.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until cooked through and golden. Cool on a wire rack, then serve.

Notes

They can also be individually wrapped and frozen, and then added to a snack box for a tasty, healthy treat at school. It’s best to use greaseproof paper or tin foil to wrap individually as they tend to stick to the paper cases [Note to self: don’t use paper cases again!]

Keyword 5-a-day, cheap, dairy free, healthy, kids cooking, spotty bananas, treat

Banana scrummies cooling on wire rack — Bananas, sultanas, oats and spices baked into scrummies

Tags 5-a-day, cheap, dairy free, healthy, kids cooking, spotty bananas, treat

Recipes

ScranDad’s Giant Creme Caramel

Post author By ScranMa
Post date July 8, 2020
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Big creme caramel pouring the caramel on top of the custard

ScranDad’s Giant Creme Caramel

We love this for a father's day treat, so that ScranDad could have an indulgently large dish of classic creme caramel instead of a small ramekin. It takes a few hours, so best to prepare the day before so it's ready in the fridge.

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Prep Time 5

Cook Time 45

Caramel Cooking Time 25

Total Time 1 15

Course Dessert, Pudding

Cuisine French

Servings 6

Ingredients

Caramel

160 g Sugar Brown sugar will make it an even darker caramel
90 ml Water

Custard

3 Extra large Eggs Same as 4 medium eggs
2 whole Egg yolks
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
25 g Caster sugar
600 ml Whole milk

Optional to serve

300 ml Pouring cream

Instructions

Caramel

Put the large dish into the oven on a low heat (150C). This is so the dish doesn't crack when the boiling sugar mix is poured in.
Put the sugar and water into a saucepan on a low heat, and warm until the sugar is entirely dissolved. Check with the bottom of the spoon there are no granules left in the middle of the pan when stirred.
Stop stirring and let it boil until the caramel turns dark copper coloured. If you have a sugar thermometer this is above 174C.
Take it off the heat so it doesn't burn and pour it into the warmed dish. Then set it aside on a cooling rack so that it becomes hard.
Once the caramel is hard and the dish has cooled a bit, butter the side of the dish above the caramel to stop the custard sticking later.

Custard

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract and caster sugar together in a large bowl until well mixed.
Boil a filled kettle.
Warm the milk in a pan until it's hot but not scalding (so you can just dip your finger in and not burn it). Strain the milk through a sieve into the egg and sugar mix.
Whisk it all together until it's smooth, then pour the mixture into the large dish.
Stand the dish in a roasting tin, and fill it to half way with boiling water from the kettle.
Cook in the oven for about 40-50 minutes or until the custard has set. Don't overcook the custard: check around the edges of the dish, to make sure no bubbles are appearing.
Take the dish out of the oven and set it onto a cooling rack. Once it's fully cooled, transfer to the fridge to chill, and so that the caramel is absorbed into the custard (best overnight).
To serve, loosen the edges of the custard with a knife, and put a large plate on top of the dish, then invert the lot and shoogle (shake) the dish and tap the top so that the whole thing goes onto the plate.
Optionally serve with the pouring cream.

Notes

There’s additional cooling time of about 20 minutes for the caramel mix, about 2 hours for the custard to come to room temperature, then another 2-3 hours in the fridge. It can be done in one day if you start early, but chilling overnight for more time for the caramel to be absorbed into the custard is better.

Keyword classic

Tags classic, treat

Recipes

Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)

Post author By ScranMa
Post date May 8, 2020
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Yellow split pea dahl with mini naan and glass of wine

Slow Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)

ScranMa

This is a really easy, cheap and tasty dish, and can be made from store cupboard and freezer ingredients. If you're using the spices for the first time you can use a mild curry powder instead of the individual spices listed here to cut costs. It can be a main dish, or served as a side dish.

My kids eat this because they like the Roald Dahl stories (hence the name Yellow Roald Dahl) and because it's not very spicy. Add 1tsp hot chilli powder to the slow cooker mix for some extra zing!

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 6

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Equipment

Slow cooker (crockpot)

Ingredients

8 spray Spray oil
260 g Yellow split peas Rinsed (or not if you're feeling lazy)
3 cloves Garlic Chopped (or straight from freezer)
1 whole Onion Chopped (or straight from freezer)
2 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 tsp Root Ginger Chopped (or straight from freezer)
2 whole Stock Cubes Best with 1 Kallo Vegetable and 1 Kallo Garlic & Herb
750 ml Water
1 stick Lovage Optional! Included once as a friend gave us one stick and it was great, you could use 2-3 sticks of celery chopped instead, it's an entirely optional extra .
400 g Carrots Diced

Instructions

Put the slow cooker on a medium heat.
Mist the slow cooker ceramic bowl with cooking spray. Put the split peas, onion, turmeric, ground cumin, crushed garlic, ginger and stock in slow cooker and stir. Optionally add 400g of carrots (or cauliflower florets are also a good tweak), submerging in the liquid. Cover and leave on medium for 6h (or low for 11h).
For an optional side, which tastes so good the kids were fighting over the last sprout (I still can't quite believe it): just before end of slow cooking time, heat 1/2 tbsp sesame oil in a frying pan and gently fry 1 clove of sliced garlic and the other 1 teaspoon cumin seeds for 1 minute, stirring until fragrant. Add 350g of shredded brussels sprouts and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until bright green (don't leave them on while you try to persuade a child to wash hands before food or they burn…see photo…oops!).
Serve with optional naan or rice – the photo has this dahl on a bed of steamed savoy cabbage to increase veg intake and a garlic and coriander mini naan.

Notes

I first tried this for 6h on low following a different guide, but the split peas were still a bit hard, so it worked after putting on high for another 1.5 hours, by which time everyone was too hungry.

Keyword cheap, easy, indian, kids, scranitfortheplanet, slow cooker, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Tags cheap, easy, indian, kids, scranitfortheplanet, slow cooker, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Recipes

Sprouts Worth Fighting Over

Post author By ScranMa
Post date May 8, 2020
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Sprouts quick fried in sesame oil with garlic and cumin seeds

Sprouts worth fighting over

ScranMa

I know this sounds ridiculous, but my kids actually wanted more of these and fought over who got the last one…they are so simple, fast, healthy and tasty if you can get the prepped small button sprouts in season.

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 5

Course Side Dish

Servings 3

Ingredients

0.5 tbsp Sesame oil
1 clove Garlic Chopped (straight from the freezer)
0.5 tsp Cumin seeds
240 g Brussels Sprouts Small, whole, prepped in-season sprouts are the best

Instructions

Add the sesame oil, frozen garlic and cumin seeds to the frying pan and gently heat so that the oil takes on the flavour of the additions for 2-3 minutes.
Add the sprouts, and fry on a high heat for 2-3 minutes until they are bright green and only just slightly soft.

Notes

Don’t use big sprouts for this, or they’ll still be hard and not cooked, if you only have these give them a quick steam for 2-3 minutes before putting into the frying pan of tasty oil.

Also don’t spend 3 minutes trying to persuade a child to wash hands before dinner or they do burn (although somehow they didn’t taste burnt, just caramelised and yummy, thank goodness, and still the kids fought over them).

Keyword cheap, easy, scranitfortheplanet, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Tags cheap, easy, scranitfortheplanet, student friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Recipes

Quick Chilli

We've all got a basic chilli recipe, this one is based on our Best Bolognese Ever with a couple of store cupboard additions to keep it simple and quick, since all the hard work in making the Bolognese was done another day.

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 5

Best Bolognese Ever 40

Total Time 46

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Ingredients

1 tin Kidney beans
1 tbsp Hot chilli sauce I love Cholula Chipotle Hot Sauce for the smokiness, or Mahi Peri Peri Hot Sauce
4 portions Best Bolognese Ever About 1/3 of this delicious big batch Best Bolognese Ever

Instructions

Add the best bolognese ever to a pan, add in the kidney beans and hot chilli sauce and heat through.
Serve with microwave rice for a dinner ready in 5-6 minutes (since you've done all the hard work earlier)

Notes

OK, the kids don’t like the kidney beans or chill sauce, so I put a portion of the Bolognese in a different pan for them, and then only add the beans and hot sauce to the grown-ups one. All with rice, everyone happy!

Keyword easy, mum friendly, student friendly

Tags easy, mum friendly, student friendly

Recipes

Lasagne

Post author By ScranMa
Post date May 8, 2020
No Comments on Lasagne

Lasagne

Everyone has their own lasagne variety, this uses the Best Bolognese Ever as the meat base, plus a cheat white sauce rather than a full Bechamel, as it is quicker to put together and tastes amazing.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Best Bolognese Ever 40

Total Time 1 55

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Equipment

Large, deep oven-proof dish

Ingredients

Meat Base

4 portion Best Bolognese Ever About ⅓ of this big batch Best Bolognese Ever

Simple White Sauce

100 g Butter or margarine
100 g Plain flour
½ tsp Celery Salt
1 litre Milk Whole milk (with the butter option for higher fat), skimmed milk (with the margarine option for lower fat)

Layers

100 g Cheddar cheese Grated (low fat cheese for lower fat option, or only choose one of the cheeses)
100 g Mozzarella cheese Grated (low fat cheese for lower fat option, or only choose one of the cheeses)
8 sheets Lasagne Fresh is best, see notes.

Instructions

Cheat White Sauce

Melt the butter or margarine in a pan then add the plain flour a few spoonfuls at a time, stirring continuously until a paste forms, called a roux. It should be thick enough that when you draw a spoon through it a line is left, for a brief time, and then the mix gloops back over the bottom of the pan. Add more butter/flour to get to the right consistency if needed. Cook it for 2 minutes then stir in the celery salt.
Add the milk gradually, constantly stirring (or whisking if you have a balloon whisk), until you get a smooth sauce of the thickness you want (add more milk if it's too thick). Season to taste.

Layer It Up

Pre-heat the oven to 150C.
Add half of the Best Bolognese Ever to the bottom of the lasagne dish, then add a layer of lasagne, sealing around the edges of the dish if you can. Add half of the white sauce, then the remaining half of the Best Bolognese Ever, another layer of lasagne and then the remaining white sauce. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top, then put it all in the oven for an hour until it's heated through and the cheese is bubbling.
Serve with an optional crispy side-salad drizzled in balsamic vinegar, or garlic bread.

Notes

The number of lasagne sheets depends on the size of your dish, this is based on dry pasta and a large rectangle dish. Fresh lasagne is best for layering and freezing as it curves around the sides of the dish nicely, creating a good seal. Dried lasagne sheets can be used but only one layer, and you’ll likely need to snap them to fit them to the dish.

I absolutely adore my mum’s lasagne, it used to take her a whole morning to cook it as she always mega-batch cooked 3 big lasagnes for 12 people, and always boiled over the milk for the béchamel 3 times in a row and had to start again (really!). This version is a lot quicker as it’s not a full béchamel, and with the extra mozzarella tastes amazing.

Mum’s 3 big lasagnes were left to cool and then frozen, transported for holidays, then left out overnight to defrost and cooked the next evening for an extended family feast. Always amazing, still love it, thanks mum!

Keyword family friendly

Tags family friendly