RECIPE: English Breakfast Bake | #ThisGirlEats

Serves: 2
How much does it cost? This recipe cost me less than £1 per person.
What are the benefits? This dish provides three of your five a day, is low in fat, and is suitable for vegetarians.

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Brinner. Breakfast for dinner, right? I like a fry up, but I don’t like how bloated and gross I feel afterwards, or how the guilt lingers with me all day (unless I’m hungover, in which case it’s not an indulgence, it’s a necessity!).

This oven-baked, breakfast-inspired dinner is a healthier, fresher version of your typical greasy spoon serving and makes a great evening meal – although I suppose you could always save some up for breakfast too!

It’s a brilliant source of veggies with three of your ‘5 A Day’ in there (baked beans count as one, how bloody great is that?!) so it feels like a fry up but you’re actually feeding your body total goodness. And, hey, at only 93p per person you can get your fill of “brinner” for only a fraction of the cost!

INGREDIENTS
2 Baking Potatoes, Cubed
2 Onions, Sliced
10 Mushrooms
1 Tin of Baked Beans
4 Eggs

SEASONING
When the potatoes go into the roasting tin, they’ll want to be seasoned pretty heavily – you want a good heap of dried rosemary or dried thyme (or both!) all over them, as well as some dried garlic, salt and pepper. Make sure whenever new vegetables are added to the tin they are seasoned with a teeny tiny bit more salt and pepper, and also add a pinch to the fried eggs.

So, this is how I did it…

1. Add the potato cubes to a large roasting tin, coat with a drop of oil or cooking spray and all of the seasoning, and cook on 200°C for 40 minutes.

2. Add the onions to the roasting tin for the last 20 minutes of cooking time. Then, 5 minutes later, add the mushrooms for the final 15 minutes of cooking time.

3. Heat a large frying pan with a very small amount of oil or some cooking spray, crack the eggs into the pan once the oil is hot, and fry until cooked (on a high heat this should only takes 5 minutes or so).

4. Empty the beans into a bowl and microwave according to packet instructions (usually a couple of minutes minutes), or heat in a saucepan on the hob – whichever you prefer!

5. Remove the roasting tin from the oven, pour the beans over the potatoes, onions and mushrooms, and place the eggs on top. Perfect! 🍳

Tips & Tricks!

• Mix things up! Give it some more veggie goodness by throwing in both sweet potato and normal potato cubes 🍠

• You could easily downsize this and actually make a tray bake breakfast out of it! It is the most important meal of the day, after all.

• If you have meat in the fridge that needs using up, sausages and bacon could obviously be included with this dish and make a very tasty addition – but, of course, it won’t be quite so low fat so bear that in mind 🥓

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RECIPE: Low Fat Roasted Vegetable Lasagne with Home Made Chips | #ThisGirlEats

Serves: 4
How much does it cost? This recipe cost me less than £1.50 per person.
What are the benefits? This recipe is totally vegetarian-friendly, provides at least two – if not three! – of your five a day and is low fat.

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I remember the first time I ever made lasagne at home and you know what I thought? “I am never doing this again!” There were so many components that seemed like very hard work for something I could nuke for two minutes in the microwave 🤷‍♀️

Credit where it’s due, this recipe on BBC Good Food inspired me to reconsider this classic pasta dish. No meat ragù, no béchamel sauce, just sieved tomatoes, a dollop of crème fraîche and a handful of cheese. So it got me thinking, if I made this at home myself, how would I do it..?

This is my take on a low fat roasted vegetable lasagne with the addition of a few home-cooked chips, because I love dipping chips in my lasagne! This recipe easily packs in your five a day, not to mention being much lower in fat than the traditional version. There are so many health benefits here – potassium from tomatoes and potatoes, Vitamin C from onions and peppers, protein from mushrooms, antioxidants from courgettes and aubergines, fibre from sweetcorn and carrots… the nutrition is endless!

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INGREDIENTS
2 Medium Onions, Quartered
2 Bell Peppers, Sliced
1 Aubergine, Chopped
1 Courgette, Chopped
1 Medium Carrot, Chopped
4 Mushrooms, Chopped
4 Medium Tomatoes, Quartered
4 Medium Baking Potatoes, Sliced Into Chips
1/2 Cup of Frozen Sweetcorn
1 Carton of Passata
4 – 6 Fresh Lasagne Sheets
300ml Low Fat Crème Fraîche
1 Cup of Low Fat Cheese, Grated

SEASONING
When the veggies go into the roasting tin, add some dried garlic flakes and dried thyme as well as the usual salt and pepper to get the most out of them. Do the same with the chips, swapping out the thyme for dried rosemary if possible. When it comes to the passata sauce, we want to make this simple ingredient taste as rich as possible, so stir in a good helping of dried garlic flakes, dried basil, dried oregano, salt and pepper to give it flavour. With the top layer of crème fraîche, add a pinch of salt and pepper to increase its savoury taste.

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So, this is how I did it…
(Serves 4)

1. Throw the onion, aubergine and carrot into a roasting tin, coat with cooking spray or a drop of oil along with salt, pepper, garlic and thyme. Roast on 200°C for around 45 minutes, adding the pepper, tomatoes and courgette to the tin after about 20 minutes.

2. Pour the passata into a bowl with garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper and mix well so the sauce has plenty of flavour.

3. Meanwhile, spread the sliced potato chips out on a baking tray with cooking spray or oil, season with salt, pepper and rosemary (or thyme) and cook for 50 minutes, turning halfway through.

4. Once all the veggies are cooked, begin layering the lasagne. In an ovenproof dish, start with one layer of roasted vegetables, as well as the uncooked mushroom and sweetcorn. Spoon over a layer of the passata, sprinkle over a small amount of grated cheese and top with a lasagne sheet. Repeat until the dish is full.
For the final sheet of lasagne, spread a layer of the crème fraîche on top, add a pinch of salt and pepper and top with a generous helping of cheese.

5. Pop the dish back into the oven for around 20 – 25 minutes until cooked through – make sure the cheese doesn’t catch on top!

6. Serve the lasagne with homemade oven-cooked chips for dippin’!