The dish uses quite a lot of olive oil, but because the filling is made from lentils rather than meat, it’s less fattening than the traditional version would be. Using low-fat creme fraiche as a topping also helps keep the fat count down, and has the added benefit of giving it a nice tang (why, yes, I am addicted to the stuff!).

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 mug brown lentils
• 1 mug water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crussed
• 1tsp mixed dried herbs
• 200ml passata
• 1 aubergine (eggplant)
• olive oil
• low fat creme fraiche

1.  Heat a dash of olive oil in the base of a large saucepan. Add the chopped onion, garlic and herbs and cook gently until the onion starts to soften. Add the lentils and stir for 30 seconds or so then pour on the water. Cover the pan, bring to the boil then turn down to simmer for 30-45 minutes (until the lentils are soft and the water has been absorbed).

2. Meanwhile, as the lentils cook, slice the aubergine (eggplant) lengthways into strips about a quarter of an inch thick. Heat up a fair amount of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergine strips until they’re soft and brown on both sides (me, I like to leave them a little longer, so that the edges go crispy, but that’s just personal taste).

3. Drain the aubergine slices on kitchen paper and set aside.

4. Once the lentils have absorbed the water, pour in the passata. (At this point, turn on your oven to 180C to heat up). Cook mixture until the passata has reduced slightly to form a fairly thick tomato sauce.

5. Take your oven-proof dish. Cover the base with a layer of tomato & lentil sauce – use about half the mixture – then cover with 2-3 slices of aubergine. Use the rest of the lentils to make another layer then cover that with the rest of the aubergine.

6. Dot teaspoon-fulls of low-fat creme fraiche over the top (you don’t need to completely cover it – just go with what looks good to you) then bake for 30-40 minutes.

As I only have myself to cook for, I had half a moussaka left over. Rather than reheat it the next day (trying to keep the electricity bill down), I used it as a filling for pitta breads – it worked wonderfully.

I found this recipe in The Cranks Recipe Book and decided to give it a try. I had a horrid feeling it was going to turn out to be soggy and stodgy -partly because it just sounded that way and partly because I’d seen an almost identical recipe in a World War II UK-government-published recipe leaflet designed to help people make the most of their rations. Happily my misgivings were for nothing: this turned out to be incredibly good – full of flavour as well as both light and filling. And it made my flat smell wonderful.

Oh, and it’s incredibly easy to make!

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion
• 4oz (125g) breadcrumbs
• 4oz (125g) grated cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp French mustard
• 3/4pint (426ml) milk
• seasoning

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Peel & chop the onion. Put it with all the other ingredients into a blender (or into a bowl if you’re going to use a hand blender). Blend until smooth.

Lightly grease a baking dish then pour the mixture in. Bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Great served with green veg (whatever’s in season/cheapest)

At the moment I’m eating porridge for one of my meals every day, and it’s really helping keep the cost of living down. I remember reading somewhere (though I can’t for the life of me remember where that ‘somewhere’ was) that muesli was invented to form an entire meal’s nutrition in one bowl: the cereal provides the fibre and carbohydrates, milk and nuts give protein and calcium, and the dried fruit does the rest. I realised that porridge, with some extras thrown in, would be equally nutritious.

Of course, the cheapest way to make porridge is using water, but to me that’s just one step too close to wallpaper paste. My mum swears by a mixture of half milk, half water. I use milk for all the liquid, unless I’m having a particularly poor week.

It’s simple to make: you just need twice the volume of water/milk as you do porridge oats. Put them in a pan and heat, stirring to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan. After about five minutes you’ve got your meal.

Ways I’ve been flavouring porridge recently include:

• 1tbsp rose water, 1tbsp flaked almonds, 2tbsp chopped dried dates
• 1 banana (chopped), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1tsp honey
• 2tbsp dried, sweetened blueberries (which have the added awesome effect of turning the porridge bright purple!)
• grated apple, pinch of cinnamon

At some point I’ll try some savoury porridge. If it turns out to be in any way edible I’ll post about it here.

Ingredients:

• 100-150g low-fat creme fraiche
• 50g blue cheese (Stilton or St Agur work well, but you could use whatever you have)
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
• handful of broccoli spears
• enough dried pasta to fill a big mug
• handful of breadcrumbs or dried stuffing mix

Equipment:

• 2 saucepans (one medium, one small)
• 1 baking dish
• wooden spoon
• chopping board
• sharp knife

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Put the pasta on to boil in the medium saucepan. After 5 minutes, add the broccoli to the pan and cover with the lid (it saves on washing up to cook them in the same pan).

When you’ve put the broccoli on to cook, put the creme fraiche, cheese and soy sauce into a small saucepan and warm over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the cheese has melted.

Once the pasta is cooked as al dente or soft as you like it, drain the pasta and broccoli and put them into the baking dish.

Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and broccoli – it won’t really cover it and the sauce will be very runny, but don’t worry about this – it cooks up fine.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs/stuffing mix over the top and put in the oven to bake for 20-30 minutes.

I like this dish because there’s not too much sauce – it doesn’t take over the dish so you can still taste the pasta and broccoli. It’s a fairly fattening dish (even using low-fat creme fraiche) so it’s not exactly something to have every day.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 onion
• 1 clove of garlic (if you have them to hand, you could also use some chopped fresh chilli and/or some fresh ginger)
• 1 sweet potato
• Frozen spinach
• Handful of split peas
• 1/2 mug coconut milk

Equipment:

• Saucepan (with lid)
• Hand-blender
• Chopping board and knife

NOTES: I use frozen spinach (it’s cheaper and more convenient) but if you have fresh stuff to hand then just make sure you chop it finely. I also prefer to mix up coconut milk from a powder rather than buying the tins since I never need a full tin’s worth at once. But if you’re doubling the recipe or can’t get hold of the powdered stuff I can’t see that it would make any difference.

Put a dash of oil in a sauce pan and put this on to head.

Chop 1/2 an onion and add to the pan with a crushed or chopped clove of garlic (and chilli/ginger if using).

Put the kettle on to boil.

Dice a sweet potato into 1cm cubes.

Add a good handful of split peas to the pan then cover with boiled water.

Cook for 20 minutes then add in the sweet potato cubes.

Cook for 10 minutes then add around 10 ‘pellets’ of frozen spinach.

Turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, while mixing up around 1/2 a mug of coconut milk.

Add the coconut milk to the pan and make sure the heat is at the minimum setting.

After 5 minutes, use a hand-held blender to blend around half the soup – the blended lentils should thicken the soup enough but if it is still more watery than you like, add in a tablespoon of instant mash and this should do the trick.

Return the pan to the heat and warm the soup through, being careful not to let it boil.

I served the soup with a couple of wholegrain rolls and it made for a very filling meal.

A couple of notes:

Firstly, I’m really sorry the photos aren’t all that great – I don’t have a digital camera so am stuck using the not-so-brilliant camera on my phone. I hope that doesn’t put you off trying any of the recipes though… the food really does look much tastier in real life!

Secondly, I’m going to try and use the “categories” feature to organise recipes by general type (main course, pasta dishes, soups and so forth) and the “tags” to list the key ingredients. If things become too confusing or overwhelming, then the tag system will probably be the first to go.

Thirdly (because ‘a couple’ doesn’t always have to mean ‘two’… possibly…) I’d really like to hear from anyone who tries out these recipes, particularly if you’ve adapted them and come up with something even better.