Harrogate Cheap Eats - Palm Court Cafe

JD and I like to have lunch out sometimes. It's a nice way to spend some time together away from the kids. But being the frugal pair we are we look out for good deals and cheap eats. Usually with a budget of £15 or less for the whole lunch. We also like to spend our money in independent cafes and takeaways. So after searching Harrogate we bring to you a series of lunches (or breakfasts) that can be eaten fairly cheaply and also help out the small businesses rather than chains.

Today we visited Palm Court Cafe.

It's above the Farrah's shop on Montpellier Hill but is quite spacious for an upstairs cafe. It's over two floors so we climbed a second flight of stairs to the Garden Room.

Seated next to the window you get a lovely view of the Crown roundabout.

After looking at the menu we chose Ploughman's lunches. I had a Yorkshire cheese one and JD had the pork pie one. Both £6.25.  There were plenty of other options around £5 including Toasted Sandwiches, Rarebit and Soups. We always have water to drink and it came served with ice and lemon. Lovely on such a warm day.

The food was well presented and looked appetising. Especially the doorstop bread and butter served with the Ploughman's. Palm Court Cafe make everything they serve themselves and the bread was delicious. JD's pork pie was a huge slice and it had chorizo in it which gave it a nice flavour (he let me have a bite). We polished off the lot. It cost us £12.50 for the meal so on budget, hurrah :D

They serve quite a large range of teas and coffees. They also have a lot of delicious looking homemade cakes. I might have to visit again for tea and cake with my daughter Leigh.

Give Palm Court Cafe a try, it's a hidden gem!

Oh Burger! 24: Sweet Potato, Butter Bean & Feta Burger

I always feel a bit suspicious of vegetarian burgers because they don't hold together well when cooking but I'm giving this one a go anyway. Wish me luck!

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes (cooked)
1 can butter beans
100g feta
1 tablespoon red pesto
1 egg
Salt & pepper

Combine everything in a bowl and mush it together with a fork. Form into patty shapes and place in a frying pan pre-prepared with a few tablespoons of oil. Cook until firmed up on each side.

As expected they're an absolute bugger to turn over. But JD managed it and soon we were eating vegetarian burgers. We had ours in a bun with some spinach leaves.

It was a nice tasting burger. It did have a lot of debate in our house as to whether it's a burger or not. It's not burger like in texture but it is encased in a burger bun. The vegetables were too mushy to feel like we were eating a burger. We all enjoyed it either way and it made for a nice meal.

Ratings: JD - 1 as a burger, 4 as a food Emma - 3 Leigh - 3

Subscription Box Review: Pasta Evangelists

I've been tempted by one last subscription box. After this one it's either subscription addicts anonymous or a bleak life with no more food parcels! I saw an advert for £15 off your first Pasta Evangelists box and I couldn't help myself.

This subscription promises restaurant quality pasta in your own home. I already feel like we're on top of our pasta game so I don't know why I was hooked in so easily. Normally around £30 for a 4 portion box I got ours for £15.

My parcel came only two days after I ordered it. Pretty efficient. It contained everything needed for 2 fancy pasta meals for 2.

I was a bit disappointed with the contents of the box. It didn't look like much. Still, I was looking forward to trying it for lunch. I made the Spinach & Ricotta Rotola Al Forno with Besciamella Cherry Tomato Sauce & Parmesan. Bit of a mouthful :D

It was pretty delicious. Pasta filled with spinach and ricotta, topped with a tomato sauce. We enjoyed it and it was really easy to put together. Like a posh ready meal.

The next day JD made the Giant Gorgonzola & Walnut filled Gnocchi with Sage Butter & Walnuts. It was our first time trying gnocchi and I have to say I loved it. Really filling and tasty. Yum!

If you're REALLY into fancy pasta dishes then maybe this subsciption box is for you. They do a wide range of different pasta dishes, some with meat too. They're really easy to cook usually needing only about 5 minutes of prep. It's quite convenient for a nice pasta meal. Of course it's a bit pricey and you could make it cheaper yourself but it does seem to be well thought out recipes that are simple to make and delicious. Nice treat for date night perhaps :)

Playing Silly Burgers 23: Teriyaki Hawaii Burger

A pineapple slice on a burger seems very exotic in England. The Hawaii burger is almost always a choice on a burger takeaway menu. It's not a burger I'd usually have so I'm keen to revisit with this burger and see what I think. This recipe includes a home-made pineapple teriyaki sauce to garnish the burger.

 

Ingredients:

 

500g minced beef

1 carrot

1 tablespooon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sriracha

1 teaspoon ground ginger

 

For the teriyaki sauce:

 

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour

1/2 cup pineapple juice

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon garlic granules

 

Garnishes:

 

1 can pineapple slices

Bread buns

Lettuce leaves 

 

 

Grate the carrot and then mix all the burger ingredients together. Form them into burger patties. Cook them in your preferred way in a pan, under the grill or in the oven. We had oven baked burgers this time.

 

Mix the teriyaki ingredients in a pan and stir well as the pan heats up. At a medium heat let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes. You'll end up with a thick, smooth, glossy teriyaki sauce.

 

 Warm up the pineapple slices by frying them in a pan or grilling them. 

 

To assemble your burger place some lettuce on the bottom half of your bread buns. Top with a burger then spoon on a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce and finally top with a slice of pineapple.

 

 

Ooh this was a good one! I was so impressed with myself for making such a tasty teriyaki sauce and it made this burger. The sauce keeps each mouthful moist and delicious. We really liked the pineapple too, even JD who isn't usually keen on fruit in a savoury way. We might be having teriyaki sauce on everything in the future!

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 5

 

Subscription Box Review: Sourced Box

Sourced Box is a subscription service that sends you healthy snacks each month. Suitable for vegans these snacks are often organic and don't include refined sugar. The box contents are different each month so you never know what you'll get. I stick mostly to Nakd bars so it'll be nice to try some new healthy snacks.

£18.95 a month for a subscription or you can buy a one off gift box. I got my box for £12 using the Earthmiles app.

My box arrived just a day after the notification email. It was well packaged. Unlike a lot of other subscription boxes it's too big to fit through the letterbox which is a shame as that's an appealing feature to me.

A little booklet was included with extra information about all the products inside along with in depth features on several of the companies. It was an interesting read and a nice addition to the box.

My box had 11 items inside. The products were quite diverse, which I enjoyed. There was a cookie, faba beans, tea bags, pea puffs, dried fruit, cashews, blackcurrant water and several snack bars. I haven't eaten everything yet but all of the snacks we tried so far have been lovely. Our favourites so far are the Salted Vanoffee Cashews and the Lightly Salted Faba Beans. Both were delicious!

It's really nice to have a range of products picked out for you and sent to your home. I like trying new foods and I haven't seen a lot of these products in shops near me.

On the down side it's pretty expensive for what you get. It is a convenience over frugality situation so it's not for me but I did enjoy giving it a try. I'd recommend this service for anyone wanting to try some new healthy snacks.

Burger Off 22: The Juicy Lucy Burger

This burger is basically a cheeseburger but with the cheese inside the burger instead of on top. Sounds good to me :)

 

Make your burgers like normal but sandwich some cheese in the middle before flattening out the patties. Use small pieces of cheese or grate it so it will melt easier. Here's me finishing off the last one. 

 

Cook the burgers in a pan but make sure to cook them a bit longer than usual so the cheese will melt. About 5-7 minutes each side.

Make the burgers up using whatever toppings you like. I've got mayo and lettuce on mine.

It's hard to see the cheese inside on the picture. I should have used some orange American cheese maybe. It does make the burger juicier which is always a good thing. The cheese flavour is more distributed through the burger this way which I think makes it tastier than a cheeseburger. We enjoyed it.

 

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 3

Be Prepared!

Here at A Family Against the Flow we're always trying to find ways to save money and time. One of the ways money gets wasted is when you buy a lunch everyday for work. It's understandable that we all do it, it's convenient and the last thing you want to do in the morning (or the evening before) is make a lunch to take to work.

This past year JD and I have had a go at prepping lunches at the weekend for the week ahead. We bought some cheap plastic boxes with lids from the supermarket. Then on a Sunday afternoon we make up a batch of food to be heated up for lunch each day. If your workplace doesn't have a microwave you can buy a food flask. We've made a few different things so far. Pasta with bolognese sauce, spicy minced beef and broccoli, chilli, macaroni cheese and corned beef hash.

Spicy minced beef and broccoli

Pasta with bolognese sauce

Pasta bolognese is filling and really cheap to make. We can make a week of lunches for about £6. Most meal deals you can buy cost around £3. That gives us a saving of at least £24 a week. Almost £100 a month!

Another thing we like about making our own lunches is that we can add as much veg as we like to make sure we get our 5-a-day. We often add spinach, peas, sweet potato, sweetcorn or brocolli to our lunches.

In the warmer months when we don't really want a hot lunch we switch to prepped salads. When our shopping is delivered on a Sunday I prep all the salad ingredients in boxes ready to be made up on the mornings. It's really quick to make up a salad when all the ingredients are chopped ready. We store the prepped ingredients in the fridge to be kept fresh.

It's really nice to be prepared and save time on busy mornings. It's also great to have home-made nutritious lunches with plenty of vegetables.

On the negative side it does take time to prep meals. About 30-40 minutes to make up a huge batch of lunches or to chop salad ingredients. It can also get a bit samey sometimes unless you make an effort to source new recipes quite often. We've had pasta bolognese a few more times than I'd like.

Overall though it's a great money saver. We always feel pleased when we've made the effort to prep our lunches. I'd recommend giving it a try if you want to save money this year :)