Student Celebratory Meals

So today is mine and Dan's 6 month anniversary. Poor bloke has put up with me for half a year and it's been so much fun - he's my best friend as well as my boyfriend and I wanted to do something really special to show him how much I appreciate everything he has to put up with. Honestly, he deserves a medal.

But I'm now back at University, and I'm back to a University budget - I've got a whole list of things I would have loved to have done, like go to the aquarium or have drinks in our favourite cocktail bar, or even simple things like go out for a meal or order a takeaway, but neither our wallets or our waistlines can stretch to that right now.

So instead I'm surprising him with a Thai Green Curry, made - mostly - from scratch. I'm always a little dubious using pre-made pastes in things like curries, and almost all of my recipes are created from scratch, but for certain things I just don't have ingredients like ground Galangal (similar to ginger), and that's where Spicentice comes in.

 I love this company - their spice packets are 100% herbs with a handy little ingredients list on the back and a recipe on the inside. The only issue is they're designed to be cooked with chunks of chicken or fish, so for me and Dan I tweaked the recipe to make it a tad healthier and vegetarian/vegan-friendly.

Vegetarian Thai Green Curry

Time to make: 40 minutes
Calories per portion: 246kcal
Portions of your 5 a day: 2+
Cost per portion: £4.72 (so cheaper than a takeaway!)

You will need:

• 1 pack of Quorn Roast Chicken Style Fillets
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, chopped into chunks
• 1 green chilli, finely chopped
• 3 chopped garlic cloves (or 1 1/2 tsp garlic granules)
• 1 tin coconut milk
• 150ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Sachet 1 from the Spicentice kit
• Sachet 2 from the Spicentice kit
• Olive oil, for frying
• Sugar, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• Blender

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and fry 1/3 of the diced onion and garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic granules). Place the rest of the diced onion and garlic, the chopped green chilli, 3 tbsp of water and the Sachet 1 herbs into a blender, or a sturdy bowl or jug if you're using a hand blender.

 Blend the ingredients until it turns into a paste and add it to the frying pan. Stir in the paste and fry it for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in the coconut milk, stock, the lemongrass and Kaffir leaves from Sachet 2 and bring it to the boil - I like to make the stock up in the bowl I blended the paste in to make sure I don't miss anything. Once it's bubbling away turn down the heat, add in the Quorn chicken pieces and peppers, and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Stir in the soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and salt to taste, and get ready to dish. I served ours on a bed of rice noodles cooked in lime juice and soy sauce (which took our dishes up to 438kcal each), and we sat down to watch the Thai episode of 50 Ways To Kill Your Mammy (which is actually really funny), and they visited lots of places in Thailand that Dan had also visited, which was really interesting to see where he'd been and be able to match what he goes on and on - and on, and on, and on - about.

I'm currently writing this while watching tv with him, and he has no idea I'm posting this - so I'm taking this opportunity to say just how much I love him, and I'm really looking forward to another 6 months with him. If he can handle it, that is!