Chickpea and bean stew with egg, or posh baked beans

Joy! I have a supply of home grown eggs again, from a colleague who has just started keeping hens. I hadn't planned anything for today and I wanted to use them as I know they're only a day old so I had a dig in the store cupboard and decided to make a spicy bean thingy.

When I was lining up the "before" shot I did wonder if I should feel guilty about constructing a meal almost entirely from tinned ingredients, but I don't think I should.  The debate over whether or not tinned vegetables are good for you has opened up again, but I'm pretty sure it's better to eat a tinned vegetable than no vegetable at all.  You also have to factor in convenience and cost - it's not realistic for busy working people to get to the shops every day for fresh, and tinned beans and pulses are an incredibly cheap way to get some nutrition.

I like to use anchovies as seasoning but if you're a veggie, or you just don't like anchovies, feel free to leave them out. I'm starting by sweating an onion in the oil from a tin of anchovies though.  Once the onion's started getting nice and soft (it'll take at least five or six minutes over a low heat) add some spices - cumin, paprika, some cayenne pepper for heat - and mix it all up so that the onions get nicely coated.

Drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas and add them to the pan.  Again, swirl it all around so that they get nicely coated in spice.

Now chuck in a tin of tomatoes.  Chop up the anchovies into small pieces and they can go in too.

Drain and rinse a tin of cannellini beans and it's time for those to go in too.  Give it all a stir, have a taste and season with salt and pepper and add some more chilli heat if you so desire.  I thought it wanted some green herbs too and it's vaguely Italian so I threw in a little basil.

Everything from the tins is already cooked so you don't want to boil anything, just let it heat through.  Pop a lid on and let the whole lot simmer for about 20 minutes, then have another taste and adjust the seasoning if you want to.  Crack in an beautiful garden egg per person, put the lid back on, and let them poach for four or five minutes.

These quantities divided into three equal portions for us - one each tonight, and we'll have the remainder tomorrow between us with a couple of sausages, or maybe on toast for lunch.

Between three, this comes to seven WeightWatchers ProPoints and (depending where you buy your tins - tomatoes in Sainsbury's range from 37p to over £1 and I'm perfectly happy with the cheap ones) less than £1 per portion.