Day 4 and 5, no food shopping

So it's my 5th day of not shopping for food.  After Jamie Oliver's comments about the poor in society not having good, nutritious, cheap food more out of choice than necessity, I challenged myself.  On Monday I thought I needed to get an urgent food shop.  It's now Saturday and I've been eating pretty well without it.

On Tuesday I made dahl for lunch from the freezer and sausages (from the freezer) and home made coleslaw for tea.
On Wednesday I had leftovers and home made vegetarian lasagne.
On Thursday that lasagne was my lunch and I had beetroot and bacon soup for tea.
On Friday I finished the lasagne at lunchtime and reheated some spicy lamb meatballs with cous cous for tea.

Today I'm planning toad in the hole for lunch and maybe some sweetcorn fritters with cucumber sticks for tea.  I'd love to say I'm planning something more exotic for grown ups but I like sweetcorn fritters!  The other great thing is they include some vegetables, dead cheap to make and can be simply cooked on a hob.

I've been eating pretty well this week to be honest.  I don't know whether it's having set myself this challenge but in placing my supermarket order this week (I shop online) was genuinely thinking "do I need all this?" and I cut back my spending slightly.

Despite my protestations on Monday, the cupboards, genuinely aren't bare.

So what has this taught me?

It's taught me that I know nothing.

Ok, maybe that's not true.  It's genuinely it is easy to reduce the amount you spend on a week by week basis.  It is genuinely easy to make a meal for less than 50p a head if you eat a lot of pulses.  You can eat healthily without much money but it is hard to live on a poverty budget.  Whatever I think about the food I've eaten, I have been restricted in choice.  I've almost relished the restriction because anything which shakes you out of the food rut you're in is a good thing.  But therein lies the issue.  If you have little money and little choices in life.  Where is your pleasure?  Food can and is a pleasure and is perhaps one of your few on a budget, even lentils can be fab.  If you can't afford other things in life; don't chips feel like an accessible treat?  Doesn't that fatty, salty snack just seem really enticing?

So my little experiment.  Well?  It means nothing.  Except one thing.  I've given some money to charity.  If we all had one cheap meal per week, it wouldn't seem like the biggest hardship.  What if we went for one or two more days using leftovers rather than throwing them away or cracking open that packet of lentils for a cheap meal?  How much money would that save?  What if we then gave the money we saved to charity to help people in genuine poverty to learn cooking skills or provide emergency food?  What a difference that could make.

So that's what I decided to do.

I know some people who read this blog get fed up when I move away from the recipes and onto other issues but I think this was worth discussion and a bit of thought this week.  I hope you, kind readers, haven't minded indulging me these few days.

As for me?  Tomorrow is my birthday.  I don't have to wake up hungry nor go to bed hungry and for that, I'm thankful.

As for Jamie Oliver?  I think his heart is in the right place but when you have a fortune estimated at £150 million?  It's probably difficult to be in touch.  It was difficult for me on my far more modest income.  That said, I heard yesterday that he's donated a copy of his new book on how to cook affordable food to every UK library.  That is a good thing.

Love to you all. x

Day 3 of raiding my cupboards; have I lost the plot? Has Jamie Oliver?

Something A Girl Called Jack said rang true.  Why are we so judgemental about people?  Why does it matter what people eat, what people spend their money on?  Doesn't the judging turn people off?  After my first post on Jamie Oliver's comments on what people on low incomes, it's interested me and I've started to think about it much more.


Perhaps I've got off on the wrong tack.  Perhaps, although I can write a thrifty recipe in my sleep, I'm like the person who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing?

I am soon going to be setting up a house.  I've been flooded with offers for 'stuff'.  Mostly TVs (ironically considering Jamie's comments about the chips, cheese and massive TV) but all kinds of stuff and offers of decorating, gardening, etc, etc.  It's fantastic that loads of people have rallied around.  Money will be tight though, (really tight) which is why this has been an interesting challenge for me.  But I've not had an offer for food.  My family and friends are pretty supportive though so I doubt any of them will turn up empty handed but how many people are as lucky as me?

A friend of mine made me think.  He came to see me many years ago, out of the blue and admitted he was homeless.  I was so angry with him for not calling me for help.  We'd lost touch, he'd been sleeping on friend's couches for months.  What had happened was he'd fallen out with his parents over his fiance, then he'd split up with his fiance, lost his flat and loads of friends with the end of the relationship.  At the same time he'd lost his job and bam!  An intelligent, attractive, qualified and charming man was homeless.  By the time he was telling me this, he'd got another job and had lined up somewhere to live but it had been a tough time.  He'd not told me out of a sense of pride.

Imagine going through that with a family?  I can't.  I've been lucky never to go to bed hungry.  Some people do genuinely start and end the day hungry, even in the UK.

We all forget sometimes how close we are to homelessness or poverty.  It's just life dealing us a couple of major blows at once.  It's not as impossible or unlikely as you might think.  We all might be on the edge of a precipice, in reality, what keeps any of us from tipping over the edge?

So I hope my posts this week don't come across as patronising and it's something I'm going to think more about towards the end of the week.

Anyway, on with what I've been eating.

The lasagne from last night was a huge hit with the 3 year old.  He kept saying he was done, I'd move to take his plate away but he'd return for seconds, then thirds until it was all gone (and he had as much as me).  What's more I've got some leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow.  Great for reheating at work and I had two slightly jealous "that smells lovely" comments.  I'm never 100% convinced about reheated pasta in the microwave but somehow at work when hungry, it's a little touch of home and so comforting and obviously attracting the envy of my colleagues.  So that one lasagne will have fed 3 adult portions and a toddler.  Not bad.

In the evening, I raided my freezer for the sourdough, bit poncy I know, some bacon which was frozen at the end of life and my intention was to make some soup.

This probably isn't a regular occurrence in everyone's life but the joy of sharing a workplace with foodies is one of my friends has had a glut of vegetables and had a beetroot going begging so my soup is pretty vibrant!

Obviously bacon isn't going to convince anyone of health benefits but better than a bacon sarnie and soup is a great way to fill up and squeeze vegetables into everyone's diets.  My original intention was to raid the fridge and freezer to make an impromptu concoction of what I had in but this turned out to be a 'proper recipe' and here it is...

Beetroot and Bacon Soup - Serves 2 adults

Ingredients

2 small or 1 large onion
1 carrot
90g, 3oz Bacon, chopped up
220g, 8oz Peeled and chopped beetroot
A couple of sprigs of Lemon thyme (optional)
or use herbs of your choice if you have any
1 tbsp Oil (I used olive oil)
350ml, 12 fl oz hot stock or water

Method

Chop the carrot, onion and peeled beetroot into chunks, put in a baking dish and drizzle with oil and add the thyme if using.  Put in the oven at approx 170oC / 350F for about 40 minutes or until softening and browned at the edges.  To save money, put this in the oven at the same time as you're cooking something else.

Chop up the bacon, fry gently in a dry pan.  Once cooked, add the roasted vegetables and the stock.  Bring to the boil.  Once boiling take off the heat and blend.

Sprinkle with more fresh lemon thyme if desired.

A top tip is if you have, say, half a loaf of nice bread like I had, wrap in foil and put in the oven at 170oC / 350F for 15 minutes or so or until warm through.  This remelts the starch and makes the bread taste fresh from the oven.  Something as humble as bread, warm from the oven is transformed.

“Linking up with Nomday Monday”

Were Jamie Oliver's comments patronising? Day two of no food shopping

I posted yesterday about Jamie Oliver's comments about poverty and food.  Although this seems to be courting controversy I do see his point.  I've always thought of myself as a pretty thrifty cook but for the rest of this week, despite thinking I desperately needed to do some food shopping, I'm just going to eat what I have in the house.

Having had more time to think about Jamie's comments.  Do I think they were patronising?  Perhaps a little but I do think it's something that needs to be said.  Junk foods are cheap but you can still cook deliciously and cheaply from scratch.  In traditional cultures across Europe, people did that (including the UK) but it does take some knowledge and experience.  Irrespective of Jamie's comments, it's not only the UK where that knowledge is being lost and it's harming our waistlines, our health and we're losing the joy of food.

For me though, thrifty cooking and joy need to be brought back together.  There are still places in the country where country fairs judge the best jams and chutneys.  These things were once made because there was no alternative available and to make use of the autumn glut and there are still people out there who take pride in these things.  We forget that there is a joy and a pride in food, irrespective of how humble it's origins.

Perhaps I would have liked it more if he talked about respect for food irrespective of your pay or upbringing rather than the size of a person's television but the point is no less valid.

He mentioned how cheap a mussel and pasta dish is, which is true, I've made something similar in the past myself but not many people have mussels in their shopping basket.  Perhaps they should but I suspect few know where to start.  The fact is though with a bit of knowledge you can make a meal out of lentils, eggs, bread, pasta, any of these things which might seem basic or boring and sometimes necessity shakes us out of our autopilot rut.  It doesn't have to be fancy to taste great.


I've noticed already that I'm getting more organised.  Not just for this week but for the coming weeks.

Yesterday I was thinking I needed more milk so I was going to give myself a free pass (after all it's for my son) then remembered I had a bottle in the freezer.  So while we were finishing the bottle in the fridge, I've taken that out to defrost.  One tick to me!

Last night I picked some gorgeous (and free) blackberries.  Every year I intend to pick them and I don't always get around to it.  Five minutes from my house and ten minutes picking later I had 350g of blackberries.  I've put them in the freezer (they don't last long when they're wild) and I'm intending to make bramble jelly at a later date when I've picked some more but I could just have easily made a crumble or a pie.  A similar amount from a supermarket would have cost me around £3.

I don't always eat sourdough.  Much as I would like to, it's not all that practical.  I have got into the habit though of buying a reasonable wholemeal sliced loaf and keeping it in my kitchen freezer; toasting from frozen.  I've found by doing this I get through half of the bread I used to because I'm throwing far less away.  So my son and I had some toast for breakfast and he also had some cereal.

Lunch will be leftover cold sausages and coleslaw from the previous night.  Nutritional rating 7 out of 10, free food rating 9 out of 10.  It would have gone in the bin otherwise.

For tea I've got a vegetarian lasagne sauce bubbling away.  I've chosen to do it in my slow cooker because today is my day off with my son and it means I can give him some attention and don't need to be tied to the hob.  I didn't have any green lentils (I know, I was shocked!  It's not like me to run out.  I only had red ones) so I've used a tin of borlotti beans and some of a free marrow I was given yesterday by someone who has a glut.  I used some peppers I cut up and froze last week because they were getting towards the end of their life.  Frozen peppers are great if you're cooking them as it doesn't matter if they soften. I'll make it more interesting with some pesto and fresh herbs from my garden (most of which cost around £1-2 to buy but have kept me in herbs all summer.)  Once it's ready I will layer it up with lasagne sheets (value ones are fine) and a simple white sauce, top with cheese and bake.  Using a stronger cheese means you can use less of it which is great for cost and nutrition.

Using pulses in a vegetarian lasagne makes it much more substantial and filling.  Nutrition rating 8 out of 10, yes there are the refined carbs in the pasta and saturated fat in the cheese but in lasagne you will find you use far less pasta than if you were making a plated pasta dish and the sauce in this vegetarian lasagne is full of vegetables and pulses.  Free food rating, 6 out of 10 because of the frozen peppers and free marrow.

So how is it going?  Surprisingly well.  I've found I've not missed anything yet which is a bit of a shock considering I was looking in my fridge thinking it was empty.  I'm also eating reasonably healthily which was a surprise considering how little fresh fruit and vegetables are in the house.  As I took the milk out of my freezer yesterday it did make me think that I have piles of leftover meals in my freezer and yet so often think I've got nothing to take to work for lunch!  Inevitably at some point I then have a freezer clear out and the carefully retained meals go in the bin after all.  So although no doubt my cupboards and freezer will need restocking after this week, they also are yielding more than I expected.  I will keep you posted!

But does this mean I will be shopping at markets instead of supermarkets?  No.  I work on market day so I can't.  Does it mean I will be buying 10 mange tout?  No, I'm not much of a fan and I'd rather eat veg grown in the UK and mange tout rarely are.  Does it mean I'm challenging my food costs and waste?  Absolutely.

Was Jamie Oliver right to tell people to eat stale bread?

Was Jamie Oliver right to tell people to eat stale bread?

Photo reproduced from the Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/jamie-oliver-tells-poor-to-eat-stale-bread-8785062.html
Well if you read the article, it's not quite as simple as that. I do have some sympathy with him. I said to my mother recently, that if the reason people eat the food they eat was only down to cost not lack of knowledge, there would never be any lentils in the supermarket, they would be flying off the shelves and let's face it, dried pulses aren't on everyone's shopping list.

But saying that "poor people can't cook lentils" (which isn't universally true anyway) it is only part of the picture. We are not respectful of our food. We don't carefully think about what we're going to cook and eat. We're wasteful and this applies to the richest and the poorest in society.  From the people who say they have "no time" and shop impulsively as hunger takes them to people who see the buy one get one free offers as a bargain, then throw half away. Perhaps part of the problem is that food is, or has been too cheap? What I mean by that is I have a loaf of sourdough in my freezer. When I do get it out to eat it, I will warm half of it through in the oven to have with some home made soup and save the other half as toast. I will probably use the stale ends for stuffing or coatings. When you have bread that good and you paid decent money for it, you respect it. When you have a loaf for 47p, the crusts and maybe half the loaf will end up in the bin.

So I don't think it's only about lack of skill or lack of money per se (although both are important) but also lack of respect for the food.

It got me thinking. Can I last for the rest of this week without buying any food? I should point out, I am low on food stocks right now (or at least that's my perception, certainly low on fresh items) and I was intending to do an internet food shop to arrive today but the supermarket I shop at had some computational difficulties so I didn't place my order. This challenge though has inspired me. Can I genuinely last for 5 days on a nutritional diet from the contents of my cupboard, fridge and freezer?  Can I do it in a way that doesn't mean I'm spending all of my free time cooking?  Can we eat well even if we've got barely no fresh fruit in the house?

Perhaps we all need to re-evaluate our approach to food and make the most out of what we have?

So rather than saying "let them eat stale bread" I think Jamie was saying "look, there is great food out there even from leftovers, let's use it!"

So I will keep you posted with 5 days of "I thought I needed to buy food" meals out of my freezer and cupboard but where I can I will also make use of anything else I can find or forage.

Tonight's lunch; dahl (from the freezer) served with a chunk of cucumber (I was in too much of a rush this morning to make a salad) and a small bag of chocolate biscuits (a rare appearance in my house!)  Nutritional rating; not bad, not fabulous due to the biscuits; maybe 7 out of 10?  Free food rating 7 out of 10 the dhal was left over from another night's tea but rather than throwing it away, I kept it for another time.

Tonight's tea; sausages (from the freezer) and some home made coleslaw. I didn't have any yoghurt in so I've made it just with low fat mayo from the fridge.  Nutritional rating maybe 7 out of 10.  Lots of fresh vegetables but processed foods with the sausages and mayo.  Not the end of the world and better than burger and chips though.   Free food rating rating 4 out of 10, the apples were approaching the end of their life but everything was bought intending to eat at some point.

Haricot Beans for Babies, Toddlers and the Whole Family

Haricot beans are the basic staple carbohydrate of some of France.  The great thing about them in comparison with potatoes is pulses can count as one of your five a day.  Although they aren't mass packed full of vitamins, they are a decent source of fibre and protein.

For babies, exclude the seasoning and use salt free or low salt stock.  This would be great for babies on soft lumps or you could mash or puree them for younger babies.  Don't miss out the garlic though.  Some babies might reject something so garlicky but if you don't try it, you won't know.  You could always tone it down a little if you like.

For adults, toddlers and older children, this is a great side dish for sausages; think of it like a deconstructed cassoulet.  For adults certainly, some seasoning would be welcome, salt seems to bring out the flavour of the garlic.

By using dried haricot beans, this is a super cheap dish.

Don't miss out the overnight soaking or boiling stage, it's important for food safety.

Garlicky Haricot Beans - Serves 2 adults and 1 older toddler

Ingredients

100g, scant 3oz Dried haricot (navy) beans
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1 tsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic (use fewer if liked)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Parsley stalks (optional)
500-600ml, approx 1 pint boiling water or salt free stock
Stock cube (optional)

Method

Soak the beans in cold water for 8 hours or overnight.

Once the beans are soaked, drain and put in freshly boiled water.  Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes.

While the beans are boiling, finely dice the onion and carrot and finely chop the garlic.

Gently fry the onion and carrot for a few minutes.  When they start to soften, add the garlic and fry gently.  If liked, chop up the parsley stalks finely and add at this stage.

When the beans have boiled, drain and add to the onion mix with approx 500-600ml (approx 1 pint) of fresh boiling water or stock (stock does improve the flavour).  Simmer for approx 45 minutes or until the beans are cooked and the stock reduced to a small amount of liquid.  Boil hard to reduce if too much liquid remains or add boiling water if there's not enough during the cooking process.

If you used water, you could add a stock cube at this point.  Use low salt for babies (or miss out).  Don't add at the start of cooking as the salt can toughen the skins of the beans.

To finish, stir through the chopped parsley, take out any portions for children and season to taste for adults.  Serve with sausages or roasted meats.

Reheat well.

My favourite apple recipes for kids

Apples aren't the most glamourous of fruits but they're one of the fruits we grow really well in the UK and they're great in sweet or savoury dishes.  Soon it's going to be apple season as we approach the autumn and I thought I'd share some of my favourite recipes.

My wholemeal apple pancake recipe might be appearing in a magazine soon which is kind of exciting! I will keep you posted...

With only a drizzle of honey (for over 1s) it's a great way to get fruit into breakfast time.  Bircher muesli is another great way to do this.

I think the addition of apple to coleslaw makes it way more interesting and also makes kids far more likely to enjoy it due to the natural sweetness.  A great side dish for a barbecue or baked sausages.

Or if you do have some red cabbage left, why not make this sugar free braised red cabbage sweetened with apple and dried fruit?

Mini apple pies are great for little hands and no need to add any sugar in the recipe.

These are only sweetened with fruit.  A great pudding without feeling too guilty.

My next recipe was my first attempt at a sugar free 'large' cake.  Pretty successful I thought and popular with the wee man.  As was this simple Jalousie.

Apples are one of my favourite ways to naturally sweeten without sugar.  The benefit is you also include all of the natural fibre, flavour and nutrients.  In this very old recipe for apple and sultana mini muffins, it does exactly that.  My son pretty much lived on these for a while.  

As with the coleslaw though, apples do work well with savoury and did in this duck dish.  

Duck works really well with fruit and although you don't get much meat off it, toddlers don't need huge portions so you can find enough for two adults and a child.  Another way of including apple is in these gluten free mini meatloaves.

So apples might be ever so humble and ever so British but they can also be ever so yummy.  Just keep an eye out for ones grown local to you!

Easy Gazpacho for Grown Ups

An inauthentic gazpacho for people who can't get decent tomatoes!  It is the prerequisite to get decently ripe ones for a proper gazpacho, this is a sneaky and cheap way around it.

I've not tried my son on this yet, soup for a meal is a generally popular choice for him but cold soup... perhaps a stretch too far.  But this is delicious and easy.  Great to take for lunch and a healthy and quick summer dish for parents when you really are tired after bath-time.

Gazpacho - Serves 2 adults

500g, 18oz Passata
1/2 Red pepper (capsicum)
100g Cucumber
1 Dried red chilli
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp Red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Extra virgin olive oil to serve

Method

Cut the pepper and cucumber into chunks.  Chop the garlic finely and cut up the dried chilli.  Put everything apart from the olive oil into a blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into bowls and drizzle with olive oil before serving.  Be generous with the oil.

Somehow this is what my body craves when tired and run down.  It's food for the soul.

Make it Thrifty:
I find that the value / smart price passata is just as good as the regular or premium brands from the supermarket.  Give it a go!

Hidden Vegetable Sausage Rolls for the Whole Family

I've often said it's great to have a hidden vegetable recipe up your sleeve to ensure your kids are getting enough of their 5 a day.  All kids go through their fussy stages and vegetables are often the victim of it.

Hidden Veg Sausage Rolls - makes 30-35 small sausage rolls

Ingredients

1 onion
Spray oil
1 small or half a large courgette (zucchini) mine weighed 125g / 4.5oz
1 small carrot, mine weighed 60g, 2oz
1 tbsp chopped parsley
400g, 14oz Good quality sausage meat or sausage meat squeezed from the skins of sausages
500g, 18oz Ready rolled puff pastry
Milk to brush

Method

Finely dice the onion and soften in some fry oil.  Grate the carrot and courgette and add to the onion and fry gently until everything is softened and reasonably dry.

Put into a bowl to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180oC (fan), 200oC (conventional), 400F, Gas Mark 6.

Roll out the pastry.

Mix the sausagemeat and vegetables together with the parsley with your hands.  Form into a sausage shape along the pastry, allowing space to ensure you can fold the pastry over the top.  Press the pastry edges together and prick with a knife to allow steam to escape.  Cut into small sections (or larger ones if you prefer) and place onto baking paper.  Brush with a little milk.

Bake in the oven for approx 14-18 minutes (for small sausage rolls) or until cooked through and golden.

Allow to cool a little until cool enough to give to your child or cool completely on a wire rack and serve cold.  Put in the fridge if not serving immediately.  Also freeze well.

To reheat, defrost completely if frozen then warm in the oven at about 180oC for 10 minutes.  Once reheated serve warm.