Is food thrift relevant?

Something someone said recently made me think about one of the themes I blog about.  I often write thrifty recipes or give tips on how to make the recipe cheaper to make, cook or ways to use up or prevent waste.  My food is rarely expensive to make.  This is because it's the way I cook.  I care about food, I value it.

When I was little, my parents used to grow nearly all of our own fruit and vegetables.  None of it went to waste.  Gluts were frozen, picked, bottled, made into jam or wine.

Living below the line

Unfortunately due to personal circumstances (moving house for the 2nd time in 2 weeks) I won't get to take part in the 'live below the line' challenge this year but I thought I would tell you about it and tell you why it deserves your attention.

1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty in the world.  1.2 BILLION that's over 15% of the world population.  The live below the line challenge is to try and experience, and raise money for people who live in extreme poverty by only spending £1 a day on food and drink.

7 a day challenge - Day 7

Today was the last day of my challenge to eat 7 portions of fruit and vegetables in 7 days.

Breakfast

I started the day with my fruity toast (like I had on day 5).  Delicious.

Lunch

I was with a visitor at work today so I had a buffet from the canteen.  For all my criticism earlier in the week, they didn't let me down, the fruit platter saved the day.  It was served with orange juice as well on the side and every sandwich had a salad garnish and coleslaw inside.  I easily racked up three portions with the juice (even if that always feels like a cheat.)

7 a Day Challenge - Day 6

On the home run now...  A few days ago I set myself the challenge to eat 7 portions of different fruits and vegetables over 7 days and see how it impacted me and my wallet.

Breakfast

I'd had enough of trying to squeeze fruit and vegetables into breakfast for one day.  So it was toast with marmalade and proper butter.

Lunch

7 a day challenge; day 5

I'm trying to eat 7 portions of 7 different fruits and vegetables in 7 days to see how easy or hard it is, how it affects me and how it affects my wallet.  If you want to read more, see my first post on my 7 a Day challenge.

Breakfast

7 a Day Challenge; Day 4

Last week I set myself a challenge to have 7 days of eating 7 fruits or vegetables a day in the recommended portion sizes.

So I woke up at 4am this morning.  This isn't a massively unusual occurrence for me, especially when I'm busy or stressed and 2am has been known.  I don't think I can put that down to the vegetables.

Breakfast

As I woke so early and was intending to run, my body was saying to me "GIVE ME FOOD".  Pre running you don't exactly want a fry up in your belly, so going for watermelon (as I did), which is high GI can actually be a great idea.

After my run I opted for a simple bowl of cereal.  I was going to have scrambled eggs with mushrooms but I decided against it because after running nearly 6 miles, you don't really feel like whipping up a storm.

Lunch

I made an adaptation of my mushroom pasta bake recipe for lunch except adding an extra vegetable in the form of defrosted chopped spinach into the mix.  To up the fruit and vegetable content more I also made some coleslaw on the side with red cabbage (see my photo above.  I do love the colours.)  The plate was all the colours of the rainbow and much more comforting than the light soup lunches I had been eating which helped me feel more sated.  Home made coleslaw is a really accessible way towards your 7 a day because all of the ingredients are cheap and you can get them all year round.  My son had double portions of both.  Success!

7 a Day Challenge; Day 3 - Vegetable Pakoras

7 fruits and vegetables a day is a bit harder than I thought.

A few days ago, I set myself a challenge to eat 7 fruits and vegetables minimum in 7 days to see how it affected me, my wellbeing and how hard or easy it might be.

I'm on day 3 now and I need to find ways to liven things up!

Breakfast

I was at work early today so took breakfast of rice crispies and a banana.  This is actually far more than I'd normally eat for breakfast so I ended up saving the banana for mid morning.  I will definitely be stretching myself more from a culinary point of view at the weekend when I have more time!

Lunch

Lunch was Gazpacho again (2 portions of vegetables) due to making a double batch yesterday with watermelon and a satsuma afterwards.  I was up to 5 of my 7 after lunch but felt the need to 'retox' with some chocolate cake.  A girl needs something unvirtuous!

Tea

Ok... this week has been harder (even by day 3) than I expected.  I needed fried.  So wrong.  I know, I had chocolate there was even some sugar on the rice crispies.

But the problem is I'm just so full!  Maybe I don't eat big portions but 7 lots of vegetables, in the portion sizes recommended really limits what else you can eat.

So I needed fried.  I needed something which felt wrong even if it was full of vegetables.  Pakora it is!

Vegetable Pakoras - Makes enough for two

7 a day challenge: Day 2

Day 2 of trying to eat 7 a day.

After the widespread media reports that 7 a day or more are much better than 5, I challenged myself to eat 7 or more a day for 7 days to see how hard it is for someone who already eats reasonably healthily.  The challenge continues...

Breakfast

I had some maple / pecan crisp today with a grated apple in it.  A bit boring I know and I have to admit I was a bit bored by it.  It made me wonder if the cereal packets showing the cereal lovingly scattered with berries were just a sign of the deep unhealthiness of the cereal.

Lunch

Seven a Day!

It was widely reported by British media today that official government advice on fruit and vegetables should perhaps change because 7 rather than 5 a day is what we should be aiming for.

This might be pretty scary to most of us who fail to get anywhere near.  Recent research indicated only 1 in 5 people manage to eat that level.  I was wondering why and feeling smug, then I had a moment of realisation.

My Favourite Healthy Smart Swap Recipes

Well we're thinking on with it being New Year; time for change, renewal and as many people do, dieting.

I've said before, I'm not 100% sure that dieting works; especially if you are substituting 'diet' products for regular.  I know this is a controversial attitude, particularly considering official government advice reported in the media today.  That said though, some people really are out of the habit of eating healthily and I know I get like that sometimes and need to give myself a shake up, wake up and start to realise how delicious healthier food can be.  So rather than swapping sugary drink for sugar free, these are MY smart swap recipes!

Not all of them are salads either (even if this goats cheese salad is delicious) I can appreciate some people reject stuff like this as 'rabbit food' and need a little more encouragement towards their 5 a day.

So here are some recipes which often contain fruit and / or vegetables and have something else about them which I think makes them worthwhile as a 'healthy' recipe depending on your approach.  After all, remember, everything is ok in moderation but the important word is 'moderation' not 'everything'!

Cheap eats; thrifty recipes for end of the month

I've been thinking a lot about Jamie Oliver's approach to cheap meals recently and I think he has a good point.  A roast can yield a lot of meals, cheap cuts can be really tasty.  What disappointed me though was when I saw his interpretation of 'cheap'.  Many of his recipes are aimed at £2 a head.  Yeah, cheap if you buy ready meals but not cheap if you're on jobseekers allowance, what's more when MSN tested it, they couldn't make them as cheaply.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a religiously cheap cook but I do believe in thrift.  My parents brought me up this way, not to be wasteful.  They grew all their own fruit and vegetables and when you've invested that much time, it's worth respecting them.  As I said in my post about Jamie Oliver's approach it's not just about overall cost, sometimes when you pay less for something you respect it less.

It doesn't have to be this way though.  I would say that one of the cheapest, most filling ingredients there is, lentils, is impossible to cook without respecting it.  They take 20-45 minutes to cook.  Ok, not quick but sometimes slow is good, slow makes you think about what you're eating and, let's face it, it's not that slow, it's not necessarily food you have to be stood over poking and prodding for the whole time!

So in answer to the £2 a head meal, I've costed out some recipes for you for the price of an adult portion.  Remember even if my recipe says "serves 2" and you're cooking for one it might be worth making the full amount (or even doubling it) to have some left over for lunchtime, freezing can give you some variety so you grab something from the freezer and head out.  It's so easy to spend £3 on lunch in even a subsidised canteen in the workplace or more in a coffee shop.  Over a year if you reduced that cost to £1, you could save £500 a year!

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.

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.

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.

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

How to wean your baby onto solid food

Wow.  I've set myself a challenge here!  Just to clarify up front, I'm not a health professional and so all of this is what I've learned and from personal experience of 1 child and talking to friends.

There are a lot of 'rules' when it comes to weaning.  I will tell you what people say and why and then like any other information source it's up to you to investigate, digest and make your own choices with the support of your local health visitor or doctor.

Why do people start on solids?

Well I've been there.  It's common for a child to have a growth spurt at around 4 months.  For some kids this passes, for others it doesn't.  Unfortunately mine was the latter.  So people start giving solids thinking that it will help their babies sleep.  Generally it doesn't in the experience of my friends and my child.  It was only when my son started to eat a lot more that it helped.

Some people start because of peer pressure or excitement.  I once overheard someone with a 12 week old waiting to see the health visitor telling her friend "I'm going to start him on solids this week I think".  Fortunately her friend urged her to talk to the health visitor about it.  If you are in the situation of having a 3-4 month old, I'm certain at least one member of your family, perhaps your mum has suggested weaning him / her soon.