New Year, More Money!

I know some people don't like New Year's resolutions, but I don't think there's anything wrong with a little self-improvement.  I also know that today is 5 days after New Year's, but I think you get the whole of January to make them.  Especially if you only keep them a week, deciding on them later in the month will make people think that you actually kept them longer.  Frankly, there are enough resolutions running around about losing weight and eating better, so instead I thought I would propose a few penny-saving resolutions instead.  January, being cold and dark, is a crappy time to try to lose a bunch of weight, but most of you probably spent to much money over the holidays, making January an excellent, and possibly compulsory time to save some money.  So here are some ideas for running a cost-efficient home kitchen.

Resolve to:

1.  Replace more expensive protein-rich foods with beans and legumes.  Beans and lentils are not only nutritional powerhouses, they are the cheapest sources of protein you will find.  If you don't eat them very often, resolve to keep some cans in your cupboard and eat them at least couple of times a week.  Eat the beans, I mean, not the cans.  Cans of beans are very cheap, but if you really want to spend next to nothing, buy dried beans and soak and cook them yourself.  I like to cook beans myself, not only for the financial benefits, but also because something about the practise makes me feel pleasantly medieval.

2.  Start throwing dinner parties instead of going out to eat.  You might think that you will spend more hosting dinner for other people than going out, but I find that as long as you keep costs in mind (and your guests bring the drinks), you can entertain very cheaply in your own home, without sacrificing deliciousness or fun.  Consider starting a dinner party ritual with your friends, alternating the host.  If you decide on potluck dinners your bank account won't even notice that you're having fun.  And while playing tipsy charades (an essential part of any dinner party) is frowned upon in restaurants, no one but your loved ones will judge you in the privacy of your own home.  And even if you live in squalor, you will be amazed at what a thorough cleaning and some tealights can do. 

3.  Replace sugary cereals with porridge.  Porridge is the cheapest breakfast imaginable, while most processed cereals are simply charging you stupid amounts of money to give you diabetes.  Sure, you might not want a bowl of steaming hot porridge in the middle of July, but for most of the year, porridge is the healthiest, and most economical breakfast around.  Endless ways to prepare porridge abound, from dried fruits and nuts, to fresh berries, apples and cinnamon, jam, and natural syrups.

4. Start packing your lunch 4 days a week.  Granted, this piece of advice might not be terribly original.  But no one's doing it.  Having been in plenty of different offices in the last couple of years, I can confirm that the only time most people bring their lunch is when buying their lunch would involve walking long distances.  If you struggle to remember to prepare lunches, you have two alternatives.  Either make extra dinner and bring the leftovers the next day for lunch, or make large batches of substantial dishes on Sundays, and store them in individual portions.  Brain surgery, right?  But no one's doing it.

5.  Learn a few soup bases.  Learning the basics of how to make soup is oh-so-important.  You will save money and eat less by adding lots of soup to your diet.  And the possibilities are capital E Endless.  Anything!  You can put anything in soup!  Dig through some cookbooks or the internet for recipes for blended vegetable soups, chunky vegetable soups, minestrone, miso soups (my recipe is for one is at the bottom of this post), lentil soups, bean soups, and whatever-else-you-can-imagine soups.  Once you understand the basic formats of a few different soups you can play around with them and add whatever you have on hand that will compliment the recipe.   Such flexibility and improvisation allows you to avoid that huge drain on your wallet known as wasted produce.

6.  Save and use everything.  Preposterous amounts of food get wasted by the foolish everyday.  Join the ranks of the elite group of people who know how to recognise when a vegetable is about to go off (without the use of meaningless supermarket best before dates), and can put the middle-aged veggie to use.  If you have some produce that is going off and you can't find an immediate use for it, throw the produce in a resealable bag and chuck the bag in the freezer.  Prioritise your weekly produce: use up things that expire quickly, like leafy greens, at the beginning of the week, and save more robust things, like squash, for the end of your shopping week.  Always save leftovers for later; even small bits of dishes can be put away for an easy snack later on.  Even the skins and ends of your veggies can be saved for compost if you have your own garden, or for soup stock.  Read Stone Soup (UK), (CAN), for inspiration!  Hey, that book works for Resolution 5, too.

7.  Keep some homemade frozen dinners in your freezer.  Note the word homemade.  I do not condone or encourage you to buy or eat factory-produced frozen dinners!  Keeping some delicious, healthy dinners in your freezer at all times will help you out on those evenings when you are too tired to cook, and the take-out menu drawer looms dangerously near.  I'm not suggesting that you never get take-out or go out for dinner, but any such indulgences should be planned into your week and budget.  Make sure that the dinners are something you will actually want to eat as well, and your hunger will stop ruling your debit card on lazy, tired evenings. 

May you enjoy pain-free frugality this year.  And quit smoking.  Blech.

Recessionpe!

Rainbow Red Lentil Soup

This wholesome, homey soup is based on another recipe in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, (UK), (CAN), that I've modified only a little, to make it rainbow-y. And better. Having unintentionally made the soup multi-coloured once, I fell in love with the pretty pastels of the purple "red" onion, yellow bell pepper, and orange carrots and lentils.  You also get red from the tomatoes, and green from the spinach.  Feel free to play around with the recipe, and add different vegetables or spices.  This soup is works for this post on different levels, because lentils are traditionally served at New Years, as their coin-like shape is seen as representative of good luck, abundance, and wealth.  See, that's what you get when you take recipe suggestions from an English grad.  Double-metaphor soup.

1.5 cups red lentils
6 cups vegetable stock (or 6 cups water and 1-2 stock cubes)
3 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 slices fresh ginger root, each about the size of a quarter

2 medium carrots, chopped
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper

1 large red onion
1 tbs olive oil
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1-2 cups baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Chuck the lentils, stock, bay leaves, garlic, and ginger in a pot, cover and heat on high.  Add the carrots, tomatoes, and bell peppers.  Bring to a boil, stir, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes, covered, until the lentils are tender.  Add the spinach a few minutes before the lentils are done cooking.

In the meantime, saute the onions in the olive oil until soft, for 5 to 10 minutes.  Add the cumin, coriander, and cayenne, and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat.

Remove the ginger and bay leaves from the lentils.  Supposedly, people have choked on bay leaves before, so make sure you get all three.  Stir in the onions and lemon juice, and season to taste.

Some crusty whole grain bread and a fresh salad will make this soup a complete, wholesome lunch.

This Little Piggy went to the Market

Shopping in the overly clean produce section of chain supermarkets makes me feel a little dirty.  I have to do it every once in a while, but I feel no connection to food when I walk down the neatly packed aisles, and  pick out a shrink-wraped head of broccoli and a pre-packaged bag of spinach.  In the supermarket, only tiny fluctuations in price and availability give any indications as to the season, and the aisles are stocked with the same items year-round.  Which might not sound like a bad thing, but I can't imagine anything more boring than eating the same thing year-round, unless it's reading Anne Murray's biography.

But what else is a city-dwelling, flat-dwelling vegetarian to do?  I think my ground floor neighbours might get a little tetchy if I tore up their back garden to grow my own carrots, and I applied for an allotment with my local council, but 174 people in my area have to give up their allotments (or die) before I get one.  So in the meantime, every Saturday morning my boyfriend and I trek out to our local farmer's market to find a bounty of local, seasonal produce itching for my love and attention.

I think when you look at the reasons why I love farmer's markets, you won't find this habit excessive or unnecessary.  There are many reasons to grab a canvas bag and frequent your local market, and here are my favourite:

1. Save that Shiny Green Earth:

The overpackaging in UK supermarkets completely baffles me, but I don't see it ending anytime soon.  I routinely witness customers picking up prepackaged produce that is being sold right next to the exact same, yet less expensive, loose produce.  Baffling.  Never once have I seen a cucumber in an English supermarket NOT shrink-wrapped, nor have I even seen loose salad leaves for the picking.  I wonder if children know that peaches don't grow in cardboard trays and plastic (although if tv programs are to be believed, kids today don't even know what peaches are, let alone how they grow). My Canadian counterparts tell me that rather than becoming more conscious about waste, Canadian supermarkets are becoming more overpackaged as well.

We all know that excess packaging creates a lot of waste, and that a lot of waste is bad for the environment, and that things being bad for the environment is A Very Bad Thing.  But what you may not realise is when food is wrapped in plastic packaging, there is a risk of the toxins on the plastic leaching into your food.  Toxins in your food are also A Very Bad Thing.  But when I wander into the bustling farmer's market, my sleepy, Saturday morning eyes witness crates full of unwrapped cruciferous vegetables and bunches of leafy greens bound only by a single, reuseable rubber band.  At most, veggies and berries are placed into a recylable plastic punnet, with no wrapping around them.  So much better.

2.  You can talk to the people who grow your food:

The possibility of having a conversation with a real live farmer who grew the food I am actually going to eat shouldn't fill me with a sense of amazement, but it does.  Most of us are so far removed from the source of our food that we have no idea how it even grows.  So talking to someone who actually works at or owns the farm that produced the ingredients of my dinner, someone who not only knows what a Jerusalem artichoke is, but can tell me how to prepare it, is a weird and pleasing sensation.  Having the farm workers present at the market also means that you can talk to them about their growing methods; some of the farms aren't organic, but don't use spray pesticides.  Some of them may be in the process of obtaining certification as organic, as the process takes years and is costly.  And you can't beat that personal touch: the boyfriend and I once stared long enough at a patty pan squash, trying to figure out what the heck it was, that the seller offered it to us for free to see if we liked it.  I can only imagine the bewilderment that I would encounter if I were to ask a chain supermarket worker if I could have something for free just to try it. 

3.  Seasonal Seeds:

I love the changing of the seasons, and nowhere is this change more apparent than at the farmer's market (especially since the weather doesn't actually change from one season to the next in London).  I love not knowing what I'm going to find, and whether or not rhubarb, or strawberries, or zucchini, or butternut squashes are in season yet.  Markets make me feel connected to the earth in a hippy, crunchy granola, earth goddess, Gaia kind of way.  I feel motivated to make the most of the short seasons of asparagus and tomatoes, knowing that next week they might be gone.  Every week there seems to be something that wasn't there last week, and I leave every week happily anticipating what I'm going to find next week.

4.  Branching Out: 

In the last two weeks of market going I've purchased purple cauliflower (yes, I said purple cauliflower), ruby chard, dark and rich green cavelo nero, teeny baby yellow squash, curly kale, humble hubbard squash, courgette flowers, and orange cherry tomatoes, alongside the stock carrots, potatoes, and onions.  I've never seen six of those items in a chain supermarket.  Health experts recommend eating as many different varieties of plant foods as possible, and all of those items I listed above were not only rich in variety and nutrients, they were local produce that was in season.  Who knew that such exotic produce existed right here in England? 

5.  Being Neighbourly:

I've got nothing against New Zealand farmers, but I don't particularly want to eat their produce, unless I'm actually in New Zealand.  Farmer's markets give you the chance to support local farmers.  If you're worried about food miles (and I think we all should be conscious of the issue), the produce at your market has at most been driven, not flown, a few hours.  Cooking with local produce is better for the planet, and it's better for you; eating tropical fruit that's flown for 8 hours so you could eat it in January just makes no damn sense.

So how does one go about fitting a weekly visit to the market into their shopping?  Because you don't necessarily know what you are going to find at the market, shopping has to be done a little differently.  Experienced cooks will be able to semi-plan meals as they go along, but even if you have no idea what you are doing in the kitchen, you can simply estimate as best you can how much produce you will need to make at least 5 wholesome dinners.  Once you come home from the market, turn to your recipe books and the internet for inspiration on what to make.  You can either make a seperate trip to a regular grocery store, or simply pick things up throughout the week as you need them, whichever way fits into your schedule better.  A very easy and delicious way to utilise what you buy in the market is to make simple preperations of veggies with side dishs of legumes and grains.   Using this macrobiotic-esque method creates a nutritious, delicious and easy-to-prepare plate that will also be visually appealing.   If you would rather make more complicated dishes, or follow recipes, don't be afraid to make substitutions; you might end up spending a fortune if you follow every recipe to a T, and most recipes are quite happy to be messed around with a bit.  If you need to do all your shopping in one trip, think about bringing your most-used cookbook with you to the market with a pen and paper, and just sit down and plan your week before you go to the supermarket. 

The second way to market shop requires less time, but a little more organisation (and glorious, glorious lists).  If you are the kind of person who likes to have a constantly well-stocked pantry, you can simply make a list of every non-perishable/long-life item you want to keep stocked, and mark down when you've used something up.  That way you can visit the market every week, and always be sure of having the non-market items you need to make a recipe.  Using this method, you may only have to visit the grocery store once or twice a month, but the shopping trips will be big ones.  I don't think shopping this way really costs anymore money, but does require forking out more money at one time, so it's not going to be suitable for everyone.  But doesn't the idea of constantly having every pantry item you could ever need always on hand just make your toes wiggle?

Because you are buying local, seasonal produce to base your meals around, shopping at the market is usually completely inexpensive.  However I should warn you that if you are currently on an emergency budget, you will have to use a lot of restraint during your trip to the supermarket, because making two different shopping trips can often result in spending more.  Otherwise, farmer's markets are competely affordable, delightful options.  And yes, they are a little time consuming, but I think most of us spend our time in a lot less efficient ways that focusing on our food and our health.  Like the 45 minutes you just spent reading the moronic comments on an online article. 

So look up your local market.  If you are in the UK, a list of them can be found here, if you live in Canada, try going to this page and click on your province (not all provinces are listed), and if you live in the States, there is a national farmer's market search engine on this site. 

You can thank me after you're finished tucking into a pile of velvety squash, crispy roasted cauliflower, and lemony kale. 

Recessionpe!

Marketable Curry

Most of the time when I'm shopping, I come up with meal ideas in my head.  However, there are times when we come home, put everything away, I stare proudly into the fridge at the spectacle of vegetable, and then say, "Crap...what the blerg am I supposed to make with all of this?"  That's when I make this curry.  You can shove pretty much whatever veggies you bought into this dish, but try to come up with a similar variety of types of veggies to the ones I have listed.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 small green chilli, chopped (remove the seeds for a milder curry)
1 cup of cauliflower, chopped into florets
1 potato, cut into thick sticks
1 cup winter squash, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
4 largeish mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 cup leafy greens such as spinach or kale, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, remove the staulks from the leaves and chop (optional)
2 tins of plum tomatoes
1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional, but adds a rich zing)
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted if you like
1 tsp coriander
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garam masala

Heat the oil in a large frying pan (you will likely need the biggest pan you have), and add the onions and one tsp of cumin seeds.  Saute until the onions become translucent.  Add the cilantro staulks, turmeric, salt and chili and saute for a minute or two.  Open the tins of tomatoes, and use a cheese grater to grate the tomatoes into a bowl.  Add the tomatoes to the pan and conserve the remaining tomato juice.  Add the garlic, ginger, remaining cumin seeds,coriander, and optional balsamic vinegar, and simmer together for a few minutes.  Add the potatoes, squash and cauliflower, with the tomato juice of one can.  Coat the vegetables with the tomato mixture, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and peas and chickpeas, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  If the mixture is getting too dry, add the remaining tomato juice, or water if needed.  Add the leafy greens, cover, and simmer for another 5 minutes.  Test the potatoes and squash, and cook longer if needed, adding more water as necessary.  Once cooked through, add the garam marsala and stir it in as best as possible.  Add the chopped cilantro leaves, cover and leave off the heat for as long as possible before eating.  Serve with brown rice.

Will be toe-curlingly good the second and third day.

Emergency Budget Food

I pretty much always eat cheaply at home, but every now and then I have a budget emergency and have to pull out the big guns of frugality. If you've lost your job and your savings are dwindling, or you're a student and your part-time coffee shop job is barely paying the rent, or you're saving up for something big, you might have to make a few panic-driven sacrifices in your budget. When you don't have enough money to indulge in, well, anything at all, it's really easy to throw healthy eating out the window, and survive on cheap, refined sugar and greasy, simple carbs. But while you're rationing out your tater tots and custard creams, consider that these foods are not only not good for you, they are actually doing damage to your health. You're paying someone to make you sick, which makes even less sense when the only thing in your wallet is a coupon for a free coffee. Also, you will feel like crap if you eat these foods, and feeling like crap makes acquiring more money a whole lot harder.

Eating healthy food in the middle of your own financial meltdown is completely possible, it just takes a little ingenuity. Below are a list of foods and secrets of the truly cheap to help you through it.

Emergency food #1: The Potato

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes! I love them so much! They are incredibly cheap and incredibly versatile. They are also very nutritious, and the starch in them has been linked to protection against colon cancer, improved gluten tolerance, supressing appetite, and reducing fat storage. As you probably have already noticed, one medium-big potato can go along way in satisfying your hunger, and doesn't need very much to make it palatable. Potatoes can be roasted, boiled, mashed, baked, and fried, and can be the foundation for soups, stews, casseroles, bakes, croquettes, curries, patties, and...I could go on but I'm getting tired. They seem to have acquired a bad rep in terms of what they will do to your figure, but that's just nonsense. They will not make you fat, and they might even make you skinny. Ok, if you load them up with cream and cheese, they might make you fat, but people on emergency budgets don't have money for cream and cheese anyway. Search around your supermarket for the cheapest, biggest bag you can find.

Emergency food #2: Lentils

People think they don't like lentils, but they're wrong. You like them. Yum. There is so much that you can do with lentils with so very little effort. The main kinds you will come across will be red split lentils, brown lentils, and Puy lentils (also known as lentilles vertes). Lentils are a fantastic source of cheap protein, iron, fiber, folate, and B vitamins. They are also very filling and very easy to prepare. You can use them to make salads, soups, stews, dahl-type concoctions, curry-type concoctions, on their own with some seasonings as a side dish, casseroles, pasta sauces, and croquettes (why do I keep bringing up croquettes?). As I said in the Art of Shopping blog, make a note in your grocery store of where you can find them priced most cheaply; sometimes you will find them at twice the price in one aisle to the next.

Emergency food #3: Yellow Split Peas

Yellow split peas can do pretty much the same things lentils can, so I wont go on about them, except to say that they are a great source of fiber, protein, manganese, folate, vitamin B1, potassium and phosphorus. They are often even cheaper than lentils.

Emergency food #4: Pasta

Duh. Everyone knows pasta is stupidly cheap. And everyone knows what to do with it, so I won't tell you. Pasta is another food that has a bad diet rep, but only because idiots are allowed to say whatever they want in diet books. Italians have the lowest rates of obesity in Europe, and last I heard, they were kind of okay with pasta. Again, don't load it up with cream and cheese. We all know whole-wheat pasta has a better nutritional profile than white pasta, but your body still processes white pasta as a complex carb. So don't feel too badly if you really can't spend the extra few pennies, but do remember that the whole-wheat pasta also contains more fiber and other nutrients.

Emergency food #5: Barley

Barley is so cheap its just silly. And yet, I never see anyone but me buying it. But it's everyone else's loss, because not only is barley comfortingly chewy and satisfying, it's amazingly healthful. Barley is high in fiber, and has been traditionally used to support the gallbladder, digestive, and nervous systems. Barley also helps prevent dietary cholesterol absorption. Amazing! Barley might sound a little bland at first, but can be used in lots of different ways: soups, stews, casseroles, as a side dish, pilafs, and even as a substitute for rice in risotto.

Emergency food #6: Brown Rice

Yeah, white rice is a little cheaper than brown rice, but the difference in nutrition makes it hard for me to recommend buying white rice instead. And white rice may be cheaper but brown rice is still pretty dirt cheap. Brown is a source of protein, fibre, calcium, irion, B vitamins, and zinc. It can be used as a grain accompaniment for countless curries, stews, stir-fries, sautes, and can also make fried rice, pilafs, mock-risottos (real risottos require arborio rice or something similar), and...croquettes. Your best bet for getting it cheaply is to look for the biggest bag in the wholefoods section.

Emergency food #7: Beans

Kidney beans, pinto beans, haricot beans, cannellini beans, black eyed peas, chick peas, black beans, azuki beans...you're not going to run out of choices. Beans are fantastic. They are wonderful sources of protein, fiber, complex carbs, iron, and folate. Canned beans are already pretty cheap, but if you really want to tighten the purse strings, buy them dried, soak them overnight, and cook them for about an hour before you plan on using them. Beans are also very versatile, and can be used in soups, stews, casseroles, chilis, burritos, as a side dish, curries (chickpease are best for curries), sautes, simple rice and bean dishes, and, oh yes, croquettes (seriously, I almost never make croquettes). Beans, like lentils, are another thing you want to check various aisles for price.

Emergency food #8: Tinned Tomatoes

Perhaps not the most inspiring ingredient, but incredibly useful. Tomatoes contain vitamin C, vitamin A, and lycopene, an antioxident with cancer fighting abilities. Tomatoes can be used to make dishes with all of the above, plus, they're amazingly delicious! If you have the space, you can sometimes get really good deals buying cans in bulk, otherwise, stop being a snob and buy the basic value option. Many cheap, flavourful dishes will be immediately at your fingertips.

Emergency food #9: Oats

If you are on an emergency budget, you'd better learn to like porridge. There is no cheaper, healthier, more satisfying breakfast out there. If you go digging around the bottom shelf of your supermarket, you will usually find a budget brand of oats for about £0.59 per KILO. That's a lot of breakfasts for very little money. There are endless ways to dress porridge up: with berries, with bananas, with homemade fruit sauce, with a spoonful of jam, with nuts and dried fruit, or by itself with a little dairy-free milk. I'm sure you can think of even more ways yourself. My favourite budget way is a spoonful or two of St Dalfour jam (it's sweetened with fruit juice instead of sugar!).

Emergency food #10: Spices and Condiments

Essential, budget-friendly spices and condiments: salt; pepper; olive oil; any kind of cheap vinegar that you like; soy sauce; veggie stock cubes; dried herbs such as basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, and oregano; spices such as cumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, and garam masala. The herbs and spices I picked out are the most commonly used and inexpensive choices, and for these, try looking in your local Asian grocery store, as they will usually have little bags that are a better deal than the little bottles you find in the standard supermarket. As with the tomatoes, the cheapest, most basic version you can find of all of the above will do just fine. Coconut milk is another fairly cheap condiment that you might use less frequently than the others, but can be added into dahl or lentil based soups to perk them up, or combined with some curry paste, veggie stock, and veggies to make a cheap Thai curry. Make sure to alternate between using different flavourings! Nothing will kill your budget faster than getting bored with your diet.

Now, if you know your nutrition, right now you should be concerned about the lack of vegetables on my list. So here's the budget veggie advice: if you have one of those cheap markets nearby you that sell bowls of veggies for £1, delve in. If you have an Aldi or a Lidl nearby you, stop turning up your nose at it, and suck it up.

We know that seasonal produce is cheaper, but things that are generally always cheap are: apples, pears, bananas (get fairtrade, they're still cheap), carrots, cabbage (please don't boil it), big bags of bell peppers, brocolli, garlic, ginger, and onions. Sleuth around a bit to find what other good deals they have at the moment. Measure carefully on the store produce weigh scale to make sure you aren't overspending. Frozen vegetables and berries are good deals, and just as nutritious. I like frozen blueberries, corn, peas, and green beans.

Bring a calculator to the grocery store and add everything down to the pence. You'll look nuts, but who cares? If you overspend, PUT SOMETHING BACK.

On eating out on an emergency budget: you kind of can't. Your best bet is to hang around your friends who have more money than you, and make big puppy-dog eyes at them. They'll take pity on you and pay. Trust me. And you can return the favour when your financial crisis is over. If your friends are as broke as you, consider inviting them over for a budget home-cooked meal.

Recessionpe!

Yellow Split Pea Stew

1 tbps olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander

1-2 carrots, chopped
1 large potato, chopped into smallish cubes
2-3 mushrooms, sliced
1 generous cup yellow split peas
1.5-2 cups vegetable stock (I make stock using the cubes)
Handful of leafy greens such as spinach, kale, or chard.
salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in the oil for a few minutes until soft. Add the carrots, mushrooms, and potato and saute for a few minutes more. Add the spices and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the split peas and stir until coated. Quickly add the stock, turn the heat up to boil, then lower the heat and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the split peas are cooked, they will be mushy and smushy.  You may need to check it occassionally to make sure it doesn't need more water.  About 5 minutes before the stew is done, throw in the leafy greens if using. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

This stew can be served by itself, over rice, or with some crusty brown bread.

The Art of Grocery Shopping: tips for thrifty food shopping

Two things I know for sure about myself are that I am compulsively cheap, and I love food more than life itself. These two facts have resulted in me being well-versed in eating well very cheaply.

There are many different tricks to know when it comes to cheap, healthy food, but this post will just focus on the place you actually plunk your money down, the art of grocery shopping. I spend less than £15 per person weekly, and have been known to eat well on less than £10 per person weekly. Here’s how it happens.

My own weekly shop usually starts out with a trip to the farmer’s market, wherein there are slightly different rules (on which I will elaborate on in a later post); however, in the interest of making this post a little more ubiquitous and useful for people without access to a market, this advice is mostly geared towards shopping in a standard grocery store.

Plan your week. Plan, plan, plan. It doesn’t have to be exact, but putting in a little extra effort before and during shopping will save you a lot of money (and stress). I cannot shop without a list. If I ever fail to make one, I wander around the store aimlessly , throwing random items into the cart, none of which will make a meal. So every week I faithfully make a list and I actually stick to it.

Before you go out to the grocery store, sit down and plan out what you are going to eat that week. Doing so takes about 20 minutes. If you know you will be going as soon as you get home from work, do your planning the night before. Do it when you are relaxed and happy. I love this part of my shopping routine because it means I get to immerse myself in my cookbooks! Make a list of all of the ingredients you need, and take an inventory of your kitchen to see what you already have. Don’t forget to plan for your breakfast, snacks, and lunches; people end up spending silly amounts of money at lunchtime when they fail to plan for these things. Write down EVERY SINGLE THING you will need. At the risk of sounding bossy, I’m going say, don’t put things like “large bag of chips, 2L bottles of Coke, tub of chocolate” on your list. Writing down that you’re going to buy junk doesn’t make it cheaper. Don’t plan to buy it and don’t buy it.

I will admit that I take a long time to shop, especially when I’ve shopping in a new store. Why? Because grocery stores are actively trying to trick you into spending more money. Maybe yours is an honest, independently owned store with a conscience, and would never dream of trying to trick you, but mine definitely aims to deceive. However, I evade their trickery with a little time and care.

When you are shopping for produce, you will notice that prices are listed by weight. Pay attention to this pricing. I often enough see packaged produce right next to the same product sold loose, and if you pay attention to the price by weight, you will notice how often you are being charged extra money just to buy the produce pre-packaged. Keep in mind that pre-packaged produce often contains chemicals that are applied to packaging as a pesticide or preservative. These chemicals obviously get onto the food, but regulators do not require that they be listed in the ingredients, as they are not classed as food. Does that sound like something you want to pay more for?

We all know that local, seasonal produce is cheaper, although I think a much smaller percentage of the population could actually tell you what is local or seasonal. I’ll do another post at another time on farmer’s markets, and how great they are for finding out what is in season, but if you don’t have a market nearby you, you might want to go online and print off a chart of seasonal fruits and veggies, and stick it on your fridge. Even in the more ubiquitous environment of the supermarket, seasonal produce will be cheaper.

In most grocery stores there will be a bin or two of discounted produce. I always check through it, but only occasionally find anything worth buying. Obviously if something already on your list happens to be in the discount bin, it’s a good purchase. You may also find a substitute for something on your list; something like discounted kale for spinach is a pretty obvious switch. Sometimes I see a bunch of fresh herbs for .10p or so, and I can generally find a use for them. However, keep in mind that a small bag of chopped carrots at .50p marked down from a pound is still a rip-off.

When you’re looking through aisles, keep in mind that the most expensive items are stacked at eye level, cheaper items may be along the top or the bottom. In the same vein, try the budget line. There are many staples such as rice, tinned tomatoes, beans, etc, with which you will not notice a difference in taste, but are drastically cheaper.

Take a moment to carefully check the price of staple items by weight as well. You’d be surprised at the difference in prices in some items when you use a little detective work.

You’ve heard this one before, but don’t be fooled by 2 for 1 offers unless it’s something already on your list, and something you use/eat a lot of. Similarly, something being on sale is only beneficial if it’s on your list. Buying in bulk is often a money saver, but use your discretion. Sometimes you simply don’t have room for bulk items, and sometimes buying more just means you will eat more. Unlike the produce bin, I’ve never once seen anything worth buying in the general discount bin.

The store that we shop in for our staple items is huge, and often has the same item in several different locations. I make a note of the price I see an item at first, and compare it to the item in other locations in the store. For example, the nuts in the baking aisle are the same damn nuts in the wholefoods aisle, but at half the price.

STICK TO YOUR LIST. If you didn’t need it when you were making the list, you don’t need it in the store. On a similar note, never ever EVER go shopping hungry. Hunger makes sticking to your list almost impossible.

Finally, check your receipt and change before you leave the store, just to make sure you weren’t overcharged. It doesn’t happen very often, but you’d hate to miss it.

I hope you find this collection of tips and tricks helpful. I really believe that how you shop makes as big a difference to your bill as what you buy, and ultimately helps you to stick to your health plan. You can’t eat a package of cookie dough that you never bought.


Recessionpe!


Red Lentil Comfort Food


This is one very cheap way to prepare lentils, a recipe I modified from Moosewood Celebrates. The zest of the ginger and lemon perk up the warm, comforting flavours. I call this comfort food because it is the perfect thing to curl up with on a cold day.

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, minced or grated
3 carrots, sliced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
11/2 cups red lentils
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, and sauté until soft. Add the ginger, cumin and cinnamon, and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the carrots, and sauté for a few minutes. Add the red lentils, and stir until mixed with the other ingredients. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a boil, and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender. The mixture should have a dahl-like consistency. Stir in the lemon zest, and season.

Serve by itself, or over brown rice.