This morning, the Observer (which is the Sunday version of the Guardian), an English newspaper, included a section entitled 'How To Save Money: Shopping & Leisure'. I've had a look through and there are some good ideas, but when they come to the suggestions about food shopping and cooking, there are a few problems. Yes, the ideas are good and would save money. However, they forget that people buy a lot of products because they will save time.
One suggestion was to make your own pasta sauce instead of buying one. Some sauces can be put together easily and quickly and yes, they do taste better and you do know what went into them. However, it takes time to track down recipes if you have never made your own sauces before. Moreover, certain sauces, such as bolognese, take 15 minutes to prepare but up to 3 hours to simmer. So, pasta sauce suggestions please! One of next post will concentrate on those.
Another idea was to make your own hummus. I have tried this several times without making a hummus I like as much as the one I buy. However, I will try again this summer and see what I can come up with. Recipes for that would be appreciated as well.
It is also suggested that instead of buying packaged salad that you buy a 'proper' lettuce and grow much of the rest yourself. I'm sure that you can see the problem with this as well. Many people don't have the time or a place to grew salad greens. And if you do, you need to have made the philosophical decision to spend more time and energy on sourcing and preparing your food.
This leads us back to the previous post about the necessity to make a conscious decision to change and to adopt a 'plan'. I made the decision years ago. In fact I can't even remember when. I am a product of the late 60's so perhaps my beliefs were formed then. However, I do from time to time stray and buy time saving products. In the past I have felt guilty about this but not any more. Sometimes, you just need to take the easy way out but obviously, not all the time if you want to save money and eat better.
Here is a link to my bolognese sauce. As I said, it take a lot of simmering so you need to do this as soon as you get in at night to be ready for the next evening or make it on the weekend.
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I love hummus...sadly I've developed a severe allergy to sesame seeds. I'll post my recipe later.
During the winter, Mike got into a routine of having a piece of toast with strawberry jam after his run. I tasted the jam I'd bought and figured I could do much better and I did, using frozen strawberries, Brown sugar and lemon juice. It tasted good and was much more economical then the good store brands.
Now Mike's into eating a few chunks of tofu after his run. I do not foresee making tofu though I do recall researching the techniques back in the 70's.
One of my favourite food shops sells tofu at a very low price. They even have some flavoured ones, the Gram Masala is my favourite and Mike goes for the Thai and the Teriyaki. The last two contain sesame seed and, as I've mentioned, I'm allergic to sesame. I keep meaning to try "marinating" tofu with some Thai type flavours that dont include sesame oil.
More later..this is a thought provoking and inspiring blog....mj
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