moving!!

Sorry to be a pain, but Blogspot kept being awkward with font sizes and pasting in images.

I've now moved to http://lessandlessandmore.wordpress.com

Thanks!
-Megan

Buy Nothing New - year in review

Okay,
So I kinda slipped on the whole blog thing. (I'm sure lots of you are now talking to the computer saying "THAT'S a bit of an understatement.") The Buy Nothing New challenge continued and went pretty well, but the blog updates were just nonexistent. For that, I apologise. I'm just not good at consistently writing things. This happened when I was little girl, and even later as a teenager, and kept trying to keep a diary. I'd get about 3 days into it, and get bored.

So now it's a bit of a recap. Here we go:

I DIDN'T BUY
I sucessfully did not buy anything new for myself. Any of my biggest vices: craft supplies (at least not new), kitchen gadgets, home accessories or storage options. I also didn't buy any CDs, new clothes or shoes (my sneakers have holes in the back of both feet.... it's fine unless it rains), socks or underwear (although Robin kept giving me pairs she got for free from Victoria's Secret), jewellery or accessories, and or anything else cute that I wanted to get "just because". In fact, not only did I not buy any craft supplies, but I also ended up giving some away on freecycle. Not buying things just because I had a half-formed project in my head forced me to really look at what I had and realise that I didn't need about 40 pairs of knitting needles... especially because I hadn't done any knitting ALL year. I BOUGHT: Used - quite a few clothes, a bunch of books, an Etch-a-Sketch (!!), a couple pairs of shoes off eBay (and NONE of them fit!), some pillowcases (for their cute printed fabric), a beautiful blue travel typewriter from Belgium (a bit like this one, but a deeper shade of blue AND the travel case matches in colour! ... oh, and some of the keys are different so it's almost a QWERTY ), a set of cute retro cups (a lot like these ones), and probably some other stuff I can't remember. It wasn't too much, but it certainly allowed me some random needless purchased, and alowed me to get some stuff I needed.

I also bought new some supplies to fix up our old flat (a new shower curtain and paint, rollers and brushes to cover marks on the walls), but those all got left at the flat. I'm sure I bought a couple light bulbs, but those were exempt because you can't buy them used. I think I may have bought one roll of tin foil ALL year, and no clingfilm. I started covering a lot of stuff with a baking sheet while cooking, and then we used a lot of random plastic tubs from takeaways, margarine, and yogurt instead of storing stuff with cling film.

Other new things were gifts for people (many were handmade, although not enough). I also got in the habit of buying postcards because they are like minigifts, but I could still support artists who'd made them and even keep them for a couple days. I bought some zines for The Art House to have as references, but I've been lazy and haven't yet taken them there. Oops. I bought a LOT of stuff at the Craft and Zine Fair that I organised.

Unfortunately, I failed constantly at not buying "convenience" food, I bought quite a few packs of crisps while at gigs (although that could be argued as an "experience"), and some tea/chai while out and about. Probably less than during 2008, but it still wasn't good.

I FIXED (Macgyver style or otherwise)
A pair of shoes that were wearing out by adding heel supports that I had sitting in a drawer
A couple tops by darning
Two pairs of trousers (I still need to fix three more) by taking in the waist. Up until I learned how to do this, I didn't have a single pair of trouers that fit me correctly--they all just sat on my hips, making the crotch of the trousers ridiculously low.

We also made do with our one-side-at-a-time toaster, glass roasting dishes doubling up as baking sheets, and I kept finding batteries and a never ending supply of dental floss sat around the house.

I LEARNED
- Take care of your stuff. There are a lot of things that I wish I'd paid more attention to them. I lost my stainless steel water bottle by leaving it behind at a conference--you aren't going to find that used. I misplaced other things, spilled stuff on clothes, and marked up our walls in the old flat so we had to buy paint and brushes. Not being able to buy new cured me of the disposable attitude we seem to have with our things.

- "A stitch in time saves nine" is actually fairly accurate. Mending and repairing has been key. I've successfully learned to darn things (although my attempts are a bit clumsy), so unless you stared at the back of my green cardigan, you'd never know that there was a little hole at the top of it. I'm sure with practice and a wider range of colours and shared of thread, I'll improve. I've thought about getting a darning mushroom, but I'm not entirely sure what you do with it.

- Take stock of what you already have (and use it). There were lots of times where I'd tell myself that I "needed" something which wasn't actually the case. I didn't really need more tops or jumpers, as I already had stacks at home. A lot of my craft supplies got used up because I actually paid attention to what I had already, instead of buying things when I saw them. As a result, I have two sets of really adorable bunting made with floral prints I'd had for YEARS and hadn't done anything with held up by some of the ribbon I'd bought ages ago without any real purpose intended.

- If you're going to buy something, go for quality. I really wish that I'd taken that advice when I bought the shoes that now have holes in them, or the baking sheets and cake pans that keep having the non-stick flake off. My mother has had the same baking sheets for almost my whole life. I need ones like that--I've gone through three sets in four years. With the money I'd spent, I could have bought really nice ones and saved myself a lot of hassle. The next pairs of shoes or boots that I buy are going to be ones I can get resoled by a cobbler. No more disposable shoes for me. I'm hoping to upgrade some of our freecycled furniture piece by piece to good quality antiques (or almost antiques)....or at least once we figure out which country we're going to live in.

- Avoid temptation and gain some perspective. I didn't walk into West Quay for months on end last year. When I did, I tended not to look in the shop windows. I'm a bit better now, having actually gone into TopShop, H&M, Principles and Debenhams to look at what's in style so I can see what I already have and what I might try to pick up used. But it was a lot easier not to walk into the kitchen supply shop in Winchester than it would have been to have to debate with myself why I should not buy something. I feel like I am much more aware of the act of shopping now, though, so I don't feel as tempted to buy things. I'd bet that going for a couple months without shopping would do the same--you'd think about the process a bit more, consider whether or not you want something as much as you initially thought.

WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?
Absolutely. It wasn't that difficult, but I'd try to get ALL gifts for people as handmade (by me or others) or secondhand if I did it again. I don't feel like I suffered through the year, and most of the time I didn't even think about the challenge.

I'm in the paper!

Read all about it here.

Okay, so it's a horrible photo. But I'm still happy that the whole Buy Nothing New got out there. Hopefully I didn't found like too much of a nutcase or like too much of a hippy.

Any thoughts?

Unfortunately, I forgot/didn't manage to get the radio show taped... In fact, I didn't even listen to it (who likes the sound of their own recorded voice?) Oops.

Day 23 - Indian feast (well, almost)

Finally back to normal with not spending too much, it was my turn to cook and from our Riverford box we had two red onions, 2/3 a bag of spinach (which is now a week old) and a medium sized kohlrabi. Before our box arrives tomorrow, pickings were awfully slim. One of the drawbacks of breaking down the cost to a set amount per person, per day.

I thought about making a kohlrabi salad, something nice and summery, since kohlrabi is really refreshing and crisp anyway. Unfortunately the only one I found (that wasn't a coleslaw type thing) used apples and dates--neither of which we have, and both of which are fairly pricey. Luckily, I found an Indian recipe. One sprouting potato leftover from Sunnyfields at the farmers market and our spinach from Riverford gave me another dish, and that recipe suggested tarka dahl (one of Mac's favourites to get at Indian restaurants). AND it was all fairly cheap! Three dishes, plus rice, for less than 60p a serving. Not bad.


What was organic/local?
Organic - oatmeal, [leftovers for lunch: risotto rice, plum tomatoes, veg bouillon, haricot beans,] kohlrabi, red lentils, red onion, potato, spinach
Local - [rapeseed oil and cooking cheese plus herbs from the garden from leftovers] garlic, spinach, potato


Monji Kalia (Kohlrabi stew)
For half a recipe (4 very small portions) made without milk and yogurt, 15p total, 4p per portion

I had to cut the recipe in half because we only had 400g of kohlrabi. Also, we didn't have any yogurt or milk, so I had to leave it out. Considering how spicy it ended up being (not too hot, but a bit hotter than I'd usually have), I wish I'd had some. It still tasted fine without, though.

Ingredients
1 kg (2.2 lb) Kohlrabi (ganth gobhi) (Riverford)
1 1/4 cups (250 ml) 8 fl oz Vegetable oil (used the recycled oil we keep for frying... kohlrabi maybe absorbed 10p worth?)
4 Cloves (laung) (oops. I forgot!)
2 Black cardamom (badi elaichi), crushed (2p)
a pinch Asafbetida (hing) (I've yet to buy this...)
1 cup (250 ml) 8 fl oz Water
1 tsp (2 g) Turmeric (haldi) powder (less than 1p)
1 tsp (2 g) Ginger powder (sonth) (2p)
1 tbsp (5 g) Aniseed (saunf) powder (missed this too...)
1/2 tsp (1 g) Garam masala (less than 1p)
Salt to taste 2 tbsp (60 g) 2 oz Yoghurt (dahi) (skipped)
2 tbsp (30 ml) l fl oz Milk (skipped)
3 Green cardamom (choti elaichi) (we used green instead of black earlier in the recipe)

Directions
1. Wash, peel and cut the kohlrabi into 1 inch cubes.
2. Heat the oil and fry the kohlrabi until golden. Drain and keep aside.
3. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a deep pot; add cloves, black cardamom, and asafoetida. Fry a little and then add water. Cover to prevent the oil from spattering.
4. Add the kohlrabi, turmeric powder, ginger powder, aniseed powder, garam masala, and salt. Cook on high heat for 10 minutes.
5. Add the milk and yoghurt (whisked together), stirring constantly till it comes to the boil. Cook for S minutes and then remove from heat.
6. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small pan, saute the cardamom and add to the pot. Serve hot.


Tarka Dhal
£1.67 total - If 5 servings, 33p

Ingredients
The Dhal
300g red lentils (masoor dhal) (1.08)
40g ghee (I used 2tsp rapeseed oil and 2Tbsp veg oil) (10p + 6p)
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced (I only used onion for the tarka, not the dhal)
1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced (4p)
1.5 tsp turmeric (1p)
1 tsp ground black pepper (oops...I forgot. skipped)
Salt to taste
750mL water
1 dried red chilli-do not split (4p--I'm guessing)

The Tarka
1 tbsp sesame seed oil (skipped--I used one more veg oil)
1 tbsp vegetable oil (3p)
1 tsp mustard seed (optional) (3p)
1 tsp cumin seed (2p)
1 tsp coriander seed (1p)
8 curry leaves (optional)
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced (18p)
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced (Riverford)
2 long dry red chillies (7p--I'm guessing)
1 tsp aswain or lovage seed (skipped. I don't know what either are!)

Directions
1. Wash and sift the dhal (lentils) thoroughly to remove husk and stone. Drain.
2. Heat ghee in heavy pan and fry onion and garlic gently until softened
3. Add turmeric, salt, pepper and dhal. Stir gently to coat all dhal
4. Add water and chillies. Boil, covered, for 20-30 minutes until lentils are cooked and resemble a medium custard in consistency. You may need to add extra water to maintain consistency. Do not let them dry out. When cooked to your liking set aside in a serving dish in a warm place, preferably with a cover.
5. To make the tarka, heat the oil until it smokes and throw in the mustard and reduce heat a bit.
6. When mustard crackles add chillies and fry for 30 seconds, constantly turning. Mind your eyes as the fumes will be pungent.
7. Add rest of tarka ingredients except lovage and keep energetically stir frying until garlic is blackening or chillies are blackening whichever is first.
8. Add aswain or lovage, remove from heat and keep stirring for 10 seconds.
9. Pour mixture over lentils and cover. Serve hot.

The use of mustard and curry leaf is a South Indian variation. Try this recipe with and without the optional ingredients. When you've got the hang of it, try the recipe with other types of dhal and with mixes of dhal. I like a mix of masoor, toovar, urid and pearl barley. (masoor is sweet, toovar is meaty, urid is bitter and pearl barley adds bite.)



Saag Aloo
56p total for 4 small portions (we definitely did NOT have 500g of spinach, and I would ideally have wanted more potatoes). That's 14p each.

Ingredients:
60g / 2¼oz butter or ghee (used 2Tbsp veg oil - 6p)
5cm / 2in piece root ginger, peeled and grated (our ginger disappeared. We probably had 1/2 inch - 5p)
4 garlic cloves, chopped (18p)
2 onions, chopped (skipped)
2 green chillies, chopped (used 1 dried - 4p?)
200g / 7oz floury potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm / 2in pieces (probably 300g? 28p)
1 tsp ground cumin (2p)
1 tsp ground coriander (1p)
½ tsp turmeric (less than 1p)
¼ tsp salt (less than 1p)
500g / 1lb 2oz spinach leaves, rinsed and chopped (you can also use frozen spinach, defrosted) (Riverford)
pinch garam masala

Directions
Melt butter or ghee in large saucepan over medium heat. Fry ginger, garlic, onions and chillies, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes.
Add potatoes and continue stirring for 5 minutes. Then add cumin, coriander, turmeric and salt. Continue frying and stirring for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. I found that everything really stuck to the base of the pan unless I stirred non-stop. If this happens, add a little vegetable oil rather than more butter.
Throw in the spinach at the very end. You want it to stay nice and fresh, so take the saucepan off the heat after you’ve stirred it in, as it will continue to cook for a while with the heat from the potatoes.
Sprinkle garam masala over and serve hot.


Plus, all of this was served with plan basmati rice (we have a 5kg bag in our airing cupboard, so that's never an issue!)
(24p for 1cup... probably enough for 4. 6p)




Breakfast: oatmeal with 1tsp honey and a pinch of cinnamon, 11p PLUS Megan then had 30g raisins (7p) with 10g of peanut butter (2p)
Riverford: 77p
Lunch: Leftover risotto 34p
Dinner: fried kohlrabi (4p), tarka dahl (33p), saag aloo (14p) over rice (6p). 57p total for 3 different Indian dishes. Not bad! Plus Mac had two pieces of bread with pate before he went off to a meeting at 7 because we were too slow in finishing cooking (oops) (30p).

Total: Megan £1.88, Mac £2.09

Day 22 - Back to (budget) normal

Today we had our first meeting for the next half of our ethical food project--an ethical food conference. It will feature fair trade (and trade justice in general) more heavily, but will still hopefully tie into the ideas about eating ethically on a budget. I'd like to get someone in to talk about saving seed in developing nations and in the UK, to talk about the ethics of buying from a supermarket (which often supports Fairtrade suppliers, but can hurt the power of UK farmers) and getting through the idea that EVERYONE can afford to choose fair trade and organic/local produce at least some of the time.

One of the group members mentioned making clear the distinction between choosing to spend £2 a day on ethical food and having to spend $2 a day on living--food, shelter, medicine, clothing, everything. I hope that it will go well.

We're looking at doing it in the spring next year. In other food news, I'm hoping that my friend Hannah and I will start up a food zine. I don't know what would be in it, but I've wanted to write a zine since I was 14 or 15, and still haven't. I'd like some wartime recipes in there, and maybe an interview. I think Hannah said I could be the "vegetarian correspondent" and she has a Norway correspondent and a London correspondent. Maybe she thinks there is a country called Vegetariana?

Anyway, we ate well today, and under budget. As I write this, the costings have all been done, Mac even managed to take some photos, AND we're about to settle down, watch a film (from Lovefilm--we never remember to watch the films and send them back in time so it's more like a £10 donation to their company) and have some popcorn with butter with the money we have left over from today.


White Bean Risotto
Serves 4 £1.36 total, 34p per serving
1 medium onion, chopped (skipped)
2 tbsp Rape seed oil (30p)
2 cloves garlic, minced (9p)
5 mini plum tomatoes, chopped (Riverford)
1 1/2 cups arborio rice (70p)
28 ounces stock (4p)
80g (1/2 cup) Dried Haricot Beans (16p)
5g freshly grated Lyburn cooking cheese (3p)
Fresh mixed herbs to taste (we used a bit of fresh oregano, fresh basil, and fresh thyme from the garden)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Soak beans overnight, and change water in the morning or a few hours before cooking, simmer for 1-1½ hours until tender.
2. Coat a large skillet with rape seed oil. Saute garlic of 1 minute, add tomato and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in arborio rice and cook for another minute. Add stock and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until broth is absorbed and rice is tender. This will take between 25 and 35 minutes. Stir in white beans, cheese, herbs, salt and pepper. Cook until all ingredients are hot, probably an extra one or two minutes.

Breakfast: Mac had porridge with honey and cinnamon (11p), Megan had hers with raisins (13p) Riverford: 75p
Lunch: Leftover lentil stew (36p because it turns out there was only enough for 5 portions, not six) (plus Megan had one of the savoury muffins our friends brought over)
Dinner: Risotto (34p) and the last two savoury muffins Plus popcorn with our film!
£1.56 for Mac (before popcorn) and £1.58 for Megan (before popcorn)... although I'm now considering all the other things I can eat with my extra 40p! I can't believe we had filling lentil stew AND a lovely risotto and still have so much money left. What on earth have we been eating for the last week?!?!?
Mac settled on 110g of broken cashews (at £3.50/kg, broken nuts are the way to go!) with a tiny bit of soy sauce and salt to bring him to just under £2.00
Megan went with 50g of broken cashews (18p), also roasted, AND 50g of popcorn (7p) with butter (7p) for a grant total of £1.90

Day 21 - £2 a day on the radio!!

I was on the radio today talking about the £2 a day diet with Georgina Windsor. You can listen to it here for the next week. (If that link doesn't work, google "radio solent" and then find the "listen again" button and scroll down until you get to "Georgina Windsor". It only works for a week, though. Anyone know how to make an mp3 recording of it?

Mac thought I was too negative and kept talking about the limitations of the £2 a day diet, rather than stressing all the good food we've eaten. I guess I just didn't want people to think that it was super easy. Although I do stick by my statement that the math is the worst part about it.

I think Mac and I are really considering doing £3 next time we do it, so that we can have more dairy and fruit. Still, I think we're getting some great food. Check out the bright colours at the start of me making lentil soup:I am also happy to report that I am FINALLY caught up with all this math. I am also looking forward to the end of the month now that we're 2/3 of the way done so that I can put away the spreadsheet for a while. All the math drives me nuts. (It doesn't help that while I've been trying to update the blog over the last two days I've been distracting myself with episodes of Alias. That is precisely why we don't have a TV! I have so little willpower!)

Anyway, no more expensive ingredients, we survived (just about) the dinner party, and have almost nothing from the veg box left... We've found a risotto white bean recipe for tomorrow, and then will have spinach and kohl rabi to get us through Tuesday. I have no idea what that recipe will look like.

In a flash of foresight, Mac has ALREADY added up tomorrow's dinner, and I already have the figures for our lunch (which will be more lentil soup). This should prevent us from making more silly decisions to put us over our £2 a day limit.

What was organic/local today?
Organic - most of the soda bread I made (plain flour, milk and white wine vinegar), the pate, peanut butter, couscous and raisins.
The haricot beans, chickpeas and tomatoes from lunch.
The lentils, potatoes, carrots, basil and oregano from dinner.
Local - the butter, aubergine from lunch, and rapeseed oil.


Lentil Soup
Serves at LEAST 6. Possibly more, but we'll have to wait and see!
£1.82 total, 30p per serving, maybe less.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped (skipped. Mac doesn't like using red onions in place of onions... he swears it ruins the flavour. I'm happy to use garlic instead)
2T olive/rapeseed oil (30p)- the original calls for 4T. That's unnecessary.
2 carrots, sliced (Riverford)
2 stalks celery, chopped (skipped)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (15p)
1tsp dried oregano (I used a small handful of fresh from our garden)
1 bay leaf (less than 1p)
1tsp dried basil (a small handful fresh from our windowsill)
1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (I used half a can 37p... about 200g. That's nowhere near 14.5oz)
2 cups dry lentils (£1.00) (make sure you use brown or green or continental. Red goes well with OTHER recipes because it turns to mush!)
8 cups water (I could only fit 6 1/2 in my pan)
1/2c spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced (I forgot this!)
2T vinegar (I forgot this too, but I would use red wine vinegar... or actual red wine if you have it handy)
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes.
2. Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.

The Breakdown:
Breakfast: toast with butter (10p) and then toast with pate (22p) for Mac. Toast with peanut butter (11p) and some more leftover couscous with raisins and cinammon and a dash of brown sugar for Megan (15p) plus a cup of tea (weird cardamom tea given to us by friends..I'm not really sure where it came from.)
Riverford: 75p
Lunch: Leftover potato salad and couscous salad for Mac--37p. Megan had leftover garden salad (all Riverford and garden!) and then a weird (and expensive at 71p) red lentil (35p), tomato paste (25p) and cumin (1p) concoction with a bit of chili flakes (2p) and a handful of quinoa (11p for about 40g).
Plus probably 4 cookies throughout the day for each of us - 26p Thankfully they are now all gone and won't be ruining our figures (the math kind or the waist kind).
Dinner: lentil and potato soup (30p) with a slice of bread (8p)

Total: Mac £2.08, Megan £2.36 (it's either the fault of all the cookies--although I still would have gone over--or the ridiculous lunch. Last time I throw things together without a recipe. I didn't even like the way it came out!)

Day 20 - dinner party!

We had some people over for dinner last night. This is the first time since we started this diet. Mac made LOADS of food, I tidied up the lounge, and we got out our nicer dishes that I got as a leaving present. Mac made a couscous salad and a potato salad with a gorgeous mustard dressing. I put together a Riverford-and-garden salad and made some soda bread. One of the fastest and most filling breads you can make. I never have self-raising flours or buttermilk, so I'll put in the substitutions I used. I wish we'd been having people over more often--it's not that bad, because we only count what we eat--our guests can pig out and eat nice cheeses (see our nice cheeses?)

We have some gorgeous oak smoked cheddar from Lyburn farm, blue vinney from Dorset, and some goat's cheese from Loosehanger farm. Most of which we've barely touched this month. Sharing it out with friends seems a good plan. I had 15g of the oaksmoked with a piece of bread.

They brought some really nice savoury corn muffins with basil and linseed. I love corn muffins! I should make some corn bread and we could make homemade fake baked beans. I bet we could do all that on our diet as long as I didn't use a super-dairy heavy recipe.

We had peanut butter and oatmeal cookies for dessert (they really need to be eaten before we consume them all) and broke out our massive box of assorted teas. We ended up trying for the first time some cinnamon tea and cardamom tea. I was a bit dubious of both, but they were really nice and light and not too spicy. Plus, they were light enough that you didn't need milk, which was a good thing because I used it all up making the soda bread. Oops.

What was organic/local?
Organic: couscous, red onion, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, potatoes, walnuts, white wine vinegar, milk, plain flour, oats, raisins, peanut butter and flour in the cookies.

Local: wholemeal flour in the bread, rapeseed oil, butter (for spreading on bread), and the parsley from our garden that Mac had cunningly saved in our freezer.


Couscous Salad
1.15 total, about 5 servings for 23p (It was a dinner party, so there were quite a few seconds and we still had some left over)

Ingredients
225g/8oz couscous (49p)
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped (garden)
1 red onion, very finely chopped (Riverford)
30g sunflower seeds, toasted (7p)
10g sesame seeds, toasted (5p)
20g Pumpkin seeds (9p)
3 tbsp rape seed oil (45p)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Per person: 10P

Directions
Toast the sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds together in the oven at about 180C. Keep an eye on them and shake occasionally--you don't want them to burn and it can happen quite quickly.
Cover the couscous with twice its volume of hot water and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
While you're waiting for the cous cous, finely chop the red onion and chop the parsley.
Mix all ingredients together and leave to stand for 30 minutes to let the flavours develop.
Serve at room temperature.


Potato Salad
Serves 5 (or so) for 69p (excluding the potatoes and onion, which are from Riverford). Per portion, 14p

Ingredients
2 tbsp walnut pieces (11p)
1 tbsp cider vinegar (4p)
1 tsp coleman mustard powder (4p)
1tsp white wine vinegar (4p)
3 tbsp rapeseed oil (45p)
1 tsp honey (1p)
flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
900g/2lb new potatoes, such as Jersey Royals or Charlotte, washed or scrubbed (Riverford)
1/2 red onion, finely chopped, and soaked in water, (Riverford)

Direction
1. If you're using the walnuts, place in a hot oven (about 200C/400F/Gas 6) for a few minutes until beginning to colour slightly. This gives a fresher, less bitter flavour to the nuts.
2. Place the vinegar, mustard, oils, honey and salt and pepper in a screw-top jar or in the bowl of a small hand blender. Shake or blend well until creamy. Add more seasoning if preferred.
3. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 15-20 minutes until just tender. Drain well and, when just cool enough to handle, cut into halves or quarters, if quite large.
4. Place the potatoes in a mixing bowl shallots and walnuts, if using, and toss in as much or as little of the dressing as you want. Serve just warm or, if you're not eating straight away, refrigerate and return the salad to room temperature before eating.




Irish Soda Bread
79p total. (about 10 slices, so 8p each)

Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 10 to 30 mins

Ingredients
170g/6oz wholemeal flour (20p--I'm guessing. It's Winchester City Mill flour and I can't remember what I paid)
170g/6oz plain flour (14p)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (3p)
1 tsp salt (1p)
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (less than 1p)
290ml/½ pint milk (37p)
1Tbsp lemon juice OR white wine vinegar (4p)

Method
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6.
Add 1Tbsp of white wine vinegar OR lemon juice (not both) to milk. Stir and set aside for 5 min. This will create a buttermilk-substitute.
Tip the flours, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, mixing quickly with a large fork to form a soft dough. (Depending upon the absorbency of the flour, you may need to add a little milk if the dough seems too stiff or more flour if it's too sticky.)
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
Form into a round and flatten the dough slightly before placing on a lightly floured baking sheet.
Cut a cross on the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.


Breakfast: oatmeal and with honey and cinnamon 10p plus a cup of tea 3p
Riverford: 75p
Lunch: leftover haricot bean and aubergine for Megan, 44p and leftover Aubergine curry with couscous for Mac: 57p...and then Megan had some of Mac's leftover couscous with some cinnamon and raisins (about 14p)
Plus probably 4 cookies throughout the day for each of us - 26p
Dinner: couscous salad (23p) plus garden salad (nil!) plus potato salad (14p) plus savoury muffins (from our guests) plus bread (16p for two slices) and butter (5p) and a little cheese (about 10p)

Megan: £2.40
Mac: £2.39

We're pretty terrible at the whole not-going-over thing, but not bad having a dinner party AND all our other meals during the day plus a ridiculous number of cookies all for under £3.