First non £2 a day post.

I know I haven’t done an update in absolutely ages. In my eyes, it was a well deserved break from having to tediously write about every gram of food that I consumed. Mac and I are still finishing up the cheese from the farmers’ market. I must admit I’m not eager to make up the 11 days that are missing, but I have said that I’ll do it, so do it I will. We’ve also talked about doing it quarterly so that we can have each season represented in recipes. Then we’ll have a £2 a day year recipe book. I would want to do another in probably May so that we can have two months’ worth of recipes in time for the Food Open Day we’ll be doing (we being the Southampton Fair Trade Group and the Southampton & Waterside Women’s Environmental Network).
But enough about food. What else have I been doing?

I’ve worked on the allotment twice and we have 4 beds with one of them raked and onions and carrots planted. We have a rhubarb plant, apple tree and two fruit bushes planted, and we have two compost bins. I’m hoping to win the auction for a greenhouse on eBay, but I’ve lost one already and Chris and Natalie forgot to bid on one the week before. We’ll see how I do.

I'm really excited about the allotment and getting it going, but I am SOOOO sunburned. It was really warm in the sun so I was just wearing a tank top and the whole top of my neck/back/shoulders are all burnt. Luckily it's just the back of them because I made sure I wasn't facing the sun (I did NOT want a horrible sunburn on my face). I'll have to bring sunscreen next time.

Mac and I went to a chilli night at some friends’, we have been out to see bands a couple times, I had toast and jam at Barney’s Log Jam (they’ve started a blog…. ooooOOOOOooooh) and went up to St Albans to have lunch with Helen and Henry (I have GOT to start buying advance tickets). I’ve been to LOTS of meetings and have agreed to have the Transition Southampton social at our house. Luckily I suggested it be a pot luck, so I’ll only clean like crazy, not clean and cook.

I FINALLY cleaned off my desk (although halfway through the process it looked like a cyclone that only affected paper had hit in the room) and everything is now either organised in an accordion file (for my personal financial stuff) or in a box with folders and tabs (for all the voluntary group stuff). I stupidly did not take a before and after picture. I could still take an after picture, but it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive without the before. I’m buying some space from Emiliano online for a project management program called dotproject.net and he’s installing it for me (thank god). I also managed to go through my gmail inbox and got the 238 messages in my inbox down to 25. I know it should be less than that (it should be zero), but tough.

I’m planning to have a craft/soup night soon to use up some of my many many craft supplies and to encourage other people to help me use them up as well. I think that it will be a requirement that anyone who comes for soup has to make something. Maybe I’ll just think about who I invite beforehand.

As for the Buy Nothing New year, I bought a used cookbook off Amazon called The More With Less cookbook—it was written by Mennonites! It’s really nice basic food. I haven’t made anything yet, but I will soon. I’ve managed to only buy vegetables and seeds for the allotment so far, and if I pay for the greenhouse, that will be secondhand. I don’t know how I’m going to get secondhand seed trays, though.

Robin was very kind and sent me a care package with about a thousand pairs of underwear. She said it was in response to Karen who had said, “What if you run out of pants!?!?” when I told her about the year long challenge. It was really about 8 pairs of underwear. I think I might keep four pairs, because the rest are the super skanky kind that are just a couple of strings.

I prefer a tad more fabric. String thongs are just paying lip service to the idea of underwear.

I think I’ll finish here. I’ll try to come up with some interesting facts or information or ideas for my next post.

Day 30 - Our last official day (but loads more to make up)

HOORAY!

I don't know how we're going to celebrate this. Considering that I'll be at a meeting until 7ish and Mac will be at a saxophone modern music concert from 7pm on, we probably won't be celebrating much.

Mac made soup from a lot of the Riverford stuff that was left over. Oddly enough, we still have half a pak choi, a WHOLE bag of potatoes, and 2 carrots leftover. I guess we should have been paying more attention to this.

Random soup - made 3 big servings plus 2 1/2 servings for lunch the next day - 11p
He used:
(O) 100 grams brown lentils (27p)

2 tbsp veg oil (4p)

1 ½ teaspoons whole cumin (3p)

(O) 1 tbsp stock (6p)

1 small onion (4p? Guessing based on the 20p/kg Mac paid)

(O) 2 carrots (RIVERFORD)

(O) 2 parsnips (RIVERFORD)

(O) Broccoli stalks (RIVERFORD)

Mac and I both made homemade chips--he made some for dinner for him and his brother and ate them all, and then I made some more and shared them once they got home. I am clearly the better person. 8 potatoes. - probably 22p for about 500g and then a splash of cider vinegar when they were finished. We'll reuse the oil. For three people, that's 7p per serving

I also made biscuits (the American scone-like kind) flavoured with week old wilty watercress and slightly moldy goats cheese that we bought at the market and Mac had warned me was going to go off.... I looked it up online and Mayo Health told me if I cut the mold off, I'd be fine. Unless it's a soft cheese. Apparently you have to throw out soft cheese if they get moldy. It has to do with the process for making the different kinds. Because I shouldn't have been wasting food, I've put in the whole cost for the watercress and the cheese, making these the most expensive biscuits EVER. Unlike the basic recipe that I made here.

World's Most Expensive (Hyperbolic)
Local Watercress and Goats Cheese Biscuits

made only 13 this time - 37p per biscuit!!!! INSANE! (Without super expensive ingredients and counting the whole price because I'm wasteful and don't cook things when I should, they are 4p plain and would have been about 21p or so each if I'd used half the goat's cheese and half the watercress (or doubled the recipe to use them all)

(O) 2 1/4 c. flour (26p)
1 T baking powder (6p)
1 tsp salt (nil)
1/4 c shortening (5p--I am TOTALLY guessing. I bought it in the states)
(O) 1 c. milk (29p)
(O) Half a bunch watercress (whole bunch cost 80p)
(O???)100g goat's cheese, grated (the whole pack cost £3.30)

Directions

Add 2 c. flour and dry ingredients.
Cut in shortening (Crisco, but I bet butter or marge would work too)
Stir in milk.
I often top up the mixture with more flour to make it a bit dryer, which usually ends up being a 1/4 c. add it bit by bit to check the consistency.
Chop watercress and grate goats cheese. Add to mixture and stir well.
Put on non-stick or greased baking sheet.
Bake 12-15min at 450F/230C.

Breakfast: (O) Porridge, both with (O) jam because I made it really dry for some reason 17p
Lunch: Leftover beet & potato tamarind 34p
At work: (O) 1 cup of tea: 4p AND Megan got free piece of cake!!
I then got chili and lemon spiced peanuts and a Geobar at my meeting, so I wasn't hungry at all. (Both were fair trade, but I don't think they were organic)
Dinner: 11p for soup, 7p for homemade chips, and then 1 biscuit each at an exhorbitant 37p
Riverford: 75p (ALWAYS Organic)

TOTAL Mac: £1.84 Megan: £1.85

Good thing we didn't eat more than one of those biscuits.

And that's it until we start making up days in a week or so!

Day 29 - eating delicious beet and tamarind dinner!

I had yet another meeting (it’s been every Monday for a month with WinACC’s Low Carbon Champion training… tonight was the last session, but I’m hoping we’ll meet together in smaller groups to update each other and share good practice later)
Meetings make dinner a little bit difficult. I am SO glad that Mac and I alternate cooking days (although often I play catch up and cook more when I have the time).

Mac made the beet and tamarind dish that I made up earlier in the month We rarely reuse recipes, but this month it’s been easier because then I don’t have to work out the cost again. (The beets were about the only organic thing in this recipe, unfortunately)

It was delicious, but WAY better the next day (I’m writing this on Tuesday) once the beets and potatoes had a chance to sit in the tamarind marinade.

Breakfast: (O) Porridge – I had it plain 8p and Mac had it with 1T of jam (O) 17p. I also had a slice of toast with peanut butter and a bit of (O) jam (9p + 5p +4p). I had what was left of the (O) milk (about a tsp, unfortunately) and a cup of (O) tea. 3p. My total breakfast cost was 29p
Lunch: We both had leftover pizza 39p. I had a bunch of free corn cakes (like rice cakes) that we got from the Art House and an apple 13p.
At work: Megan: 2 cups of tea – 8p, Mac: 2 cups of tea – 6p
Dinner: Beet, Potato and Tamarind gratin/bake. 34p Mac made carrot and parsnip chips (both organic and both from Riverford), but didn’t save any for me. Apparently they were good, but the parsnip ones were great.
Riverford: 75p

At my meeting I had this awesome pumpkin cheesecake (I’m not sure if there was really cheese in it) which the acting coordinator of WinACC had made. I definitely want the recipe. Plus, the winter squash (not actually pumpkin) she used was from her garden. She was awfully proud! (As she should be!) THEN I got offered half a bottle of super nice local apple juice to bring home. Woo-hoo!

TOTAL: Megan £1.98, Mac £1.71

Reviewing our month - and realising it keeps going

We’re at the end of our challenge….. ish. We decided to do it over 30 days instead of the 28 days in the shortest month of the year. We’ve also decided to make up some of the days. Not because we are masochists, though.

We’ve been under £2 on average for every week, but we’ve gone over a BUNCH. Both of us have gone over £2 5 times. In addition, we haven’t eaten all of our meals within our £2 a day. There were three days when we both got our dinners elsewhere—from our lovely couchsurfers, at Nina’s birthday, and eating at the Art House on a busy day. In addition, I cheated last week and had lunch with my friend, and I had two dinners at someone else’s house earlier in the month.

Mac’s opinion is that we should make up the days that we had a meal outside of the challenge, but those when we went over shouldn’t be made up because we should show that on some days we went over. To give you a bit of context, the most we went over was £2.29 (that was Mac on day 7 with that silly expensive cauliflower and dhal) and our average we went over was 10p. So no pricey meals to be found during the month, despite us going over.

I’m planning to make up all 6 of my days where I had a meal elsewhere, but I think it is going to have to wait a week or so while we eat some of this cheese we bought at the Winchester Farmers’ Market.

Robin’s idea was interesting that we keep the challenge during the week but not on the weekend, if we want to keep doing it.

I’m interested in still doing it, but I don’t know if I can stand doing this spreadsheet any more.

I think both Mac and I have liked doing this, and we’ve managed to eat well during the whole month. Yes, there is a long list of foods we are both craving, but we’ve been able to eat three good-sized meals every day, and we’ve managed to have chips and pizza, Italian, Chinese and Indian food. Not bad.

I think I might need to work on my recipe writing skills, though.

Food I miss......

Bananas.
Oranges/clementines.
Apples whenever I want them (not when I have a spare 13p).
Cereal with milk and raisins.
Granola.
Yogurt.
Cheese.
Bagels with cream cheese.
English muffins.
Apple muffins from the Art House.
Eggs for breakfast on the weekends.
Spinach (even though I know it's not in season).
Real toppings on pizza (although carmeslised onions ARE delicious).
Nuts.
Piling on peanut butter and jam instead of being stingy.
Bread and butter with dinner.
Eating more than 2 cookies if I feel like it.
MORE cheese.... cheese and eggs in dishes.
Dishes that use cream.
Chocolate every once-in-a-while.
Pastries.

Snacks in general. I rarely snack anymore....

Going out to restaurants
Takeaway pizza
Chips



AUGH!

This IS like being on a diet.

Day 28 - We enter March with pizza and an allotment!

So Sunday I worked on our allotment for the first time ever. Hooray! We spent 4 hours there, digging 1 3/4 beds, setting up a compost bin (out of old pallets) and planted an apple tree and two fruit bushes courtesy of the Art House. We also had HobNobs, courtesy of Jonathan (I had four!!) and we realised that next time we need a full lunch in the middle of the day to break up the work. And more water. And possibly snack foods. Once we have a shed, I might consider getting a kettle and a little camp stove for tea. Mmmm…. Tea.

It was great to have four other people out there with me—Heather, Jonathan, Natalie and Chris. Kelly couldn’t make it, and Mac has said that he’s giving us 6 months to make sure that are actually going to work on it consistently and not get really enthusiastic at the start and lose interest before he works on it. I can kinda see his point, and it’s also helping to motivate me to prove him wrong. Hopefully he’ll make up for 6 months of inactivity by getting REALLY into it afterwards.

I am a little worried about the Little Red Hen syndrome, and that he’ll end up playing the part of all the other barnyard animals offering to eat the bread she baked, milled, harvested, grew and planted. (For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the heroine is surrounded by slackers who expect handouts from others. It’s here http://www.bres.boothbay.k12.me.us/wq/nnash/WebQuest/little_red_hen.htm in giant font with a pink background if you don’t believe me)

Anyway, I came back from working on the allotment at about 3:45 and we were heading off to Bournemouth for a show to see these guys: Dutch Husband Plinth Little Boat Sunshine Republic and another band or two whose names I can’t find without using MySpace which is blocked at work. (If you are interested, my review of the night is below—and will probably differ HUGELY from Mac’s review of the same evening)

Mac hadn’t had time to make dinner, so I decided to make pizza rather than have us succumb to the temptation of fast food/pub food in Bournemouth (there were two Italian restaurants across from the venue. I want more Italian food!) My pizza dough recipe is nice and quick, sauce wouldn’t take any longer, and we had both onions and cooking cheese which would be cheap toppings. Not the fanciest of pizzas, but it tasted great!


Dinner on the go!
Super Cheap, Super Fast Pizza!
Served 4, albeit small portions at 39p per serving, assuming we can make it last for tomorrow (we did). (£1.56 total)

Ingredients:

1 package yeast 9p
2 T olive oil (rapeseed oil - 20p)
2 1/4c bread flour (27p)
1 tsp salt (nil)
2 tsp sugar (1p?)
leftover tomato sauce (28p)
half a tin of tomatoes (39p)
2T tomato paste (8p)
2 onions (8p)
1 T veg oil (2p)
pinch of sugar (less than 1p)
25g cooking cheese from Lyburn Farm (14p) (at the Winchester Farmers' Market) It's their parmesan substitute and it's AMAZING. Plus, it was dirt cheap. It's 5.55 a kilo, compared to proper Italian parmesan. Plus the flavour is amazing. Very strong, and very nice.

Directions:
CAUTION: You’ll need to do all these three steps at once! None of them are that difficult, but make sure you read the WHOLE recipe before you start so you know when to start things.
I wrote them by part of the pizza, rather than jumbling them all together chronologically. Sorry if that confuses. I’m sorry that they are the world’s longest directions for an easy recipe, but I like to give a bit of information….

Preheat your oven to about 375-400 or 200-210 (I think that’s about right). It doesn’t need to be precise.

To make the dough:
Mix 1 package yeast with 1 cup warm water (at 110F) and stir. If you don’t have a thermometer, the water from your tap will probably be about 120. It will be very warm, but not hot to the touch if you put your finger in the measuring cup. Or you could buy a thermometer—as it’s important that yeast is warm enough to activate the cultures, but not too hot to kill them all.
Let the yeast and water sit for about 10 min. It will look like alien goo at the top of the water.
Mix in the olive oil, bread flour, salt and sugar. I would mix in 1c flour, and then add another cup.
If it’s too sticky (you should be able to mix with your hands without having your hands stick to the dough) add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time until you get the right consistency.
You don’t really need to knead it, but you want it well mixed and to make it into a ball. I usually half knead it while I’m doing it.
Scrape out the flour and stuff that remains in the bowl as best you can and add 1-2tsp of oil to the bowl.
Lightly cover the bowl with the oil and put the ball of dough into it.
Cover with a dishtowel and put on top of your oven so that the heat from the oven helps it rise. Allow to rise for 30 min (although you can take it out earlier if you need to)

Meanwhile, make the sauce. I had a bit of sauce already made. If you are starting from scratch:
Heat 1 tin tomatoes on a medium heat.
Mash a few cloves of garlic and add to the pan. (You could also cook these in oil before adding the tomatoes).
Add 1-2T of tomato paste, 1 tsp of sugar and a pinch of salt.
You can also add oregano, basil and parsley if you want, but it’s not necessary.
Bring to a boil and turn down the head. Allow to simmer until your dough is all rolled out.
If it’s too liquidy, add some more tomato paste. If it’s too dry, add some water. Compare it to other tomato sauces you’ve bought in the past.

(TIP: If you are being ultra cheap, you can just use tomato paste and water. Add mashed garlic and/or cooked onions and/or any spices that you want. You’ll still want to add the sugar and salt. Keep adding water as it starts to evaporate out, again looking for the consistency of store bought sauce.)

At the same time, you’ll need to start the carmelised onions.
Preheat a pan with 1T of oil on medium heat.
Chop two onions into halves and then into 5-6 wedges.
Add onions to the pan. Stir to coat with oil.
Once they start to turn translucent, turn the heat down a little bit and add about 1tsp sugar.
Continue cooking on a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until it’s ready to put on the oven.

Once the dough is ready to take out of the bowl, put it on a floured surface.
Roll out with a rolling pin or (if you are very patient and careful) you can slowly rotate the pizza dough (like a steering wheel) so that gravity pulls it into a circle shape. Stay longer on two sides if you need it to be rectangular. (I would roll it, because it’s WAY easier.)
Place onto a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.
Take out of the oven, spread sauce on top, cover with onions and grate cheese above it.
Return to oven for 15min (or thereabouts)

Done!

I had just enough time to cut them up into slices (I used scissors!), put them in some tin foil and get out the door for Mac to pick me up with the Whizzgo car www.whizzgo.co.uk/

As for the bands?
I enjoyed the night. Apart from Sunshine Republic. The other bands were good. Dutch Husband were tight and performed well—I really like the fact that the bass has a more melodic part in the band than in most other groups. Little Boat had some good songs although he’s WAY more poppy than I remember (an influence from his time in Japan?) and I LOVED Plinth who had a gramophone!!!!!

As for Sunshine Republic… Mac loves them, mostly because they are being twats to make fun of bands who are actually twats and don’t know it. I don’t see that as a good enough reason to like them. I declared them a “because we can” band. It’s a common thing in bands. Often it is the reason why bands that do not have a strong “noise” or experimental aspect of their music start twiddling knobs at the end of a set and using feedback. Why? Because they can. Sunshine Republic took off all their shirts (NOT advised). Why? Because they can. They made a deafening noise that didn’t show any cohesion, progress, or thought. Why? Because they can. I will avoid gigs they are playing at and if I like the other bands will walk out of the venue from here on out. They were TERRIBLE and full of themselves. Plus, the lead singer (who was shirtless but wearing a blanket as a cape and got progressively more drunk) threw equipment at our friend Ben as we were leaving. Not impressed.

Anyway, our food breakdown:
Breakfast: porridge and a cup of tea. Mine had milk, Mac’s had jam (our porridge, not the tea). Me: 10p + 4p, Mac: 17p + 4p
Lunch: leftover stirfry (with extra mushrooms) 52p
Dinner: 39p
Riverford: 75p

TOTALS: Mac £1.87, Megan £1.80
I finally beat Mac!!