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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.
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
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
Before moving on to anything else, check out how cool our tomatoes are from Riverford! I didn't know you could even get watermelon-like tomatoes! I think they might be called zebra ones or something.
Right. I'm getting a little fed up that we hadn't done the math earlier. It would have been a good way to prevent us from having running over day after day last week. I'm still backdating (which leads to a strange blend of past and present tense for which I apologise), and it's frustrating to see that we kept going over £2. Especially seeing as how we were eating pretty well over the last few days and probably didn't even need to have anything extra. I blame the cookies--it's hard to resist them!
This haricot bean salad (one of MANY we've tried since I accidentally ordered 5kg of them from the co-op instead of 1kg) was nice--I should have added fresh parsley to it, but we didn't have any (Mac cut all of his down because he thought it was fuelling bugs going to his tomatoes). Haricot beans are pretty good in my book. I like cannellini a little bit better, but they are fairly similar. They've made a good chili/refried bean style dish, as well as numerous chilled salads. We're going to try white bean risotto some time soon, so we'll see if it works for that.
What was organic/local?
Organic: haricot beans, white wine vinegar, carrots, salad leaves and tomatoes in the salad, oatmeal, raisins, milk on tea (tea is Fair Trade) Plus the risotto rice, white wine vinegar and broad beans from the risotto. Oh, and the peanut butter, flour, and oatmeal from the cookies.
Local: Aubergine, rapeseed oil, plus the asparagus, cheese, and butter from the risotto. Plus the very tasty but quite expensive raisin and walnut bread... which I think is also organic.
Piyaz (haricot bean salad) with grilled aubergine
Served 3, £1.33 total, 44p per portion
Ingredients:
250g haricot beans (50p)
2T lemon juice (6p)
1T white wine vinegar (4p)
aubergine (50p)
1 1/2T rapeseed oil (23p)
Soak 250g kuru fasulye (haricot beans) overnight. The next morning drain off the water and put the beans in a pan of boiling water, at which 2 dessertspoonful of sodium bicarbonate was added, and let boil for 4-5 minutes and drain again. (I didn't do this, but maybe I should have... I don't know what the baking soda would do, but I've heard it recommended before)
About 2 1/2 hours before you want to eat, put the beans in a pan and cover over the top with fresh water and cook for around 1 1/2 hours.
When done, spare ½ cup of the water and drain the remaining water.
Add salt, 2Tbsp lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar vinegar to the ½ cup of water and pour it over the beans and stir. Cover the pan and cool. Add olive oil after an hour.
Dress with green onions (or dry onions), chopped parsley, olive, and tomatoes and especially with boiled eggs. Serve cool. We skipped the last part, and instead I topped it with grilled aubergine.
To prepare the aubergine, preheat a ridged grill pan on medium-high heat.
Slice the aubergine into 1/2" pieces and lightly coat both sides with olive (rapeseed) oil. Place onto the grill. Turn after 4-5 min. If any pieces are a bit thicker than the others and aren't cooking as well, you can push down on them with a fork or wooden spoon. It will make them a bit mushier in appearance, but they will cook faster.
Breakfast : porridge with raisins and a cup of tea - 13p + 3p
Riverford: 75p
Lunch: leftover risotto 60p
Dinner: Piyaz (Haricot Beans) with grilled Aubergine 44p along with a garden salad (all either from Riverford or our garden) plus two cookies 13p and Megan had the last piece of walnut & raisin bread with 5g of butter (28p)
Total: Mac £2.08, Megan £2.36 I guess I should have done the math before we ate anything after dinner.
Everyone really liked the peanut butter and oatmeal cookies (who wouldn't?) and I managed to have three while at work. Unfortunately, this is day three of super expensive vegetables, so it looks like we'll have gone over again.... by a bunch.
At least the risotto was really good and I got more cookies!
What was organic/local?
Organic: Oatmeal, raisins, white wine vinegar, risotto rice, veg stock, milk in tea, oatmeal and peanut butter and flour in the biscuits, and the broad beans. (plus all the stuff from the aubergine curry the night before)
Local: Butter, asparagus, cooking cheese, and the aubergine from the night before.
Early Summer Risotto
serves 4 - £2.39 total, 60p per portion
Ingredients
* 50g butter (33p)
* Frozen celery leaf (? maybe 5p?)
* 1.5 litres vegetable stock (9p)
* 350g Risotto rice, such as Carnaroli (70p)
* 1 Tbsp White wine vinegar (4p)
* 1 bunch (250g) Asparagus, trimmed and chopped into short lengths - £1.00
* 100g Broad beans, blanched and double podded (RIVERFORD)
* 50g frozen or fresh peas (8p)
* 3 Tbps Lemon juice (9p)
* 8g Parmesan or Lyburn Farm Cooking Cheese, finely grated (4p)
Directions
1. Melt half the butter in a wide, high-sided pan over a low heat. Add the celery, and let it soften and become silky without colouring.
2. Stir in the rice, coating the grains in the buttery mixture, and cook for a couple of minutes until the grains become translucent.
3. Heat the stock in another saucepan, keeping it at simmering point.
4. Turn up the heat under the risotto and add the white wine vinegar. Allow it to bubble up, stirring the rice until all the liquid is absorbed. Add the chopped asparagus and a ladleful of the hot stock.
5. Stir the rice until all of the stock has been absorbed, then add another ladleful of stock and carry on stirring. Continue doing this until the rice is creamy and tender but still has a little bite to it, this will take about 20 minutes. You may not need all of the stock, but equally you may have to top it up with some hot water.
6. After 15 minutes of cooking and stirring, add the blanched broad beans to the pan.
7. When the risotto is cooked, take the pan from the heat and stir in the lemon zest, parmesan and remaining butter. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, cover and leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.
Breakfast - porridge with raisins, 13p
Riverford - 77p
Lunch: Leftover eggplant curry 57p and Megan had three cookies to celebrate her birthday and two cups of tea - 25.5p
Dinner: Risotto was 60p per person. Both of us were at meetings in the evening, so Mac cooked and ate and then left it for me to finish. I munched on the leftovers at the Art House (a bit of roasted veg pasta salad with pesto, a spoonful of potato salad and a pita bread) because she ended up staying 3 hours instead of half an hour. . . . Mac had made asparagus, broadbean and pea risotto (it did make the rice turn a kinda light green) so Megan ate a bit of that as well. When Mac got back, he ate the rest of the sourdough bread (probably 3 pieces at around 53p)
Mac: £2.60 Megan: £2.33
Happy Birthday! Okay, so this wasn't the most exciting of birthdays. I celebrated with a BBQ on Sunday, so we stuck to the £2 a day today. It was my second day of work and I managed to tell them that it was my birthday AND about the £2 a day ethical diet. Becky, one of the girls I work with, got really excited (turns out she's a bit of a foodie!) and they told me about a local abattoir. They say it's from farms that the guy knows, but I think I'll have to wait and see. There are lots of "local" farms around the States that are intensively farmed. Despite the fact that people should treat you on your birthday, the tradition in England is that you buy people cakes on your birthday. I think that's ridiculous, but I guess that ensures that everyone takes a turn and people don't have to remember everyone else's birthday. I told them I'll make cookies and bring them in Thursday. They'll be the peanut butter and oatmeal ones that I made at the beginning of our February challenge.
Good news is that we got the small box this week, so the cost of our box goes down 10p per person per day. Also, I made us homemade chips, which made me a very happy girl. Don't they look good?
AND then I made cookies (the link has the egg replacement recipe. Use it for ANY cookie recipe and it works perfectly for a lot less money) and we both had one before going to bed.
The bad news is that although Mac was super sweet and cooked for me, he chose an awfully expensive meal (and this is the toned down version of the recipe! The original wanted TWO cans of tomatoes and LOTS more puree. Ridiculous. The version that we made still tasted very tomato-ey and was fine.
Combined with the super expensive pasta and asparagus from yesterday, we went WAY over.
What was organic/local/fair trade?
Organic: potatoes for chips, chickpeas, tin of tomato, tomato puree, cous cous, peanut butter, flour, oatmeal and raisins. Plus the pasta and basil from yesterday.
Local: aubergine, garlic, and butter.
Chickpea & Aubergine Curry
Serves 4 to 6 (Served 5. 2.84 total, 57p per portion.)
Ingredients -
1 Large Onion (skipped)
300g Chick Peas (17p or thereabouts because we made it from 1/2c dried)
1 large Aubergine (50p)
2 inch piece Root Ginger (15p)
2 Cloves Garlic (15p)
2 to 6 fresh Chillies (used a sprinkling of crushed chili flakes instead - 2p)
800g Tinned Tomatoes (used only 400g--1 tin- 75p)
100g Tomato Pureé (50g of puree 28p)
125ml Tomato Juice (skipped, used water instead)
2 Teaspoons Cumin Seeds (4p)
2 Teaspoons Brown Mustard Seeds (4p)
2 Teaspoon Ground Cumin (4p)
2 Teaspoons Ground Coriander (2p)
2 Teaspoons Ground Turmeric (2p)
1 Teaspoon ground Fenugreek (4p)
½ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (skipped)
1 Bunch Fresh Coriander (skipped)
300g cous cous (66p)
Directions
* Soak the chick peas overnight in cold water. Drain them, rinse and put in a sauce pan covered with cold water on a high light to cook. When boiling turn down to a simmer, cover and allow to cook. Chick peas take a long time to cook, up to an hour so it is best to give yourself time. The good news is that you cannot overcook them even if you try.
* Put your heaviest pan on a high light and add enough oil to cover the bottom. Put all the seeds in a saucer or other vessel and whilst the oil is heating peel and chop the onion. When the oil smokes throw in the seeds, cover the pan and shake it a little to get the seeds really popping. CAREFUL! It is really easy to burn yourself when the oil spits. Turn down the heat and as soon as the initial explosion is over and put in the onions stirring so they do not burn.
* Wash the ginger and chillies, peel the garlic and crush or blend them to a smooth paste, using a little oil if necessary. As with the previous recipe just finely chop everything if you are without benefit of blender. Add the paste to the onion mixture and allow to cook for five minutes or so, making sure it does not stick.
* Add all the rest of the spices except the fresh coriander and carry on cooking, stirring it all well to prevent burning.
* Wash the aubergine and cut into fairly large dice or slices and add to the pan. Leave to cook for ten minutes.
* Blend or chop the tinned tomato and add to the pan along with the puree and the tomato juice (or puree and water if being frugal). Mix it all together and allow to continue cooking.
* Once the chick peas are cooked, drain, rinse well and add to the pan. Stir the curry together and season to taste. Cover and allow to simmer slowly for 30 minutes adding water if necessary.
* Wash and chop the fresh coriander, if using, and add. Stir in and serve immediately.
Breakdown:
Breakfast: Both porridge with raisins 13p, Megan had a cup of tea 3p
Riverford: 77p
Lunch: leftover pasta, 68p, Megan had another cup of tea at work 3p
Dinner: homemade chips (potatoes were Riverford, and we're going to reuse the oil used for frying. I'll estimate 50mL was used for frying plus then a Tablespoon or so of cider vinegar once they were done - about 13p total!)
Then we had chickpea and aubergine curry (57p) AND a peanut butter and oatmeal cookie before bed (7p)
AUGH! Way over at £2.35 for Mac and £2.41 for me. Sigh.... I guess that's what happens when you get asparagus in one meal and aubgerine in another all in the same day. Nice to know we still would have gone over even without the chips or cookie, though!
I started my new job today. Everyone seems really nice, but I did have to spend a good chunk of the day reading through health and safety guidelines and looking through an "induction pack". I think they only make packs like that because they know that otherwise the first day on a job would be fairly boring.
Mac has, over time, told people at his work about his £2 challenge and other things--although I'm still not sure if they know whether we don't have a TV. (Of course I've been watching more Alias, Angel, and Numb3rs episodes while cooking and doing blog updates than could ever be good for me, so it's probably not fair to say that we don't have a TV. I still watch crap) I'm not sure whether or not to tell people....who am I kidding? I like talking, so I'm sure I'll end up telling people anyway.
I do wonder sometimes if this is worth doing as a challenge--the idea is to show people that it can be done, that buying organic isn't beyond people's means... but if we're worried about even mentioning it because we might alienate people or weird them out, what's the point? We don't need to prove anything to ourselves anymore. Maybe if we did a £3 a day challenge and were able to eat more cheese and fruit, we wouldn't feel so weird mentioning it. Of course, then if might not get the same kind of attention.
Anyway, as to what we ate today, what was organic/local/fair trade?
Organic: oats, raisins, milk in tea (the tea was fair trade), pak choi, red pepper, carrots, pasta (also fair trade), tomatoes, and basil.
Local: asparagus, butter, bread, garlic, and probably a fair portion of our veg box ingredients.
Summery Pasta with tomatoes, basil and asparagus
This is a quick and easy summer pasta recipe. You can use more basil and tomatoes and just use those, or slow cook in butter some mushrooms, or sautee until brown some courgette (zuchinni). There are lots of options for this, and just about all of them taste good--especially if you have fresh, local ripe tomatoes (do not EVER try this recipe with crappy supermarket out-of-season tomatoes! It will be bland and horrible and probably put you off tomatoes for life. I may be exaggerating slightly, but it won't be good. Trust me.)
400g pasta - 96p
Asparagus 250g - £1.00
Assorted cherry tomatoes RIVERFORD
6 cloves garlic 45p
a few handfuls of basil - from our windowsill(!!)
2T extra pressed rapseed oil - 30p
Heat oil on medium-low heat, and preheat your oven to 200C (400F) or thereabouts. You aren't baking, so it's not an exact science.
Once the oven is hot enough, place the whole cherry tomatoes in it on a baking dish. You can gently cover them in oil if you like, put a bit of salt and pepper ontop, but neither are necessary. Leave to roast for 20 min or so.
Meanwhile, slice your garlic and add to the oil. You don't want the oil too hot because the garlic should NOT burn. You want it to ever-so-slowly turn a light gold colour. Depending on how small your asparagus is, you might get away with just adding it to the oil. Before you do that, snap off the ends by bending both ends until it snaps--it will snap at the point where the woody-bit ends and the nice tender bit begins. Hopefully you won't lose too much asparagus that way--that's another good reason to buy local seasonal produce!
When you add the garlic, boil up a pan of water at the same time. You can add the asparagus to this for a minute and then strain out--you'll use the same water for your pasta.
If you aren't short of pans, you can always place the asparagus in a pan of boiling water for 2 min. Mac boiled about an inch of water and then placed the asparagus standing up for about 5 min (we don't have a fancy-pants asparagus steamer pan). Once you've done that, you can either grill it (my favourite) on a ridged grill pan or add it straight to your oil and garlic. Asparagus is fairly flexible.
Once 10 min or so have passed since you put in the tomatoes, add the pasta to a pan of boiling water and cook for however long the package says.
Take out your tomatoes (they should be bursting at the top, but still pretty whole), add all ingredients to a bowl, stir well and add the basil.
Breakdown:
Breakfast: Both: porridge with raisins 13p. Megan had a cup of tea, 3p
Riverford: 85p
Lunch: leftover stirfry 27p, Megan had 2 more cups of tea 6p (they really like tea at my new job!)
Dinner: Pasta with roasted garlic, tomatoes, asparagus and basil for £2.71 for 4, 68p per person, plus a piece of sourdough bread with butter (18p + 7p)
Total: £2.18 for Mac, £2.27 for Megan. Stupid asparagus.
Saturday was the Food for the Future event at the Down to Earth Community Farm. It went really smoothly, all the events went well, but we just didn't get nearly enough people throughout the day. I think it was probably about 80-100 (if you include families with kids) and the rest of the Fair Trade Group estimates about 50. Chances are it's somewhere in between. Which is a shame. We could have easily had over 100 at any one time without having it seem too busy.
Well, maybe next year.
Stalls
The garden area (they had wheat growing on top of the normal potatoes, cabbages, strawberries, etc. and the farm area--they had brand new piglets which were really cute.
Sunnyfields provided catering--they had local meat, own-made veggie burgers, their own salad leaves for a salad. It was great.
We're going to Sunnyfields July 3rd for a Mediterranean meal using local ingredients AND it's only 25.
This is how I got fed for most of the day. It was DELICIOUS. This is Kate Hughes on the left who did our cookery demos. She runs cooking classes from her business Cook Academy.
I'll have to try her recipes for myself and post them. She made an aubergine and cous cous fruited salad, a broadbean and pea pate, puy lentil and fresh soy bean salad, and a strawberry tart. It was all amazing.
I also ate a little bit of dried fruit that we were giving away as samples.
This is me giving a talk to people about the £2 a day diet. I didn't know quite what I should say, but I thought just giving general tips would be helpful to people. Plus I thought it would be handy because people kept trying to walk off with the two copies I had of the explanation about the diet on a stall.
It went well, although I was disappointed with the turnout (as were, I think, most of the stallholders). However, all the people who went as attendees seemed to really like it. I dont know how we get more people to turn up. Maybe if it was at a school? Billed more as a fete? I don't know....
Anyway, onto the food:
Breakfast: Megan had toast with peanut butter and jelly (12p), Mac skipped breakfast
Riverford: 85p
Lunch: Megan got free samples from the Food for the Future event (and they were DELICIOUS!) Mac had a few free samples and ate leftover Moroccan stew with chickpeas (21p + 3p cabbage)
Dinner: We were hurrying back from the Hobbit and Mac needed to get to his gig, so he didn't eat and ended up finishing off Andy and Nic's falafel from the place near the Joiners because they couldn't eat it all. Megan was happy to be lazy after an exceptionally long weekend and had leftover lentil and vegetable stew for dinner 26p.
£1.23 for Megan, £1.21 for Mac.
I was sick on Friday (otherwise known as day 12). I felt fine, but kept throwing up. Sorry, that's not really appropriate conversation for a food-full blog, but it explains why on the breakdown for that day it lists pretty much only toast (and it was cheap Co-op brand bread, too)
I spent a few hours at the food co-op that we belong to sorting orders until I was sick and realised I should go home. So I went home.... and wrote up some resources, sent them off to Staples to get copied, helped Chris pot up compost for the salad kit giveaway, bought some supplies, and eventually had to go down to Staples to help them re-format some documents and pick them all up. And every so often I'd go to the bathroom and throw up. By the evening I was feeling really hungry, but didn't want to try eating food. So we went to the Illustration show by the third year students at Solent University (including work by my friend Kate. I ate half a brownie (probably not the best first food to try) and eventually went home to have four pieces of toast and two mugs full of broth. Delicious.
Mac was in a big hurry to go to about 3 different gigs that night, so he left me and ate some of the food I was given for helping out with the co-op (which I had absolutely no intention of eating) before quickly leaving.
As a result, not a whole lot going on this day food-wise.
Breakfast: Porridge with raisins, 13p
Riverford: 85p
Lunch: Mac had leftover kohlrabi stew (21p + 3p of cabbage). Megan had 2 pieces of dry toast (yum) 10p and peppermint tea (5p)
Dinner: Megan: 4 pieces of (super cheap) toast with peanut butter (20p + 12p) , 2 cups of broth (6p) Mac: food I got for free from the co-op
Total: £1.22 for Mac, £1.45 for Megan.
I don't know what's going on with the font size on my blog, but it's a little irritating. Sorry!
Two days before the Food for the Future event. I didn't work today because I wanted to make sure I was able to get ready for this. Instead, I ended up going to Kate's house and prepped up another things of bunting. I also cleaned the WHOLE flat and it's never looked tidier. I wish I'd taken pictures. That was so that it would be nice and neat for when the Daily Echo photographer and journalist came over (they brought a work experience student with them). In the end they took pictures of me holding up the things I'd bought since January (used, of course). I'll try to post the article once I've scanned it (although I look terrible). The journalist asked about the Buy Nothing New year long challenge, the £2 a day diet, a bit about the Food for the Future Day, and questions about why I'm doing all of these different things. I was just amazed that she knew how to write in shorthand. (It looked amazing!)
Best parts about the day shown in pictures I stole from Google Images?
Shorthand, finally eating a banana and finding a good recipe for kohl rabi (stole that picture from Frumpyfoodie.com--great photos but MAN does she talk a lot. I would probably just look for her recipes like those here.
Not much interesting food-related stuff happened on Thursday, so I'll just post the lovely recipe for Moroccan kohlrabi stew and the daily breakdown.
Kohlrabi Stew
Recipe 84p for 4 - 21p per person - Note: we adapted a lot of the ingredients. Actual price for the list on the link will be a bit higher.
Origin: North Africa
Ingredients
(L) 2 Tbsp oil (we used veg oil--5p)
(O) 1 medium Kohlrabi RIVERFORD
1 large onion, chopped [We skipped]
(O) 3-4 large carrots, RIVERFORD
(O) 1 tin tomatoes (we didn't have any, so I used a bit more water and 3Tbsp of tomato paste - 25p)
(O) 400ml can of chick-peas, with liquid (or 1/2 cup dried chickpeas cooked for 2 hours - 17p)
100g Bulgur wheat (16p)
(O) 100g raisins (I think I only had about 60g - 16p)
1tsp ground coriander (2p)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (less than 1p)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon ((less than 1p)1/2 tsp ground ginger (2p)
1/4 tsp ground cumin (less than 1p)
700ml water
Don't look to the original website for instructions. I mean, you can, but you won't find many. Their advice was to stick it all in a pan and then simmer for 30 min. I'd look for one line instructions if I was making a cup of tea or a peanut butter sandwich--not for a whole stew.
Directions
Peel and chop the Kohlrabi and onion. Don't peel the carrots, but chop into large chunks.
Heat oil and add onion (if using) and the carrots. Cook for a little while. Add kohlrabi and all spices, stir to coat with spices and cook a further 5 min.Add tomatoes and water, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 min or so until carrots are tender, but not soft. Add raisins and bulgur wheat, and stir well. Cover and allow to cook until bulgur wheat is fully cooked (it will probably absorb most of the moisture).
Tanzanian Braised Cabbage
Yield: 8 portions (we made enough for 3--23p total, excluding RIVERFORD costs. 7p each)
In a saucepan saute 1/2 cup bermuda onions (purple), chopped finely [we skipped this bit, because we were out of onions] 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (2p), 1/2 tsp. curry powder (less than 1p), 1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used 2 cloves fresh garlic finely chopped instead 15p(L)), 1/4 tsp. powdered ginger (less than 1p), in 2 oz. oil (I used about 10g butter instead - 5p(L)).
Once the spices are cooked (and, if using onions, the onions are soft), add 2 Ibs. cabbage cut in 1-inch wedges. (we probably had about 300g cabbage--enough for 2 people and a little left over from RIVERFORD(O) ). Saute lightly until cabbage begins to lose its crispness.
Add 1 cup vegetable stock (O) (3p) and seasonings to taste.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Total breakdown:
Breakfast: (O) Porridge with (O) raisins, 13p and Megan had a (O/FT) banana (36p)
Riverford: 85p
Lunch: lentil stew, 26p and a nice fresh salad (O) (all from Riverford!)Dinner: morrocan stew with bulgar wheat, chickpeas and kohl rabi and a side of spring greens 21p for the stew, 7p for the cabbage.
Total for the day: Mac: £1.52, Megan: £1.88
So this is day three of me eating the Aubergine and Chickpea Balti. It's still good, but I am getting a little tired of it. It's also day two of me eating quinoa and tomato salad. I also ate leftover stale-I'm-leaving cake, which I really wish I hadn't (it was TERRIBLE!) Unfortunately, I also served the stale cake to a guest who was doing me a favour. I am a horrible hostess. Luckily I'm not going for any sort of domestic goddess award.
Breakfast - Porridge and a cup of tea 13p + 3p
Riverford - 77.5p
Lunch - 150g of quinoa salad (30p) and LOTS of garden salad (with 1/2tsp of white wine vinegar [1p]). Then I had a tortilla (10p) with 15g of peanut butter (3p) and 10g of jam (4p). Plus stale cake (which I'm still not counting) and a cup of tea 3p and a glass of cordial 0.4p
Dinner - more chickpea curry 44p and some more garden salad with another 1/2 tsp of white wine vinegar (1p)
£1.90
So now I'm deciding to have another tortilla with a tiny bit of jam and peanut butter. Good thing I like the taste of tortillas, because I could barely make out the jam or peanut butter. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the white wine vinegar on my salad until after ate the tortilla, so I finish on £2.02. Oops.
Now that I've been able to have lunch and dinner without expending any effort greater than heating up leftovers, I'm kinda liking this whole Mac makes three dishes before he goes away thing. I just hope I still feel that way when I'm having them for the third day in a row.
Tomorrow I'm going to the farm to check out the space, number of tables, etc. It's one week until the ethical food day. I feel like I still have SO much to do. I'm now wondering if I should do a presentation (as in, actually talk in front of people) on the £2 a day diet. Lissie, who volunteers at the Art House, mentioned that she's really interested in the day because money is getting tighter and she wants some ideas. I'm not entirely convinced that we're giving people concrete tips/suggestions about how to eat better. Yes, we're giving cooking tips and gardening ideas, but will that help people in the long run? I don't know...
Thoughts?
Breakfast: Porridge and a cup of tea, 13p + 3p
Riverford: 77.5p
Lunch: Mac's will have to wait until he comes back from holiday
Megan had garden salad (all from Riverford) and 30p for a portion of the quiona, chickpea, almond and tomato salad. Plus some of the probably-too-old crumble for 32.5p
Dinner: Megan's was aubergine and chickpea balti leftover from last night with rice - 44p. Mac probably ate dinner at a pub with the conservation folks.
Total
Megan: £2.00 (I wish I hadn't had my dessert at lunchtime.... )
Mac's away this weekend on a conservation project, so he had to bring lunch with him for the next couple days. In doing so, he managed to fill up our whole fridge with lots and lots of food. I've been instructed not to bring it to the Art House, but I don't know how else we're going to get through this much food. See below for recipes for the aubergine (eggplant) and chickpea curry we had for dinner, and the two quiona salads that are now sat in our fridget--quinoa, almond, roasted chickpea and roasted cherry tomato salad (the catchier name for it from the vegweb site is "Quinoa to Win Over Your Boyfriend's Family" and the quinoa, walnut and mushroom salad that was supposed to be mostly arugula (check out the picture on the website we got it from to see what I mean). Both look delicious, but the quantities are approaching ridiculous.
Aubergine, Potato and Chick Pea Balti (Birmingham Balti) - Serves 6
£2.64, 44p per serving
10 minutes preparation time (unless you cook the chickpeas from dried, which is 2 hours), 30 minutes cooking time
Ingredients:
For the vegetables
2 Tbs vegetable oil - 30p (Mac used rapeseed oil)
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced - 27p
½ tsp cumin seeds - 1p
1 aubergine, cut into 1 cm cubes - RIVERFORD
1 potato, peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes - 42p
200g chickpeas, rinsed & drained (it was 1/4c of chickpeas soaked since this morning and cooked for 2hours) 8.5p
1 tsp ground coriander - 3p
½ tsp ground cumin - 1p
¼ tsp ground turmeric - .5p
For the sauce
2 Tbsp vegetable oil - 30p
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced - 27p
2 cloves garlic, crushed - 15p
2 tsp root ginger, peeled and grated - 3p
4 cm cassia bark (optional-skipped)
6 whole cloves - 6p
450g tin chopped plum tomatoes 49p
¼ tsp ground turmeric - 5p ½ tsp
ground coriander - 1p ½ tsp
ground cumin - 1p
1 tsp sugar - 1p
1 ½ tsp salt - 1p
1 tsp red chilli powder to taste (skipped)
To finish (Skipped all of this)
4 tbs fresh coriander, finely chopped
200ml water
½ tsp garam masala
Rice
2c basmati rice - 12p
4c water.
For the vegetables
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the sliced onions and cumin seeds. Cook for 3 minutes
2. Add the chopped potato, aubergine, ground coriander, cumin and turmeric. Stir to coat vegetables evenly and then cook over a high heat for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from pan and set aside.
For the Sauce
1. Heat the oil in the pan. Add the onion, crushed garlic, grated ginger, cassia bark and whole cloves and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add chopped plum tomotoes, turmeric, coriander, cumin, garam masala, salt, sugar and chilli to taste. Cook on a high heat for two minutes, then lower to a medium heat and cook for a further 3 minutes stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the cassia bark and blend the sauce roughly with a hand blender, then add the vegetables to the sauce with 3 tablespoons of chopped coriander, the water and the garam masala.
4. Cook over a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with remaining chopped coriander and serve with Basmati rice and/or naan bread.
Spring greens - 27p total, 13.5p per portion
one bunch of spring greens cut into 2" slices - RIVERFORD
Head a pan on medium and add 2tsp Pratt's rapeseed oil (10p)
Place 2 sliced cloves garlic (15p) in the pan and cook slowly. When they are approaching golden, add the spring greens. Stir to coat with oil. Cook 10 min.
Just before serving, add 1tsp lemon juice - 2p.
Today's Breakdown
Breakfast: 13p porridge and Megan had a cup of tea 3p
Lunch: Mac had half of the wild rice salad: 14p AND mushroom and spinach curry 31p.
Megan had a work lunch at the Fat Fig (www.fatfig.co.uk/)... oops and just remembered that half a falafel wrap is still sat in her bag the morning after. Oops. Megan also managed to get free Krispy Kreme donuts from the other guy who is leaving from our team...and then proceeded to eat a bunch of them. And then brought some home, and we both ate some after work....and then again after dinner.
Dinner: Aubergine, potato and chick pea balti over rice for 44p and some cooked spring greens from Riverford. 13.5p
Megan had half a glass of apple juice (100mL) for 20p
Total: Mac: £1.93 Megan: £1.71 Plus a whole bunch of Krispy Kremes...
Quinoa to Win Over Your Boyfriend's Family by envirogirl- Serves 3-4
£1.39 total, per serving 35p for 4 people, 46p for 3.
Ingredients:
2 cups quinoa (Mac only used 3/4c) - 34p
3 cups water
3-4 tablespoons olive oil - 50p
200g chickpeas, rinsed & drained (it was 1/4c of chickpeas soaked since this morning and cooked for 2hours) - 8.5p
2-3 cups sliced almonds (Mac used 45g of whole almonds - 44p)
1-2 oz. sliced sundried tomatoes (used RIVERFORD fresh cherry tomatoes)
1 Tbsp Rosemary (from the GARDEN)
garlic salt to taste
Directions:
Pour water into a sauce pan and bring to boil on high heat.
Pour quinoa into boiling water. Turn heat to medium high once foam starts to rise.
Allow to boil uncovered until water level reaches quinoa level. Cover & let simmer until water is absorbed.
If using cherry tomatoes, put in a roasting dish or baking sheet, and roast in the oven for 20min or so. Take out, and add other ingredients for roasting.
If using sundried tomatoes, just add olive oil, chickpeas, garlic salt and rosemary onto baking sheet.
Broil in oven on 400 degree F heat until chickpeas are crispy and/or start to crackle.
Toast sliced almonds in a pan on high heat until browned and aromatic.
Add chickpeas, almonds, and sun dried tomatoes to quinoa and stir. Add more spices if needed.
Preparation time: 20-30 minutes
Quinoa, walnut and mushroom salad tossed with watercress or arugula - serves 6 - £1.51, 25p per serving
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
250 ml (1 cup) water
125 ml ( 1/2 cup) quinoa - 35p
(Mac used 3/4c) 50 ml
(1/4 cup) olive oil, divided - 50p
125 g (4 oz) shiitake mushrooms, stems removed (used chestnut mushrooms from RIVERFORD)
1 clove garlic, minced - 7.5p
15 ml (1 tbsp) soy sauce - 9p
2 ml ( 1/2 tsp) each salt and fresh cracked black pepper
10 ml (2 tsp) maple syrup - 14p
5 ml (1 tsp) Dijon mustard (Mac used 1/2tsp Coleman dried with 1/2tsp water to make a paste) 4p
8 cups arugula or watercress - (Rocket from our GARDEN!)
250 ml (1 cup) toasted walnuts, roughly chopped (only used 50g) - 31p
In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; leave covered for 15 minutes.
In a large skillet, heat 30 ml (2 tbsp) of the oil over medium-high heat. Add shiitake mushrooms and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in soy sauce, salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
In a small bowl, whisk together remaining oil with maple syrup and Dijon mustard.
Add arugula and walnuts to hot mushrooms in pan.
Stir in quinoa and drizzle with oil mixture, stirring to combine.
Serve immediately.
Nutritional information per serving: 320 calories, 8 g protein, 22 g fat (2.5 g saturated fat), 29 g carbohydrates, 5 g fibre, 0 mg cholesterol, 380 mg sodium. Source: www.walnutinfo.com.
Just to give you an idea of part of the process, I took some photos of me making breakfast. Since this is the least complicated meal in terms of cooking and the number of ingredients, it's easier to show the steps involved in keeping track of the costs. 
Of course, because we have porridge just about every day, it makes it a little bit easier--it's on the spreadsheet and we've already measured it once. It means this process is a little different to what we do for dinner--then, we usually make the meal and then hope for the best that all the measuring we did won't put us over once I check the spreadsheet.
So, in the morning I measure out 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal for the two of us, and just under three cups of water. 
While that's cooking, I get out the bowls and measure exactly 20g of raisins.
Mac usually eats more than I do, so if he's putting the oatmeal in the bowls, he'll weigh and measure them to make sure they are equal or that he has the bigger of the two.
Dinner is about 20 times more complicated, and usually involves somewhere between 20-45min sat in front of the computer comparing the recipe to what was actually cooked and then looking at the spreadsheet, weighing out things we forgot to weigh before (how much does 3/4c of cous cous weigh?) and looking up on the ASDA Online Shop for things we don't know the prices of.
And then of course some days we go over anyway.
Riverford: 77.5p
Breakfast: Oatmeal 13p, Megan had tea 3p
Lunch: Mac: Pasta&Beans with sauce, 40.5p, 1/2 a portion of Rice salad 14p, Megan had mushroom and spinach curry leftovers for 28p
Snack: I'm leaving my job next week, and another co-worker is leaving on Friday. I brought it cakes from the Art House. Cost me a small fortune, but they were delicious. I'm going to count this as an exception to the challenge. Tough.
Dinner: I was going to cook... I was supposed to, but then I ended up being at the Art House for a meeting at 6 and then ended up organising the crafts (I'm partway through...) until 10:15 or so. I kept apologising to Mac (who was there with me using their wireless) and ended up making us dinner from Art House leftovers. We had carrot salad with raisins, walnuts and some vegan mayonaisse, plus a pile of hummus on the side and some salad leaves. Chances are it didn't cost much anyway.
When we got home, since we hadn't spent much, we both splashed out and had a glass of apple juice (49p!!!) and a slice of bread with butter 26p + 4p. This was our downfall.
Totals:
Megan: £2.005... so really £2.01. D'oh.
Mac: £2.24 (and that's WITHOUT any dinner!)
Maybe we should have figured out the rest of the day before we decided to drink super expensive juice. At least we were getting a bit more fruit than usual.
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