Cooking my way through....

Lately, I've got into a bit of a food rut.  As in, I've started to get a bit tired of the usual things I eat from day to day.  During the week, I rely quite a lot on, for example, pasta and pesto, because it's quick, easy and tasty.  At the weekends, I normally cook up a curry or a tagine of some kind.  But it tends to be the same things over and over again.  To the point where, lately, I'll find myself just having a bowl of cereal for tea rather than cook, due to a serious lack of inspiration.

Set against that, I have loads of cook books in the house, and with many of them, I've only tried one or two recipes and not explored any further.

So, with a pile of unused cook books, and a spell of eating ennui setting in, I've decided to choose one at a time and cook my way through it over a few weeks.  Not every last recipe, but picking out the ones that appeal, or that are a bit different to my normal fare. 

First up is Slim and Healthy Vegetarian, by Judith Wills, and modelled here by Daisy. 

This is quite an old book, it was published in 1994.  Nonetheless, I've held onto it as there's some good stuff in here.  Previously, I've made the Black Bean Soup, the Spanish Chickpeas, and the Bombay Supper from it. 

Glancing through it now, I really like the sound of the following:

• Italian Artichokes
• Marinated Aubergine and Tomato
• Avocado and Tofu Dip
• Hereford Hot-Pot

Hopefully, muesli as an evening meal will be put on the back burner for a while.

Yarrah Cat Food - Review

Just an update on my search for a more ethical brand of cat food, which I kicked off a few posts back.  After deciding against Lily's Kitchen, I got in some of Co-op's own brand cat food as in interim measure, but Daisy wasn't having it - just wouldn't eat it, so now there is a mostly full, rejected box of it in the cupboard.  I'll try and shift it on Freecycle before it goes stale.

As mentioned, I'm using the guide on the Ethical Consumer website to try out cat food brands that are more ethical than Go-Cat.  Whilst this is the majority of cat foods, the choices that I can buy locally were not inspiring.  So I took to the internet, and ordered the Yarrah organic dried cat food with fish from Planet Organic.  Yarrah scores 16 out of 20 on the ratings table, so it's pretty near the top.

With a 10% discount for my first order, this 800g bag cost £5.84.  I reckon I'd need two bags a month to keep Daisy fed, so it's expensive, but not prohibitively so.  Also, I'll be able to buy it in 3kg packs, which takes a bit off the price. 

The only issue with buying in bulk is that Daisy might go off it. But that's how it rolls with cats - their picky nature has to be accepted! 

But so far, Daisy likes her Yarrah!  I mixed it with her old cat food for a while to get her used to it, and all seems to be well.  The only problem is that, as with so many organic products, it comes in plastic.  I have no idea why this should be, but that may be a subject for another post. 

The verdict: we'll stick with Yarrah and see how it goes.  If I find a good alternative with better packaging, we'll try that, but for now it seems like a good choice.  Especially if it results in a content, well-fed kitty.

Lily's Kitchen cat food review

This is Daisy!  She is 6 now, and I've had her since she was 12 weeks old.  I didn't meet her until the day I got her.  A girl at work was looking for homes for four kittens, but I was just going on holiday, and there wasn't time to go round and see them. So I just agreed to have whichever kitten was left when I got back.  In other words, it was fate.  I now think of her as my lucky dip cat.

In the past, I've fed her supermarket own brands, and now she mostly gets Go-Cat.  But in an effort to (a) shop more ethically, and (b) rely less on supermarkets, I'm trying out some better alternatives.

Go-Cat is made by Purina, and scores 0 out of 20 on Ethical Consumer's ratings table for cat food.  A big fat zero.  My bad for buying the stuff, that's for sure.  The good news is that things can only get better.  So I'm starting to mend our ways by trying out Lily's Kitchen, which scores a reasonable 12.5.

The good: I can buy Lily's Kitchen at my local high street pet shop.  I got the fish flavour, and it does smell like there's plenty of actual fish in there.  Crucially, Daisy really likes it. 

The less good: it is very expensive.  I've worked out that if I feed her the recommended daily amount for her weight, it will cost me around £275 a year.  It also comes in small packets which will last 5 days at the most.  This means that I'll have to buy several packs at a time, or start walking to the pet shop on a more regular basis.  The packaging claims to be biodegradable (good), but I'd be disposing of around 73 packets a year (less good).

The verdict: if it was up to Daisy, we'd stick to Lily's Kitchen.  However, the steep price and the inconveniently small packet sizes have left me unconvinced. 

The quest continues...

(Slightly late) May and June favourites

In May, I discovered Cup O' Coffee Face and Body Mask from Lush.  Although they call it a mask, I pretty much use it as a scrub.  Such a rich, sweet coffee scent, and a lovely gritty texture.  It is just gorgeous...

Sludgy goodness...

In June, I renewed my subscription to Ethical Consumer magazine for a second year.  This is an invaluable resource for anybody wanting to make more ethical choices in everyday life.  EC provides product guides from the best to the worst, analysing the performance of companies against a range of ethical and conservation concerns, including, say, their stance on climate change or workers' rights. 

At first, I went for the online subscription option, but I found that I just didn't engage with the magazine when it was on the screen.  Then EC contacted me and asked if I wanted to switch to the print version.  I said yes straight away, and I much prefer the printed magazine.  It is sent in a paper envelope, not a plastic cover (as are most subscription magazines).  I find that I refer back to the paper copy a lot more, and EC seem keen for the magazines to be passed on to people who might not otherwise subscribe.  This way, they can take their message to a wider audience. 

I wouldn't be without it now.  It is so helpfully in a really practical way.  For example, I normally buy supermarket cat food, but looking up EC's table on this product has been an eye opener.  But the solutions are right there in front of me, so it's a matter of checking out the alternatives and making the change to a better product. 

(Providing the cat will agree to eat her shiny new ethical chow, of course...)

April favourite

My favourite product of April has been the glorious chilli peanut butter by Biona (purchased at the Green Shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed - see post below for a link).  This is the best chilli peanut butter I've tasted.  Absolutely delicious on toast.  Love it.

The Green Shop, Berwick-upon-Tweed

This (link below) is a fabulous shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed, in Northumberland.  It has a great range of organic and otherwise eco things, including food, drink, clothing, make-up, toiletries, household bits and pieces, fresh veg, toilet roll, tooth brushes, etc.  All sorts of things, really.  If you live in the (far) north of England, or even happened to be passing close by on the A1, it is well worth a visit - I can't recommend highly enough.

https://berwickgreenshop.wordpress.com/

Just a quick round up of the stuff I got at Morrison's this evening.  I'm in the process of cutting out eggs and diary from my diet, which can seem straightforward enough in the modern age, until you try to eliminate palm oil too. 

On that front, I've recently had some fails.  I got some Sheese blue-style cheese from the health food shop a while ago, only to find that the second ingredient, after water, was palm oil.  It's basically a slab of solid palm oil, and not even the 'sustainable' kind either.  So that was disappointing.  Especially as the packaged says 'Animal free foods'.  That may technically be the case, but unless you want an orang-utan free planet, it's best to steer clear. 

I also got a couple of dairy-free margarines from the supermarket, but it was the same story - more palm oil.  So I've wasted money and learned the lesson - read the label....

Anyway, I did a bit better this evening.  I got burgers (meat, egg, daisy and palm oil free), which I really enjoyed for tea.  Could have done with a little bit more flavour, but they were yummy.

I got rice noodles, which are a good alternative to egg noodles.  Those will be had with some satay sauce in the near future.

From the reduced section, I got organic avocados.  I really have no idea why organic produce has to be packaged in plastic in supermarkets.  Really, why?  It just doesn't make any sense.  I noticed also that they have some ugly veg, but all wrapped up in plastic - great, but why the plastic, Morrisons? 

Also, some sweetcorn.  I hate the packaging, but I still figure it's better than the whole lot going in the bin.  Finally, pasta sauce.  It shouldn't have meat, egg, dairy or palm oil in it anyway, but always worth a check.  Because you just don't know when they'll sneak it in there....

Zero Waste Week - Days 6 & 7 and round up

Days 6 and 7 were weekend days, of course, and we nearly always eat lunch at home.  I believe we had more rolls and houmous, so just using up what I'd bought for Friday's lunch.  For me, I'd say that Zero Waste Week was mostly successful, apart from the one blip I had when my plans went awry.  It wasn't easy though!  I have to say that surprised me, but then it's the first time I've made a concerted effort to make homemade food every day.  Anyway, here are my round-up Q&As:

 1. What was the favourite thing you learned / your greatest insight from Zero Waste Week?

I really learned that the key to zero waste is organisation.  And that's really why convenience foods have taken hold of us - I don't need to think or plan ahead if I can just nip down the canteen or out to the shops for something to eat. 

2. Do you think you reduced your overall landfill waste this week? If so, by how much?

Yes I did - by 4 sets of plastic sandwich containers.

 3. Are there any new habits (or resurrected habits!) you put in place this week that you intend to keep?  Yes, I will make greater efforts at weekly food planning, and also building in more variety whilst reducing waste.

4. Do you think you've saved any money during Zero Waste Week? If so, how much?

 I didn’t tot it up but I’d estimate about £10, which is not bad at all.

5. What helped you the most with achieving your Zero Waste Week goal(s)?

I’m not sure anything really helped that much – I just gone on with it...

6. If you could choose the theme for Zero Waste Week 2015, what would it be?

Recycling textiles/zero waste wardrobe, something along those lines.

7. Sum up your experience of Zero Waste Week in one sentence or add any other comments about the week you wish...

Ultimately, participating in Zero Waste Week was a positive experience.  Every time I buy a sandwich, I hate throwing away the wrapper, but breaking the convenience food habit (and any other wasteful habit, for that matter)really is worth the effort. 

Zero Waste Week - Day 4

Back on track today - I boiled 30g each of rice and brown lentils, with a bit of stock in the water for flavour, and added a boiled egg and some dressing.  I managed to remember to take it with me this morning, and found time to eat it.  Success.

But I'm not very inspired by my lunch choices, and a bit more variety is going to be necessary to keep it up on a longer term basis.  It's funny because I'd quite happily stick to only two types of sandwich in the normal run of things, but somehow that doesn't feel restrictive.

One more week day to go - I'm sure I can manage...

Zero Waste Week - Day 3

Oh dear.  Complete fail.  You ask yourself, how hard can it be to make your own lunch every day for a week.  Seriously, you say, how hard can it possibly be?  Not possible at all, it appears.  My big mistake was planning to come home for something to eat at lunchtime.  That didn't happen, and there isn't even a good story behind it.  I just ended up working through lunch and never had a chance to get home.  So I got a sandwich in town, which, in my defence, did not come in plastic - just a brown paper bag - so it could have been worse. 

Of course, tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to aim for: mixed together rice and lentils, and an egg. And some dressing. (I wish myself luck...)

Zero Waste Week - Day 2

Top tip of the day - remember to actually take the zero waste lunch with you when you walk out the door of a morning.  Luckily, I remembered in time.  Today it was a portion of lentil dahl - leftover from last night's tea - heated up and put into my thermos food flask, which is a great little device.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do any rice or couscous, so I had to go to the shop for a bread roll.  Still, you learn as you go along.

Tomorrow's lunch: rice and lentils with salmon, and a splash of dressing...

Zero Waste Week - Day 1

Today's homemade lunch was - wholegrain rice, pesto and salmon.  The recipe, insofar as it can be called a recipe, was: 50g wholegrain rice, mixed with 33g pesto (I like to be precise with pesto as it's so high in calories), and one small fillet of salmon. 

Tomorrow's lunch will be: brown lentil dahl with preserved lemon, and an egg...