Leftover cookie dough breakfast cake

Yesterday I was in for some baking. I made chocolate chip cookies, our favourite kind of cookies at the moment. We usually have one temporarily kind of favourite cookie and then move on to the next 😂

Anyway, I made quite a big batch, but not all the cookies fit on the two cookie sheets that I used. I didn't want to use yet another cookie sheet just for about half the space they would take on the cookie sheet, not to mention leaving the oven on for just a few cookies. But I certainly didn't want to waste the dough either. I read you can freeze cookie dough but I was in the mood for baking anyway so I thought I'd bake something different with the cookie dough as a base. This kind of baking is what I do a lot and the result is usually a surprise. But what's most surprising is that those spontaneous bakes never disappoint. I always need to be quick to write them down or I just forget all I've used, and I end up never imitating them as good as the first time! 

                                       The cookie dough

  

So here is my breakfast cake recipe, using leftover cookie dough. I was hesitant to call it a cake because it's more like baked oatmeal and not very sweet, but there we go: 

Around 2 cups of chocolate chip cookie dough (I used chocolate chunks instead, as chocolate chips are nearly impossible to find here) 

2 eggs 

Half a cup of peanut butter 

A few tablespoons of milk (optional)

A teaspoon of baking powder 

1.5 cups of oats 

1/3 cup of desiccated coconut 

A pinch of cinnamon 

Crack the eggs over the dough, add in peanut butter and stirr well. Add all the other ingredients. It should have the consistency of a thick batter. I added a bit of milk because my batter was too thick, but if yours isn't there is no milk needed. I didn't use a lot of add-ins because there were chocolate chunks already, but if you like you could add raisins, fresh fruit, dates, or even more chocolate. 

I poured the mixture in a round cake pan and baked it for 45 minutes, 180°c (360° f). I let it cool off completely before I devided the baked oatmeal into 10 pieces. Had one for breakfast and the rest of my family want to try one tomorrow for breakfast, the rest I'll be freezing for a quick and convenient breakfast. 

Try at your own risk 😉

The baked oatmeal ready to go into the oven 

Straight out of the oven. Unfortunately I can't posts smells

        

                                                 Plated up

Very easy pancakes recipe

I like pancakes for breakfast, all kinds. American style pancakes, poffertjes (tiny Dutch style pancakes), baghrir (north African style pancakes also known as a thousand hole pancakes), crêpes, etc. It's just that some are so nice, I tend to overeat them. I want to be able to portion and freeze pancakes to avoid over indulgence. Unfortunately, not all pancakes are freezable, especially crêpes. It's also nice to have a go to breakfast waiting to be thawed in case there isn't anything else to eat. So I prefer freezable pancakes. 

Also, since I'm trying to lose weight, I'm always looking to decrease my calories without making too much sacrifices (if that makes sense, lol). Typically pancakes contain milk, eggs and fat - in addition to be cooked in yet more fat. Substituting white flour for whole wheat (and/or oat flour) is something I've been doing for a long time already, but I was looking for a solution for the eggs and milk. Don't get me wrong, I'll still consume eggs and milk, but I just prefer them as is, not as an ingredient just adding more calories. So after some googling and trial and error myself, I came up with partially whole wheat pancakes that don't contain any milk or eggs- and STILL taste amazing. 

For a large batch (around 16-19 pancakes), you'll need: 

2 cups of whole wheat flour 

2 cups of fine semolina (can be substituted for white or whole wheat flour)

1.5 tablespoons of instant yeast 

Half a teaspoons of salt, or a bit less or more to taste 

A tablespoon of vanilla sugar/vanilla flavour/extract (I don't use extract because of the alcohol it contains, but apparently alcohol free extract does exist) 

As much warm water as needed to create a pancake batter- I used around 5 cups 

Oil or butter to cook your pancakes in 

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well using a whisk. Then add the water, not adding all the water at once to avoid a batter that's on the runny side. If you find it too thick just add a bit more gradually and mix well using the whisk. Mix until there are no more lumps visible and it's a smooth batter. Then cover your bowl, I use a bowl with a lid to avoid using unnecessary disposable plastic. 

Let it sit for around 45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on your room temperature. If you've got enough time it should even be possible to let it rise in the fridge. 

If the batter has doubled in volume and is bubbly it's done and ready to bake. Heat up your skillet, and use about one ladle or a bit less (depending on your preferred size of pancakes) of batter per pancake. Cook them as you would regular pancakes and let them cool. 

These pancakes might seem a bit flavourless, but trust me, they're so yummy! The semolina gives them that rich flavour and so does the yeast. There's absolutely no need for eggs or another ingredient for binding, which makes these pancakes not only easy, eggs allergy-friendly, vegan and lower in calories, but also WAY more affordable in this economy 😉 

Some notes: 

I made this the night before breakfast and kept the ones I was planning to eat in a container, the others went into the freezer right after cooling down.  

Keep in mind- both semolina and whole wheat flour absorb more water than white flour does, so keep in mind you'll need more liquid than when making regular pancakes. You can make this batter with whichever flour you like, making it 100% whole wheat or 100% white. 

Some (frugal) cooking hacks

Cooking from scratch for 20 years surely teaches one a thing or two. No matter how much recipe books you own, the most you'll learn by experience. It takes practice and time and really is a matter of trial and error! You'll likely have to adjust to your spouses and children's preferences, adjust to what's available (especially when, like us, emigrating to another country) and perhaps even more challenging, stick to a budget which makes being creative even more important. 

Here's some of the things I learned along the way: 

When using garlic in dishes, the later you add it, the more garlic-y your dish will be. For a subtle garlic flavour, it's best to afford the garlic from the beginning, and for a strong garlic flavour, add it towards the end of your cooking time. 

Plain cooked beans go bad quickly, usually faster than I'd anticipate. If you're not planning on eating the beans within 48 hours, or have leftovers, you better freeze them. Beans cooked in a sauce/stew of some sort keeps well a bit longer in my experience. 

Another bean hack: most legumes are quite a pain to cook. Even though we eat a lot of legumes, I admit I don't like to cook them (let alone thinking of soaking them on time...). You have to wait for hours (ok, slightly exaggerated!) until they actually cook so you can stand right there to get the foam off. I've noticed, however, that cooking them with plenty of seasonings massively reduces the forming of foam. So then it's only the annoying long cooking time that remains. 

Soft carrots can be easily rescued by letting them soak in water for a few hours. The softer the carrots, the longer the soaking time. It really works, but you just need some patience. 

Onions are another vegetable I sometimes soak in water. Not necessarily to firm them up, but it does reduce the amount of tears involved in peeling and cutting them! 

Batch cooking saved my sanity. (LOL) However, some dishes taste better the 2nd batch, and some don't. There are just a few dishes that I only make a single batch of. 

The smaller the pasta shape, the further it stretches- I know this sounds a bit strange, but when we're eating a pasta made with "bigger" shapes such as penne or fussili, we never have leftovers and it sometimes even feels like it's barely enough. Whereas there's usually leftovers when using ditalini/elbow macaroni etc. Even when the quantity in weight is the same. This is the same for spaghetti by the way, that stretches much better as well. Weird but true! 

Thawing meat or just anything is best in the fridge. It does take a bit long, but it's best for the foods to thaw slowly, plus you'll use less electricity- win win. 

Speaking of pasta, obviously not all pastas are alike; there are literally hundreds of shapes. However, not each sauce suits all shapes. What I've learned (from experience... dear Italians, if this isn't accurate please be nice ok 😉) is that the bigger the shape, the thicker your sauce needs to be, and the other way around. So if my sauce is a bit on the runny side, and I was planning on using a bigger pasta shape, I usually use either a small shape or spaghetti instead. 

Soups are the solution for almost every food problem- not having quite enough on hand, not knowing what to make, not feeling like cooking an elaborate meal, having tons of leftovers and having to recreate a new dish out of those. 

Leafy greens go bad rather quickly, so I usually use them on the grocery shopping day or the day after. Alternatively, you can stretch the leafy greens shelf life somewhat by wrapping them in a damp cloth towel. It may sound a bit contradicting, but it really works. 

But when it comes to getting the most vegetables for your money, you might reconsider buying fresh leafy greens. After all, leafy greens shrink big time! Vegetables that don't shrink and don't need peeling (or just the bare minimum of peeling) are usually the most economical. That's why I love cooking with carrots, turnips and onions during the winter (seasons are changing obviously and it's summer now, but carrots are pretty much available all year long). Contrary to what many people think, frozen and canned vegetables are as healthy as fresh ones and depending on where you live, can be much cheaper than fresh. Where we live they're much more expand therefore not a frugal choice. But I know for many people it's the other way around and buying canned saves a lot of money. You just have to know how to prepare them to avoid that "canned vegetable taste". 

You can bake a muffin batter in nearly every shape of dish, just make sure to adjust the cooking time. This is something I found out quite recently! 

No need for a lot of condiments as long as you have a decent collection of dried (or fresh) herbs and spices. My stack of fridge condiments is quite basic: garlic paste, mustard, mayonnaise, homemade mock soy sauce and tomato paste (if that counts as a condiment...). Most other popular condiments are easy to make yourself as long as you have those on hand. For example, salad dressings, BBQ sauce, sweet chili sauce, and even ketchup. 

Don't be afraid to not follow a recipe to the letter- especially cooking/main dishes recipes. No need to buy an exclusive, expensive ingredient that you end up only using once for that particular recipe, that's just a waste of money and food.

To thicken soups and sauces, my go-to is cornstarch. However, no need to panic if that's not something you have on hand: there are many ways to thicken up liquid dishes. I've literally used anything as thickeners: from ground oatmeal to potatoes to stale bread. 

There's almost no end to what you can freeze. I mean, it's quite obvious that meat and ice cream can (should) be kept frozen, unless consumed immediately, but there's just so much more to freeze. Think of milk, bread (very logical to me but apparently in some countries it isn't), tomato paste, peels and bones (for future broth making), condiments (such as my homemade soy sauce which doesn't last too long in the fridge), leftovers, etc. At the moment, I have a freezer drawer full of pancakes, muffins and portion sized baked oatmeal, as well as one drawer full of dates. And my freezer doors are full with broth. They're in fact that full, not all broth I had did fit in there so I had to freeze some broth in "regular" containers instead of plastic bottles.

By freezing leftovers you can really avoid so much food waste. And during the weeks when money is a bit more tight, just clear out the freezer of all the leftovers 🙃 Or have one "left over buffet" once a week. It really does add up. During those times when I'm clearing out the freezer it seems like there's tons of leftovers, even though it might look like there were just a few. It's amazing how far that stretches. 

Something we all should try is to step out of the box and try not to cling tight to certain "food rules". Wether it's because of cultural practices or other- we're all guilty of it at some point. Who said we can't eat soup for breakfast, for example? We once stayed at a hotel where lentil soup was being served for breakfast, as the majority of the guests were Turkish. I certainly wasn't familiar with that but I really liked the idea! I assume it's common in a lot of other cultures as well, and why not- it's fast (especially when it's leftovers) and nutritious ar the same time. I remember when we first got married, my husband and I disagreed completely about what time pancakes should be eaten. I was raised with pancakes for dinner only, whereas he ate them for breakfast only. Eventually he did convince me of eating pancakes for breakfast and to be honest, I'm so used to it now thar pancakes for dinner seems to be a bit odd. Some people might consider eggs breakfast food. For me, it's usually for lunch or dinner and we rarely have them for breakfast but it's just so versatile I think we can have them at any time (or some boiled eggs as a snack... yum!) What I'm sometimes struggling with is my own food rules (because of pasta eating disorders, being autistic and some other factors...). For example, combining dairy and an iron source is something I really struggle with- even though a lot of people would see it as accomplishing their "protein goals", but since there's more to life than just protein, and as a former vegetarian, I was always taught to NOT.combine.dairy.and.iron... it's a bit hard to letting go of that. Even when it means I'm avoiding food waste by that. So that's definitely something I try to work on. 

Food doesn't need to be elaborate to be delicious. That's a grave misconception. And to be honest, I also think that over varying of dishes is quite overrated. I've talked about this before and I think I'm a bit repetitive, but I don't see the point of variation if that means that there are dishes that we'll eat only once and then forget about it completely. 

Tightwad tip - single bananas

Today's tightwad tip is a bit on an unusual, as we're not necessarily saving a lot of money, but you're still doing the environment a favour. 

Ever seen very sad, lonely bananas waiting for someone to grab them? That's probably a familiar sight in a lot of supermarkets. Most people will buy bunches of bananas, as those look more appealing, plus some people might think that those keep well longe. But did you know that I general, those single bananas are thrown away at the end of the day? That's indeed very sad. Whenever we see single bananas, we tend to buy those so that we'll avoid food waste. Wasting food isn't just what families throw away in their homes- the supermarket contribute a lot to food waste, too. Even though I don't think that as a costumer that's my responsibility, but sometimes it's just a very small thing we can do. After all, less food waste (and thus less environmental damage as a result of that) will benefit all of us. 

If you're lucky and your supermarket has a reduced rack, you can do that too! Unfortunately, they don't really do that here, so that's not an option. 

No wasted milk - and turning muffin batter into pancake batter

The other day, my husband did an attempt to make buttermilk for my mother in law. The thing is, it just didn't settle. It was probably the chilly living room temperature (despite the jug with milk being covered in a thick blanket). Or he didn't use the right amount of yogurt. Whatever it was, we were left with one litre of milk- not tasting good enough to drink as is, nor suitable to use as buttermilk. So I figured it would be best to use for baking. Most baking recipes are very forging when it comes to the milk you're using- I've used spoiled milk, plant "milk" (such as rice/oats), very watered down milk, watered down yogurt or even whey. So I knew it was possible to use this failed buttermilk for baking. 

Baking pancakes was a no brainer, but I already made quite a large batch of pancakes that I froze to have a quick breakfast. And we had waffles two days ago. So I thought it would be better to make something different. Muffins it was- the children are always happy to have a nice after school snack anyway. I usually use white flour when baking muffins but I was in for something more adventurous today and decided to use a mix of white flour, whole wheat flour and oat flour. I used half of the milk but there was some batter left over, since I didn't have enough muffin molds. So I added more milk and flour mixture to bake another batch of "muffins", in a cake pan. Sometimes you just need to be creative, right?

And then, there was *still* some batter left- I was afraid the cake would rise too high and I'd end up with a messy oven if I'd add all of the batter into the cake pan. So, I used my trick to turn muffin batter into pancake batter, by adding around 1/2 cup of flour and as much liquid as needed. This is because muffin batter contains slightly more baking powder than pancake batter. And there I was left with some more pancakes anyway! Which is OK, I'll just have some pancakes for lunch today, and possibly some more for tomorrow's breakfast, and the rest can be frozen. 

See, this is how many low waste/frugal people live their lives: they're led by whatever needs to be rescued, rather than sticking to a certain plan. I'm sure it's more convenient to just toss that nearly-spoiled milk out and follow whatever meal plan you already made, but for me it's become such a habit, it doesn't even feel like a hassle. 

Bone broth times two

Meat is very expensive where we live. We don't have meat daily, especially red meat, which is more like an occasional treat rather than a daily necessity for us. So when we do have meat, I want to take advantage of it to the fullest. Part of that includes making bone broth. Not only is it a very tasty drink, it's also very nutritious, and a great way to flavour up many otherwise meatless dishes. I rather don't think of all those years of bones being thrown out when I didn't know there was such a thing as saving bones to make broth... But then again, it's just a learning experience. And perhaps I can inspire someone wherever they might live, who doesn't have a clue about what to do with bones to start making their own broth. Isn't that the fun thing of blogging? 🙂

So in June we butchered a lamb, and it wasn't until past Sunday that I used up the very last bag of lamb meat. I already made bone broth with around half of the bones a few months ago, but there still was a bag of bones in the freezer, waiting to be used. Everytime I wanted to make broth there was something that came up, and since it's supposed to be on the stove for hours there obviously has to be someone present in the house all day. It also has to be good weather- not terribly cold so that my north African tiled cuisine walls won't fog up too much, and preferably not even windy, so I can open a windows during the process. Yes, I'm a bit demanding I guess! 😉

But on Monday, I figured it was the perfect day to do some bone broth making - perfect weather circumstances, and not a lot of other food prep planned (or it wouldn't fit on the hob). You essentially don't have to do a lot - apart from being there, just in case. So that day the entire house smelled lovely. My children would disagree, but I absolutely love the smell of lamb broth. Most people when making bone broth apparently leave it to simmer for 24 hours, but that doesn't seem possible for me, so I put the heat off when I went to bed. Since it's quite a large pot and steaming hot, I just left it to cool down overnight. The next morning, when I came in the kitchen it was still a bit warm. So I just strained it (because of the seasonings I added) and transferred most of the broth into bottles to freeze for later use. I also kept some in the fridge to use right away. For some reason, it feels very reassuring to have those bottles there in the freezer - always being able to make a nice pot of soup out of that lovely broth! 

But here's where it's getting a bit extra frugal . After straining the broth, I put the bones back into the put, added seasonings again, filled the pot with water and there I had yet another day of making bone broth! Yes, apparently those bones can be reused. I found this out not that long ago and I knew I had to try it. This was actually Mt 2nd time of reusing the bones, and both times the 2nd batch of broth came out fine, albeit a bit less strong, but still good enough worth all the hours of simmering that broth. Perhaps it could be used a 3rd time even. That's what others tried with beef bones anyway, but I figured that since beef bones are obviously much bigger than lamb bones, it wouldn't be worth the effort and will come out too watered down, so I think for the time being I'm just sticking with only reusing the bones once. 

So that was a bit about making bone broth - why I do it, and how I make it extra frugal. Today, I'll be cooking up a pot of rice for my family, using the "2nd batch" of broth. And I'll enjoy a nice mug of broth for lunch. 

On repeat: some cheap ingredient replacements

With food prices going through the roof, everyone is experiencing major or minor food budget changes. I think we all can agree on cutting corners when it comes to replacing more expensive ingredients. Since it's been quite a while since I blogged about this, I thought it would be a good idea to share some ingredient replacements that can make your meal just a bit more frugal. These swaps aren't necessarily even always because of money, at times you just might not have an exact ingredient on hand, which saves you from that grocery run for one single item. 

Proteins: you can replace the more expensive cuts of meat for the cheaper ones, or even replace red meat by white meat. For example, use turkey mince instead of beef mince. Most legumes can also be used interchangeably- brown lentils and green lentils, for example. Split peas instead of red and yellow lentils. Cheaper white fish instead of the more expensive ones. I've found that tinned sardines can be a decent replacement of tinned tuna, depending on the recipe. 

Dairy: use milk instead of cream, or make a bechamel sauce using flour, milk and butter of oil. Greek yogurt- if you need it but only have plain yogurt on hand, just strain the yogurt and don't throw out the whey (I once did a post on what to do with whey: https://aglimpseofmykitchen.blogspot.com/2022/01/uses-for-whey.html?m=1). If you do have Greek yogurt you could use this like crème fraîche. They have the same consistency but just differ in the fat percentage. When it comes to milk, I've found that it's replaceable with water in some baked goods. I usually make biscuits with water instead of milk, and when a cake calls for milk I might use water instead if we don't have milk on hand. Making your own oat milk or rice is also an option. I would not suggest to drink it as is, although it's good as an ingredient or even if you want to make hot chocolate. 

Eggs: depending on the recipe, I use different kinds of egg replacements: cornstarch (for making French toast), ground flax seeds (in cakes and cookies), chickpea flour in certain savoury dishes. Applesauce and banana can be used as egg substitutes as well. Sometimes you can just leave out the eggs, like when you're making pancakes. I haven't really noticed a big difference. We try to substitute eggs whenever possible since they've gotten so expensive. That being said, we still enjoy eating eggs as is, either fried or boiled. Since we don't eat meat that much, it's one of our meat substitutes and that way we're still saving money, because eating eggs is cheaper than eating meat (unless you eat four eggs per person or so... But that's not the case) 

Flour: corn meal and semolina have more or less the same texture, even if they differ in taste. Therefore these can be used interchangeably in a lot of recipes. Self rising flour is one of the most pointless ingredients to buy (in my humble opinion); you can easily replace it by flour + baking powder, whereas you can't the other way around- imagine needing flour and having just self rising flour on hand. So I would suggest to always buy flour and baking powder as separate ingredients. Also, whole wheat flour can be substituted by many other whole flours; rye, barley, spelt etc. They all have a different taste and texture, but if that's all you have on hand it's doable. Also gluten free flours such as oat flour, buckwheat flour and sorghum flour can be used when making cookies (not recommendable for breads, as bread needs gluten to rise). 

Fruits: most dried fruits can be used interchangeably in baked goods. Fresh fruits, too, depending on the kind can be used interchangeably. Think of pears instead of apples, different kinds of berries, peaches instead of apricots. 

Vegetables: the same goes for vegetables. I personally just like to use whatever I have on hand, so let's say, whenever I want to make stir fry, I'll just use what's in the fridge. The same goes for many other recipes. There are of course certain vegetables that go good together or can be substitute each other; such as turnips and potatoes, sweet potato and pumpkin, courgette and aubergine (they certainly are different but especially in casseroles or stews, both taste just as good in my opinion). Speaking of courgette, even cooked cucumbers are a decent replacement for them, whether you believe me or not! Of course, various leafy greens can be used interchangeably- yes, this includes lettuce. I've also found that equal amounts of carrots and potatoes can substitute pumpkin puree. Green bell peppers instead of yellow, different kinds of cabbage, etc. Vegetables are so versatile and you really don't need to stick to one certain one if the recipe book says so. Even if you're eating a vegetable as is, when you're eating it as a side. Why not replace that awfully expensive asparagus by roasted pumpkin or broccoli? Yes, the taste may be different but you've reached your goal- to have a vegetable with your meal. 

Starches: use barley, buckwheat or bulgur instead of rice- or the other way around. Orzo can be used instead of rice too. Different pasta shapes (ditali instead of elbow macaroni etc, linguine instead of spaghetti). Yes, I am aware of the fact that pasta shapes do matter, but if that one shape is all you have, and you can only stretch your budget so much- you just make do. I sometimes find myself having many small remants of various pasta shapes and if I have enough of them, I combine them all in one dish, which I call 'mixed pastas' (sometimes you just have to come up with fancy names for stingy things, right?) and the children absolutely love it! Italian and Asian pasta/noodles can be used interchangeably. In fact, sometimes linguine and Asian style noodles are the very same product, made in the same factory, just with a different package. Same with bread - just use what you have. A sandwich can be made in about every shape of bread- baguette, flatbread, pita, etc. You don't necessarily have to use "sandwich bread". 

Fats: butter can be substituted by other animal fats such as tallow or even rendered chicken fat, or even coconut oil. When baking cookies/cakes, each cup (226 grams) of butter can be substituted for 3/4 cup (180 mililiters) of whichever oil you prefer. Most neutral tasting oils can be used interchangeably (sunflower, soy, canola, corn, and peanut oil, etc). Butter can be substituted by margarine, especially when making not-so-healthy baked goods and you're clearly not using the butter for its health benefits. 

Nuts: I was a bit hesitant to include these, as they're already expensive in and of itself, and it's not necessarily something everyone on a tight budget could afford. I'm including it anyway. You can use most nuts interchangeably, even if the taste might differ. Or you can peanuts instead of nuts, which again will affect the taste, but not in a bothersome way. The same goes for nut butters. You can replace nuts by seeds as well, such ad sunflower seeds. 

I think that was enough for now. 

You don't always have to exactly use what you want. This makes cooking so much more fun (AND frugal, obviously!). I think that knowing how to substitute ingredients is an important part of knowing how to cook, it truly is such an underrated skill. I can't recall how often people asked me about certain ingredient substitutes, assuming that I could help them. And yes, in most instances I was able to help them. This isn't rocket science- it's just reading and especially trying out a lot. Just put that fear aside and try. Some of these tips may be money saving, but even without being on a budget, you'll likely find yourself in a situation in which you'll need this. 

Apple sheet cake

We had a bunch of apples that were gifted to us and that no one really wanted to eat as is, because they were soft and had spots. There were quite a few, and since I didn't want to waste them, I decided it was best to make a treat out of them. Was in the mood for baking anyway, and this way we didn't have to waste the apples. We love apple pie, but I figured that the apples we had that I wanted to use weren't quite enough for that- plus, butter is so expensive here. So I opted for a cheaper treat, an apple sheet cake with crumble topping. The recipe I kind of made up myself - I know, I know, some people say that baking is all about precision, but somehow, my inventions never really seem to fail! So I decided to take the risk. And I'm glad I did take the risk because everyone loved it. The thing is though, with these kind of baking recipes, I hardly ever remember how I exactly made them. So when I make them a next time they might come out quite differently 🥲 Which is why I immediately wrote down the approximate quantities so I could make this exact cake again. 

For the dough, I used: 

1 3/4 cups oatmeal 

1 cup ground oatmeal 

2.5 cups white flour 

4 teaspoons baking powder 

1 cup of sugar 

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

2 eggs 

1.5 cup butter, melted (I used margarine 🤫)

Combine all the dry ingredients and then mix in the liquid ingredients. If it's a bit too dry, add some liquid, either milk or water. If it's too sticky, add some more flour or oatmeal. Now spread out the dough in the pan of your choice - I used a rectangular one which is used to make lasagna etc. Not sure what the exact measurements are. I didn't use all of the dough, around 1/4 or 1/5 was left, which I used for the crumble topping. 

Then peel, core and slice around 5-6 big apples, divide these slices over the dough. 

Now make your crumble topping. If you're like me and you've got a bit of cookie dough left over, then divide that into smaller chunks, so that it will mix easier into the crumbs mixture. Melt another half a cup of butter - or a bit more. Then add half a cup of sugar, half a cup of white flour and half a cup of oats. Mix this with the tops of your fingers until a crumbly consistency forms. If it's not yet crumbly, add some more flour, or oats, or both. If it's too dry add some butter - doesn't have to be melted, soft butter will do, too. Then spread this as evenly as possible on the apple slices. 

I baked this for about one hour on 180° c, which is 356° f. 

Some notes: 

This is a very adaptable recipe. You can add anything you'd like to add more flavour; raisins or other dried fruits, nuts, etc. We don't like raisins in sweet baked goods so I left them out. Or just use different fruits altogether. 

I call this a sheet cake which is the literal translation of what we call 'plaatkoek' in Dutch. A plaatkoek is a bit in between a large cookie and a cake, so don't expect it to be very fluffy. 

This can be freezable, although it certainly wasn't enough for all of us to have that much leftovers 🤭

Use whatever flour you'd like - I just used what I had on hand. However, I wouldn't leave out the oats, as they give this cake so much flavour and a nice texture. 

Finally, I can boil eggs

It's funny how sometimes the seemingly easiest things can be a challenge. This is true in the kitchen as well! I don't consider myself a masterchef, but I definitely know how to cook. Not every dish that exists in the world, obviously, and not a lot of dishes from cuisines I'm not familiar with, but I can cook. And I do cook some more elaborate foods, too. 

But it's the easiest things that I sometimes struggle with to make right. For the longest time I struggled to make a perfect boiled egg. I prefer medium soft boiled eggs, and so does my family. Not too liquid, but certainly not too hard either. Somehow that just seemed impossible to make. It was always either towards the hard boiled side, or too soft! Quite frustrating. We do like to eat boiled eggs a lot: as a snack, with sandwiches, or as a side with our meals. And i knew it had to be possible to make a perfectly boiled egg thar suits our preferences, so I wad determined to keep trying until I had perfected it. I know there are many techniques nowadays and people use egg boilers, air fryers, or instant pots. With most things, I prefer the mild fashioned way- I don't like single purpose items/appliances. And I don't have an instant pot anyway. I'd sti like to try the air fryer one day, just for fun. But with most cooking, I prefer to stick to regular cooking pots.

I looked up a lot of tips and tricks on boiling eggs, all claiming to be THE best tip, but neither of them really worked so I figured it had to be my own way! And I finally did find the way to boil a perfect half soft boiled egg. 

I put 5 to 6 eggs in a pot with a lid, cold water, eggs directly from the fridge. Then wait till it starts to boil and time it: I boil it exactly for two minutes. If it's very small eggs, the boiling time should be decreased. Then take out all the eggs and put them together in a soup bowl- this step us important because the eggs all have a lot of residue heat, and will continue to "cook" a bit when in the boil. I leave the eggs like this for at least an hour, but usually just until we eat it- if we want eggs for lunch, I boil them early in the morning. It takes some time to cool down, even after one hour they're quite hot so I find that the easiest way. With this technique, it's important to use at least four eggs in one go, or it won't really work (yup, tried but failed!). Anyway, I'm happy to be able to boil eggs to perfection finally! 

Saving on meat expenses

Most of my readers must have noticed that we're not big on eating a lot of meat. I was pretty much raised as a vegetarian, so I'm familiar with vegetarian/vegan eating. My husband, on the other hand, was raised with a more meat heavy diet and not eating meat for a day was out of the question in my MIL's home! So you can image that was a bit of a shock for both of us when we first got married. It took a while, but after some time we did find a good balance of meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan meals. Now, my husband says he couldn't eat meat everyday anymore - regardless of the price. And this goes the same for me; I couldn't go back to completely vegetarian. 

The thing is, meat can be very expensive so for most people, it's typically the biggest expense of all their groceries. We're certainly no exception to that! (Although olive oil is getting more expensive every year and will eventually become an even bigger expense... But that's another topic.) I remember when we went through hard financial times, meat was the first thing to cut back on. There are so many people in the world for whom meat is a rare treat. And for me as a former vegetarian, it was a logical thing to do anyway, as meat is so expensive and you technically don't even need it. Not that much, anyhow. We still had it every so often though, and really enjoyed it when we did. But it was a good way to cut back on our spending. As time went by, I've just stuck with my "less meat policy", as it just hurts to pay that much for foods. There are other ways to spend the money I would have spent otherwise on all that extra meat - but that's just me, I do realise that others value meat more than we do, and that's ok. Throughout the years, I've come up with many tricks to save on meat expenses. 

First of all, the quantity: try to have meat as an ingredient, instead of the main meal. We usually have meat as a side, with carbs (grains/legumes) and vegetables being the fillers. You really don't need that much even to satisfy yourself taste wise, in my experience. There are also many examples of dishes where  meat is stretched a lot. For example, mince (ground beef) in pastas- just use a bit less. A baked chicken/rotisserie chicken can be used for at least a few meals worth of meat - you can use shredded chicken in about everything; soups, salads, rice and pasta dishes, on sandwiches, etc. And then just try to stretch the meat as much as possible. When I make pulled chicken, I stretch it by adding low cost vegetables, such as onions and shredded carrots. That way you don't even notice there isn't as much chicken in it.

The kind of meat: red meat is most expensive, so that's obviously a thing to keep in mind. In a lot of dishes, red and white meat can be used interchangeably- it will affect the taste somewhat obviously, but it's still as good. You can even use fish instead - I like using sardines instead of beef/lamb mince for making kofta, and even fish haters don't notice it's fish. I've heard that turkey is the best replacement with mince. I've never tried that, as my husband doesn't like turkey, but I'm keen to try it. Texture changes the taste so I guess turkey mince should taste different from, say, a part of the leg. You can still splurge on red meat once in a while if you want to obviously, but it's good to realize that there are cheaper options and can splurge just every so often on the more expensive favourite meat. 

Vegetarian options: I obviously had to mention this one, but I really makes so much difference in your budget! Even when I compare our local legume prices with the cheaper meats or fish, legumes are much cheaper. One kg of lentils is about €2, whereas chicken is around €5 per kg. But, a kg of dried legumes will stretch a lot better than a kg of chicken, as the lentils will expand whereas the chicken not only just doesn't expand- it actually will shrink when being baked. So you'll even save more if you take that into consideration. You obviously don't have to eat only vegetarian meals, but a few times a week will make so much difference already. What I like to do is when I batch cook, we'll have one meal with meat and the other batch without. That way it still has the flavour- meat can be such a flavour enhancer. I do this too with legumes; when I make lentil stew in advance, for example, I cook some chicken in it for extra flavour. And then I take out the chicken to have with the meal we're eating that day. You can obviously cook lentils without chicken, but it does give the dish more flavour. I also like making my own tofu and seitan, which I hadn't done in a long time but recently started doing again. I know not everyone likes tofu, but I think seitan is definitely adaptable for meat eaters compared to other plant based alternatives, as it has a bit of a meaty texture. 

Nose to tail: I've talked before about how we love nose to tail eating, which essentially means to eat ALL the parts of the animal, not just the more popular parts. Not only is it healthier but it's usually cheaper too. You don't necessarily have to buy organ meats (although I would highly recommend it!), but there are many alternatives for the more expensive cuts of meat. And that's not just the case with red meat. When I want to use chicken breast, I never ever buy a chicken breast, but instead I buy a whole chicken of which I cut the breast off, then use the remaining parts for other dishes. I usually use the legs/tighs/wings together a dish and then what remains are the frames and the necks, which makes a very good base for any soup. My husband also likes to eat the necks as is, so if I have a lot of them I might cook them up separately and only use the frames for soup. 

Using everything: we're very big on not wasting anything, and this applies even more so for meat. As it's so expensive and does have quite a big environmental impact, I just can't not be frugal with meat. I really use everything - the bones (for making bone broth), chicken skins to render, sheep fat to render, etc. Scraps also make good cat food. When I make broth with chicken necks/frames, I take off the meat after cooking which our cat obviously loves! 

So many leftovers! And freezer activities...

This week I didn't post a weekly menu in retrospect, as it was a bit chaotic and not really that interesting anyway. 

There were so many leftovers that I was trying to get rid of - not getting rid of in the sense of throwing away, obviously 😆. Both in the fridge and many one person's portions from the freezer. I desperately need more freezer space and all the containers were really just cluttering up the top shelf. I have a tendency to forget small portions of frozen leftovers and I'm trying my best to avoid that from now on. I know that if the said leftover is there too long I usually toss it, even if it still might be edible. That's such a waste and I wanted to put a stop to that. 

I'm nearly done, especially with the fridge leftovers- the fridge looks so much tidier now. The thing is, new leftovers come in place of the other ones... So I'm having leftovers for lunch again today. And I'm pretty sure today's dinner will leave us with some leftovers as well. Sometimes it feels like a never-ending story, but then again I love having a warm lunch with leftovers, so I guess it's just a love-hate relationship. 

Another thing that was taking up space in the freezer were bones - a big bag of chicken bones, as well as lamb bones. I always save the bones for making bone broth, but the thing is that it takes up quite a lot of space. One bag had to go and I decided to take out the bag with chicken bones first. So yesterday I made a BIG pot of bone broth- when I say big, I mean that there are now 3 1.5L bottles of broth in the freezer, with plenty of broth for the few coming days (probably Another 3L). Fortunately, there was enough space for the bottles in the freezer. Hopefully I'll do the same with the lamb bones soon. That way a LOT of space for other things will be available again. Hopefully I'm finding some cheap summer produce such as bell peppers and courgette to freeze for the winter months. If I don't, that's OK too, it'll just mean that my freezer has space for other things. I can't recall ever having an empty freezer so somehow I'll find something to fill up that space! Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my husband bought nearly all the ice cream the corner shop in front of our house had- they usually stop selling it from October. And it's nice as a treat every so often, so it's worth the freezer space. 

Productive kitchen days

Some days are quite productive and on other days... Well, I'm glad if there's dinner on the table on those kind of days. Yesterday I had a quite productive day, and it always make me feel very good. It was especially a productive day in the kitchen. I don't really plan on having a "meal prep day" once every week/fortnight or something but that's essentially what it was, be it a bit spontaneously. 

I noticed that there were a lot of containers with leftovers in the fridge so I organized them in a way in which I could better see what was where (to avoid wasting foods). Some leftovers, we finished that same day- I had some combined leftovers for dinner: pasta with cooked cucumbers and lentils and tomato sauce. Most combined leftovers sound as a strange mix but I must say, it's meals like these that I enjoy the most! I also organized the freezer somewhat. 

And I decided to make seitan. To make seitan, you need quite a lot of flour, and since white flour is being sold finally again after more than a year of shortages, we all kind of forgot about seitan, even though we so enjoyed it when I made it regularly. It's a good meat replacement in my opinion, especially chicken fillet. And since meat has become so expensive lately, I thought it was the right time to make a nice large batch of seitan. It's not complicated to make, but it does take some time, and I wouldn't recommend making it if you need it that same day. So I left it in the fridge to prepare later, probably tomorrow. It will only increase in flavour and texture! Since it was a large batch, I'm probably going to freeze half of it. 

There was another pan of homemade tomato sauce yet again in the fridge (I probably haven't ever made that much tomato sauce in my life as I have recently) that I needed to organize. I froze about half, and the other half I'm planning on using it soon, so I stored in a smaller container to create more space in the fridge. 

Also in the fridge were the peels of a large watermelon, which I wanted to cut up to use the rinds. As I previously cooked up some rinds, I wanted to do something else with these rinds, so they got fermented. (Well, they're technically not fermented yet, but in the process of being fermented.) I have to credit my daughter for helping me with this - she knew I was planning on cutting the rinds so decided to do it for me. Now, I'm left with about half a cup of salty water, which I wouldn't dare to throw out, so it will be used the next time I'm cooking whatever dish that needs both salt and liquid. 

I cooked a large batch of lentils- Wanted to do this for a while ready, as my freezer supply was running out, but everytime I thought about it too late to put the lentils to soak. Ideally, I soak them around 5 hours (but 3 hours minimum), as their cooking time will be significantly less then. Just to compare: soaked lentils take up 5 minutes cooking to become tender, whereas this will take around 45 minutes for uncooked lentils. I'm yet to portion and freeze them, will be doing that today probably. 

Also made today's breakfast in advance. We all craved rghayf, so that's what I made. Rghayf (also known as baghrir) are north African style pancakes with a lot of holes/bubbles in them. They are quite spongy as the batter is yeast based, and brushed with olive oil after each one is done. I prefer to make them the night/day before as they take quite a long time to make, if you include rising time. 

With some leftover watermelon and a few other ingredients, I made a batch of gazpacho (cold soup). I also made a batch of buttermilk for my MIL and then late at night again another batch for ourselves. 

Doesn't seem like a lot perhaps, but of course there were those daily in-between things like cleaning up, serving breakfast/lunch, sweeping floors, doing dishes (I had three batches of dishes yesterday), cleaning the toilet. With all this cooking and prepping, was there any time left to make dinner? Well there probably was but I didn't, as there were so many leftovers. This is again why I love batch cooking, so I can simply heat up a meal on days that I'm busy doing other things. All in all I was pleased with yesterday's accomplishments. I know there are many days on which we can't get it pulled together, but I'm grateful for these better days. 

Living with food shortages

This post is probably going to be a bit long, and perhaps triggering to some people. Just saying. 

Lately, food shortages, food insecurity and subjects connected to that are on my mind a lot. I don't know if it's just me, but it's almost like I keep reading about yet another food crisis: then it's rice, or wheat, or coffee, then it's sugar and then suddenly bananas are threatened with extinction. I honestly don't know what to think of it, as I know that there are so many people somehow benefiting from crises like these. But I'm not necessarily a conspiracy theorists so I'll just leave it with this. All I do know is that how the world is right now is giving me much anxiety. 

For all (or most, anyhow) of my adult life, I was very frugal, and as a result of that, very waste conscious. My husband and I married young and started off very humbly with not a lot of money. We really tried to work up ourselves. There were good times (in terms of finances) and bad times. And there were also very bad times (for reasons beyond our control, but I won't elaborate too much on that now). I'd say it was definitely relative poverty, as we were living way below the poverty line. But I must admit, I don't like to use that word a lot, because there are millions of people who are way worse off than we were. And when I say "very bad", I think mainly of how food was a major stress point. I didn't really care about our furniture being from garbage bins or thrift shops, or cheap outings, thrifted clothes etc. But food insecurity was much more of an issue. There were weeks that we had 20 € or less to feed the four of us - still we were very "lucky" that our youngest daughter, as a newborn back then had allergies so her formula was covered by insurance. But still, it was very tight. There was always this anxiety of not having enough for the whole week, or having unexpected guests and not being able to serve them something slightly decent. Even though our friends probably wouldn't have minded, but the anxiety was still there. With lots of hard work we tried to get out of poverty which we did and were proud of that accomplishments. Probably we would still have classified as "(very) low income", but to me, it wasn't really poverty because I didn't really stress about food anymore. Still, you can get out of poverty but it's more difficult for poverty to get out of you - the anxiety stays. Not with everyone, probably, but this is what I've heard a lot from "formerly poor people". I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing in and of itself- it's human nature to be aware for dangers and to be prepared for that. It does become a problem when it's causing anxiety though. 

Fast forward to now and I'm kind of in the same boat. Kind of, because it's not due to a lack of money. But the anxiety is the same. Ever since we emigrated we were used to having some food shortages, from time to time. A few years ago, it wasn't such a big deal because it was usually very temporary, and limited to one product at a time. It wasn't really an issue. And then came covid, which made it a bit more difficult - there were more shortages, with a few items at a time. And for longer periods of time. Then came the Russian/Ukraine war and with that, energy and multiple food crises, causing more inflation (and I mean, it's not that the economy was going good here before that). And dare I say, a crisis of greedy multinationals who can't stand governments subsidizing certain food items. 

So anyway, that's a brief summary of how things got how they are currently. We have been dealing with shortages of many staples: rice, flour, semolina, milk, sugar, tea, certain pastas, couscous, coffee, eggs, oil, chicken. As of lately, it's actually better than it has been for a long time; there's milk, semolina, and white flour at the same time! Yeast is yet again a new item that seems to be not available... sigh. But fortunately, we found a box of small sachets and bought that despite the higher price. Some products had been unavailable for a year or longer until they came back to the store shelfs- white flour, for example, has recently come back but hadn't been available for a year and a half. Rice is another staple that has been gone for around a year and a half. Subsidized oil even around two years. It's quite frustrating and as one item comes back, people can't help but wonder for how long the said products will stay- it has happened many times that they came back and then went unavailable again. Some products are completely unavailable, whereas other products are slightly available, or at a very high price. Oil, for example, is available but at least 5 times more expensive than the exactly same but subsidized oil (the only difference being the packaging). This is especially difficult because the price of olive oil has skyrocketed as well, so more people use vegetable oil now. Same with sugar, which is now mainly important from a neighbouring country, for double the price. Even if some items are slightly available, or available yet suddenly very expensive, I think this still talks under the umbrella of shortages, because the supply is still limited. And since we're dependent on importing that's another uncertainty- the border of Libya has been closed for a few months now. For a good reason, but it still affects the shortages even more. 

This whole situation does affect us more than one would expect. I think it's the uncertainty that is particularly difficult for me. And it brings back memories from our toughest financial situation.We could live without these products obviously, but since they are staples they're just used a lot by many people, including us. It's just having to be creative all the time and look for solutions, which can be quite tiring. And having to cut back even more for a lot of people since so many foods are a lot more expensive. It's always on your mind. It's being afraid you can't buy that flour anymore next week, and not knowing how long it'll be gone. 

There was a time that most pasta, couscous, and every kind of rice weren't available all at the same time. Now we were fortunate that we build a stockpile, but for those that didn't, it was quite a challenge. And for some reason, stockpiling isn't something most people here do, even after these years of shortages. What do you eat if all your go to staples aren't being sold anymore? At that time, even bread at the bakery was very limited. You could buy oatmeal or ground sorghum and make porridge of course. But at least for us, that's not really considered dinner foods- I know, it's food and very filling, and if that's all you have it's certainly better than nothing but it is an adjustment to switch to other types of foods. Also, sorghum and oatmeal are quite expensive here, much more expensive than pasta and couscous, so some people (especially with large families) can't afford to eat that three times a day. Fortunately, the couscous and pasta shortages didn't last long, which was a big relief for many people.

This is an important lesson. Despite the difficult situation, and it being a trigger because of our previous poverty situation, I think you truly learn to be appreciative, be even more frugal and resourceful and to come up with creative solutions. When there were milk shortages, I made oatmilk to use in pancakes, French toast etc or to just make some hot chocolate (I don't lile drinking oat milk as is). Despite milk shortages, there was always yogurt so we had that regularly, as well as sesame seeds and sardines for our calcium. I came up with rice substitutes, such as wheat/barley burgul and orzo pasta. I drink more herbal tea to stretch the bags of loose leaf tea that we still have at home as much as possible, herbal tea is better for you anyway I guess. In many recipes, I halved the sugar.  And I'm still planning on trying to make date pit coffee. Apparently it's quite good and almost similar to the real thing. My husband will need to test that, as I'm not a coffee drinker. I must acknowledge that we're privileged not to be poor anymore (and our poverty being very different from the poverty where we live now anyway), so if we do want to splurge on an expensive product, like rice imported from the neighbouring country, we can do that. The sad reality is that for many people, this simply isn't possible. It's either buying the regular, cheaper products and if they're short of those, poor people just have to go without. I sometimes feel sorry for people whose only "splurge" was coffee with homemade cake or something, can't even buy that anymore because sugar has become too expensive. Or they have to cut back on other essentials even more. That's the sad reality for many people. But if you're living in absolute poverty, things like a nice drink once in a while isn't a luxury but an essential to feel human (in my opinion), as being poor really takes a toll mentally and physically and you really need such a "splurge" sometimes.  

I truly learned to appreciate that we do have. Although we might not always have exactly what we want, it's always much more than we actually need. I also learned that as much as I like planning, sometimes it's best to just take things as they come- by just buying what's available instead of having everything planned ahead. We obviously went never without anything we needed, even if it meant that the type of food wasn't our first choice necessarily. It makes one very creative. As aforementioned, I found a lot of substitutes for everyday items. Even though my anxiety is still there, I've tried to be a bit more relaxed about it- trying to relativize, because we're not going hungry. It's just that we're going without some food items. Yes, that can be hard, but there are many people in much more difficult situations. 

What's interesting is to see how people in general deal with this situation. People tend to gift each other bags of sugar as if it's the most valuable thing they possess, or coffee, etc. It's both funny and heartwarming at the same time. But unfortunately, as always, there are people trying to take advantage of the situation- I've heard of people trying to sell one kg of sugar four times higher than the original price. It's just ridiculous. But as long as people are willing to pay that price there are others that continue to do these things I guess. Witnessing less foods being wasted is something that really excites me. In the past, many people would buy their bread fresh everyday, usually more than actually needed. Leftover bread would be put near the trashcans on the streets "for the cats".  Only, stray cats (and dogs) couldn't finish all the foods being put on the streets- because it wasn't just bread, but also lots of leftover cooked pasta etc. It was just so much. Because of the way that hospitality is ingrained in the culture, people are used to cooking more than necessary for unexpected guests. But guests showing up unexpectedly isn't a daily occurrence, which is why sadly that extra food is thrown away. This is at least one thing in which a difficult situation still had some positive impact! It makes me happy to see that people are becoming a bit more conscious about food waste, even if the reason isn't necessarily the most fun. I do hope that once this shortages situation is over, people will remain this waste conscious. 

So, all in all, it's a tough situation but it had taught me gratitude at the same time, as well as ways to deal with my trauma based anxiety when it comes to food insecurity, food shortages etc. All we can do is pray that the situation will improve and in the meantime we'll just have to find ways to be creative and come up with substitutes and alternatives. There is however so much to be grateful for. 

Lots of tomatoes! + recipes

It's all about tomatoes lately at our house! Theyre in season now, and very cheap. We bought a lot at the souk, and then we were gifted even more by our neighbour, whose aunt lives on a farm and apparently had a very good harvest this year. So I've been making lots of tomato/marinara sauce. I'm also planning to make slata mechouia, which is a Tunisian condiment quite similar to salsa. 

I've used the tomato sauce as is in a pasta dish, and also made a scrumptious tomato soup. My husband and children aren't the biggest fans of soup (tell me you're north African without telling youre north African 😆), but they all gobbledit up, it was that good! Best thing is, the soup was beyond easy to make - that is, if you don't include making the huge pot of sauce. There was still a lot of sauce left, so I used that sauce to can. It's a bit work, but it's so convenient to have some jars of canned food at home. I love that it doesn't take up precious freezer space - while we do have a relatively freezer, there seems to be never enough space somehow. So if I can save space by canning instead of freezing, I'm happy to do so. 

I want to share the recipes, but as always, just take the amounts as a guide- just add less or more seasoning, oil, onions etc. 

For the sauce, I used about 2/3 bucket full of tomatoes, diced into pieces. This was all chopped before starting. Then I chopped 4 large onions. I sautéed the onions in a generous amount of olive oil, then added two heaped teaspoons of garlic paste and the seasonings: black pepper, paprika, parsley, basil, oregano, sage, and rosemary. I also added salt. Then I added about half of the chopped tomatoes, stirred well so the tomatoes would be mixed with the seasonings, and then added the remaining tomatoes, and stirred again. I then added some bay leaves. Then just let it simmer until enough water has evaporated (this depends on your personal preference, some people prefer thick sauce whereas others prefer the sauce to be runnier). Towards the end, I blended it shortly (on the lowest setting, my immersion blender has 5 settings), then let it cook a bit more. Keep an eye on it and stirr regularly! I made two of these pots of sauce. Perhaps I will even make more if we find/get more cheap or free tomatoes. As I mentioned, you can use whatever seasonings you like, even keeping it as basic as possible with just salt and pepper, so it's more versatile without a distinct flavour profile. 

As for the soup, I used about 2 cups of sauce, diluted with water and blended (in a regular blender which you use for making smoothies) until very smooth. I then made a simple white sauce, and added the tomato "juice" to that. The remaining sauce in the blender was diluted with more water - to make cleaning up more easy. I poured this in a small saucepan, added two vegetable bullion cubes (could have use real brothbut I guess I was lazy!) and about 2/3 cup of vermicelli. I let this boil until soft and then added it to the soup. Easy but delicious! I served the soup with homemade dinner rolls and egg salad. These kind of meals are among our favourite; simple yet delicious. 

Rescuing foods - produce edition

Here's a few tips to save your produce from spoilage. Of course it's better to plan everything perfectly in advance and try not even to come near that stage, but sometimes life comes in the way. Fortunately, there are still ways to rescue produce, even when that doesn't seem to be a possibility. 

Carrots 🥕: softened carrots can be firmed up again by soaking them in water for as long as needed. The softer they are, the longer they need to soak. As we're speaking, I put some carrots to soak that had become way too flexible. They soaked overnight and are firm again! 

Tomatoes 🍅: spots need to be removed obviously. Our cat loves tomatoes and gobbles it up as if it were meat. So spotted tomatoes become cat food in our house! Tomatoes that aren't ripe enough (think green tomatoes) can be used in a variety of ways, I read some about a green tomato chutney, but never tried that myself (I have never come across unripe tomatoes here honestly, but I know it's a common problem for gardeners at the end of the season). 

Cucumbers 🥒: Like carrots, they can become flexible too. Especially the breed of cucumbers they sell here, which is a bit different from what I was used to in the Netherlands. If the soaking trick doesn't work, I usually just cook them. They resemble cooked courgette in taste and texture. This is also an idea to use up accidentally frozen cucumbers. Even if you don't have to "rescue" them but you've become bored of eating raw cucumber day after day, it's still nice to get some variety and cook up yourself some cucumber. 

Lettuce 🥬: The most common problem with leafy greens and especially lettuce is probably wilting. Rconsidering the way of consuming it isn't restricted to cucumbers, and I have added lettuce to soups and stews. Of course, you won't end up with a lot, so unless you have a massive amount of lettuce, don't use it as your main ingredient. It really does give some extra flavour to many dishes - you can use it in place of using spinach, kale, chard or whatever leafy greens you're used to. If you insist on eating your wilted lettuce raw, you can firm it up a bit with ice cubes. 

Potatoes 🥔: Just like carrots, softened potatoes can be soaked in water to make them more firm. 

Apples 🍎: I must admit that I'm not the biggest fruit lover in the world. And while I eat apples, if there's something I especially hate, it's softened apples. It's like biting into a sponge or something 😬 A few days ago we had some soft apples again. While I will absolutely not eat them as is, I don't mind cooked apples. So, I cut off the bad spots, cored them and cut the apples into small chunks. It was a great addition to my oatmeal porridge, and a dash of cinnamon made it extra nice. If you have more apples, making applesauce is a great idea too. But I had just three small ones, with quite a few spots, so cooked chunks of apple it was. There are many other ways to use up soft apples. You can add them to cakes, muffins, make apple crisp, apple bread, even stews...  There's so much to choose from really, there is just not an excuse for tossing that soft apple. (OK sometimes there is... But I'm talking about normal situations lol)

Watermelon 🍉: Sometimes they sell watermelons here that are not that tasty. What to do with a bland watermelon? I have used them for making cold soup, smoothies (sometimes it was just "juice" of watermelon, some sugar and water), even for making jam/syrups. I also tried to dehydrate watermelon, which was quite a fun project, which the kids loved because it was basically just turned into candy! And you can even fry watermelon- it's a bit like a fish/meat replacement for sushi (of course, it can be served in any way but apparently some vegans use it for their sushi). Yes, watermelon is very versatile. And remember not to toss the rinds as they can be cooked (and used as a vegetable), as well as fermented or pickled. 

Bananas 🍌: especially during the summer, Bananas ripen fast. But fortunately, baking with bananas is really good- some people buy bananas on purpose for certain baked goods. They make a great egg replacement and give a very nice flavour overall. In some cuisines, bananas are being used in savory dishes too. My Somali friend from the Netherlands always had a banana as a side with her dinner. If you're having banana with your dinner, a few spots aren't as annoying as they are when eating them as is. 

Melon 🍈: we once bought a melon that appeared to be bland and also not soft enough. I cooked it up and made "pumpkin" soup with it. No one noticed it was melon and not pumpkin. 

These were just a few types of fruit, but all fruit in general can be frozen and used for smoothies. 

Courgettes/zucchini: if it's a bit too bland (usually when it's a massive one from the garden), you can make "mock pineapple", make courgette muffins, or add it to dishes in which it isn't the main ingredient. 

Lemons 🍋: if it's starting to become a bit dry, why not dehydrate the lemon altogether? Dehydrated lemons (also known as black limes) make a perfect addition to many middle eastern/central Asian dishes. 

This was all I could think of right now... Possibly this post will be edited when I come up with more ideas. 

Tightwad tip: avoiding plastic wrap/aluminum foil

People have become so accustomed to using disposable products. Even though they sometimes come in very handy, usually it's not difficult to find a more green and frugal replacement. I,too, must admit that I use them from time to time! Especially my homemade garlic paste- I keep them in small yogurt containers that I clean and reuse. I tightly wrap aluminum foil over them to reduce the risk of a smelling freezer. My experience with using reusable containers for this wasn't ideal because you're dealing with remnants of garlic smell for ages! But aside from the garlic paste,I noticed that I was using my aluminum foil a bit too much- usually quite unnecessary. 

Sometimes you don't have containers with a lid on hand, and you don't want to use lots of aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and you're torn between either using all that disposable stuff or freezer burnt food. But the other day I read that some people brush their frozen foods with some vegetable oil, which will create a layer that prevents from freezer burn. This way you don't have to use disposable materials or having to deal with freezer burn. I tried it on many foods already (soup, aquafaba, pasta sauce, lemon juice, homemade broth, pesto... among others), and it really does work!

So my tightwad tip for today is that just one drop of oil will save you dozens of disposed aluminum and plastic without the fear of weird tasting foods. 

If you don't like an oily layer on your food- even though it's just a very tiny amount, so in most cases you won't notice it at all- you can easily scoop off that layer of oil by wiping it with a paper/cloth (I use un-paper towels), ideally a few minutes after taking the foods out of the fridge, when the defrosting process starts. 

My best anti food waste tips

We really try our best to be as anti waste as possible, if you hadn't noticed that already. It's just something that really makes me cringe. My perfect world would be one with no wasted food and no hunger. 

However, it can be a bit hard to tell which of the things we do are considered an "anti waste measurement", because it's just how we've been living for so long. I'd have to think deep if someone would ask me what THE best anti waste tips would be, as there are so many factors weighing in when it comes to wasting food.

Since I believe a lot of foods are wasted because of poor shopping management, that's the first thing I would suggest a beginner to focus on. I talked before why meal planning doesn't really work for us. But, for many people it does, so I will definitely include that one. If you don't really meal plan, like us, it's best to estimate what you'll be using, keeping in mind that fresh produce doesn't last that long (although some does last long). Also, it's a good idea to read up on all the tricks that the supermarkets have to make people buy more impulsively. Once you're aware of that, it's easier not to spend money on unnecessary items. With shelf stable goods that isn't really a problem though (unless it's a product you're unfamiliar with and ends up in the bin), but buying too much fresh produce all at once isn't a good idea, even if it's for a good price. Checking out the reduced rack is a good idea if you want to save money, but it's not in that rack for no reason - be sure you're using it right away or freezing it or you're ending up with tossing it anyway. 

Speaking of how fast certain produce spoils, it's best to make dishes in order from how quickly a certain vegetable spoils and then the one right after that etc. For example, when we buy leafy greens, that's used on the grocery shopping day. Or at best the day after. Leafy greens tend to spoil quickly, no matter how well you store them, in my opinion. If there's too much to use right away, I immediately freeze them or spread them on a large tray to dehydrate (in summer time). I usually then use up the vegetables that keep longer but not that long, such as courgettes, aubergine, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc. Root vegetables are least perishable, such as carrots, turnips etc. 

When we buy our produce at the market, especially carrots are covered in sand. There were times that we bought a whole lot of carrots because of their low price and they almost lasted for two months (!). Sand is a great way to keep vegetables for much longer, however odd that may sound. I heard of people living fridgeless and this was their way to store vegetables. If your veges come clean from the store, I would suggest to rub some sand on certain produce. Yes, it probably doesn't look that neat (although there's nothing dirty about sand), but it's not always about aestatics. It's not very hard to clean your fridge drawer from a lot of sand, but it does prevent a lot of food waste. 

Storing food is a way people make a lot of mistakes with, ending up with spoiled foods. And this is especially true for leftovers. I try to keep one shelf in the fridge solely for leftovers. That's the easiest way I can see all in one go whatever needs to be used. I like to use reused glass jars for smaller amounts of leftovers. Glass jars allow you to immediately see what's in there; if you don't see what's in a certain container, you'll likely forget it and end up wasting it after it goes bad. When there are no glass jars, or the glass you have are too small for the quantity you want to refrigerate, the next best option is to use a transparent container. And I also have a certain way of arranging my "leftovers shelf", putting those jars that need to be used up first at the front row. 

Preventing food waste doesn't necessarily mean just preventing your cooked dishes going to waste. I learned a lot the past few years about what's edible of different vegetables and fruits. Most produce have parts that people mindlessly throw away, when in fact they're totally edible. Just to name a few: strawberry tops, fennel fronds, broad bean pods, banana peels, broccoli stems, among other things. If they're all totally edible, I don't see a reason why tossing those wouldn't considered food waste. Yet, in most households these go all to waste. This really comes down to people not being educated on what actually is edible and what isn't. The good thing is, it's never too late to learn. 

Sometimes it takes a bit creativity to avoid waste. Let's say you have some leftover pasta sauce in the fridge that you have to use up quickly. But you don't have any pasta, and can't go to the store/have no money until payday. What would you do? I know there are people who would just toss it. Or freeze it in the hopes it would get used another time, only to toss it eight months later when the freezer is being deep cleaned. If it were me I would just combine it with whatever starch we had on hand - possibly making a pizza with it, serve over rice/bulgur etc. This way,we have had the most amazing food combinations (and some less amazing combinations 🥲). 

Lastly: A giving spirit and being anti waste usually go hand in hand. If you've got a bit too much of whatever is about to turn bad, why not simply share with others? Last year, we bought apples - quite a large amount, 20 kg (45 Lbs, for my American readers). The thing was, we could only buy it in that large amount, as the vendor wanted to get rid of it all. So we bought it and shared about half with different neighbours and relatives and used the rest to make applesauce. Of that applesauce, I also gave some. And we get a lot of things in return. It's a matter of sometimes giving and sometimes receiving, and I'm grateful that in our community it's still like this. If you declutter your pantry and there are shelf stable goods you won't use, you can likely donate it to your local food pantry/food bank. We don't have food banks here, so I can't do that, but I thought I'd share this tip anyway. 

Since there are many poor people where we live, there are beggars. Now the thing is, sometimes they're faking it and aren't "real" poor people. While I do love helping others, I still prefer to help out those who need it and not people who just take advantage of other's goodness. So I'm a bit reluctant to hand over money to these people. Since they go door to door, our solution is that we just give food, be it shelf stable or fresh produce. If they aren't grateful for food, they're certainly not poor in my opinion. 

What did we eat past week

Douara (offal stew) with bread - 2x 

Roz Djerbi (Tunisian steamed rice dish, but made with orzo instead of rice) - 2x 

Adass (lentil stew) with bread - 1x, but with enough leftovers to eat as lunch or to freeze.

Couscous - not every traditional one, made with courgette, onion and chicken fillets. It was very nice though -  1x, but some leftovers for lunch. 

And one day, we did just a "leftovers buffet" as we call it. A great way to clear out the fridge when there's different single portions.

Did a bit more batch cooking past week, and also tried to make use of leftovers. In fact, the lentil stew were mainly reinvented leftovers, but with lentils mixed into it. 

Batch cooking

I already mentioned how I love batch cooking. It saves time, cooking fuel, and effort, allowing me to focus on other chores around the house on days I don't have to cook, but only reheat our previously cooked meal. 

People have mixed opinions about batch cooking. Probably the main misconception is that when you batch cook, you have to make do with a very repetitive way of eating. I don't necessarily think that we have to vary like in the way it's being propagated by most modern day nutritionists (fueled by the "food" industry). A so called "varied diet" is quite overrated in my opinion. The funny thing is though, people who think they eat very varied often are only doing so with their dinner while being very repetitive when it comes to breakfasts and lunches. Whereas for us, it's very rare that we eat the same breakfast for two days in a row. So I guess that despite batch cooking, we still do vary enough. 

If I batch cook a certain dish, we usually eat the same every other day. So, for example, if I make a stew on Monday, we have it again on Wednesday. And on Tuesday and Thursday, we either eat another batch cooked meal, or I make two separate meals. Two sperate cooked meals can happen because I don't batch cook every dish, although I do batch cook most of the dishes we eat. I also do is what I call "half batch cooking". I may cook up a pasta sauce and have it with different kinds of pasta and side dishes/protein sources. Or I steam a large batch of couscous and we have it with different sauces. Even if this method isn't strictly batch cooking, it still saves a lot of time, because more than half of the work has already been done. And an additional bonus is that it's still a bit less repetitive than eating the exact dish being eaten twice. 

I also batch cook ingredients such as the legumes that we use as a source of protein in many dishes. Since some legumes take up a long time to cook, it's best to cook them in larger amounts. As we speak, there's a pot of chickpeas boiling now. I'll devide that in several portions; a part for tonight's dinner and the rest goes in the freezer for later use. I do the same with lentils, despite the fact that they don't have nearly such a long cooking time. Even if it doesn't necessarily saves a lot of cooking time, it saves a lot of energy -and my sanity. If I make a legume based stew, I usually cook a double batch too. It doesn't go in the freezer usually, but we just finish it within a few days, not necessarily for dinner but for lunches too. I also keep small portions in the freezer for my mother in law, since she can't tolerate everything I cook, so I don't always have to cook separately for her. When baking bread, I also make bigger quantities and freeze is right after it's cooled down. That way, we can enjoy freshly baked bread with a bit less of effort. 

Some other concern which is mentioned often is food safety. Even though I have some anxieties when it comes to food, food safety of home cooked foods is not something I worry about a lot. If you think you get sick of eating certain foods, you will probably get sick (in most cases). The thing is, people are afraid of storing foods in the fridge and eat it within 3 days or so- to me, that's just silly. If that's the case, what do you need a fridge for anyway? Most vegetables will keep outside the fridge. In fact, some last even longer outside the fridge, when stored properly. I think most foods can be stored in fridges longer than the official guidelines says. I usually know how long a certain type of cooked food will last, based on experience. If I'm not sure whether or not I'm using up something that's been there for a few days already, and I'm neither planning to freeze it, I simply reheat it to the point that it's been boiled thoroughly. That way, foods can technically be stored for ages if it's then put away again in a new, clean container. Because any bacteria have been boiled dead, it's as if you've cooked up something freshly. By this method, I've rescued quite a lot foods from spoilage. I know this might be a bit controversial and certainly not officially advised, but it does work for us and I have no concerns whatsoever. 

The taste is yet another concern, and I find it a bit interesting that I've heard this concern more than once, because my experience is quite the contrary. In my experience, most dishes improve as they age. This is also why slow cooking methods are much better, taste wise. The faster food cooks, the less taste is has (with a few exceptions such as stir frying). Especially soups, sauces and stews taste much better the next day. This is why I sometimes make certain foods in advance. So in my opinion, this is another benefit of batch cooking; the next batch is even tastier! That's defenitely a win win if you ask me. 

When I was pregnant with my youngest (11 years ago... Time certainly flies!), I batch cooked a lot. The 2nd batch went directly into the freezer to have some quick meals during my postpartum period. It turned out to be very handy as I was hospitalized for a week after giving birth and my husband was taking care of our oldest daughter while being injured himself, after a car hit him. If you have a surgery planned, having a baby, or knowing you'll have an insanely busy time ahead for whatever reason, batch cooking and then freezing that food is really a good solution to still have homemade food with less effort. It's almost like a takeaway, but healthier and cheaper. And about everything can be kept in the freezer, you just need to know how to store certain foods. What I also love about batch cooking is that there's always foods for unexpected visitors. Yes, people will technically be "served leftovers" but I don't see a reason to be squeamish about that. It's not different than freshly cooked foods. And I've never heard that people had anything against it either, around these parts anyhow. 

So, despite all the objections people may have, I love batch cooking and will probably continue doing so for the rest of my life, as long as we have a fridge. 

Nose to tail

On monday, DH and I decided to do some shopping at the souk, the north African equivalent of a wet market. I love going there every so often. Everything is divided by category- vegetables, fish, etc. There's also a large meat section. We wanted to see what the butchers sold that day- as they don't always sell the same meats everyday. We were all craving an organ meat dish, which I'll go to in a minute. I also wanted to see if they had some fat to render. 

Coming from Europe, it's quite interesting how it all works here when it comes to meat. First off, meat is very expensive here, hence, it's not something that's eaten a lot. Most people here won't eat meat on a daily basis, especially red meat. And we are no exception to that. Since meat is so expensive, people are in general not very picky, so they won't just eat only certain cuts of meat. They don't shy away from eating the "weird" parts - or which is considered weird in western societies, anyhow. Everything of the animal is appreciated equally, it seems. Since I was raised as a vegetarian, I think this is why it's not that big of a deal to me. I wasn't used to eating only chicken breasts and mince, like many Europeans, rather all meat was foreign to me anyway. So when I did start to eat meat, because of that, I didn't differentiate between a chicken breast and sheep lungs. It's not to say that people here eat the "weird" parts just because it's more economical. In fact, some parts are truly considered a delicacy. 

I wanted to make douara (a stew with offal meat), something which we realized we didn't have in a long time and is one of our favourite dishes. There is absolutely no reason to look down upon organ meat; organ meats are super nutritious, and delicious. If the picky eaters would only get over their initial hesitation! The fun thing is, that even if it's not insanely cheap, the "regular" meat is 5 times as expensive, or 3 times as expensive when it comes to very old meat that requires a long cooking time. It's interesting that organ meat is becoming more and more popular in certain circles, especially those that focus on eating a nourishing tradition kind of diet, also known as ancestral diets. 

Honouring the whole animal and being appreciative for the nutrients that all of the animal has to offer, is also known as 'nose to tail eating'. Where we live, one can take that quite literally! When we walked by some of the butchers (there are a lot to choose from) there were several butchers selling heads: goat, sheep and cow's heads. I was amazed by how massive that cows head was though! I must probably be integrated quite well, because I don't have a problem seeing this. I do eat meat, so I have no problem to see that it actually came from an real animal. I would have a problem eating meat from a factory, but I know these animals were raised at the countryside, which is probably also why they're expensive. 

Hopefully I'll be posting my douara recipe soon.