Zero waste-y kitchen activities

Time for an update on what I did to save some food from being wasted. I know i could always do better, but I'm still pleased with these accomplishments. With photos this time- I decided to get out of my comfort zone a bit 😂 

Fermenting watermelon rinds: this is what I do each summer. It works best with watermelons that have a thicker skin, thinner ones work too, but it's just a bit annoying to peel. This year I'd like to try to pickle some too. 

Two jars, one large and one small, of fermented watermelon rinds 

Melon ice cream: we bought a few very bland tasting melons, and upon some googling I found recipes to make melon ice, without an ice cream maker. Since I don't have an ice cream maker, nor am I planning on buying one, I decided to give it a try. It was so worth it, the ice cream was delicious and I didn't have to waste a melon. I think i should add that i'm not the biggest fan of ice cream so that must have been really good. 

Doesn't really look like it contains melon though, nor does it taste very melon-y, but it's still good!

Onion powder: as I was decluttering my kitchen cupboards I found a big bag of dehydrated onion peels. Probably a project I once started but then forgot about it, lol. So I figured it was best to finish it or it would never happen. So I ground the onion peels in my coffee grinder. That's all you have to do for homemade onion powder! It adds a nice, somewhat sweet onion-y flavour to many dishes. 

My homemade onion peels. It has quite a dark colour as the majority of the onions I use are red onions. 

Rendered chicken fat: 

I usually collect chicken fat/skins in the freezer until there's enough for a nice batch. So a few weeks ago it was finally time to render some skins.

I don't have a picture of the final result - it's still liquid here. But once it solidifies, it becomes a bit more light yellow. I love using rendered chicken fat for frying eggs, potatoes etc. Gives the food a nice almost buttery flavour. Or sometimes I just add it to random foods as a flavour enhancer. 

Banana peels mock pulled chicken: 

Isn't it nice to see all this food that would otherwise have gone to waste? Most of these are made with by-products such as peels, skins etc. I think it's good to realize that in most cases, everything of that particular food can be used- not just what's commonly known. Just think a bit outside the box and of course, internet helps a lot too. I really don't think I would have learned all these things without the internet, I'm definitely grateful for this modern convenience. 

That's it for now. I hope I can give an update soon with other nearly-wasted food tips. 

What if electricity was free?

The temperature is increasing almost per day now, yesterday was the first day above 40° (104° f), 42 degrees to be precisely. Today was around 45°. Yes, that's very hot! Fortunately, we live in a dry semi desert climate, which makes it a lot more bearable. Humidity makes the windchill a lot hotter. 

Despite the hot temperature, we still try to be moderate with the use of air conditioning. It's set on 26° c, and it's not on for the majority of the day. It's not that we cannot afford running the airconditioner all day long, we can, but I really don't see the need to pay that much for utilities.  And not just because of finances, although that certainly plays a role too. My first and foremost reason is the environment, then our health. Yes, I don't think airconditioners are good for our health - especially if there's a huge gap between outdoor and indoor temperature. The other day I read an article written by an pulmonologist about that, and how it can trigger issues for asthma patients. Both my oldest daughter and me happen to have asthma... We're not with a lot of issues during the summer drought, fortunately, but anything we can do for our lung health is a win. 

But something got me thinking: what if electricity was completely free? What would I do in such an instance? I need to be honest with myself (and my readers 😉). I'd probably use it a tad more than I do now. Not necessarily all day long, and I wouldn't mess up with the temperature setting, I still want summer to feel like summer. And I still value protecting the environment, within my limited means anyhow. It doesn't really feel hypocritical to be honest, because I just don't want to spend fortunes just on getting our house cold enough so I can wear sweaters at home (lol). So I would still use it moderately even if electricity were free. 

There's a reason why that came to my mind. Somebody I know is married to a man who works for the electricity and gas company. There's just one such a company here, owned by the government. Their employees get the privilege of having free electricity- and also for one extra house of their choice, for example their parents home or whatever other home they wish. I think that's pretty cool. Without wanting to sound too socialist, it seems like things like these usually stop when those companies are being privatized, sadly. As soon as it's being privatized, company greed changes a lot. My grandfather also worked for the electricity company in the Netherlands, before it was being privatized, and he had exactly the same privilege. I remember my grandmother using only an electric hob, which was a bit rare, and I only ever saw it at her house, not anywhere else. Apparently, now it's getting more common to use an electric hob but at the time it wasn't- she even got hers from Germany as they were better available there. Interestingly enough, my grandmother was one of the most frugal people I've ever known, despite her electricity bill being zero regardless of her use. She didn't have a lot of electric guzzling appliances, such as a dryer or even an electrical lawn mower (despite having a big garden). So basically, electricity being free didn't affect her use at all - she could have taken advantage of that privilege but didn't.

And to get back to my acquaintance I was referring to, it happens to be the same with her. I was visiting her recently and noticed that she still hadn't installed her airconditioner. She owns one, but having moved to her current house around a year ago, the airconditioner being installed apparently wasn't a big priority. She said they didn't really miss one and that her fan was enough. I must add that she lives in a house that stays relatively cool during the summer, but still, most people in her situation probably have taken advantage of free electricity. Also, like most people here, she's frugal by nature. She doesn't necessarily call herself frugal but she definitely is. 

And of course, then there's people who have plenty of solar panels to have enough electricity during the summer for all their appliances. That's a bit of a different story. I wish we had solar panels, but unfortunately they're so expensive! That might be a disadvantage of the grid not being privatized... it's still a future goal of ours to have enough renewable/sustainable electricity. Not necessarily going offgrid, but to have our "own" power for the majority of the time and to still be connected to the grid as a backup. I think probably when one has solar panels, that's also a way of being more mindful of your usage of electricity. Because you never know when you run out. 

I guess the moral of this story is that we should always be mindful of what we use, regardless of its abundance, it being free of charge, etc. In the end, even "free" stuff is never totally free- someone or something is paying a price. In this case, that something is the planet. 

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: ditch the teabag

I'm a tea drinker. I absolutely hate coffee, no matter how it's made (trust me, I've tried so many forms of coffee over the years), but tea it is for me. Like most people, especially in Europe, using tea bags was just a given. Tea comes from a bag, it's that simple. Or is it? 

It might be the usual way for tea to be sold in Europe, but that's not to say it's like that everywhere in the world. Here in Tunisia, they do sell tea bags, but they're 1) outrageously priced, and 2) less tasty. One box of tea bags costs the same as 3 bags of loose leaf tea. Only that loose leaf tea contains much more - making it nearly 6 times as expensive! The other day I read an article on Sri Lankan and Indian tea, and how they usually use "rejected" tea (which isn't suitable for exporting to countries where they generally drink loose leaf tea) for tea bags. That does explain why the tea from tea bags here don't taste nearly as good as the bags of loose leaf tea. 

And then there's the issue of environmental impact. I really don't like unnecessary packaging. Each tea bags box has a plastic wrap covering the box, then each tea bag is in a small paper wrapper, and to top it off, there's the tea bag itself. That's a whole lot of packaging! Compared to just one bag of 200 grams of loose leaf tea- I don't need scientific studies on which one is worse for the environment. But packaging isn't the only reason. Apparently, even though tea bags are meant to be paper bags, they still contain microplastics. Do I really want microplastics in my cup of tea? Yikes! 

Yes, I know a tea bag is apparently more convenient, but it's really a matter of adjustment. For me, using a small tea sieve is just as convenient as putting that bag in a mug. It may be a few extra seconds of work, but that's fine - I'm a slow living advocate anyway. I've probably saved hundreds of €€ already by just switching to loose leaf tea, and I'm protecting myself from getting even more unnecessary microplastics. 

Egg replacements

We've probably read or heard all about the egg shortages in the US lately- that is, if some of us aren't affected directly by the shortages. While we don't live in the US, nor do we eat US imported eggs (as far as I know anyhow), eggs still aren't quite as cheap as they once were, so it definitely won't hurt to reconsider the amount of eggs we consume. 

Since we don't have egg shortages (unlike the other products that we have shortages of, which I blogged about a while ago), we don't strictly have to ration them. But I still like to save money whenever we can, and if that's by replacing one more expensive ingredient by a cheaper ingredient, that's good! And frugality aside, there are other circumstances in which eggless options become an necessity. Think of allergies and ethical/religious dietary requirements. If you're not allergic or being religious forbidden from eating eggs but you're in company of people that are, it's still nice if you can all enjoy the same meal. That's what I would feel like anyhow- being the one with a "special" meal will make me feel left out,  but perhaps that's just a remnant of my childhood trauma when I was always the only vegetarian among the meat eaters 🙂

Enough said... let's talk egg replacements. Since there are quite a lot, I'll just go through my list! 

Banana (mashed)/applesauce: this is great for baked goods such as (pan)cakes, muffins etc. 

Sweetened condensed milk: also used for making baked goods. I remember using them to make brownies and wasn't disappointed at all! 

Corn starch: haven't used it enough honestly, but I do know that they make great French toast. In fact, I actually prefer French toast made with cornstarch now over the variety that includes eggs - even if eggs were free, I'd probably still be using corn starch! I have read (but not tried out myself) that cornstarch is also very suitable to make pancakes, muffins etc. 

Gram flour/chickpea flour: this is whet it gets a bit different. While chickpea flour is a great egg replacement, it certainly has to be used with caution as it does, obviously, have a strong chickpea flavour, which won't always taste great in sweet baked goods (unless you bake Tunisian ghorayba 7oms, or chickpea flour cookies 😉 but that's for another post!). Still, in a lot of savoury dishes, chickpea flour is a very good option. Or when you want scrambled eggs minus the eggs! If you do like the texture of chickpea flour but you're not a huge fan of the taste, you can always opt for other legume based flours, such as soy or lentil flour. I once got a bag of soy flour from a friend that she wasn't using (yes, my friends know I waste nothing, lol) and it tasted quite neutral. 

Speaking of chickpeas- chickpea aquafaba is also a terrific egg replacement that can be used in many ways, I once posted a mayonnaise recipe that uses aquafaba instead of egg. Other people even make meringue with aquafaba instead of eggs, but I'm yet to try that out. Btw, make sure it's chickpea aquafaba and not another kind of bean/pulse water. Chickpea water is really the best to use. 

Flax seeds: flax seeds are very versatile. I mostly use them in my yogurt for breakfast, but I've also used them as an egg replacement. It's usually 1 teaspoon + some water to replace one egg. To get the best result, it's best to use broken seeds, but I just grind up whole seeds in my small coffee grinder, which works perfectly. Apparently, chia seeds function the same as flax seeds, but I'm not a chia seed fan so haven't tried that myself. 

Tofu: if you don't really like the chickpea-y flavour, you still can make scrambled "egg" by using tofu. 

Cream/milk: when you neef an egg specifically for an egg wash for your bread, cream or even milk seem to work as a decent replacement. I've heard that some people have even used pasta water... Not sure how great it would work, so iv you're trying it, do so at your own risk. 

Mayonnaise: apparently this works in savoury dishes such as casseroles as well as certain baked goods as cake, but don't hold me accountable as I've only vaguely remember once using mayonnaise for these purposes 

No eggs at all: you may find yourself in the situation with no eggs and no egg replacements, or just can't be bothered to use any substitutes. The good news is that in many cases you can just leave out the eggs altogether. I've made eggless cakes, pancakes, muffins, and cookies... sometimes you need to alter the recipe a bit, or switch to another recipe but it can be possible. 

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. 

Tightwad tip: repurposing old towels

As of lately, we had quite a few towels that were thinning out and weren't really suitable for drying ourselves anymore. However, that doesn't mean to just toss them, there are still many uses for old towels. We did buy some new ones recently. Well, "new" as in thrifted, but in perfectly good shape! I really like how these thrifted towels seems to be of better quality than brand new ones. Unfortunately, bad quality is being used for most stuff nowadays!

Here's some ways I use old towels.  

Handkerchief: I use these a lot because I have a chronic cold. I prefer them over regular handkerchiefs, as they're usually a lot softer. They also tend to absorb more- even when they're thinned out. 

Washcloth: my daughter likes to sew and she made a few washcloths out of an old towel. We use washcloths a lot, since we use a bar of soap instead of gels when taking a shower. These washcloths may be a bit thinner than the usual washcloths, but still perfectly functional for this purpose. 

Reusable makeup pads: essentially the same idea as the handkerchiefs, but just cut in smaller squares. I do want to add that you have to make sure to always use a laundry bag to wash these when putting them into the washer! A friend of mine told me that a few of those pads almost ruined her washer, with even a lot of water damage on the floors. So beter be careful. 

Cleaning rags: I've used old towels as cleaning rags a lot too. I like their texture for cleaning, as it's somewhat similar to microfiber- minus the microplastics that come with many microfiber cloths! 

Cat: our cat always love to lay down on something, even during the summer, he doesn't like the bare floor. So I use old towels for him to lay on. I've read that some people even make cat toys out of old towels, but I'm yet to try that. I don't know if he'll like that anyway, as my boy is more of an outdoor cat, coming home just to catch up on sleep. 

Using an old towel as is: I like to keep at least one towel intact (there is one with a very retrospect design and a label with 'made in West Germany', so that's a very old one!). When I treat my hair with henna and I'm afraid it's going to be messy and my hair is leaking still some reddish water after rinsing, to protemy clothes, for example. Or when I rub my arm with oil/cream when my skin has dried out that much it starts to hurt, and I don't want to make a mess of my pillows and sheets. I also like to dry the bathroom floor with a towel. I do use a squeegee, but especially during the winter it dries a bit slowly, so I usually wipe it with a towel to make it as dry as possible (yes, I know some people use the very same towel for this that they use to dry off themselves. But we defenitely use our towel more than once, so that's not really an option in that case.

Those are just some examples, and I'm sure there are so many other reasons for keeping at least one old towel. Waste not want not! 

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. 

Tightwad tip: upcycling socks

As the weather is changing from unbearable hot summer weather to slightly autumn-ish (yes, it's a bit early this year), I've begun to wear socks again. It's not that cold yet but I just get cold feet very quickly. And I just really like wearing socks. Kind of silly maybe, but I don't really like the feeling of bare feet. It's probably a sensory thing. When I was younger, no matter how warm it was, I couldn't even sleep without socks on! While that has improved a bit and I do sleep without socks during the summer, I still wear socks a lot and start wearing them quite early on every year. The thing is, the socks that are being sold here aren't of that great quality. And even if they were - my opinion with good quality socks, too, is that they get worn out quickly and holes appear so fast. At least I'm glad that our socks don't get lost in the washing machine. 

We're a family of four and I have developed kind of a colour coordinated system, so each one of us has his/her own colour. Having socks from just one colour is a really good hack, in my opinion. If just one sock gets a hole beyond repair, I can still wear it - just combine it with another pair (preferably from another pair with of which one single sock that has a hole). There you have a "new" pair of socks, and with the other pair, there's still some options. 

Here's some things I do with old socks. 

First of all, try to repair. Small holes are usually repairable. 

I keep some pairs of socks in my bed side table to use as "gloves" at night when I rub my hands with cream/Vaseline (I get really dry hands during the winter usually). The socks are tight enough not to slide off my hands during sleep. My children need this every so often as well, so I need at least a few pairs of old socks. 

Cleaning: way back when we had blinds, I dusted/cleaned them with a sock on my hand. That was the easiest way to do it (although cleaning blinds can never be considered easy in my opinion...). Cleaning with a sock on your hand works the same for other areas with tiny openings. 

Crafting: if you like crafting, old socks are an inexpensive, environmentally friendly way to use materials you otherwise would buy. My children liked to make sock dolls and they were so cute!

Vacuuming: when looking for tiny lost items, or in case you're afraid those will be laying around somewhere, take off the floor brush and put a sock on the extention tube. Whatever will be vacuumed, won't be suck inside. Pretty clever, isn't it? 😃

Shoe protectors: put your shoes inside a sock while traveling. 

Hot water bottles: I like to wrap a sock over a cold water bottle for protection against the heat.

Or just use socks instead of rags as unpaper towels. 

So that was today's tightwad tip! It won't make you a millionaire, but little things definitely add up. I'm sure there are many many more uses... But these are the ones I can think of now, and that we implement ourselves. I'd love to read more ideas in the comments 🥰

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. 

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. 

Tightwad tip - remember dates

My father in law is one of the most frugal persons I know. Seriously, he is even stingy at times, depriving himself from basic needs, even though his finances aren't tight. As frugal as my husband is (which is something to be expected when raised by parents that frugal), my FIL would describe him as a "big spender", just because he's not as insanely frugal as him. 

He does have very smart tricks though, even if they'd be categorized as extreme, but who cares? A while ago, we needed a washing up liquid bottle - we buy 5L jugs of washing up liquid, so I pour that into smaller bottles. We asked my FIL if he had an empty one. He did, and handed it over. I had to chuckle a bit when I saw the bottle, because it was typical my FIL. Apparently, he wrote on the bottle a date - probably the date of purchase or when he started to use it. I'm sure he set a goal for himself, that it wasn't allowed to get empty before a certain date. 

Even if this seems a bit extreme, I found it quite clever. I sometimes find myself thinking of how long ago I've opened a certain item - usually detergents. By simply writing down dates you can keep track of that. Being stingy or "extremely frugal" isn't always that bad, in my opinion- it's only bad when it negatively affects others. 

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. 

We're an ingredient household

Who knew social media was sometimes educational? Sure, you can look up tutorials on how to do an haircut, learn to crochet, or even learn a new language... But that wasn't exactly what I was talking about. 

Some months ago, on my social media, short videos kept popping up about people (usually in a complaining manner) talking on how they were raised in an "ingredient household". I didn't know there was a thing like that, or rather, that it had a name - this is where I learned something new. So an "ingredient household" basically means that it's a household where not a lot of pre-made/convenience foods are present, and most foods they have are seperate ingredients to make your own dishes/snacks with. Apparently, this is something beyond traumatic for children growing up, especially for teenagers. Can you imagine the horror of not being able to grab an unhealthy snack whenever, however? (ok, sarcastic mode off 😅) Yes, I know that in the end it's social media so things always need to be exaggerated. How else will they reach all those thousands of likes? But, even if it is exaggerated, there probably is *some* truth to it. Especially for teenagers who have peers that don't live in an "ingredient household" and they can grab all kinds of (usually unhealthy) snacks whenever they like. There must be some sort of peer pressure even with what people eat. If a kid brings a homemade snack to school, when all of the classmates bring store bought snacks, the average teenager probably wouldn't really like it to be standing out, only to learn later on in life that his/her parents did it in their best interest: to save money so they can spend it on more important things, and perhaps even more importantly, to keep them healthy. 

I must say, that's one of the pros of where we live. Snacking isn't really a big thing. Not that cookies, chips etc. do not exist in the stores, but people just tend not to have a lot of those at home. They're usually purchased at the nearest corner shop when needed. "When needed" usually means: when they have unexpected visitors and want to serve them some snack alongside the tea/coffee/fizzy drink. That is, when they don't have enough time to make their visitors a treat themselves; because in an ingredient household, people make most foods from scratch. People here are big on making things themselves so it's not really unheard of when you're only served homemade cookies/cakes or homemade popcorn. If you're raised in such an environment, you'll later learn that other people's breakfasts came out of a box, and that soup was some powder in a sachet. You do have to put a bit more effort in having a snack when there are just separate ingredients, which is probably a big reason why people here don't snack a lot (and also, that you're just satiated longer with homemade food compared to convenience foods). 

One of the videos in which the person was complaining, showed what she snacked on as a teenager. It was a sandwich (probably bread was already present so she didn't have to make her own bread with flour, yeast and the other ingredients needed to bake bread) with bread and butter. Not bad, I'd say... But the way she portrayed it was as if she was the most pathetic girl in the world. As I mentioned, it's probably somewhat exaggerated, and people will do anything to gain fame through social media. But if there is some sincerity, which there probably is, it means that they feel they were missing out on... junk. Let's just hope that later on in life, people will be able to see the positive side of homemade food and will be able to appreciate the skills they have learned growing up. 

Back to our own "ingredient household", and what that means practically. Usually, we're not big on snacking. In fact, my youngest especially doesn't eat particularly good and at times I need to bribe her to have a snack, because she often refuses to have a real lunch. Sometimes that doesn't work either, though. But I try to have at least some foods at home that we can eat without a lot of effort. There are always dates at home, as well as fruits, which they know can eat unlimited (well... obviously not a kg in one go or something but that's never happened). Bread, also, they can eat if it's there. We keep our bread in the freezer so when there's bread it's usually leftovers from breakfast. The toppings might be a bit limited compared to what most people have, but there's enough to satisfy hunger (or, let's be honest, cravings) and they'll have some choice. Eggs I usually boil about 6 at a time. Not only because it's saving water and electricity that way, it's a very good snack to have on hand. We always yogurt at home, which comes in small individual packages (one package being about half a cup). If they want to flavour it up they can add ground almonds (which we also have on hand), or honey etc. They usually eat it plain. 

As for main meals, being an ingredient household can be a bit different from non-ingredient households too. I don't claim I make everything myself, but we do make quite a lot. Something we don't make (yet?) is pasta, as that would turn out to be more expensive, which isn't worth the labour in my opinion. So we have that at home. Sauces is a thing we make ourselves, wether it's white sauce, or marinara sauce, or the stew to serve with couscous etc. Sauces aren't really being sold here anyway, so it's just necessary, even if I wanted to buy them ready made. The only thing we've been buying lately is mayonnaise and that is because the oil prices have risen tremendously which made making our own mayo very cost inefficient. Tinned vegetables/beans etc are expensive here, much more expensive than buying fresh (fresh tastes so much better anyway, in my opinion). So that's another thing you won't find in our home. This makes it a bit more difficult to make meals in a pinch. I mean there's always meals we can make in a pinch, but not just every imaginative meal. Due to this, planning is important (which I'm still not very good at, unfortunately). You do learn to eat what's on hand and that it's OK not to be able to eat whatever whenever. 

I think the most outstanding thing when it comes to main meals as an ingredient household is packaging, or the lack thereof. A lot of people are so dependent on packaged foods. I once read a complaint by a woman, saying that she would like to be able to just cook a pasta meal without the garbage bin being half full. At first I didn't really get it - because I've always cooked from scratch. But now I get it. The sauce, the meat, vegetables, the salad used as a side, sometimes cheese, and of course the pasta all are individually packaged. That's a whole lot of packaging for just one evening meal! For us, the only thing in such a meal that's packaged is the pasta itself. I even learned to re-use the wrapper to be even a bit less wasteful. Yes, I know it will eventually be thrown away, but it does save me another disposable bag. The meat we buy package free, and it eventually needs to be packed when it goes into the freezer, which is still less than a store bought meat packaging. That is if we do use meat, as a lot of our meals are vegan or vegetarian. 

That being said, I honestly can't imagine to make a meal with so much waste (that is, if nothing of the prepared food goes to waste). Not trying to be judgemental or something, but I sometimes can't really relate to being not waste conscious. Perhaps that's even more clear when it comes to breakfast foods. Most people have so many packaged things for breakfast. We usually have bread, either homemade with bulk bought flour or bought package at the bakery. Then we eat it with olive oil (which is poured into our own bottles when buying) and dates from our local market, along with tea (loose leaf tea from a big sachet). I sometimes crave other foods like oats, which we buy package free. I'm a bit more wasteful than the rest of the family as I like my oats with yogurt, although I do have other ways to eat oats. We do have "real" bread toppings, but save them for when we have a bit more special breakfast, or when I make pancakes. 

This is kind of how our imperfect ingredient household works. It's easy for us because this is how we've always done it, but switching from an un-ingredient household to an ingredient household, it's probably a bit of a challenge. Taking one step at a time will make it more doable. 

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. 

Package free grocery shopping: pros and cons

As I mentioned before, our groceries are partially purchased at a refill store. Meaning, they're package free. I'll try to elaborate a bit more on this way of shopping in this post. Depending on which store we'll shop at, they have shelf stable goods in huge baskets or more tidy containers. From what I've noticed, the tidier the containers and the shops, the more expensive they are. Usually it's not self service, but an employee will measure/weigh the goods. You could bring your own container,  but usually they put it in a baggie, similar to a sandwich baggie. It's then labelled with the product/price on it. 

What kind of foods do we buy there? Legumes, some grains (such as whole wheat flour, sorghum flour, and oats), spices, nuts and seeds, cocoa powder, cornstarch, as well as some "candy". Traditional healthy treats such as frankincense (this is like natural chewing gum), corn for making popcorn, and carob. This obviously doesn't cover all our needs from the store, and there's certainly items that we don't buy there. If it were me, I'd buy everything there, but unfortunately not everything is available at the refill store. I really hope these stores will expand their assortment one day and that about everything would be available there. 

Its obvious that this kind of shopping does reduce the amount of plastic going into the landfill, which is the foremost reason why we shop like this. Seeing nature sites getting more and more cluttered with rubbish is so heartbreaking. It's frustrating when you realise that the world's plastic pollution is not inevitable, if people would just put a little more effort in how they shop. Other than environmental reasons, which are obvious, what I especially like about these kind of shops is the simplicity! You've probably seen pictures (if not in real life) of colourful markets with heaps of different coloured spices. Well, apart from the fact that it's not just spices there, it still looks quite similar. The more modern refill stores will sell their goods in a bit more neat containers, which has a bit more of the aesthetic look. It's both very simplistic in their own way. I also really appreciate that this way we're cutting back on our plastic use. Living in a country where there's a garbage problem in some areas, it's clear how much plastic is being wasted. I cringe at every disposable plastic item that I can easily avoid using. Yes, they do use sandwich baggies in those shops, but I make sure to simply reuse those. So that's not too big of an issue (to me), and otherwise I can still bring my own containers. Another benefit of these shops is that they're usually just so much cheaper! Just to compare; oats are about double the price here if you'd buy them in the supermarket. And at the refill store, they already are quite expensive. You'll get the exact same product, which means you're paying all that money just for a cardboard box. Not even a firm reusable box with a lid or something. That's just throwing money into the trash, in my opinion. What I also like is that with package free shopping, you're not dependent on the package sizes that you find in the supermarket. When you have a small household or only want to buy a certain (small) amount for whatever reason, this is possible- you can buy just however much you want (this is the case where we buy our goods anyhow). This is a good way to avoid wasting foods. 

Of course, as with everything, there are cons - or others may consider them to be cons, anyhow. I only see benefits in shopping this way but I'd thought of including them anyway. Since it's package free, there's obviously no "use by" date. To me, that's no issue at all - I think that putting dates on shelf stable foods is just a way to encourage wasting foods. If it looks and smells good, I'll just eat it.                                                            With foods not being "properly" packed, you do need suitable containers. Yes, this may cost a bit initially, but it doesn't necessarily mean very trendy and expensive ones with the "zero waste aesthetics", you can just buy the cheapest plastic containers you can find, or simply reuse food containers. With smaller kitchens, this does take up a bit more space at times, but I'm willing to sacrifice that space (I have no idea what else to store in my cupboards anyway). We have a lot of smaller buckets, I think they're 5L buckets, not completely sure - there fits about 3.5 kg of flour in a bucket. I also have smaller containers for the foods that we don't buy in bigger quantities, such as sorghum flour. Yes, this does take up space but I don't think it takes up much more space than stocking the average pantry with packaged items. The reason why we need a lot of space is due to the fact that we're buying in bulk, not so because of the lack of packaging. As long as you're using suitable containers, it's not that much of a space they're occupying. 

All in all I like the way we shop- the way people have been doing this before supermarkets were there. You may find it too costly, which unfortunately is the case in some countries, unfortunately, and I can totally understand that especially in these times, people look at the prices solely. Some may find it too time consuming, which I can understand too. I'm privileged with a refill store in our street, even though we usually go to another one in a different neighbourhood, but it's still very accessible.

Still, despite people's general reluctance of returning to the old ways of shopping, I am very enthusiastic about it. It just may take some planning and making shopping lists and investing in containers. 

How and why we (don't) meal plan

Confession: I must be the most terrible housewife/mum out there, or even the most terrible cook, because I don't meal plan. Yep, there I said it. Well, saying I don't meal plan at all isn't correct technically, but meal planning in the traditional sense doesn't happen at our house. We don't sit down at the table with a piece of paper and pencil (or anything screen, but I'm more into old fashioned ways) and write down what we're going to be eating that week, and then buy every item that's on the list. Here's some whys as to why we don't: 

First of all, we're living with/very close to my in laws. While we don't live in the exact same house, we basically live in my MIL's backyard, which is great as it enables us to take care of her. The thing is, as with most Mediterranean/African/Arabic countries, people are generally so spontaneous and planning in general usually doesn't really work. Even when it comes to appointments, it's better to expect that people won't probably be on time. If they are on time, that's a plus, but should not really be an expectation. Anyway, since my MIL doesn't/can't cook anymore, we usually bring her supper, but the thing is that relatives and neighbours might just pop in unexpectedly and bring food with them for her. Every single time I did try to plan somewhat in advance, that's what happened. Of course, I don't blame them at all, they're sincerely doing something good, but if your plan messes up it's sometimes a bit frustrating. Of course, at times I didn't plan anything at all, no one showed up to unexpectedly bring her food 😉

Secondly, since our way of shopping is a bit different (which I did a post about), we can't plan before we do our shopping. We just buy what's being sold and is most affordable at the market. For example, some weeks parsley is very cheap, whereas the next week it's five times as expensive, so it wouldn't make sense to make a lot of parsley based dishes then. So generally we buy what's available and it's always a bit different. This week, we had a LOT of aubergine, which is defenitely going to be on our plates quite a few times. And so instead of buying what's on the menu, I just make do with whatever's available at the market. We just estimate what we'll be using that particular week. And when there's still veg leftover, that's what will be used first the next week. Etc. I love that it makes me more creative that way. If I'd have to sit down an write a week worth of meals in advance, it's probably going to be a boring menu. When I'm forced to cook with whatever we have in the house and to come up with ideas instantly, my creativity thrives. 

I deal with chronic pain issues, and I never know when I have a good day or a bad day. Usually I have a few bad days in a row followed by a few good days, but it's not quite predictable. When I don't feel well, I do still cook, albeit simpler meals that don't involve a lot of standing. This is also one of the reasons why I batch cook. 

This might be a bit weird, but we never know what we'll crave when. If I, say, am supposed to make a pasta dish on a particular day when we crave rice, I don't see the need to still go for the pasta just because it was written on a list and therefore can't be changed. Others might call it stubborn, but for me it's just common sense. 

It's interesting how meal planning is always mentioned as *the* way to avoid food waste. That you're very wasteful when you don't meal plan as you're essentially heading without any direction and you'll just buy perishable foods recklessly and that way, waste tons of foods. But here I am, practically not wasting any food AND not meal planning. Yes, that is possible. Saying that meal planning avoids wasted food is a bold statement, in my opinion. In fact, I believe it can even be the other way around: if you're sticking to a particular meal planned for that day, you might neglect other produce that's about to go bad. Avoiding food waste is actually a very reason why I cannot really meal plan; I might have to rescue certain items from the fridge on some days or finish leftovers (sometimes there's enough leftovers for all of us). Yes, even if we crave something else- avoiding waste comes first at our house. 

I can't recall my grandmother or even other women from their generation ever had a menu plan. And especially my oldest grandmother, who was born in 1910, would never ever throw away any foods. So it's quite a new phenomenon actually. Which isn't bad in and of itself, although I do value a lot of the old fashioned skills and way of living people had. 

We do kind of vary by rotating dishes that we like. The meals are usually centred around the starch. Not around the meat, as we eat more vegetarian meals than meat based meals. So for example, one day it's pasta, the other day it's bread or couscous. Today, we had a vegetable stew with freshly homemade bread. Since I batch cook, we usually have the same meals every other day. Probably it's a bit less varied than most people would do, but this is what we like and it saves time, cooking fuel and energy. I might do a different side dish with the meals so that it makes it still a bit varied. For example, yesterday we had pasta, with a salad on the side. The next time we'll probably have the pasta with a different side, such as stir fried vegetables. The days that I'm not cooking (or just making a quick side) I can focus on other household tasks a bit more, such as keeping up with folding the laundry, cleaning the bathroom/kitchen/floors, etc.