My go-to cake recipe

Friday is the most important day for us, so I always like to make the day a bit more special. One of the ways I do that is by food- making our main meal a bit more elaborate, or just making one of my family's favourite food. Another thing is baking. I like baking something specifically on Fridays, and it's become a bit like a family tradition at this point. It doesn't really need to be very fancy, but just baking something like a cake or cookies is highly appreciated. 

Our favourite cake is what I regularly make. It's a simple recipe and doesn't really need kitchen equipment. I've been using this recipe for well over a decade and I don't even know anymore where I got the recipe from, really. And I don't really have a recipe written down because it's all in my head 😆 but that's about to change! I thought to share it here with my readers. 

For one round cake pan (I think it's ø28 cm, but you can also use a rectangle shape or even casserole pan, etc), you'll need: 

1 cup of granulated sugar

4 medium sized eggs, or 3 large eggs 

1 cup of neutral oil (canola, corn, soy, peanut... just anything that would fall under vegetable oil I guess) 

1 cup of milk 

1.5 tablespoons of my "homemade" vanilla sugar but you can use regular vanilla sugar or vanilla extract (for us it needs to be alcohol free so we don't use extract)

2 cups of all purpose flour (scooped, not spooned) + 1.5 tablespoons of baking powder 

Mix the sugar and eggs using a whisk. They don't have to be very fluffy or pale, just whisking for a minute or so is enough. Then add the oil, wisk again. Then the milk and vanilla sugar. Then scoop two cups of plain all purpose flour and measure 1.5 tablespoons of baking powder. I use a small sieve for the baking powder as it tends to have clumps sometimes, it makes it easier to devide it evenly in the batter. 

Whisk very well and mix until there are no more clumps visible. Now your cake batter is ready! 

I bake it at 180° c (360 °f) for one hour. I must add that my oven doesn't heat up like other ovens do, so 150° c (310 ° f) would come closer to the real temperature needed for this cake. 

Let it cool down before slicing, then enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or tea 🍵 

 

Tunisian kesra bread

I believe that everyone should be able to make homemade bread. Not necessarily difficult artisan bakery style bread; just a simple recipe will do. Baking bread, in my opinion, is an essential life skill or at least something that can come in very handy.

Today I'm sharing my kesra recipe. Kesra is a Tunisian bread that's made on the hob and very delicious. It's also known by other names in some countries, such as tachnift or batbout in Morocco. 

I learned how to make it many years ago from my mother in law and my sister in law, and tweaked it a little bit to suit our taste, but other than that it's the same as theirs. And my mother in law, on her turn, also learned it from her mother- so I'm proudly sharing a real family recipe here! 

For 6 medium sized round breads, you'll need: 

9 cups of fine semolina flour 

2 heaped spoons of instant yeast 

2 teaspoons of salt, or more depending on your quality of salt 

5 cups of warm water (could be more depending on the quality of the flour) 

Oil to grease your bowl 

Some seeds, such as sesame or nigella seeds (optional) 

Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Add the water until you're able to make a dough that isn't sticky. 

Knead for 10 minutes. Ideally more, but I've found 10 minutes of kneading to be sufficient. 

It should look like this: 

Then devide it into 6 equal pieces. I don't have a dough scraper or other special equipment, so I just use a good old knife. 

Then I formed nice round balls from the dough, rubbed it with a bit of oil and devided it in two bowls: 

I covered both bowls with big round trays, as I try to avoid disposable plastic as much as possible, but you could also use plastic wrap. Or don't grease it and cover with a clean dish towel. Now let it sit and rise until it's at least doubled in size. The bigger the better, so don't do this when you're in a rush! Since my kitchen is very warm during the summer, it didn't take long. 

It's good when it looks like this: 

(Now compare it to the picture with the two small balls of dough in it...) 

Get the dough out, punch the air out and make two balls again. Now heat your pan on the hob. I have two cast iron pans that are purposely used for baking breads, but you can use a "regular" cast iron pan or just a regular frying pan. Just whatever you have will probably work, although I would recommend cast iron (some people here even bake their kesra in clay pans, especially in the villages)

Make sure there's enough room on your counter and that it's clean. 

I always thoroughly clean my counter after making dough 🙂

If your pan is ready (it shouldn't be really really hot!), you can start to form your bread. Just gently push it down in a rotating way so you end up with a nice round bread. Prick a few times in the dough with a fork.

Now you can transfer it into the pan. I usually fold my bread and then when it's the pan immediately turn back the piece of dough that was folded over, to make picking up the dough a bit easier. 

When it's starting to bubble, it's probably time to turn around the bread. I used a spatula for this.

Then bake the other side as well. 

Then, and this is optional, when the other side has browned enough, it's time to bake the sides. Some people prefer the sides to be more on the dough side but we like them a bit more cooked. 

It's a bit of a blurry picture lol. This was the best picture I could take with using just one hand. Just turn the bread little by little until the whole side has a nice golden brown colour too. 

Now bake all your breads like this. I use two pans at the same time so it's a bit faster, but one pan definitely works fine too. Pile them up on a tray/plate with some towels (I use old t-shirts) and try to let them cool off completely...which is probably the most difficult part! 

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. 

No wasted milk - and turning muffin batter into pancake batter

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

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

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

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

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. 

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! 

A kitchen without an oven

One thing in particular has caught my attention when it comes to being frugal with utilities, and cooking in general. And that is that we don't use our oven a lot. It seems like for most people, an oven is a kitchen essential, and they'd be lost without one. The other I saw someone on a Facebook group asking what other people make if they have no oven. This was supposed to be a frugal living group, so I assumed that most of the people there were like me and used their oven occasionally. But I was wrong, and most people's responses were that they absolutely didn't know what to do without one. 

That made me thinking of my use of the oven and what I do differently from others. First of all, the frequency. Last week, I used the oven twice- once for making a cake, and once to make baked chicken. I usually bake chicken on the hob, but I sometimes like the convenience of not having to flip the chicken every 10 minutes or so since I had other things to do. The cake was a big one, and I froze about half. That's not only healthier (if I wouldn't freeze it right away we'd surely be tempted to finish it anyway), it's also more frugal - less electricity used, as well as saving money on the baking ingredients. This week, I made some cookies and muffins. However, there are also weeks that we don't use the oven at all.  So I'd say, on average it's being used once a week. Another thing is that we don't eat casseroles as much. We rarely do, in fact. I like to make lasagna on special occasions- all of the ingredients are quite expensive, and it's a time consuming meal to make when you make about everything from scratch. Every so often, I make Tunisian tajine (which is like a crustless quiche), and makarouna bechamel, also known as "Arabic mac 'n cheese". But for the most part, we don't do a lot of other casseroles. Probably partly due to the fact that casseroles are considered cold weather meals (in our family, anyway), and around these parts, the cold weather doesn't last that long. For most of the year, it's nice warm weather or unbearable hot. And while I don't mind eating hot foods during the summer, for some reason, casseroles are a bit different. They're just too "heavy", and usually containing dairy of some sort which makes a meal more expensive. Casseroles aren't really a thing in Tunisian cooking anyway, and while I do make dishes from other cuisines from time to time, it's Tunisian foods that are our go to meals. Pizzas are a rare occasion here too, and a rare treat. Bread is either purchased at the nearby bakery or if it's homemade, it's usually stove top flatbread. 

All in all, I think that an oven isn't really an absolute necessity, although it's a nice extra. I've had people asking me what in the world we have for dinner if we don't use our oven regularly. Well, just that: soups, pasta dishes, potatoes, rice dishes, couscous, stews, and I think I can go on and on. I, on the other hand,wonder what they do serve for dinner if they can't function without an oven! My husband was raised in an oven-free household for the most part; my MIL didn't have one until he moved out of the house. And now she doesn't really use the oven anymore and is just used as a storage space. My MIL did have a "wonder pan", a pan you use on the hob and functions as an alternative for an oven. She used this when making cake, among other things. For cookies, the communal oven (which I wrote a post about earlier) was used. She didn't really make casseroles and when baking bread she used the tabouna (outdoor oven, which is comparable to an Indian tandoor). This bread tasted absolutely amazing. 

Here's some other ways we save on electricity when it comes to the oven, other than just not using it very frequently: we have a toaster oven, albeit a relatively large one, but still smaller than most average ovens. This takes less electricity. When we do bake, we tend to do a "baking marathon", as preheating the oven does take more electricity. So we might make muffins and right after that, cookies or bread for example. This is actually quite an old fashioned thing to save on utilities- most women did a baking day once a week. Also, I might be a bit stubborn but I go against some conventional "rules" when it comes to baking. I rarely adjust temperature, for example, and our oven is set at 200° c (which in reality is more like 180° c - talking about stubbornness, ovens kind of do have their own characters I guess 😄). I also don't really preheat, which is an advantage of having a separate/toaster oven, as they heat up much quicker. I turn off the oven before it's "officially" ready, and make use of the residue heat. Yes, I do this when baking cakes too. I must say that I usually stick to the easier recipes, so I'm not sure how that would work out with more complicated recipes. 

Anyway, those were some insights on the use of ovens. I could definitely live without one, although it's a nice extra to me. But a necessity it is not (in my opinion, anyhow). 

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. 

Bread pudding

Yesterday, I desperately needed some room in the freezer. There were to large bags of pieces stale bread and I thought it was a good idea to make a bread pudding. I hadn't made one in a while and I know how much my husband and children love it. In addition to having so much stale bread, there were other foods that wanted to use up: some raisins, some leftover sweetened condensed milk that I made a while ago, and a small container of applesauce. This all goes very well in a bread pudding. When I make one, I don't really stick strictly to a recipe but just use what I have on hand. It would be a bit ironic to be sticking to a specific recipe with dishes that were actually invented to get rid of leftovers, wouldn't it? Anyway, this is how I made it: 

Leftover bread - not sure how much exactly, but it was a big bag of pieces stale bread, both baguette and round bread. I cut this in smaller pieces and put them in a large bowl (similar to a washing up bowl). In a smaller bowl, I mixed 3 eggs with about 2 cups of sweetened condensed milk, 3 heaped spoons of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of applesauce, and three more cups of liquid (a mixture of milk and water). I also added about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. This mixture was then added to the bread chunks and mixed with a wooden spoon. If there's some dry bread, add some extra liquid. Then I greased a big baking dish and spreaded half of the bread mixture on it, some raisins and then added the remaining mixture (flatten it with a spoon). I then sprinkled the bread mixture with cinnamon sugar. 

I baked this for 75 minutes, the first 30 minutes on 220° c (428° f), then the remaining 45 minutes on 200° c (392° f). Then after about 10 minutes, let the bread pudding cool down outside the oven. When it was a bit warm I put it back in the oven and just let it sit there until this morning. You can reheat it a bit, but I didn't really find that necessary so we just had it cold. 

Using up applesauce and an easy baked oatmeal recipe

This past autumn we were gifted a lot of apples. I think it was more than 20 KG. Of course we shared with family  and neighbours, like most people here do when they have an abundance of whatever is in season. But still, there was quite a lot apples left over and as a small family we couldn't just finish the apples as is. So making applesauce turned out to be a good solution. I don't like the traditional Dutch way of eating applesauce- which is like a condiment with boiled potatoes and vegetables, probably to make all the blandness a little bit more edible. Instead, I just use it as an ingredient for baking. Applesauce is very versatile, it can be used as an egg replacement but also instead of other liquid ingredients. And of course, it gives all your baked good such a nice apple flavour. On top of that, whether you prefer homemade applesauce or store bought- they don't sell applesauce here in Tunisia so if we want to have applesauce you'd have to make your own anyway. I must admit that growing up I didn't like my mum's homemade applesauce and preferred store bought instead. Which is a bit weird if I think about it now. Oh well... My taste buds defenitely have improved a lot. 

The next issue was: how am I going to peel ALL that apples without my carpal tunnel syndrome not instantly coming back? After all, I don't have a fancy apple peeler. Well, after a bit of googling it turned out to be as easy as to cook the apples with their peels on! At times like these, I'm so grateful for having access to the internet and to be able to save time, food and energy. So the only thing I did was coring the apples- which obviously was way less work than peeling. Still it was quite a chore to accomplish. The applesauce turned out a bit browner than "normal" applesauce would have, but it did have a lot of taste! 

So then I just froze all the applesauce. Fortunately I have a big freezer, but still it took up a lot of space. Hopefully next time I'll have enough glass jars to be able to can applesauce and to save precious freezer space. I love making applesauce cake and muffins, or just using some applesauce as a spread on pancakes. But a few weeks ago, I decided to try something new and above all, something a bit more healthy, so I made applesauce baked oatmeal. It turned out to be so delicious. I'm not new to baked oatmeal, but my original recipe wasn't quite a healthy one, so I tried to make a healthier one this time. Here's how I made it: 

 2 cups of applesauce                                             1 cup of milk                                                           2 cups of oatmeal 

That's it, super basic. Just mix this in a bowl and then add whatever flavourings you like. I usually keep it quite basic and only add some cinnamon (for flavour) and desiccated coconut (for healthy fats). But if I think of other add-ins that would be nice: raisins, date chunks, nuts. Then I add it to lightly greased baking dishes- I like to use small individual baking dishes, but you can also use one large one and cut it into smaller portions after baking.                           

I like this baked oatmeal for breakfast, whereas my family members prefer it as a snack. I have tried out multiple ways to eat it, and as for now my favourite way is with some peanut butter and honey in top of it. When you don't eat this right away, I recommend heating it up- which I do in my air fryer, as I don't have a microwave (which might be interesting to do a whole different post about).