Summer savings

I  guess I was on a blogging binge yesterday. It can happen... 😃 

We've had a few weeks of nice autumn weather, in March and April, but especially for the past two weeks it's been very hot around these parts. It might not be "officially" summer yet in the northern hemisphere, but the weather is certainly more summer-like than spring-like here! I'm aware of the fact that summer is not something everyone necessarily enjoys, especially very hot summers. I still prefer summer over winter though. Even though we don't have very cold winters, I quite enjoy the heat. The added benefit of summers is that there's a lot of things you can save on. 

Air conditioning: Our days without putting on the air conditioning are probably numbered, we can only delay it so much... But, every day without having to put it on is yet another one! Yeah, I know living without air conditioning is the ideal, both frugality wise as environmentally wise. There was a time when I didn't want one for these two reasons, but I'm glad we eventually purchased one. It was during a heat wave, when temperatures outside reached nearly 50°c... (which is 122° f). Living in a desert without air conditioning can be like living in Siberia without heating! It didn't feel as a luxury anymore and we were so relieved after ours was installed. Both my husband and me suffer from the heat when it reaches a certain temperature in the home. He sweats a lot, and gets warm easily. I'm quite the opposite, where the heat kind of stays in my body and doesn't come out because I can't sweat. I also have asthma and a lot of muscle contractions during the summer which both decreased immensely since we have an air conditioning. Still, we try to be relatively frugal with it - we put it on when it becomes almost unbearable and it's set on 26° c (78° f), never lower. We only have one unit in the living room- I guess that's one of the benefits of living in a small home. In our bedrooms we have fans, and I actually prefer sleeping with a fan on rather than AC. Also, the air conditioning is not on all day long. That's how we still try to use it minimal but still make it more bearable during the summer heat. Still, I've found that our "minimal air conditioning use" tends to be cheaper than minimal heating during the winter. 

Another way of saving on utilities is by using cold water. Our pipes are outside the house which means the water heats up fast. On very hot summer days that means you can have a warm shower with "cold" water. This applies to the washing machine too- I usually turn the temperature setting completely off, as it's usually still at least 30°c, if not more. Same with doing dishes. We also try not to cook dishes with a long cooking time to avoid heating up the kitchen, and use the oven less. 

Speaking of laundry: since line drying is something we do all year round, it's not necessarily a saving, but it is much easier now than it is during the winter. Also, since the house isn't cold like it is during the winter, we wear less layers of clothes. Less clothes = less laundry. 

Gas: our car is mostly used to drive and pick up the children from school. Since they have a three month long break during the summer, we're defenitely saving on gas. We still use the car during the summer break, but much less than our average use. 

Fun things: since it's so hot here, it's not adviced to go outside during most part of the day, so we really need to find ways to entertain ourselves at home. This usually happens to be a lot cheaper too! We do enjoy going outside at night for a stroll and an ice cream every so often. Vacations are not something we do a lot, last year was the first time in 4 years that we went on a small vacation. To be honest I'd rather stay home, but I did enjoy the children having a great time. I'm not sure whether we'll go on a vacation this year or not, but if we go, it'll be as frugal as possible. We don't go abroad but stay in our country. Since we live in a small country, it's just a few hours drive to get to the coastal region. 

Food: we generally eat less during the summer, and prefer lighter meals with more veggies. In season produce is quite cheap here, fortunately, so that's a big saving right there. I've also noticed that some foods that can spoil quickly (like eggs) tend to be cheaper during the summer months. 

Douara (offal stew) recipe

As promised, here is my recipe for Douara, a Tunisian offal stew. I use the ingredients as a guide and have no strict measurements, so these are just rough estimates. 

• About one kg of offal (we used cow's offal, but sheep or goat is good too) - It's usually a mixture of  inestine and tripe, but lungs go well in this dish too        

•one onion                                                              

•a few heaped spoons of tomato paste              

•seasonings of your choice (I used a Tunisian spice mixture, garlic, turmeric, and salt)  

•vegetables I used: tomatoes, hot green peppers, potatoes, parsley, and chard              

•some cooking oil and water 

First off, make sure your meat is very clean. Our butchers clean it thoroughly, but when we home butcher we have to do it ourselves obviously. Then cut into pieces and boil in water, just until the water boils. Then drain. Don't skip this step, it will prevent the dish from becoming bitter. 

Then clean the pot (or just get another one), the remainder from the boiled offal can be a bit sticky. Chop your onion and sautee in some oil. Then add the garlic, diced tomatoes, salt, and spices*. Also add in your tomato paste and sautee for another minute or so. Now add in the meat and about three to four cups of water. It depends on how you like your stew and how long it needs to cook (the older the animal, the longer it needs to cook). About an hour into the cooking, add in your chopped vegetables and chopped parsley. You can use any vegetables of your choice, I just use what I had on hand. Leaving out the vegetables altogether (except for the onion) is possible too, I prefer some veggies in my stew though. I cooked this stew for about an hour and a half. Since it was calf offal, it didn't have to cook for hours to get it tender. 

We eat this with either baguette from the  bakery or homemade bread. 

*I use an Tunisian spice mixture called 'tabel karwiya' which consists of mainly caraway and coriander, and if you can't find this spice mixture you can make your own. (A suggestion would be caraway, coriander, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper). I've also found that Chinese 5 spice powder mixed with garam masala (a 1:1 ratio) is a decent replacement. Or you can just use the seasonings of your choice, such as Mexican spices. Also, if you dont use hot pepper (like I did), I'd recommend to add some ground hot pepper, harissa, or other condiment. 

What did we eat past week

Douara (offal stew) with bread - 2x 

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

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

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

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

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

Mend it

Most of my clothes are thrifted, but that doesn't mean I don't take good care of them and try to extend their life as much as possible. Fabrics have a bigger environmental impact than most people might expect, and it's just being wasteful with money not to take care of clothes. I do this by not tossing items in the laundry mindlessly (if it's not dirty, it can be worn another time, without guilt!), by wearing an apron when doing "dirty" kitchen stuff, removing stains directly, line drying etc. As a fulltime homemaker, I definitely have some "accidents" every now and then. I'm a bit clumpsy, which is probably why I mentioned removing the stains. And I have a talent for snagging on sharp corners. For some reason, some clothes get stretched out too quickly. Apart from them being too stretched out, they're still in good shape, which makes tossing them such a waste. 

In a lot of cases, mending is really helpful to extend the life of many items from the wardrobe. I must admit that I'm terrible at needlework though. My mum used to sew, crochet, and knit, but unfortunately, it's not something I inherited from her! Yes, I know that everything can be learned. Still, I think I'll never be good at this, partially due to bad fine motor skills. Everyone is good at something else in the end, so it's not that I mind it that much. I'm fortunate to have a husband who is good at these things, and not only that, but in fact enjoys mending. So in my opinion, the perfect solution for a clumsy homemaker who still doesn't want to get rid of clothes that quickly. 

I think, without exaggerating, we've already saved hundreds of euros by mending clothes- just everytime there was something my husband mended (not only for me, but the entire family) we could have bought a new item. So that's defenitely a huge saving! It's amazing how clothes can be rescued from going into the landfill by minimal effort. Oh, and did I mention we don't even have a sewing machine? It's something that we'd like in the future, perhaps for even making all of our clothes altogether instead of just to repair. But for now, we don't have one, and are still be able to save so much money by mending our clothes. It's sometimes these small efforts that people tend to forget when trying to save money but small things really add up. 

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. 

Recipe notebook

I've struggled a lot with keeping up with my recipes. It's mainly baking recipes, as they should be followed more precisely than cooking. I don't have a real recipe for most dishes and just use what I have on hand/what's in season etc. Baking is a bit different though, as a bit too much of baking powder or butter can totally ruin the end result! Let alone if I don't remember what temperature the oven should be set on. It's just that I don't like writing. Well, I do enjoy writing (or else I wouldn't be blogging), but not physical handwriting. I know that there are probably more apps than I am aware of, which all claim that they have the perfect solution to this problem. However, I don't like to be dependent on my phone too much. Screens can be addictive and I already spend more time on my phone than is good for me. I'm also afraid that if something were to happen, I lost everything. 

I also want to have something physical which was really made and written by myself (despite my ugly handwriting!), to start a family tradition of passing on recipes. I really like a lot of old fashioned stuff. And when I think of handwriting recipe cooks, that's really an old fashioned tradition that should be kept alive, in my opinion. Whenever I read about people who have family recipes being passed down by their grandmother, it honestly makes me a bit jealous! I never had this opportunity. My eldest late grandmother passed away when I was 13 and I guess I was too young to think about her recipes; if she had written them down at all, which I doubt. My other late grandmother passed away 8 years ago, but to say she was a picky eater would be an understatement. Were she willing to get help she'd probably be diagnosed with ARFID. I don't recall her ever having cooked a meal for us; she nearly only ate cheese sandwiches. And when we came to visit her, she usually made pancakes. So, unfortunately we don't really have family recipes. That means I'm the first one to be starting this tradition! I don't want my children to miss out too. This will also include recipes that are being passed down by my mother in law (which she in turn learned from her mother). She's illiterate, so she cannot write them down herself. I think it's very cool to have such a strong connection with ancestors; through food. Of course, we hope we'll all be given much years to come to spend together as a family without having to worry about whether recipes were written down... But still, one can't start early enough. 

And it's not just in case something were to happen to me- even with small calamities, it can come in handy. I realised this when I really needed a certain recipe but there was an internet blackout. Our internet connection isn't that strong, and blackouts are quite common here, but they usually last for a few minutes. That specific time, it lasted for hours! I ended up making something else, of which I was sure I knew the measurements of the ingredients. From then on I've tried to write down my recipes. One at a time. Since I don't like handwriting (I have a terribly looking handwriting and writing for more than 10 minutes just hurts my arms), it's a slow progress, but slow progress is better than no progress at all, after all. I try to at least write down a few recipes a week. Sometimes it takes a few weeks until I write down even one single recipe, but i'm getting there slowly. What I'm writing it down in is nothing fancy; just a basic notebook. Maybe one day when I get a really pretty notebook I might have to re-write everything again... 😆

I've made a few categories: breads, cookies, cakes, and miscellaneous (for things that don't fit in other categories). I guess I'll have to write down my main dishes too, although that's going to be a bit more challenging. Whenever I share recipe online of a main dish, it's always estimated and never precisely, so if I write them down in a notebook it's not going to be any different. The main dishes deserve a separate notebook, in my opinion. It'll be the next project when my current one is finished. 

And I won't be tempted to use any app on my phone for this. 

Nose to tail

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

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

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

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

Hopefully I'll be posting my douara recipe soon. 

Homemade sandwich spread

Years ago, I ate a lot of Heinz sandwich spread- it was a good vegetarian option in a time when there was not a lot to choose from besides cheese. Being frugal as I was, I later switched to the generic brands when they developed their own version. Even though I wasn't vegetarian anymore, I still liked it, and still didn't eat meat on bread. Now I make my own, as they don't sell anything like this around these parts. The homemade version is obviously healthier, but I find it way more flavourful as well. As it's quite perishable compared to the store bought version, I don't make large batches at once. Or I only prepare the vegetables so I can mix in the remaining ingredients on the spot. This past week, I made a batch sandwich spread to have on baguette with lentil soup. There was some leftovers for the next day. When it comes to perishable foods, I'm always a bit anxious not to make too much as I'm so cautious about wasting anything. 

I always make it a bit different, depending on what's in season and what I have at home. This is how I made it: 

An onion, cut in half and sliced very thinly    Grated carrots, turnips and courgette              Some homemade sauerkraut                            Seasonings: salt, red pepper flakes, dried parsley, and garlic

Mayonnaise and double concentrated tomato paste 

Sautee the onion and then add the carrots, sautee this with the onion for about a minute, then add the seasonings, turnip, and courgette. Stirr well and cover your pot with a lid. The turnip and courgette will release liquid so don't add any liquid. After about 10 minutes, check the doneness and if it's tender but there's still some liquid, let it evaporate without the lid. Then allow to cool completely and when it's cooled down enough, add the mayonnaise and tomato paste. The tomato paste isn't essential, but it kind of duplicates the store bought version that I liked the most. Then add some well drained sauerkraut. You can add any other fermented or pickled vegetables, this is just what I had on hand. The fermented vegetables not only adds in some extra nutrients, it's also a flavour enhancer- there should be a bit of tangy flavour in this sandwich spread, in my opinion. 

Just use your creativity and remember to use what you have, rather than to run to the store for single items. No mayonnaise? No problem! Make your own, or use yogurt/cream cheese/even leftover bechamel sauce. Use any veggie you like. No fermented/pickled vegetables? Add in some lemon zest and juice, or vinegar etc. 

What did we eat past week

So this is my 2nd menu plan in retrospect, , just like last week in random order as I'm again not sure anymore about what we ate when. I'm planning on posting some recipes of the foods we had. 

• Couscous, 2x - once with baked chicken and once with lamb 

• Makarouna (Tunisian style pasta) 

• Vegetable stew with bread 

• Red lentil soup with bread and homemade sandwich spread 

• Another Tunisian dish: kafteji (grilled peppers and tomatoes with fried potatoes and egg) with homemade flatbread. We had this with takeaway bbq'ed chicken. 

• Bami goreng (Indonesian fried noodles) 

Did a bit less of batch cooking this week, which is quite unusual for us. But we did eat the leftovers for lunch. In fact, there's still leftovers which we'll have tonight to empty the fridge for tomorrow's grocery shopping. 

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.