Seasoning food on a tight budget

I've been watching some "emergency grocery budget" videos lately (you've gotta do something when you're feeling sick and can't do anything but being in bed, right?). One thing that I noticed was that most of these vloggers - no matter how good their intentions are - somehow assume that people have all these "pantry staples" on hand. I'm talking about basic items, or even less basic items, like rice, oil, flour, tinned tomatoes, but also the seasonings. And while that's true in some cases, there are also people that are truly broke, having nothing but empty cupboards and with a budget of maybe 20 euros/dollars for the next week or two weeks for ALL their groceries (been there, done that...). If that's the case, it's hard to expect your meals to be flavoured with dozens of different seasonings and all kinds of additional ingredients. With 20 euros, you want to stretch your meals as much as possible so seasonings just won't be as important as your main staples. In such a situation, it's more about filling your stomachs with whatever is the cheapest. 

Yet, at the same time, you still need to have a tiny bit of flavour in order not to feel very deprived when you're going through such a situation. Not having a lot to choose from for a few weeks isn't that difficult. But sometimes, these situations can go on for years. So I get that people want to "indulge" on at least some extra flavour, especially when you have to make do with so little already. Having been there, done that I definitely know that it can be a challenge, but still possible when you precisely budget and shop smartly. 

Bread: while bread toppings aren't strictly necessary, I find it kind of hard to eat bread as is, especially if it's not day fresh. I've found that toasting bread enhances the flavour (which is the very reason toast was "invented"- to make stale bread a bit more palatable). During rough times, I didn't mind to have just a bare toast with a cup of tea. We also had times when we just had margarine (because it's much cheaper than butter), which felt quite luxurious when compared to bare bread. Or even margarine sprinkled with some sugar (and cinnamon, if possible). That wouldn't even feel like "cheap food" to me honestly. It's not that healthy obviously, but with an extremely tight budget, that's not always the #1 priority. Bread can also be part of the main meal, such as a slice or two of bread along with a cup of soup. Which is good, because then the soup becomes the topping/easoning of the bread without needing anything else. I would advise using butter (or at least margarine, if butter is too expensive) over oil, because butter is more versatile/multi purpose. You can use it both for bread as well as cooking, whereas cooking oil isn't that suitable for bread obviously (unless you have olive oil... Which isn't quite what I'd expect for someone on a very low budget). Alternatively, you can buy peanut butter, and then use it for bread as well as for main dishes (you can make sauced and salad dressings based on peanut butter). 

Main meals:

Salt : the bare minimum, in my opinion, is salt. Black pepper would be nice too, but as long as you have salt, that's the most important. Salt can make such a difference to foods, even foods that initially would seem to be bland. 

Herbs/spices: if you don't have any on hand and your budget allows to buy a few spices, the ones I'd suggest would be black pepper, cumin, oregano, parsley (dried or fresh), ginger (ground is cheaper), and paprika. And cinnamon, especially to flavour up sweet dishes/breakfast foods. If you don't have money for all of these, just pick a few. Pepper, oregano and cumin would be good to start with. Usually, herbs and spices are more affordable at Asian/Middle eastern stores. Spices bought in supermarkets are just so much more expensive. And in my opinion, spices bought from those stores usually taste stronger too, which means you'll end up using less. That makes it even more cheaper. 

Onion/garlic: in my humble opinion, each meal must include either onion or garlic, preferably both! It doesn't just add a bit of nutrition - they're both great flavour enhancers. You don't have to use a whole onion or cloves of garlic, just a bit is usually enough to flavour your food so it doesn't taste bland. If you just have a tiny bit of garlic, the best thing you can do is to add it towards the end of the cooking time, so it tastes as garlicky as possible. As for onions: when I make a stew or soup of some sort, I sometimes add onion peels instead of whole chopped onions. I keep a container in the fridge with some onion peels; that way I don't have to peel and chop another onion (and possibly washing up another chopping board...), for as much flavour. If you're truly broke, that's an affordable way to add more flavour to your food. Even a small amount of chopped and sautéed onion does wonders to about any dish. 

Tomato paste: it's a key ingredient in most Tunisian foods, so needless to say, we go through a lot of it! Even for many non-Tunisian dishes, we use tomato paste. However, tomato paste has become ridiculoudly expensive lately. We're paying now exactly double for the same tin compared to three years ago! And it's not that it was that cheap back then. We definitely try to be more frugal now with the tomato paste, often resulting in a bit more runny sauce, but still with a nice tomato-ey flavour. When you're in that bad of a financial situation that you barely can afford seasonings, if you can afford some tomato paste, I'd highly suggest buying it. You can use a tiny amount just for some flavour. When I'm being lazy I sometimes make a "soup" of some tomato paste, salt, and garlic paste- and then add vermicelli. My children absolutely love this. If tomato paste is more expensive than pasta sauce/marinara sauce, that's absolutely an option as well. It's basically just tomato paste with added seasonings, so you can just forego adding extra seasonings. In an emergency, even ketchup would be an option. I must admit that we never ever have ketchup at home but on the rare occasion when we crave it, I make it myself. But if you do have ketchup on hand, just use that as a seasoning. It won't be as good as real tomato sauce, but most people will prefer ketchup over blandness. 

Stock cubes/bullion cubes: not as good and certainly not as healthy as real brother made out of fresh ingredients, but does a decent job to flavour up your food. Just one cube will do wonders to your rice. It's not limited to rice of course. You can flavour up soups, sauces etc. One cube will probably be enough for one 4 persons meal. Maybe one of package of stock cubes is not the cheapest item out there, but it will last a long time. The good thing here is that you can buy them per cube (for the same price you'd pay in a complete package), but that's probably not possible everywhere. Still, a complete package will not break the bank even on a very tight budget. 

These were the bare basic seasonings that I'd recommend when on a very restricted budget. If you have some more breathing room, I would also advise to have mustard, sesame seeds, marmite, soy sauce (and/or fish sauce), and any hot condiment of your choice on hand. BBQ sauce is also a versatile condiment to flavour up your food. I posted a mock soy sauce recipe, just in case soy sauce us hard to find, too expensive, or in case you're allergic to soy.                        And remember- the best seasonings are the main ingredients. If you use good, fresh ingredients, you'll likely use less seasonings. Although that can be challenging on an extreme budget, I must admit. 

As I mentioned, there were periods in our life when we had to go through similar situations; having to ration everything and calculate precisely so we wouldn't go hungry. Even though it was tough at the time, it really taught us to be resourceful and creative. Hopefully this can help people in similar situations. There are many people struggling these days, so I'm convinced tips like these are needed more than ever. 

What did we eat past week

Past week was a bit of a messy week; we all caught the flu, leaving little energy for cooking a lot (or doing anything at all really). Fortunately I still had some pre-cooked meals in the fridge and freezer. And my sweet neighbour brought a meal one day. 

The meals we had as main meal were: 

Couscous 

Douara (offal stew) with bread

Migli, also known as Tunisian style fish & chips (from our neighbour) 

Lentil stew with bread, 2x

Makarouna (Tunisian pasta), this time with ditali shapes 

Ojja, Tunisian version of shakshuka (eggs in spicy tomato sauce), with again, bread 

That was a lot of bread! Hopefully this week it will be slightly better in terms of variety. I guess bread is easiest when you don't feel well. 

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. 

Makarouna bel salsa - Tunisian pasta recipe

Tunisians LOVE pasta. It's their main staple food (along with bread), even more so than couscous. According to the statistics, Tunisia is the second largest pasta consuming country in the world, right after Italy. It's the Sicilians that originally brought pasta here and people have been eating it in large amounts ever since.

It's interesting that people don't associate pasta with north African cuisine when it's consumed that much (Libyans also love their pasta). Perhaps that's the interesting thing about north African cuisine anyway- it's not always what you'd expect, being an interesting mix of indigenous (Amazigh), Turkish/middle eastern, Italian and, due to the colonization, French foods. The pasta that people usually eat here does have a different flavour profile when compared to its Italian counterpart. It really does have that typical "north African taste" (a bit of a vague explanation, I really don't know how else to put it!). There are various pasta dishes that people eat here, but makarouna bel salsa ("pasta with sauce", translated) is the one that's eaten most.

What I also like about the pasta here is that 1) it's of good quality- legally, only 100% semolina based pasta is allowed to be sold, unless it's wholegrain pasta so no plain white flour pasta can be found here. And 2), it's about the cheapest food imaginable, being heavily subsidized to make it affordable for everyone (just to compare, rice is six times as expensive as pasta here). And since pasta is so versatile, you don't get bored quickly. It's for sure a staple in our house.

To make this typical Tunisian pasta dish, you'll need: 

Meat or fish of your choice (I mainly use chicken), tomato paste, Tunisian spice mixture, turmeric, salt, harissa or any other hot pepper condiment or even ground hot peppers, an onion (or just an onion peel), garlic, oil, some bay leaves, a few potatoes and hot peppers (optional). 

First off, mix the tomato paste with the seasonings, salt, and water. I use about 400 grams of tomato paste and 3-4 cups of water (you may want to add more water if using red meat). Then add some oil - this dish is usually a bit heavy on oil, as it really  enhances the flavours. I try to be a bit careful but still use some oil, usually a mixture of olive oil and a more neutral tasting oil. Also add the meat and some onion - the onion is for extra flavour so you don't have to add a lot. This is why I mentioned using a peel, since that is usually discarded, but works really good in recipes like these. Let it heat up until it reaches a boiling point and let simmer until the meat is tender. Some people also add in potatoes and green peppers. This seems like an odd combination but it's really delicious! My MIL also added chickpeas to her pasta. It's just a matter of preference. When the sauce isn't thick enough (it shouldn't be as thick as regular pasta sauce but not very runny either), you can let it simmer a bit more. Then boil the pasta of your choice, drain and add the hot sauce to your pasta, letting it sit for a few minutes covered with a lid. This way the pasta absorbes the sauce. Most people here prefer using spaghetti or ditali shapes, but you can use any pasta shape of your choice. When using spaghetti, keep in mind that it's OK for the sauce to be a bit runnier. 

Since there are no vegetables cooked in the sauce, you can add a salad or any other vegetable based side - some people, however, don't (and yes, they're still alive 🤭). I usually serve this with a simple tomato/cucumber/onion salad during the summer. I also like a yogurt based cucumber salad with this dish. And if you want to serve it even more traditional, make sure there's also some crunchy baguette to scoop up the pasta! Yes, carbs with carbs with carbs.

Sa7a! 

Tunisian pasta is usually made with ditalini shape pasta 

 

A women's gym

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about living in Tunisia (by like minded women who'd also like to emigrate) is: are there women's only gyms there? 

I must say that when I speak of Tunisia, I usually speak of the region we live in. There are a lot of differences between the different regions, especially when you compare the central/southern regions (like where we live) with the more affluent coastal/northern regions. Despite the regional differences, and our region being a little less "modernized", the answer is yes, there are. The other day we were driving through a village and we even saw a gym there. It's interesting if you think about it - gyms are quite a new phenomenon here, but so is being overweight. My husband told me that when living here as a kid, he didn't really know a lot of  people that were overweight. And yet, gyms were nowhere to be found. Sadly, these days, being overweight is becoming more common, especially with all the junk in the stores that's being sold more and more. So the solution must be simply to sweat off all that extra calories then (and to pay an arm and a leg for that...). 

My thoughts on gyms are quite unconventional and I even dare to say controversial. I don't really believe in having an inactive lifestyle for most of the week and then suddenly working out like crazy for a few hours per week to compensate on all that sitting. As they say, "sitting is the new smoking". While I don't think there is something comparable to a thing as bad as smoking health wise, I think there is some truth to this. Being inactive doesn't just affect your physical health, it's even affecting your mental health. So it's not that I don't believe in exercise- let that be clear. I just think it's much more effective to incorporate more physical activities into your daily life, rather than having a few extreme workouts per week with an otherwise very inactive lifestyle. 

Nowadays, people tend to have machines for about everything. And while I do love my washing machine (although I sometimes do small hand washes), I'm not interested to have everything done for me by others or by machines. I have never owned a dryer or dishwasher for example, and rarely use our vacuum- we just have a broom and dustpan that do the job just as good, with the additional benefit of having more physical exercise. Also, I regularly bake bread and don't have a kneading appliance or other types of bread maker, so the kneading is done by hand. My mother in law did this until she was in her late 70s, despite having many health issues. I'm not saying that everyone should deprive oneself from every convenience, but there is something in that old fashioned way of living that just makes sense to me. People can still combine convenience and being a bit more active in my opinion, so it's not either this or that. I think it's just cool to be able to do your everyday chores and stay fit at the same time, while saving money on all the expensive appliances you didn't have to buy for that specific purpose! If someone likes working out at a gym, and finds it important, I'm not against it. But at the same time I think it's important to think for ourselves and not just do something that society tells us to do "because otherwise it's unhealthy". Quite the contrary actually, in my opinion. 

So yes. There are women's gyms here, but it's not necessarily attended by many women because they keep themselves fit in other ways- walking their kids to school, housekeeping with a minimum of equipment, baking bread and much other things. 

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). 

Lentil stew

Yesterday, I made one of our family's favourite dishes: lentil stew, or as we call it, l'adas. Since it's such an easy, nutritious and delicious dish I thought I'd share it here. 

Lentils are one of our favourite legumes as they're easy to make (no soaking time and a relatively short cooking time compared to beans and chickpeas), and just very versatile! When I make l'adas it usually takes some prepping time, because we do like a meaty flavour, but are conscious about our actual meat consumption. And especially when cooking legumes, I don't really see the need of putting in extra meat, which is already a big dent in our budget. So on sunday I made couscous, using lamb meat. This is where it gets a bit interesting, because I know no one else that does this. Anyway, I divided the meat in two, one in a larger pot, and one smaller. I then made the stew for couscous in the larger pan, and in the smaller pan, I made a stew/broth what was going to be the base for my lentil stew. Yes, this way you use more energy obviously (not to mention heating up your kitchen even more... 🥵), but this gives the lentils just so much extra flavour. Then towards the end, I just added the meat back in the couscous stew, leaving me with just a very flavourful broth. I left the broth in the fridge to use the next day. Then I just reheated the broth/stew and cooked the lentils in it until tender. Absolutely delicious!

This is how I made it: I made a broth with meat, Tunisian spice mixture, some onion, salt, garlic, harissa, and tomato paste. Then refrigerate and reheat it the next day (skip this step if you're making and eating it right away), then add the lentils (washed and drained) when it reaches a boiling point. I used 2.5 cups of green lentils for about 2 litres (8 cups) of water. I also added a diced onion, some potatoes, and some tomatoes as they're in season now. You can keep it very plain or add more vegetables if you prefer. We prefer our lentils without a lot of vegetables, I did serve a salad alongside the dish though. We had this with bread (this time it was baguette, but sometimes with homemade bread instead). It would probably be nice with other starches too. 

I know I could just buy and use some bullion cubes... But this gives so much more flavour and nutrition, which I find the extra cooking fuel and time worth it. If I wouldn't have any meat on hand I probably would use a bullion cube for some extra flavour, but for now this is how we prefer our lentils. 

What did we eat past week

Yes, I guess I'm back at blogging. There were a lot of things going on in our lives and I needed a short break. The "short" break turned out to be a bit longer, but I'm happy to be back again! I really enjoy the what did we eat past week-posts, it's like it's making me feel I still do a tiny bit of meal planning... Even if it's in retrospect 😂

In random order, because I don't exactly recall which we ate on what day. 

- Tunisian pasta made with linguine         

- Half of a steamed sheep head (the other half we had a few weeks ago), served with Tunisian shakshuka (an tomato, onion and pepper stew) and homemade bread                

- Roz Djerbi, Tunisian steamed rice, but made with orzo instead to make it more frugal. We ate this with baked chicken wings             

                                                                                  - Leftover shakshuka, with fresh homemade mlawi (layered flatbread), and some fries  (this was actually lunch, but quite a "fancy" one compared to our regular lunches)

 - Loubia (white bean stew) 2x, served with baguette                                                                  

 - Sandwiches with cold cuts, at the children's request 

- Couscous (with enough leftovers to eat this coming week) 

Lunch was usually leftovers or sandwiches, if we did have lunch at all. We also had instant ramen on one day, with a boiled egg and some leftover cooked carrots, again at the children's request. With most meals, I served a tomato/cucumber/onion salad, as that's in season now and it's an easy and delicious way to add more vegetables to one's diet. 

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. 

Hot weather foods

One thing that distinguishes Mediterranean/northern African cuisine and culture from the (northern/western) European one, is that there isn't really such a thing as cold dishes. I'm not talking about breakfasts- I'm well aware of the fact that in some cultures, there isn't even really a thing such as breakfast foods, and typical dinners would be eaten for breakfasts. 

I'm talking about lunches and dinners now. In Europe (the part where I'm from anyhow), as soon as the weather starts to change, people nervously switch from their usual warm dinners to all types of cold foods- sandwiches, salads etc. It's not a bad thing in and of itself, and it even seems quite logical, as you're not heating up the kitchen unnecessary. The thought alone of eating a warm steaming stew or soup is suffocating to a lot of people! Here in Tunisia it's rather the opposite. While there are some typical winter dishes, people generally are not afraid of eating warm meals during the summer heat. Why would they? Just living off of salads for three months on end certainly doesn't do your body good, and it's just kind of... boring.  

I must say that I haven't noticed a difference physically, eating a cold evening meal vs a hot one. Either way, you're going to get hot during the summer. Personally, I prefer the hot type of foods that they eat here, and I make a pasta salad maybe once or twice during the entire summer, usually when the children crave it and they're asking me to make it on and on and I can't procrastinate it any longer. I've even been eating soup a lot lately for lunch. We do like to eat sandwiches every so often though, but not nearly as often as our regular hot meals. Since living here, one thing that I learned is that eating hot foods doesn't really mean you have to eat them piping hot. I usually decrease the temperature a little bit, so that it's still warm but not too hot. I feel like this way of eating is not only more delicious but also healthier. Why? Well, people who switch to cold summer foods tend to have sandwiches a lot. I don't think that sandwiches are bad in and of itself but the amount of vegetables you can put in there are obviously a bit limited. Or you need to serve big sides of vegetables, which would defeat the purpose I guess, since they still need to be cooked (unless it's just salads). Also, most people tend to make their sandwiches less healthy than their usual, warm meals. There's always exceptions of course, but I know I don't really make a sandwich as healthy as I would make my regular, warm meal. 

When it comes to heating up the kitchen, the people in Europe have a good point. The other day I was making roz Djerbi, a Tunisian rice dish that needs to be steamed. Even though it's technically a one pot meal, the kitchen was 3 degrees (C) higher than it was before cooking. That's a big difference! So I totally get why people avoid that. And honestly, I was relieved when the cooking time was over and I could turn off the heat and go to the living room where it was a bit less hot. But personally, eating delicious and healthy meals is more priority for us than keeping the warmth out of the kitchen - although I try to do my best to not heat it up that much. 

I mentioned before how much I love batch cooking, and especially during the summer this is a huge advantage! Just heating up a meal takes a few minutes. Thus, heating up the kitchen isn't something to worry about on those days. On other days, I like to make meals that take less time to cook. My rice dish had to steam an hour and a half in total, which is quite a long time, and there's a lot of foods I can think of that don't take nearly as long. The pressure cooker (or cocotte as it's called here) is quite a popular kitchen gadget. Since it reduces the cooking time and it doesn't really release steam, especially dishes that take long to cook can be made in such a pot easily. Unfortunately, I'm just too afraid to use one. There's been too much accidents with pressure cookers that I don't want to take the risk I guess. In fact, not too long ago, my husband's aunt had an accident and had quite a bad burn as a result. 

My mother in law had a habit which I initially thought was kinda weird but now I understand it better- she started cooking the main meal as soon as she woke up. In fact, she started with the meal even before having breakfast! In the morning, with the window having been opened all night, the kitchen is much cooler than it is in the early afternoon. So that also makes sense, even if you're not big on batch cooking.