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. 

What did we eat past week

Creamy pasta with chard - 2x

Steamed vermicelli with chicken, onion, and raisins - 1x 

Tunisian fricassé sandwiches - 1x 

Couscous - 2x 

Ojja (Tunisian style shakshuka) with round fluffy bread - 1x, with leftovers for next day's lunch

Not a lot meaty meals - the couscous was with chicken first, second time vegetarian. The fricassé sandwiches did contain a small amount of tuna, but it was just one tin for 5 persons. We didn't have a lot of legumes, which I'll try to catch up with this week. 

How inflation affects us

Inflation. We've heard a lot about it and about everyone is affected by it - from Philippines to Argentina and everywhere in between. Firstly, I want to say that this post is in no way intended as a complaint, and that I want to acknowledge that we've been blessed in so many ways - more than so many other people. I just think it's interesting to show how different people can be affected differently by crises like these. 

One of the biggest privileges anyone can have when it comes to finances is defenitely to have your own house. And I don't mean still have to pay a large amount each month despite the housd being still "yours". Our house, even though it's a relatively small one, is ours and not paid anything for. So that's our biggest security in leaner times. Even if you have barely anything to eat (not that it's ever been like that for us, but let's think of a hypothetical scenario when things get worse), at least you don't have to worry about a roof over your head. That's a very reassuring thought for me, especially since we did experience poverty with a lot of insecurities of being able to pay all the bills monthly and there's certainly still trauma that I need to overcome. Our house isn't perfect, by far, but it is our house. We'd like to renovate the bathroom and kitchen one day, but for now we're very content with our small dwelling. We feel very fortunate to have this house, especially during times with less income. 

Food: this is probably the area in which we're affected the most. Prices are going through the roof it seems. There are some products that we're hardly able to afford. Yes, most of these products aren't strictly necessary, so it's still a bit less of a problem. It would have been problematic if this would apply for the basic staples. Bread, pasta etc. fortunately are very affordable, as they're being subsidized by the government. I sincerely hope that will never change, as it would be problematic for the poorest people if even bread prices would go up.              Some of the foods we buy less (or rarely buy) are olive oil, meat, rice, eggs, bananas, and even regular cooking oil, white flour, among other foods. Most of them aren't particularly known as pricey foods for most people, yet some of them have quadrupled or have even multiplied more times than that so they've defenitely become expensive. Most of these foods are even more expensive than they are back home in the Netherlands. But the thing is, our salary isn't nearly as high... If you have 1/3 of a western European salary, it's considered a middle class income. Our income is not the same each month, there's months when we barely scrape by, and there are months when we can even save money. So even if we don't spend everything that comes in, I still certainly don't want to spend everything we earn and challenge myself to make do with alternatives or just without. 

The biggest issue when it comes to food isn't just the price- it's the lack of availability. There are lots of shortages, especially when it comes to staples. Milk, rice, semolina, tea, sugar, flour etc. There's some reasons behind this, which I don't want to elaborate on as it's a very complex set of reasons, some of which have to do with politics, and I rather don't discuss that here. But defenitely the worldwide inflation has contributed tremendously to this situation. A few years ago there were short periods of shortages, like few weeks usually. Now some products have been out of stock for more than a year. And they alternate; when there's semolina there's milk shortages, and the other way around. This all started around the covid period and then got worse after the Ukrainian war. At the beginning it was more like "annoying" but now people are getting increasingly worried. This really shows us how vital a good stockpile is. Yes, you'll eventually run out, but at least you don't have to worry for a certain period. It doesn't take an unstable political situation, war, or floods to have empty shelves. It can also be less serious issues. If the truckers are striking, empty shelves are very likely too. It really doesn't have to take long to find empty supermarket shelves. In my opinion, the supermarket should not be relied on as a "spare pantry" like many people do nowadays. This annoying/worrisome situation has taught us a lot, especially about preparedness. And also about being creative with what's available. Fortunately, there is enough food. It's just that some items at some times aren't available so you just make do without. No white flour; make whole wheat/sorghum/oatmeal cookies. No rice; just cook bulgur instead, etc. I also found oat milk a decent replacement for cow's milk, even though it lacks nutritional value, but when I bake er French toast or pancakes that doesn't really matter to me. I would love the situation to get back to normal again defenitely, but this taught us a lot. 

Utilities: this is our 2nd biggest thing in which we're affected. Not as much as with food though, but still, utilities are a big dent in our monthly costs at some times. I must say that we're fortunate to live in a country that doesn't get their gas from Russia. Not that I'd mind if they did, I'm not going into politics here, but just because that has caused troubles in many European countries. I heard stories from people I know in the Netherlands, the UK etc that are quite unbelievable, but are the harsh reality for some people. Things like not putting on the heater at all despite freezing cold weather, cold showers or having just one hot shower a week, not cooking to save gas but putting some convenience foods in the microwave instead. I feel sorry for everyone having to fo through things like these, it must be very hard to actually have to choose between heating and eating. Apart from the fact that we're not in that desperate of a situation, the weather here is usually such that a heater is a nice extra, not strictly necessary. I still don't want to go without heating if it's still possible to pay for that, but if that became impossible, I'm still happy that we're just chilly and not freezing to death. So that's the gas price. Electricity here is much more expensive than gas. Heating with electricity is nearly impossible, unless you're able to use free electricity (we have a relative whose partner works at the electricity/gas company, and they are allowed tu use as much electricity as possible without any costs!), or solar panels etc. We try to be very frugal with both gas and electricity, but with electricity in particular because of this. This is why we use the air conditioning minimal during the summer, which is one of the most guzzling appliances in our house. Still, with prices having gone up, our bills have too. You can only scrimp that much, and if you wanted to pay the same that you were paying two years ago, you'd need to use even less. But since we're not even using much already, that's nearly impossible. So higher utility bills it is, and we're very fortunate to be able to still pay them, even if that means we have to be more frugal in other areas. 

Petrol prices: they have quadrupled so needless to say, most people feel that, and so do we. Fortunately we don't need our car a lot so it's still manageable, but it is still quite an expensive bit from our budget. 

These are the main areas in which we're affected. I want to repeat that we're very privileged to be house owners which is a major factor in being able to manage the inflation a bit. But, after all, we still feel it. I will try to elaborate a bit more in a future post on how we still try to save as much as possible despite the increasing prices. 

Pasta vs rice

As some of my readers have noticed, we eat quite a lot of pasta! Pasta, in my opinion, is the frugal cook's best friend. The variety of sauces, protein sources and whatever else you add to this starch are just unlimited. Not to mention the kind of pasta you're using, there are just so many choices! 

Where we live, pasta is insanely cheap, costing a bit less than €0,15 (or $0,16...) a bag. A bag contains 500 grams/1.10 lbs. This is due to government subsidies on certain food items, to keep them available for all people, including the poor. There's also subsidized bread, semolina, milk, and couscous. But for some reason, pasta seems to be the most popular starch of choice- probably because couscous can be time consuming to prepare. There's a history behind the reason of pasta being so popular. Apparently, around 100 years ago, there were many Sicilians living in Tunisia who brought with them various kinds of pasta. And they quickly fell in love with the pasta! Nowasays, pasta is consumed almost as much here as it is in Italy. I must admit that when I first came here, I was overwhelmed by the variety of pasta shapes and sizes. In the Netherlands we usually did our groceries at a budget supermarket chain where they had spaghetti, elbow macaroni and maybe some bigger shapes such as penne or fussili. Here, the pasta aisle is the most elaborated one of the entire supermarket. Not only are there a lot of different shapes, each shape has different sizes as well, suitable to use in different dishes. Overtime, I've learned which shape and size works best for which dish and we know our preferences. There are also some more luxurious pastas that are more expensive, such as cannoli and lasagna, but most of the pastas are cheap. They also go by different names, in some cases. Most shapes have their original Italian name, but some are changed to Arabic or French, possibly to make pronouncing a bit easier. I think it's fair to say that we don't even eat as much pasta as many other locals here, they consume it that much. 

Rice, on the other hand, isn't really a thing here. And not just because it's not a culinary tradition, but the cheapest rice here is 6 times as expensive as pasta. So for many people, including us, rice is really an once in a while treat. I personally am also a bit sensitive to rice. I had no idea that it was a thing (being sensitive to pasta is understandable... you know, wheat, gluten and all that!), but after trying again and again I've noticed that- with many kinds of rice, many ways of preparation- soaking, not soaking, using water, using broth etc. Everytime I eat rice, my esophagus really hurts, as if it's being suffocated or something. I do like rice though, so sometimes I can't help but to "hurt" myself and still eat rice when I prepare it for my family. And every single time I regret it again. I did find some decent replacements, to eat when my family eats rice. These include burgul (or bulgur) wheat, barley, and orzo (rice shaped pasta). It's still different, but a decent replacement in case you can't buy or tolerate rice. 

So pasta it is for us, on a lot of days. How do we eat them? Here's some ways we enjoy them most often: 

The most well known traditional Tunisian way (recipe soon to come). 

Makarouna bechamel, also known as the "Arabic mac 'n cheese" 

Italian pasta all'ortolana (with mixed vegetables) 

Aglio e olio (garlic and olive oil) 

The "Dutch way" of pasta with red sauce, mince, and lots of veggies

Pasta with a creamy sauce and whatever vegetables we have on hand; we had this on Monday, when I used up a lot of chard 

Pasta salads during the summer 

Pasta based soups; such as mhamsa (Tunisian pearl couscous soup), or makarouna jaria (another kind of soup with small pasta shapes), cream of chicken soup with vermicelli/orzo, etc. We eat these mainly during the winter. 

Steamed pastas: vermicelli and nouassar (which is, I think, a very traditional shape that isn't even found in Italy - it's flat, like the shape of a small postage). We also have a steamed orzo dish regularly. Steaming pasta is probably a very north African thing to do, and it's very yummy. Some steamed pastas are one pot meals whereas others have a separate sauce/stew added on top. 

And of course, pasta is very suitable for using up all kinds of leftovers! This is probably one of my favourites as you never know what you end up with and it's never disappointing. 

We do eat some Asian style dishes with noodles too, however, I don't think that fits in this post and probably needs it's own post. 

So, these were some of the reasons why we eat a lot of pasta and how we eat them. 

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.