Lent week 3

The main news this week is that we found some British sugar (hurrah) so have been enjoying some slightly sweetened food.  Last weekend was a bit of a dead loss as we travelled to a large food centre we had heard about (advertised as serving local food) only to find that vegetables were just labelled [...]

Lent week 2

For anyone avidly following our progress:
We enter our second week of Lent on a local diet with some trepidation. In particular, the lack of sugar and salt seems to make food taste particularly bland. We do not add much of our own salt to food, but by necessity we have been making everything, [...]

soup in a flask

My daughter is not allowed to take soup to school in a small flask.
It is a health and safety issue.
Clearly, there are more health and safety issues associated with lukewarm home-cooked vegetable soup than a plate of red-hot food from the canteen.
It is so obvious that I should have known better.

meals 4 feb

Breakfast: cereals (not local)
Lunch: butternut squash soup, bread rolls, juice as before
Verdict: unfortunately not so good as some of the vegetables had burned in the slow cooker. Next time put on for less time.
Dinner: pasties from yesterday including a small amount of left-over pheasant, potatoes, swede, onion, leeks with boiled carrots and cabbage.
Verdict: really [...]

meals 3 Feb

Breakfast: muffins – from freezer but homemade
Lunch: Pheasant cooked in slow cooker with vegetables
Dinner: vegetable pasties
Verdict: all good
Oven: on to cook pasties and bake bread
Hobs: on to boil vegetables
Microwave: off

Slow cooker: on overnight to cook soup for tomorrow

problems sourcing local food

Finding local food is a full time occupation. At least it feels like it sometimes. Even when you find something, you often then find reasons why it cannot be eaten under the 100 mile
We discovered today that the sprouting beans we enjoyed eating, whilst sprouted in the UK, had actually been grown from [...]

meals 2 Feb

Breakfast: pancakes!
Lunch: jacket potatoes
Dinner: stuffed mushrooms, using produce from Stratford-upon-Avon farmer’s market including Shropshire Blue cheese, and veg
Verdict: good
Oven: on for mushrooms
Hobs: on to cook vegetables
Microwave:
Slow cooker: on for pheasant for sunday

countdown to lent: meals 1 Feb

Not long now to ween ourselves off non-local food!
Breakfast: non-local cereal
Lunch: cabbage soup (made from leftovers of yesterday’s casserole) with home-made bread, oat biscuits and cheese, apples and fruit drink for B.
Verdict: not great
Dinner: Vegetables (swede, carrots, cabbage) in non-local oxo cube with home-made spaghetti and white sauce. Followed by yoghurt and [...]

meals 31 January

Breakfast – porridge
Lunch – as yesterday
Dinner – cabbage casserole with pigeon. Yoghurt and jam.
Verdict: ok
Oven: On about 1 hour
Hob: off
Microwave: brief to heat soup
Yoghurt maker: on overnight

meals 30 January

Breakfast: porridge using oats (not local – using old oats) and milk from the milkman
Lunch: beetroot soup and wholewheat rolls with fruit drink as yesterday, oat biscuits and cheese
Verdict: not bad, but not as good as others
Supper: Onion and leek quiche with potatoes and carrots and sprouting beans. Apple juice. Followed by yoghurt [...]