spruce up your sprouts

That sound luuurvly Bogof Babe, will give it a go.
Havn't got a spare room for either of us to move to so we'll just have to umparpar together ;D

Last Xmas, my sis in law did the dinner. We had shredded sprouts pan fried with bacon and garlic. Was absolutely scrummy. Must try them again soon. Mind you, I do that already with green cabbage instead of the sprouts.

Are you a vegetarian then Caterina?

Cheers Caterina

I suggested to a member who is trying to cut down on shopping bills and is also a vegetarian to start a thread on here about veggie meals (I told her you loved a challenge ) and that was before I knew you were a vegetarian yourself.

Hi Spendless,

I have found that sometimes as a vegetarian, also committed to eating local/organic (where possible) and avoiding supermarkets as much as I can, sometimes it is more expensive than being a meat eater who does not care much where his or her food comes from.

Factory farmed chicken is so cheap to buy, likewise the horror burgers that are made of reconstituted meat, or sausages, danish salami, you name it, it is quite cheap to cook a meal with some meat these days, unless you choose prime cuts.

It takes quite a lot of planning for me to feed my family well, mostly organic and local, and still manage it within a tight-ish budget.

I buy lots of grains and pulses in bulk, as well as olive and sunflower oils, detergents, stock powder (marigold), flour, sunflower seeds, nuts etc.

I recycle leftovers religiously without telling my family of course, because teenagers are notoriously squeamish hehehe.

Today I made a lovely barley stew with a cup of barley (from a 5kg bag which will last me the winter hopefully), 2 carrots, 1/4 cabbage, 1 head of broccoli and 2 onions. Added a spoonful of marigold stock powder and simmered for 2 hours. Served with homemade bread (from bread machine I hasten to add....) and a chunk of cheese for the veggies (not organic but bought on the market, a lovely camembert that is nearly over dates so it is nice and runny) and a piece of organic chicken for my son.

Pudding: I always have plenty of fruit. The Steiner Kindergarten across the road from me has an arrangement with an organic box scheme. They buy stuff in bulk and then sell it to parents and neighbours at a very small mark up. So I get very nice organic
veg and fruit for much less than I would buy in the shops or even regular box schemes.

I also shop at the local farmers' market. Some stuff is more expensive but for example I can buy a very large bag of tomatoes for a couple of quid by going late in the day and ask the guy for soft tomatoes 'for sauce'. The best ones I use in salad, the others I turn into tomato sauce.

Fruit in season is also very cheap, and veg can be bought by weight, so in theory I could buy the proverbial 'small onion for 5 p'!

I grow some veg in my garden but that's a small one and it is north facing, so not much comes up. But we always have some rocket leaves to spruce up a salad, and at the moment I have a good beetroot crop. Maybe we will get an allotment but we are so busy that it might over-stretch us timewise, so we haven't decided to do so yet.

I think that, because of putting quite a lot of thougth in the way I shop, I am not spending much more than if I was shopping in the 'regular' way (e.g in supermarkets etc).

If I gave up organic altogether and stopped being fussy about buying local etc I could save a fortune, but I really care for the environmental issues that come with food shopping so I am willing to pay a little more.

I hope that this is useful to your friend!

Love

Caterina