50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

cw18

Google turned up

chinese red-cooked ducks' webs
or
duck feet in chili and black bean sauce
or
stuffed ducks' feet
or even
braised duck feet

ceridwen

Some good points on cw18's post re acceptable/unacceptable foods. Veal is obviously a particularly "objectionable" meat. I wont touch meat at all though - dont want to think of what the animals have been put through anywhere along the line. I have to confess that I did use battery eggs once upon a time some years ago now - but I wont touch them either now. I've read too much about how those poor hens are kept (a cage the size of a piece of A4 paper springs to mind straight off). So - I do wince visibly at paying what must be approximately 30p per egg (no cheap food in my area - darn it! Can never understand why we have been lumbered with a combination of being a dear price area on t'one hand and a low wage area on t'other hand) - but I think "needs must" on buying the freerange eggs and just dont have that many of them (though never deny myself an egg when I feel like one). I suppose it depends to some extent how strongly one feels about living with one's conscience - mine doesnt sleep very much. It nags me frequently about quite a wide range of issues - I dont always listen to it, but I'm usually aware its "awake" and "listening". Killing things is one of those things where its more active - I've often said that old-fashioned style wars - of soldiers in the field wouldnt be a problem to me personally - I wouldnt be around long enough for it to bother me. As soon as I was given a gun I would fire one shot - straight at myself - so I hadnt been made to kill anyone else that didnt deserve it (but dont get me started on people like drugdealers.....).

In_Search_Of_Me

and breathe C!!...come on now girl too early for stress! Have a nice cuppa to start the day! Good to have principles. I wont eat veal and havent since a child when I discovered that they dont even get to see the light of day. Seems wrong to me and I guess my stance would be that I have to do as much as I can to ensure an animal has a happy life but this does mean that you have to hunt out happy eggs and meat and it is more expensive but I then have a happy conscience! Can understand that budgets can make this difficult and am somewhat aware that this disussion in general could lead to opposing views and am hoping that if people can express them nicely! That was a dig at anyone btw...just a thought.
Have a lovely day out today with two people that I love (making them bread as I type!) so cant be bad! Am doing a list though and plan to get silicone pans as want to get rid of metal ones as they take up so much space...pair of scales and some sewing bits. My twice a year john lewis shop! Possibly a pair of birkenstocks cos mine are 3 years old and to say that they smell is an understatement but theyre sooooo comfy!

Softstuff

Hey ISOM,
Didn't you know that when you buy a pair of Birkenstocks you can keep them for life?
All the bits are replaceable - especially the inner footbed. A much cheaper way of going than buying a new pair. Just visit the official site and they'll help.

As for ethical meats etc.... it's a bit of a soapbox item for me, but not as you might think. I sat down a bit ago, and fully examined our diet and the impact we'd have on our environment etc. Currently as we stand I could buy ethical meat - I'd have to cut down on things like fresh fruit and veg so I'm not willing to do that, and already we only eat meat a few times a week anyway. So, in the past, I've been lambasted by people for this decision. Have kept my mouth shut, not willing to offend (and I certainly don't mean to offend anyone here either), but these people are the self same ones who go out and buy new clothes (possibly from a sweatshop filled with miserable workers), throw away perfectly usable items and replace according to fashion (filling landfill, costing airmiles to transport the new goods, produced unethically in developing countries), spend $30 on organic wrinkle creams etc etc.

There was a new organic shop opened locally here a while back. The shelves in it are particleboard laminate (environmentally dubious and new), the baskets displaying produce came from vietnam (triple packaged and with a ridiculously low cost price from the suppliers - I know as I resigned from the job selling these such items), most of the food is organic, yet travels from lord knows where to get there....and people shop there relieving their consciences and thinking they're being ethical.

I'd like to look first at the people involved in the food or products I buy - are they fairly paid and work in decent conditions?, when I have the luxury to do so. Until then I won't buy new items, just recycle. I'll worry about the chickens after that.

ZoeGirl_3

Been away for a couple of days, back now as it is Sunday evening and I have to work tomorrow.

Just catching up on pages of reading posts!! Can't think of much to say though except I hope my roof stays on as it is pretty windy here. Might have to go off and do some baking etc for lunch tomorrow. Have no bread and not much in the way of snacks for my lil man but have a new sack of flour lol, and eggs, milk, cheese, and all other basics, so maybe cheese muffins, as lots quicker than bread.

Hope you are all well. :j

cw18

I think SoftStuff has some interesting points there about needing to be careful when shopping "environmentally" -- and also as doing it as an all round activity,

But if I'm honest, while I consider air miles etc for Organic produce, it's not something I think of when buying Free Range (I see these as two distinctly different products, with the one being kind to the planet, and the other giving the animals the best quality of life possible)

Because I was a single parent until my daughter was almost 7 and my elder son was 1, charity shops have always been a starting point for me for things like clothes (not shoes or underwear - never buy those second hand!) and books...... for the kids and for me.

I remember once (ooooo, must be about 15 years ago) having a dig at someone at work who had just spent more per item on a skirt and a blouse (one from Next if remember rightly, the other definitely from Laura Ashley as she did loads of her shopping there) than I'd spend on clothes for me in a year.

The following week I took off my "new" suit jacket and managed to (unintentionally) hang it so the label was on display -- at which point the same lass and another girl (we all got on well) had a pop at me. Problem was I didn't understand why as I didn't know the name (seem to recall it was Alexon or something similar), and nearly died at the guesses they were making as to what the suit would have cost. The looks on their faces when I told them (and managed to convince them) that I'd paid a fiver in a charity shop the previous weekend was a picture :rotfl:

And my elder son's most favourite sweatshirt ever (which eventually got passed down to his younger brother when pulling it off meant ripping off his ears, and the cuffs weren't much below his elbows) came from a charity shop -- and cost me 50p. My younger son then proceeded to wear it as often as possible, although he did give it up slightly more easily than his elder brother had.

I think I still have that one, as I have such fond memories of the battles with it -- but it really did have enough life left in it to be passed on for another child (or three).

Our next-door-but-one neighbour has two teenage lads, and every couple of months they completely fill one of those charity collection bags that get left at annoyingly increasing intervals. Whilst I'm glad she clears out that way rather then by binning, I can't believe she tosses more every couple of months than I do in a year

ceridwen

Administrative note to Weezl - the spam post has now gone from your thread - shucks! nowt for cooking for dinner now;) . Dont know if you reported it - or 'tis a result of the forum administrators (as I scanned all this person's posts everywhere - and they were all spam - so I asked for the lot to be removed). Thanks to our hardworking mods.:T

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi everyone

Weezl re your chinese eating more meat comment

have you read James Kynge's book China shakes the world (the rise of a hungry nation )

Its all about the demand for food ,fuel raw materials etc neede to support this fast growing nation - really interesting worth getting from the library


Shaz (whose been out washing butterfly eggs off cabbages and tucking them up in thier new fleecy quilts!!!!)

carriebradshaw

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

oh me goodness go off to have some recreational qulting and misses all the exitement! Each to their own I say ... if you dont wanna eat meat then dont, thats fine - can see both points as have been veggie but missed bacon too much so have made a compromise and now have happy/organic meat whch means I have less meat but when I do I knows its had a good and happy life as far as possible. As you all know the piggy brain was too much for me but having seen our Weezl going a lighter shade of pale can vouch that her ability to "try owt once" is higher than mine!
Hope youre having lovely time at bring a dish wedding reception weezl...hugs re the decorating for both of you as can understand why you both may be feeling less than ...um friendly...Do I know the happy couple btw?!! pm btw! Hope they will be blissfully, and frugally happy! Been quite a day on here me thinks all in all and am with C on lots of happy stroking vibes! As for eating cats - not in this house - Poppy, Dotty, Manu & Alfie say nooooo way as they suck their tummies in trying to look slim enough not to eat! I never would cos I love em...hugs & happy vibes all

well said ISOM :T now lets get back to joy, joy happy peeps shall we kiddieswinks

I've been busy baking today have made bread rolls,coffee cake,hob nobs and some dog biccies.I've given up on the artisan bread thing,I just can't get it,never mind though I can do it the normal way so I'm not too upset

hugs to anyone who needs them, I'm just gonna throw dinner in the oven now and go for a lie down,see ya later everyone :wave:

BigMummaF

Since when did Ben Elon start posting on this thread...."bit political!"...not that I can understand the appeal in him as a stand-up comic

I guess veggie vs meat & organic vs commercial are debates that will depend upon many factors--particulalrly budget--& we should just agree that we are all on this thread with ONE COMMON AIM...........namely to shave financial costs of our personal food choices without compromising health & taste.

Because I've been trying to use up what I already had in, I was able to get some "bargains" from the weekly open air market today. At a rough estimate & fingers crossed I get the meat:veg ratio about right, £35 will give us 12 meals for four adults & a Pup...extravagently _pale_ two steak meals but such a rarety in this house; chicken breast for whatever I decide at the time; chicken quarters in chinese marinade & mahoosive lamb chops! Not too bad a haul, but I did have to lie down after parting with all that cash in one go:rotfl: