Alternatives for when the supermarkets sell out....

-taff

Well, I just used some 6 year out of date green lentils in a soup and can safely say they they don't go out of date either In my defence they were being stored underneath a cupboard in a metal tray thing and I just forgot about them. There are more packs of dried beans in there so they will also be used up at some point 

pineapple

I'm going down the foraging route. Just tucked into some wild garlic. I'll be starting on nettles next - so long as they aren't in a dog pee spot.

Herbyme

gettingtheresometime said:

Can someone help with an alternative to yeast please? 

I've got a couple of bread mixes which are out of date, but I've read that if yeast is added, it's ok.....but I've failed to buy yeast.

Any suggestions gratefully received 

You might be able to follow a recipe for soda bread, it uses bicarb (I think) to get the loaf to rise
I have made baked beans in the past, sometimes there are dried beans in stock when all the tinned ones have gone. Apparently the slow cooker was invented to make baked beans!

Herbyme

Wednesday2000 said:

DUKE said:

I noticed that the chemist was out of body scrub (it's weird as the makeup section looked very sparse too, strange thing for people to panic buy!) so I bought some ordinary salt from the shop and mixed it with body lotion.

Tesco have loads of the cheap 50p toothpaste.
I was thinking of crackers too.
Luckily I got a stash of toiletries in the boots sale. I felt a bit guilty about my stash at the time as I didn't need it, but now ....

I looked and I have lots of some toiletries like moisturisers and only one bottle of face wash! I have some almond oil that I could use with some warm water to wash my face. I'm not going to be wearing a lot of makeup (probably not any mascara) while I'm mostly at home anyway.

I already did the thing of filling up half empty cleaning spray bottles, shower gel and hand wash containers with water to make them last longer as you said.

In the days when I went to a beautician (!) she said a flannel and warm water is as good as most cleansers, and cold water as good as most toners

Herbyme

pineapple said:

I'm going down the foraging route. Just tucked into some wild garlic. I'll be starting on nettles next - so long as they aren't in a dog pee spot.

@pineapple I've read that you can pick nettles to eat only before they have those weird 'flower' type things, after that they contain something harmful, maybe even poisonous. I know that's a bit vague but maybe worth researching

Shropshirelass

If you are short of onions for a recipe, finely sliced celery is a useful alternative, and adds to the taste as well as texture.

VJsmum

carolinerunner said:

gettingtheresometime said:

Can someone help with an alternative to yeast please? 

I've got a couple of bread mixes which are out of date, but I've read that if yeast is added, it's ok.....but I've failed to buy yeast.

Any suggestions gratefully received 

You might be able to follow a recipe for soda bread, it uses bicarb (I think) to get the loaf to rise
I have made baked beans in the past, sometimes there are dried beans in stock when all the tinned ones have gone. Apparently the slow cooker was invented to make baked beans!

Gettingtheresometime - what are it's ingredients?  perhaps someone can help.  You could make a sourdough starter - 4oz flour, 4oz water and leave a day or two, top it up a few times (discarding half) and it's ready to use when nice a bubbly.  Once you have your starter you can use it for bread, but also instead of discarding (once you have made it) you can use it to make things like pancakes or pizza base..  I've had my one starter about 10 years and never discard any now.

Nodette

Going back to the 'grow your own' thoughts....

Hubby and I are in no way gardeners. However some years back we bought some broccoli plants - the 'purple sprouting' kind - at the local market and shoved them at the back of the flower bed. You can eat the leaves (treat like cabbage) so I'd just cut off a few leaves sufficient for the 2 of us each meal. As time went on, we ended with a long length of bare stalk - but still big leaves on top. We ate the broccoli flowers when they came along (actually the buds - not the yellow blossoms).

That was at least 3 years ago. We still have them. We don't do anything to them except cut and eat them (and protect them from the slugs)!! And they seem to cope well with frost and snow. They do look a bit triffid-like these days, but who cares? If you're looking for something edible and easy to look after, I'd say you can't go far wrong with broccoli.

Wednesday2000

carolinerunner said:

 I'm not going to be wearing a lot of makeup (probably not any mascara) while I'm mostly at home anyway.

In the days when I went to a beautician (!) she said a flannel and warm water is as good as most cleansers, and cold water as good as most toners

I can believe that actually. I think I will cut up one of my older hand towels to make some flannels instead of buying more face wash.

It hasn't even been a week indoors and I'm already just down to wearing a bit of foundation, some eyeshadow and a slick of lip balm.

There really doesn't seem much point putting a full face of makeup on if I'm not going anywhere.

Wednesday2000

I was just saying on another thread that I think this time is going to be good for my savings as I am amazed how much money we have in our bank account and it's three weeks until payday!

I am vegan and my husband eats mostly vegetarian food so I am going to buy us food that we can both eat. Taking stock of what we have left in the house food wise I noticed that I usually buy myself speciality vegan foods and him things I can't eat like cheese pizzas. The freezer is full of his food and the store cupboards full of my food.

I realised that was silly as well as more expensive! I am going to get us more basic foods like spaghetti hoops, baked beans, vegan sausages, potatoes, cereal etc... that we can both have.  I will get us both a few luxury foods but limit them to one or two items a week.