2022 Frugal Living Challenge

maryb

She started a new blog though she’s mainly on Facebook these days.  But this has a few recipes and a tutorial for making a thermal cooking bag.  I made one using this tutorial and I really like it
https://www.thermalcookingrecipes.com/

Primrose

Hay boxes.  Just been doing an internet search. - here,s a more sophisticated example which anybody with some carpentry skills could probabky make, but it gives an idea of the concept.

https://youtu.be/FGLFeYNr2w0

Living_proof

They are called Wonder Bags and there’s plenty online including a YouTube feature. They are lovely when made with the right material. 

London_1

Yes I used them back in the 1970s when we had numerous strikes and energy problems .Never scorched anything at all I used some old pillows and a couple of cushions and some blankets.Tightly closed lids to hold the heat in .I guess if you think about it similar to when you cook rice and bring to the boil tightly lid it and switch the heat off and the rice carries on cooking in its own heat.
I would make the stew/casserole and get it really bubbling then tuck it in around 7.00 am and retrieve it around 7.00 in the evening made sure the meat veg etc was cut  into small cubes. Cooks brilliantly and I could just forget about it.The more you cover and seal it in the heat won't escape.

it will slow cook in its own heat so you can do without using even the slow cooker so basically free cooking

JackieO xx

annieb64

My problem is that having just moved house I don't have any old pillows etc! We do have some polystyrene packaging so might do some research into using that. I have a large cold box which we only use about once a year so could fit a casserole into that.

Have just been for a walk and picked about a pound of blackberries which are now soaking . I picked some wild plums too but they all had maggots in so won't bother with them again. I did get some mirabelle plums on Wednesday which were fine so will try to go back to that tree.

Floss

Sorry, fat fingers on my phone!

https://www.sf-innovations.co.uk/haybox-cooking

YoungBlueEyes

Sorry, I don't think I worded my post very well.  When I was wondering about the scorching, I meant from the heat of the pot itself on whatever soft thing is in the hay box.  Like when you lift a hot dish out of the oven and sit it on a teatowel because that's all you have to hand, and you get a brown burn mark.  That make sense...?

mamashaz

YoungBlueEyes said:

Sorry, I don't think I worded my post very well.  When I was wondering about the scorching, I meant from the heat of the pot itself on whatever soft thing is in the hay box.  Like when you lift a hot dish out of the oven and sit it on a teatowel because that's all you have to hand, and you get a brown burn mark.  That make sense...?

We have been using one for many years - homemade by my DH - and can confirm that we have never scorched anything. The pan is hot but not so hot it would scorch a cloth.

Jellytotts

If you’re worried about scorching just wrap in an old towel kept specifically for that job? 

Jellytotts

We’ve been religiously monitoring our gas and electric since getting our new energy use monitor. We managed to charge the car at the equivalent of 2.32p per mile which is excellent.  A load of 40degrees washing hasn’t cost more than 8p and the dishwashers cheapest run was 10p.  All done whilst the solar panels were doing their thing!