Prepping: the new world...

DigForVictory

Ramadan is coming! Very roughly Wed 18 Feb - Fri 20 March, and my Muslim colleagues will be fasting while the sun is up - not even drinking water. Sundown, the feasting, the magnificent meal, 'iftar', the shared joy. Every night, so it's no break from the kitchen & by no means a time of weight loss.
Your supermarkets may not have obvious promotions but you should see a wider range of dates available (it is traditional to break the fast with dates & water), and rice, dates, figs, nuts, chickpeas, lentils & oil may be discounted.
Me, I'm always interested in cheap chopped tomato as I tend to cook with it a lot, but I like to snack on nuts & have a big sack of rice & another of lentils handy so I can feed any itinerant vegetarian or bulk out my omnivore meals. Chickpeas and assorted beans will be added to the stores & then I can start eyeing the spice racks to 'hop continents'. I may attempt a jollof that is barely worthy of the name (as I am an utter wimp on heat) [a recipe here] or try a mujadarrah (still plenty of cinnamon in the cupboard after Christmas, after all) [a recipe here]. No religious assumptions please, I just followed where rice took me…

Cherryfudge

I took the hint, thanks @DigForVictory : our L1dl currently has Indian spices, pulses and tins of vegetarian curries so I've topped up some supplies. I thought the tinned curries/dhal would be really useful in a prep cupboard, though I've not tried them for taste.

DigForVictory

I can't see how you can go wrong with dhal ready in case of emergencies, although I'd have a Dishoom dhal as a treat. (It takes over 5 hours, & a big cooking pot, but everyone who has partaken has agreed it was worth every minute.) I'll suggest sis checks Lidl for mum's emergency tin stash, as I would bet a fiver it hasn't anything Indian & warming. (Yet.)

DigForVictory

Anyone watching the news will probably have seen things are sbout to get more interesting. Prepping has just got meaningful. Fuel is going up so the cost of everything with a food mile will likely go up. Those who can, get planting, setting seeds, crooning to their plots. Those who can’t, get out the war time cookbooks & revise cooking from scratch ready to coach & coax. It may all be over by Easter but there will still be plenty of shouting so let us keep our home stores tallied & ready to ease the home front. If that means teaching children about foraged greens & how to recognise a potato in a garden, all the better. For the young watching their takeaway get nightly more expensive, let us offer lessons in home made pizza without pity or derision.
I don’t think any of us prepped for the oil states to go up in flames (alas literally in places) but the knock on price increases & the knowledge of how to cope? Absolutely.

suzeesu2000

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81906894#Comment_81906894

you’re absolutely right. There is a lady on FB who is posting wartime recipes which might be laughed at by some but not me. She posted a great recipe for oat cake and oat biscuits which are really good. Obviously wartime rationing meant very little fat or sugar - good for both the waistline and the purse. Over the weekend I went through my pantry shelves and now have a list of what holes need plugging. Sadly unable to grow anything as such poor light in my teeny tiny yard, I did try but to no avail. I shall be trying to grow spring onions on a windowsill though.

DigForVictory

There was some grousing about the monster queues at Costco for fuel at work - & then I saw advice not to panic buy but to stick to your usual routine. Not having serious jerrycans, I can't see how to buffer that particular cost, but as I was in Costco anyway, at least I'm good for the tinned stuff & the herbs & spices that make our cooking taste a bit more multicultural. (All without having seen the news, and with a list clutched in one hand. Costco is a wonderful way to fall right off the money saving wagon for the unprepared but a formidable ally in making a tenner do the work of £20!)

fionaandphil

I was in the supermarket and past the petrol station today and both were really quiet. We had topped up the cars at the end of last week so okay for a good few weeks. Cupboards are stocked so if it's going to be a bit mad in the shops we will manage with what we have.

DigForVictory

I do wonder if covid taught folk to have 'a bit extra' in, in case. Not seeing anyone go wild with loo roll yet!

thriftwizard

Really quiet on the roads around here; normally half an hour of sunshine leads to our roads clogging up with surfboard-laden campervans and RVs. That said, I have to drive 200-odd miles tomorrow, and back again after the weekend, on family business! I shall be weeding & seeding DS1-&-family's garden beds with anything that might grow & feed them in a few months' time; I have plenty of seedlings going down here & some things already hurtling skyward at the plot. Interestingly I've noted that shelves at our local supermarkets have been sparsely laden for some weeks lately; I think we're at the end of the local supply chains and the bigger branches in the city get first dibs. Planning some strategic re-stocking as soon as I get back, but we're fairly well-stocked to start with so there's no element of panic…

DigForVictory

Lucky DS1-&-family! Chez Dig the family is turned out to fingertip weed the herb bed as its easier to kill the rosebay willowherb Now than in another 6" height time. Which will be another 4 days of sunlight I reckon…