food4thought

Cooking for Alice

is the real title of this little divertissement from my site.

Ever since my daughter met her friend Alice and the letter declared that she ‘just couldn’t cook’, I’ve been threatening to put pen to paper…or rather fingers to keyboard … to try to put together a few ‘no/lo -cook meals’ .  Alice was just about to set off on a University and living and catering for herself ‘rite of passage’ and we immediately pooled together a few things that broadly obeyed the following guidelines:

• would be simple to prepare
• wouldn’t take too long
• wouldn’t matter if measurements are a ‘bit off’ the recipe will still work
• won’t cost the earth economically or environmentally
• would be better and healthier than eating fast food
• could be ’spiced up’ a bit to impress a significant other

So this little collection is dedicated to Alice.  Hope she tries and enjoys them and that you may have the confidence to do likewise…….

In equipment terms, the most these recipes will require is:

• pots and pans
• a wok or pot if not!
• a small oven
• a hob (gas or electric….. but I find gas more instantly controllable).

I’ll list and link the recipes hereunder, but once you put your cursor over the ‘food4thought’ tab a list of the recipes will spring out to the side: click on anything that might take your fancy.

We’re not proud either: if we find links to super recipes we can’t improve upon on other sites like:

• Delia Smith
• the Hairy Bikers (don’t ask!)
• Recipezaar / Food.com
• BBC Good food
• Marmiton
• Simplissime

then we’ll be the first to post you off in their direction!

Sustainable Living : The Practical Way!

What can we do? What do we do? What should we be doing?

Well, it’s all very well to pontificate to say what we should all be doing, but it’s often more a case of what we can really do everyday. But I think that we can all learn from each other and pick up ideas that we can adopt in our daily lives. Here are our tips :

Sort out your waste : cardboard, plastic, paper, aluminium, glass…there is very

Office : Re-use printed paper as draft paper or corrections. Draft setting

Local market shopping : Mulhouse has one of the best markets in France; find another one near you.

Less packaging : refuse over packaged goods, use beeswax wraps, Tupperwares, paper bags. No polystyrene containers (fish and meat fillets are often packed like this). You can never recycle it ; heat it and it turns to gloop; it just goes into landfill and never degrades. Beuurk!

Seasonal produce : don’t expect strawberries in December! Eat what is in season, it’s fresher and cheaper.

Local producers who are not in your markets, (honey, spices) or exchange veg with the neighbours.

No single use plastic, if you do have to buy plastic, then re-use it to store food or whatever.

Other side

Less meat more veg & fruit

leftovers

Fewer takeouts

Peelings

Compost

Exchange

Nutrition

Repairing rather than buying

Repurposing recycling bags

Clothing

Fountain pens

LEDS power breakers

Transport

Cleaning Products Vinegar Water pinch of bicarb