Could you and your family survive for two weeks only on what you already have in your kitchen?
FOR MANY OF us, money’s too tight to mention and cutting costs is imperative, but could it be possible to save money on food by simply not buying it? I set myself the challenge of not doing a weekly shop for two weeks and instead stripping my larder bare to see if I could become a frugal foodie.
Things don’t start well. It has been more than a week since we went to the supermarket so the fresh fruit and veg is running low and there is no meat. My mother thinks it is ridiculous that we don’t have any meat in the freezer (“Do you not even have a few sausages or a couple of chicken breasts?”), but we don’t. The plan was not to become vegetarians for a week, but inadvertently that is what happens.
It is not quite Mother Hubbard’s yet; the contents of my larder include three packets of noodles and a packet each of almonds, raisins, peanuts, rice and spaghetti. There’s soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, a tin of tomatoes and a tin of peas. There is also one tin of coconut milk, some instant miso soup and two boxes of lasagne that have been in the press for a year.
Other items at my disposal include some leftover veggies, five tomatoes, some potatoes which are on the way out, some chillis, lemongrass, a few sad-looking herbs and a bag of carrots.
So, how do we do? First off, it’s vegetable curry for dinner. We use up the bits of cauliflower, the tin of chickpeas, lentils, sweet potato and other leftover veg that I would normally chuck in the bin. There is enough for two days and it’s even hotter and tastier the next day. My four-year-old tucks in despite claiming to “hate vegetables”.
Luckily, he’s quite adventurous, but there’ll be none of his favourite prawns and noodles this week. Instead, the Asian greens and coriander get spruced up in a noodle soup with some frozen wontons, the instant miso soup and udon noodles. Combined with home-made sesame oil from a Korean friend, it makes for a satisfying midweek tea. Instead of a trip to the shop for a post-dinner ice cream treat, I realise that there is half a watermelon in the fridge.
A quick type of any ingredient into Google will throw up thousands of recipes featuring those ingredients. Some websites such as supercook.com, recipekey.com, allrecipe.comand recipematcher.comallow you to key in your various ingredients, producing suggestions containing those elements.
Many of the sites are from the US, but I also found the bbc.co.uk/foodwebsite extremely useful as it has an ingredients section where you can find recipes organised by key ingredient.
A quick watermelon slushie recipe (watermelon, ice, a squirt of lime juice and a spoon of sugar) makes me the most popular mum on the block and resurrects the smoothie-maker that has been hibernating under the kitchen sink for two years. I’m feeling positively industrious at this stage.
The fresh fruit and veg have now reached critically low levels. A stash of baby mush in the freezer keeps the little one covered, but we eventually have to cave in and buy some fresh fruit for the four-year-old. I peel and prep the last of the spuds and carrots and spend the evening in fruitful fashion perusing underused cookery books. My Leon: Naturally Fast Food by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent is especially useful as it contains a chapter on “Storecupboard Staples”, as well as good advice on larder essentials.
Fresh milk and bread is also an issue.
With small children it is hard to avoid dairy and most parents will acknowledge the convenience of fresh bread. During our week we stuck to wraps and frozen pitta pockets which have a longer shelf life and are thus less likely to go to waste. One pint of milk produces two loaves of brown bread so brown and white flour are handy store cupboard ingredients too.
Richelle Flanagan, president of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, recommends that children between the age of two and adolescence require three servings of dairy a day and teenagers five portions of dairy a day.
This dairy intake is, she says, essential for healthy levels of calcium intake. Adopting a diet without dairy for adults should be OK for a week or so, but she does not recommend omitting dairy altogether from the diet because of the risk of osteoporosis in later life.
Some other store cupboard ingredients that Flanagan recommends include tinned beans, chickpeas and lentils, which all provide a great source of protein and fibre. Dried pulses are undoubtedly a cheaper option than tinned but demand more preparation.
She also recommends tinned fish, particularly oily fish such as sardines and mackerel, which provide a good source of Omega 3 fatty acids, protein, iron and calcium.
We are now moving towards the end of the second week and the Main Man is suffering from meat detox. He is demanding beef for dinner but it is not on the cards. He rises to the challenge, later emerging triumphant from our small kitchen with a pot of steaming chilli with rice and tiny crispy garlic roasties.
In an unprecedented series of events, my four-year-old has now eaten healthy vegetarian food for five nights and not even flinched.
At the end of the week I am invited to a friend’s house for dinner, but before I go, I take the final fruit in the house – a bunch of rhubarb – and with the help of the BBC recipe website I turn it into rhubarb sorbet. I’m amazed how simple and delicious it is.
A new found respect for the food in my kitchen has been the surprising outcome of the week’s challenge. Usually we buy more than we need and at least some of it ends up in the bin. By the end of the second week we have saved about €100, our fridge is empty and the veggie basket too, but we have eaten well and there has been absolutely no food wasted.
Instead of running to the local overpriced shop for last-minute ingredients, I have been forced to rethink food and to stop relying on fail-safe recipes. I didn’t know that a foodless challenge would lead me to create sorbets, slushies, spicy bean salads, rosemary almonds, veggie chilli and patatas bravas. I have added new recipes to my repertoire and found a new love for my cookbooks. I have learned tips from friends and found that living cheaper doesn’t have to mean living poorer.
If necessity becomes the mother of invention, I just might become a regular Heston Blumenthal.
Top tips
Asian flavours can add a boost to standards such as rice and noodles. A squeeze of lime and a dash of chopped chilli can seriously boost flavours.
If your veg is starting to wilt, tend to it: pick off the bad bits before it spreads, peel it, chop it and put it in a sealed box of water.
Tins of beans, chickpeas and lentils are healthy store cupboard staples. Your local Asian foodstore is a good source for keenly priced pulses, spices and chilli sauces.
Dig out those recipe books.
Check out websites such as recipematcher.comand allrecipe.com– you key in the ingredients you have and they throw up suggestions for recipes including these elements.
If you buy fresh herbs don’t let them go mouldy in their packets – stick them in a paper bag and let them dry out or freeze them. Ginger also keeps really well in the freezer and can be grated from frozen.
