£100 challenge – days 8 and 9
Posted: October 9, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: apples, £100 challenge, cabbage, carrots, frugal, garlic, Leicester, organic, pikelets, Vegan, vegetarian, yeast 5 CommentsI worked most of yesterday and spent no money. Nothing of interest to report (apart from that I worked at three different sites!) so I didn’t bother doing an update.
This afternoon I tried making pikelets.
Actually, I was going to make crumpets, but apparently I don’t have any suitable metal rings. Now I think about it, I believe the rings I was looking for this afternoon actually went all rusty and horrible and had to be thrown away some years ago!
I didn’t really follow a recipe, just cobbled something together. About 250g flour, a teaspoonful of yeast, a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of salt, with enough warm water to make a pancake-type batter. Left it to rise for an hour and came back to very active-looking batter.
I have a tiny frying pan, so anything like this has to be done in small batches. I made about 4 pikelets, then got bored, so turned the remaining batter into apple bread, adding in some grated apple (the massive bag of apples I was given is still half full!), molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg and more sugar, then some wholemeal flour to absorb the extra liquid from the apples. The result was okay for a make-up, although it could have done with extra sugar and spice. B and I ate about half of it while watching the Great British Bake Off.
***
I’ve been out of green vegetables for a few days now unless you count peas, so after watching Bake Off we went to Morrison’s and I bought:
1 bag of carrots, 600g, organic – 82p. They were 90p a kilo for the non-organic ones but I don’t get through carrots that quickly so 600g was a better choice. While carrots aren’t on the Environmental Working Group’s dirty dozen of conventionally grown produce, they’re not on the clean fifteen either (see here for the full list of produce they tested. They’re based in the USA but they did test both domestic and imported goods. I don’t completely avoid standard produce, but I do bear the list in mind where practical).
1 savoy cabbage – 80p – the cabbage weighed over a kilo, whereas broccoli was £2 a kilo. I know broccoli is a nutritional powerhouse so I’m going to investigate the relative merits in nutrient density between the two, and weigh those against the cost difference.
1 garlic bulb – 25p
This brings the total spent today to £1.87, and the total spent for the challenge so far is £18.62.
dropscone 
the dirty dozen list is not scientifically sound anyway. as is “organic” in general. I’d seriously not bother.
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In what sense? If they’ve tested levels of pesticide residue in different produce that sounds like they used some kind of scientific method. Do you have a source for refuting their claims?
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First I just wanted to say I’m sorry if my comment came across as snappy. I was just too tired to word this better. I only recently changed my opinion on organic food and it sort of “blew my mind”. I hope I don’t have the evangelicalism flu (you know, the one when you realize something that changes so much in your perspective you try to make everyone agree…). I definitely believe our food system needs to change I just don’t think organic is the way to go. In non-organic food you’ve got rescides of chemicals, that are tested and always a “safe” level (I do understand that it still feels wrong to eat potentially toxic chemicals). Organic food however also has chemicals, the only difference being that they’re “natural” and not controlled. Just because the stuff is more “natural” however in no way means that it’s healthier or safer, and the organic stuff is NOT regularly tested on its toxity levels.
There was one brilliant article that changed my mind but I cant find it right now. This here is also good: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-great-organic-myths-why-organic-foods-are-an-indulgence-the-world-cant-afford-818585.html
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Enjoying catching up with this series of posts dropscone. And thanks for the useful link too. I tend to try to get my bulk wholefoods organic (rice, lentils etc.) where possible, as they usually aren’t *too* much more pricy when in bulk than the non-organic kind (we have the same hoard for a famine habits in the penniless household!) though I’m pretty careful where the more high-end health foods are concerned (organic virgin coconut oil costs a bomb IMO).
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Yes! I’ve been slightly dismayed by the proliferation of recipes calling for virgin expeller pressed coconut oil recently! There’s no way I’m forking out six quid for a tub of fat.
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