Time for more homemade basically Cup Noodles! Miso insta-rice noodle soup. (With most of the wakame still on the bottom, and the tofu at the top.)
I had a hard time figuring out what to eat to take some meds, and glad I thought of this low-spoons option. Hot soup is also extra welcome with the weather right now
Obtained: the closest thing to tater tots you can get here.
I was glad to spot some a while back. Oddly enough, they didn’t have a noticeable bacon flavor, in spite of a little bacon in there. They did have some odd note that I wasn’t totally thrilled with, just eating them on their own. It wasn’t actively bad; the taste just didn’t scream “tater tots”. It was a little disappointing.
But, I figured they might work fine to throw on top of a casserole, which is what I decided to try tonight. Probably better than the hash brown triangle things (which taste more like a basic tater tot!), with more of the crispy outer surface.
One of those chilly damp days here that made some type of hot filling casserole seem very appealing.
But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?
Let me tell you a thing.
This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then.
This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together.
AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing.
You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already.
Here’s her list of kitchen basics.
Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic.
Make your own pasta–gluten free.
She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.
A carrot, a can of kidney beans, and some cumin will get you a really filling soup…or throw in some flour for binding and you’ve got yourself a burger.
Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section.
She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days.
Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling.
Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.
I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that.
If you don’t need this now, pass it on to someone who does. Pass it on anyway, because do you REALLY know which of the people in your life is in need? Which follower might be staring at their own piggy bank? Trust me: someone out there needs to see this.
Reblogging for all the impoverished students. Jack is the breadline queen. And if you don’t need this – donate to your nearest food bank, stat.
Reblogging for students, working folks, and everyone who’s ever had to choose between essentials at the store because you can only afford milk OR bread, not both.
Fuck hunger. If anyone can find this useful…
Links are broken, here’s her website: https://cookingonabootstrap.com/
Good recipes, good food, seriously low cost.
@bitchesgetriches I thought y’all would find this helpful to your followers
You were heckin right.
just in case someone I know needs this or knows someone who does
Many of the recipes–and all of the more recent ones–are also vegan, for anyone that might particularly help.
What specific ingredients are cheap and readily available will vary a lot depending on where you are, and this is very UK-based. But, it might be helpful elsewhere, for ideas on working out good uses for what’s cheap there.
Similar to some chicken noodle soup I put together this evening, without a recipe. Working in a little of the bunch of collards which have been hanging out in the fridge while I haven’t been up dealing with them 🙄
More vegetable chopping and standing in the kitchen than I really needed to do today, but a nice pot of soup was exactly what we needed with this cold/flu/mystery creeping crud and the rain.
Wish I’d made a bigger batch with more than 2L worth of broth, to have more left for tomorrow. I’m usually the main soup fan around here, but my partner polished off a lot of it tonight. Must have hit the spot for him, too.
This evening: Another episode of “What Can I Do With A Couple Of Boneless Chicken Pieces Plus Assorted Vegetable Remains (Without Going To The Store)”.
We had some odds and ends stir-fry recently, Indian takeout the other night, some chickeny pasta last night, and I’m the only real vegetable soup fan here.
But, I spotted some coconut milk, so I guess Kitchen Sink Thai Curry it is. (Haven’t quite decided on red or green paste yet, but I try to keep both in the fridge.) Jasmine rice? Check.
What usually passes for meal planning around here 😅 “What do we have, and what’s not too repetitive for the one who cares more?”
Though, things apparently weren’t looking carby enough, so I couldn’t resist getting some of these too 🙄
Guessing they’re trying to invoke the whole “gastropub” experience, but that name still sounds…unfortunate.
They are good enough thick cut oven chips that I’m willing to overlook that, though. Still get amused every time.
I was glad enough to see that they had these back in up the street, that I went ahead and bought two while they were there. One for tonight, and one to stash in the freezer for emergency supplies. (If we had more open freezer space right now, I probably would have grabbed a couple more.)
Surprisingly tasty, celiac friendly, and also not very carby. (The “luxury” partly seems to mean “we didn’t bulk it out with potatoes and two specks of meat”.)
I am certainly glad to have a small supermarket within gimping distance, or we probably wouldn’t be eating nearly as well as we have been. But, that small location really likes to change their stock around–which can be extra aggravating when you have some major dietary limitations.
Unless it’s something super basic like milk or carrots? If you like an item, you’d better grab it whenever you see it. No guarantee it will be there next time 😬
More great late night phone photography!
But, tonight’s delight: Another round of leftover spaghetti halfassed yakisoba. This time with some easy dragon noodle sauce, adjusted to taste with maybe half the sugar. And a good bit of garlic added.
It sort of blends in, but that’s probably 1/3 cabbage by volume. Cutting up veggies was the holdup earlier tonight, but I really needed more vegetable matter today. There was only a handful of frozen shrimp left, so I also used the chili flake egg from the second link. May use that again with some other dishes. Surprised I hadn’t thought of it before.
I was hungry enough by the time I attacked the first bowl that I forgot to add the green onion and cilantro on top. But it was a nice extra touch.
Overall, not bad at all for the effort involved. (Well, other than vegetable cutting 🙄) I hadn’t tried the dragon noodle sauce before, as popular as it’s seemed to be for a while–but, if it involves the rooster sriracha? Decent chance I might like it.
Quick eats time: some box style GF mac and cheese, done basically like that easy broccoli pasta from the other night. (A lot of the broccoli sunk to the bottom here. It’s close to half and half.)
This lighting (and the black bowl) really isn’t helping its looks much, but pretty good. I’ve made other types of macaroni and cheese with broccoli thrown in, but for some reason never tried this before. But, I had a little frozen broccoli left, and felt like I needed more veggies tonight.
Similar to something I threw together earlier, to go with a tuna steak. I used penne, but just about any pasta shape should work fine.
I was going to saute some garlic, but ran out of energy and just sprinkled in some garlic powder with the other seasonings. Hadn’t made anything like this in a while, but it turned out good enough for the effort that I should again before too long.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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