This first one comes from a Homefront pamphlet, and I was able to start doing it immediately, with visible results. Once something has started to boil (rice? potatoes? quinoa?), turn down the burner to as low as possible. The pot will usually keep right on boiling, and most grains actually respond better to lower boiling temperatures.

I can’t remember where the second tip came from, but it takes some practice to implement. In the last stages of cooking, turn off the burner. This works best if you cook with lids on, and is the only solution to not overcooking GF noodles. The pots and pans retain enough heat to finish off the last few minutes of cooking (say three ish, maybe five?), unless you are trying to do something specific, like caramelize. As an example, when I flip the last batch of pancakes on to the uncooked side, I turn off my burner. The pancakes finish off on their own from the residual heat, and I’ve save myself a bit of gas. This also works very well with pots of boiling grain and vegetables, as long as the lid is on.

I can’t tell you exactly how much energy would be saved by following these two tips, but every little bit helps, right?

For each person, thinly slice one onion and one cored but not peeled apple, and also chop well about half a slice of bacon.  In a very large pan, fry the bacon and onions together, pouring off excess grease if necessary.  Once the onion is soft, layer in the apple rings, sprinkling a teaspoonful of sugar here and there throughout (depending really on your own taste and how sweet your apples are). Cover and leave the apples to soften, stirring them as little as necessary.  Once the apples are soft, the dish is ready to be eaten.  I serve this with potatoes, but it can go with whatever you fancy.

1 cup of pumpkin puree/ grated zucchini/ mashed banana/ apple or pear sauce/ etc.

1-2 tablespoons of sugar, depending on how sweet you want your pancakes

2 tablespoons of oil

2 eggs

Beat all of this together until well incorporated, then add 1 cup of gf flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 tablespoon dried milk, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  You may also add in other flavors such as vanilla or spices.   If the mixture is thick, thin with a bit of milk.  If the mixture is thin, add in a bit more flour.  Depending on how runny my veg/fruit add-in, I generally use somewhere between one cup and 1 1/2 cups of flour.

Make pancakes as normal on a well-greased griddle.  Serve with jam, honey, peanut butter, syrup, etc. depending on what flavor you have going.

In a big stock pot, cover the equivalent of half a chicken, including bones, with two ish litres of water (about two quarts, give or take), throw in a few peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves, and bring slowly to a boil.  Let it boil for the better part of an hour, and chop up two big leeks and three or four carrots into nice chunks.  Once the stock has become strong enough, throw in the veggies and continue to boil.  You can also add in some salt now, or wait until the very end.  After about twenty minutes, drop in a cup or so of either buckwheat groats or brown rice, and cook until soft.  Remove the chicken pieces, shred the meat, and return it to the pot.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and eat!

We were away until Tuesday, so this isn’t a full week’s menu.  I was also using up what was leftover from the holidays, which accounts for some of the more extravagant dishes.

Tuesday dinner was relatively basic – fried apples and onions, with mashed potatoes and a basic vegetable soup.

Wednesday started with our standard breakfast of rolls and rice cakes with cheese, and lunch was leftover dinner from Tuesday.  Dinner was lentil stew with GF oat bread rolls, similar to one the posted here (just minus the dumplings), and apple and carrot salad.

Thursday breakfast was  leftover oat bread rolls with a homemade leek and cheese spread, and lunch was leftover stew for Daughter and I.  Our dinner was a bit more upscale, with onion soup to start, followed by GF pasta with classic alfredo sauce and more apple and carrot salad.

Friday breakfast was homemade granola with milk.  Lunch was leftover onion soup, and dinner was a simple girls’ night in with more leftover onion soup, polenta, fried leeks, and the rest of the apple and carrot salad.  This was a definite step up from our usual girls’ night dinner, which is typically at the intricacy level of oatmeal.

I used Saturday to do a bunch of weekend cooking, so we started with pancakes.  I try to make enough to have leftovers for at least snacks or maybe another breakfast for one of us.  Lunch was a quick frozen vegetable risotto, while I set cock-a-leekie and ranch beans to cook.  I made GF pizza for dinner as a treat.

Sunday was a whirlwind day, starting with our regular breakfast, and including cock-a-leekie, ranch beans and hush puppies for lunch.  Dinner was more cock-a-leekie, and whatever other leftovers were floating around (pancakes anyone?).  It was a ginormous pot of cock-a-leekie, so we even have some leftover for tomorrow.

I managed to keep shopping to a minimum this past week, and I am hoping to do the same this week.  I mostly am buying only milk and vegetables, as we need them, and using up whatever I can find in our very tiny freezer and pantry.  I’m sensing bean burgers for this coming week, and something with that uses up my frozen zucchini, and possible my stewed pumpkin.

increased VAT + inflation + no rise in income = less money to spend on everything

Oh, and we also have to start paying for the actual amount of water we use, as opposed to a flat fee per person.  Anyone  who has gone through this conversion will tell you that it never works out in financial favor of the person using the water. I’m not against everyone paying their way waterwise, but I do question the timing. And to top that whole lot off, there is serious talk of raising income tax and power costs this year as well.  Hear that squeaking noise?  That is the screws tightening.

Did I mention that my husband is most likely going to lose his lunch plan benefit?

What this means for this blog is that I have even more reason to write it.  As such, I will be focusing this year on cutting food costs and taking steps to save water and power.  To mark this, I would like to institute a new feature about low-cost GF menus, and I think I’ll call it Double Dip Monday, in honor of our new round of European recession and austerity.

So, wishing you all a wonderful year, and here’s hoping that we come out better than how we started!

Daughter has also taken responsibility for writing out gift tags.  She alternates between cutting and designing her own or using some pre-made ones.  If push came to shove, I might also give her some address labels to color, cut and decorate.

We don’t really do ribbons on gifts for ourselves, as it seems to be very wasteful and superfluous.  If we do use ribbon, it is usually something that can be used again, perhaps out of the sewing box, or raffia that  has come off of some other package.  We do have a stash of that plastic stuff that we use for packages that need to be very socially presentable.

We also have a small stash of gift bags and proper wrapping paper, but I really dislike braving the shops at this time of year, fighting off everyone else trying to buy wrapping materials.  I have gotten quite good at preserving what comes our way throughout the year, and Martha Stewart has some nice ideas for using up wrapping papers, and there are also some general nice ideas of wrapping with odd things here.

Finally, before you throw out all the wrapping paper at the end of Christmas, be sure to check out these ideas of re-using wrapping paper.  I love the tray and the matting ideas.  I am actually kind of excited to see if I can re-use some bits, especially for Daughter to brighten up her room.

For me, the easiest way to warm something liquid back up to drinking temperature is to add in some boiling water.  Not too much mind you, because you can dilute it too much to be palatable.  However, a tablespoon or two of boiling water to a mug of cold tea should warm it up to a nice temperature without affecting the flavor.  The alternative is to add very hot milk, if it’s a latte, milky tea, or something similar.

Of course, a cleverer person would either drink their drink before it got cold or keep in an insulated cup of some kind, but that doesn’t always fit into my life, so I have to resort to other, less elegant solutions = ).

The article is here.

I’ve posted this because I am debating how to trim our grocery budget, and I think that using an approach similar to rationing might be part of the plan.  I’m still turning things over in my head though…

I won’t leave you hanging though, because I’ve hit on an old tradition that has all but died out.  I’ve convinced Daughter to learn some more traditional carols to perform for us on Christmas Eve.  This works for us because we live in a non-English speaking country and we don’t hear English carols very often, so hearing them is always a treat.  Still, I think it is a nice idea and could easily be complimented by a puppet production of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas or a Christmas Carol.

Do you have any similar ideas?