The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

One absolutely intended consequence of committing to doing Plastic Free July is that it pretty much forces you to do a whole lot of home cooking because just about everything these days comes wrapped in plastic

I did sort of cheat by stocking up the last few days on stuff like kimchi and yoghurt because I still haven’t got a suitable wide mouth thermos flask to make my own yoghurt. I do have recipes for kimchi and lots of glass jars so there is absolutely no excuse there

But for the next month there will be no fresh bread unless I bake it myself or go to a bakery where the loose loaves sit on the shelf. Same also goes for cheese. Ever so glad that the plastic bottle craze for wine never quite took hold.

Finished reading The Mockingjay yesterday and had to squirm at how disgusted she and her friends were by the Capitol folks hoarding tins of food.
If she came to the the serpent’s lair, she would shoot me in two seconds.

So tonight’s menu was mish mash vegetable soup using last night’s left over cauliflower water, carrots, leeks and some of Petunia’s precious sweet potatoes.
It took about 30 minutes to cook and a couple to blitz and ended up with a pretty big pot of the stuff. When the remainder cools down, it will go in the fridge for tomorrow evening

Topped with grated cheese and coriander leaves, it was pretty tasty stuff. But best of all, so dirt cheap. Only porridge or muesli would be cheaper.
I just cannot help but think of the little 300 ml plastic pouches and containers of soup in the shops costing anywhere from $3 up to $7 and that’s just a single serve. The stuff in tins is a lot cheaper but often very salty.
Some one is making piles of money flogging this stuff because they can use all sorts of leftovers, odds and ends and of course the main ingredient is water.

It will be interesting to see the numbers at the end of the month on the app “Track my Spend”. At the end of each day, I account for every single cent and it all gets categorised
Groceries should be going way down because about the only kosher items left on the list are dark chocolate, fresh fruit and vegetables (only the loose ones of course) and jars or tins of things.
Milk is off the menu unless I can find a supply in glass bottles which is rather rare these days.
Needless to say, potato crisps and all sorts of snacky things are out too but that is a good thing.
Plastic Free July is also the perfect excuse to finally get around to writing those weekly menu lists that have been on the To Do list for a very long time

Izzie’s got the munchies. The other week one of the local supermarkets had cauliflowers on sale for $1.70 when they usually sell for somewhere between $3 and $4. So this was just the excuse to indulge in something a bit healthier than cheese, bread or potatoes

They also had broccoli for $1 a head so added one of those to the basket too. Did get to thinking that anyone who has ever grown these critters knows how long it takes and how hard it is to get a half decent sized head. If the supermarket can sell them for $1.70 one can only imagine how little the grower is getting. But of course there is the age old problem of been torn between paying a fair price to the producer while having a limited stash of cash for food.

( serpent snacks )