June 2019 – Making ends meet

Simple lip balm

Winter is definitely here – the last few weeks have been colder and colder. Unfortunately for most of us, winter also brings chapped lips and dry skin.

Here is a simple recipe for lip balm you can whip up in your kitchen in a snap, no special ingredients needed:

Lip Balm Recipe:

Melt one tablespoon shea butter (this is the best option, if you have it) OR one tablespoon coconut oil at a low heat – how you melt it is up to you. You can either use a microwave, a small saucepan, or even place your container in some hot water. Please remember – this is a small amount, so it will melt very quickly! ** You can substitute Vaseline for the coconut oil or shea butter, or use half Vaseline and half coconut oil or shea butter. This would work better in warmer weather**

Now add either one tablespoon of honey OR one tablespoon of castor oil to your coconut oil or shea butter and stir. Pour your balm into a small container – I normally use an old empty container that had lip balm in. Allow to set, either overnight or in the fridge for a few hours. Voila – cheap and quick.

Variations:

You could add a few drops of essential oil to the mix, or some vanilla essence. If you wanted to colour it, you could use a little of an old lipstick that you have a smidge left of. Or you could add a drop of food colour, or some eyeshadow powder.

*Please note that this is softer than normal lip balm – in summer it will melt. Traditionally, lip balm contains beeswax, which is what “holds” the balm together. This recipe is for a quick, inexpensive lip balm, using what you probably have on hand already.

Home made herb salt

Okay, so it’s the end of the month – we’re all broke and out of well… everything! I was heartbroken to discover my trusted aromat and Worcester sauce were finished, because how the heck are you supposed to cook anything with no spices??

I am going to try to make my own Worcester sauce tonight, so fingers crossed that it comes out okay. In the meantime, at six am this morning, I made some herb salts so that I at least have SOME flavourants for my meals.

Once again, this is really easy to make – I have made rosemary salt, a Mediterranean kind of salt (thyme, rosemary, dried tomato peels, basil and some oregano), garlic salt, basil salt, etc. The possible combinations are varied, so feel free to play around with different combinations, or single herb salts.

It works great with fresh herbs:

½ cup of salt

2 loosely packed cups of fresh herbs

Throw the herbs in the food processor, with some of the salt to help grind it down. Once it is fine enough for your liking, place in a clean, dry glass jar and top up with the remaining salt. Give it a shake to spread the loveJ. Store in the refrigerator.

Version 2:

Using the same ingredients and ratio as above, grind the herbs with some of the salt. Combine the remaining salt and dry in the oven on a very low heat / in biltong maker/ food dehydrator/ air dry until the herbs are dry and bottle the salt. This can be stored in the pantry or grocery cupboard.

Version 3:

½ cup of salt

2 – 3 tablespoons dry herbs

Following the above steps, grind your herbs, combine with the remaining salt and bottle the salt. Can be stored in the pantry or grocery cupboard. I just use herbs that I dried previously, as my fridge space is limited, so I try to avoid making things that will take up space unnecessarily.

Home made labels for just about anything!

Give those glass jars you have a new purpose in life – use them as storage! We all seem to have the problem of “matching” storage for all our herbs, spices and other assorted food stuffs.

I got frustrated by my pantry looking messy and mismatched, so I made myself “matching” jars. I took old jars, spray painted the lids, made labels (to avoid the good old “what the heck it’s in this bottle” scenario – we’ve all been there!)

The labels were really simple to make. All it took was some paper, wide sello tape, water and a credit card or something similar.

1) Print the labels on normal paper, taking into consideration the thickness of the tape you are using. Pick whatever font appeals to you.

2) Cut the labels out, stick it to the tape, print side up.

3) You then take the credit card and rub over the tape, to transfer the writing to the tape.

4) Place the tape in a bowl of water for about five minutes. Gently rub off the paper, and stick to your jar (or whatever you want to label!). The tape will regain its stickiness once dry. Gently wipe the label with a dry cloth, to squeeze out the air behind the label, and any excess water.

There you go – one very pretty label, done to your own taste, and it didn’t break the bank:)

Potato peel soup

Use potato peels to make a delicious soup

For a new take on not wasting the scraps, why not make potato peel soup? Using the peels instead of whole potatoes, thus minimising wastage and using the whole potato.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter or oil
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped OR carrot peels (you can leave out the carrots if you like)
1 1/2 cups potato peels
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (healthier by far, but if you don’t have, you can use a stock cube)
2 cups milk or cream
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Garlic to taste (optional)

Instructions

In a medium-size pot, heat butter or oil.
Add onion and carrots to pot and fry over medium heat, stirring frequently until onion is translucent.
Stir in potato peels, stock, and bay leaf.
Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until carrots are soft.
Remove from heat. Stir in milk or cream, and let soup cool slightly.
Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or blend it in batches in a countertop blender. If you don’t have either, just strain it through a sieve. You can then just push the veg though the sieve as you go.

*Notes

You can feel free to add different veggies, as you prefer. Just don’t blend if using green veg, it kind of looks gross! Experiment with what your family eats – if they don’t eat carrots for example, sub it out with another veg, or leave out altogether.

You can serve with bread, the croutons you made from the left over bread, or just crumble some bacon on top. Cheese grated on top also goes well with this.

My mother in law suggested using packet soup with the potato peels instead of all the other things. I haven’t tried it yet, but will let you know if it’s any good. And if you try it yourself, feel free to let me know how it turns out.

How to make orange sugar

Really simple to make, this is made from something normally thrown away – orange peel.

Simply take one cup of sugar, add two tablespoons of orange zest. Then you can either give it a whirl in the food processor, to give a finer sugar, or simply mix the two and give it a stir every five minutes for around thirty minutes.

You can use the sugar to flavour your tea, or on pancakes or French toast. Maybe oats? Use your imagination!

*Note – I always look for the easiest, quickest way to do something, so I add everything together in a jar, and give it a shake every now and then:) I have a really fine zester (a microplane), so everything comes out really fine. If you don’t have one, no sweat, just use the fine side of your grater!

The sugar lasts indefinitely and can be stored at room temperature.

Don’t waste the “scraps”

I am kind of shocked on garbage day, when I see how much garbage everyone throws out. They have full wheelie bins, sometimes two, and our wheelie bin isn’t even a quarter full. That’s because very little in our house gets thrown out.

We recycle plastic, paper and glass, and most of our “scraps” get used up. Even egg shells don’t get thrown away – it ends up in the garden.

The plastic and paper help out a lot, because we sell it to the recycling companies, so it brings in a little extra cash AND we get to help save the planet – win-win!

Before you throw out food scraps, be aware that most of the time, you can actually use it again and save yourself some money at the same time.

Orange peels: they are great for your garden, but you can use it for more than that! I made candied orange peels on Sunday, which are delicious and (kinda!) healthy, and we always have dried orange peel on hand. This is great, because (on Sunday), we made desert, which was orange and brandy flavoured malva pudding. Delicious:). I used the water from the candied peels, grated some zest in, and added brandy essence. I also used some of the dried peel for flavour.

Dried orange peel can be used to make orange oil, orange sugar, orange sugar scrub, and also to make a general cleaning product.

Potato peels can be used as compost. It can also be used to make potato peel chips. You can also freeze them as is, to use in stock or bone broth. You can make a frugal and healthy soup – potato peel soup. You can also use carrot and other peels to make vegetable peel chips.

Bones – chicken or other, can be frozen and saved to make bone broth or stock. I actually prefer to make bone broth, as it is more nutritious, but I only do that when I really need and have a lot of bones (or chicken carcases) and peelings, as it takes very long to make (trying to save electricity!).

Extra herbs (ideally grown in your garden) can be used to make herb salt or herb oil, or even herb vinegar.

Don’t throw away the stale bread – use it to make breadcrumbs for breading chicken, or au gratin meals. Or make croutons from them…

Vegetable peels, carrot and onion tops – freeze them in a bag, for the next time you make stock or bone broth.

Apple cores and peels – use the seeds to grow an apple tree, the way I did, or make your own apple cider vinegar from them. You can make apple tea, apple juice or apple cider. You can make infused water, or apple syrup…

Avocado pips – grow your own tree, or let them dry and grind them up. Use for exfoliation and apparently, you can consume them in smoothies as well… I believe it is very beneficial.

Pineapple skins and tops – grow your own pineapple plant. The skins can be used to make sun tea (water left in a closed jar with some sort of flavourant in the sun for several hours), tepache, potpourri, or just throw the peels in the juicer and get the wasted juice out of the peel.

Tomato – when peeling tomato, don’t throw the skin out. Let it dry, and add to your herb salt when making, it gives it a nice flavour. If you just cut the tops off, throw it in your broth bag (the bag you are collecting peels in for bone broth). If you have a lot of tomatoes about to go bad, rather throw them in the processor and freeze the tomato in ice cubes, so when you need tomato for a meal, you have some frozen. Or make a tomato relish and freeze it, ready for the next braai.

OTHER HOUSEHOLD GARBAGE REPURPOSED:

I don’t throw out Styrofoam containers from meat, I wash it and cut it up to add “feet” to my cake boards.

Glass jars are re-used for Kefir, or beetroot salad or pickles. I used a lot of my glass jars to re-do my pantry – I spray painted the lids, and gave each jar a nice label, and I store herbs and spices, etc in them.

I love the Worcester sauce bottles, they are fantastic for herb oil, herb vinegar or even salad dressing. Soy sauce bottles work well for that tooJ

Please don’t misunderstand me – I am not a hoarder! I don’t need a shovel to dig my way out to the front door, but there are tons of ways to re-use or recycle whatever we would normally throw away. I encourage you to explore this, as throwing away is not only wasteful, it is also bad for the planet. Before you toss the next thing in the trash, think about what you are doing – are you wasting something that could be re-used in order to save yourself some money, and also creating a lower impact on the environment?

Quick Thai chicken curry soup

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger ( or 1/4 teaspoon powder if you don’t have fresh ginger)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste – recipe here (couldn’t find it in the shops, so I made my own!)
4 cups of that delicious chicken stock you made using this recipe
2 cups water
juice of 1 lime – or you can substitute lemon
100 grams rice noodles – (I used two minute noodles, and only added them once the soup was cooked)
1 can coconut milk (or make your own here)
2 cups cooked chicken (I used only one cup – remember, my chicken made three meals AND stock!)
handful of fresh basil, torn
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
green onions to taste, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Add oil and onions to a large pot, and saute for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring as needed.
Stir in the ginger, garlic and curry paste and cook for around 30 seconds
Add the chicken stock, water, lime (or lemon) juice and noodles(if you are using two minute noodles, only add them once the soup is done). Increase heat to high and bring to a gentle boil.
Stir in the coconut milk and chicken. Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the basil, coriander and green onions. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
Serve immediately. (You may need to add more stock the next day, as the noodles absorb more liquid the longer the soup stands).

Home made coconut milk

This is really easy to make, and no special equipment needed!

Ingredients:

4 cups water

2 cups desiccated coconut

Directions:

In a pot, heat water until warm, but not boiling. In a food processor or blender, place water and coconut and blend on high for a few minutes until thick and creamy. Strain using a sieve to remove most of the coconut pieces, and then strain through a clean dishtowel or something similar. **** remember where I said to not use a dishtowel washed with washing powder in my kefir post? The same applies here! You do NOT want washing powder flavoured coconut milk!

Drink immediately (or use for your Thai chicken curry soup!), or store in the fridge for a maximum of three days.

Home made red curry paste

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp coriander seed (or ground coriander)
1 tsp cumin seed (or ground cumin)
1/2 tsp black peppercorns (or 1/2 tsp ground black pepper)
120 g red bell pepper (seeds removed and chopped)
14-28 g red chilies (more or less depending on preferred heat-stems removed)
3 g fresh ginger or or 1-2 tsp ground ginger)
9 g garlic (skins removed)
3 g fresh turmeric (or 1 tsp ground turmeric)
1/2 tsp salt (plus more to taste)
45 ml lemon juice
1 medium lime, zested and juiced (~3 Tbsp or 45 ml juice) (or substitute lemon juice if you can’t find lime)
80 g green onions
30-45 ml oil
15 ml maple syrup or sugar (to balance heat)

Instructions

If using whole coriander, cumin seeds, and black peppercorns, add to a small skillet and toast over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes or until fragrant and slightly deeper in color, shaking / stirring occasionally. Be careful not to burn! If using powder, skip this step.
Once seeds are toasted, add to a mortar and pestle and loosely crush. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, slightly cool the seeds, add them to a sandwich bag, and crush with a rolling pin or a heavy pan. Set aside.
To a food processor (or blender with a narrow base), add crushed spices, red bell pepper, red chilies, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, turmeric, sea salt, lemon juice, lime zest + juice, green onions (or shallot), oil / water, and maple syrup (or other sweetener).
Blend / mix until a paste forms, scraping sides down as needed.
Taste and adjust flavor as needed, adding more lime zest or juice for acidity, salt for saltiness, chilies for heat, maple syrup for sweetness, oil (or water) for creaminess / to thin, garlic for zing, ginger for brightness, or turmeric for more intense curry flavor.
Store curry paste in a jar in the refrigerator up to 10 days or more. For longer storage, transfer paste to an ice cube tray, freeze, then store in a freezer-safe bag up to 1 month.
This curry paste is ideal for curries, soups, sauces, salad dressings, and more!

This recipe is adapted from Minimalist Baker
here are some delicious home made curry pastes: https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/easy-homemade-curry-pastes/

poor man’s chicken alfredo

Ingredients

Chopped or shredded left over chicken
250 g pasta
1 small onion finely chopped
1- 2 cloves garlic, minced
400 ml milk
1 teaspoon dried or 15 ml fresh parsley, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon margarine or butter
2 heaped tablespoons cream of mushroom soup

Directions

Cook pasta in a pot of salted water according to package instructions then drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, slice chicken into strips and season all over with salt and pepper.
In a pan over medium/high, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp of butter. Add onion and sauté 3 min until soft Add garlic and sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Add milk and cream of mushroom soup, and simmer over medium heat 8-10 min, or until beginning to thicken. Add chicken to the pan, add parsley and season sauce to taste (1/2 to 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper).
Add cooked pasta and stir to combine. Heat another minute until warmed through then turn off the heat, cover and let rest 10-15 minutes then stir and serve garnished with parsley.

Notes: I use one pot for everything – less washing up! You can use left over bits of ham or bacon instead of the chicken, or with the chicken if you prefer – remember, the idea is to use what you have instead of wasting. This recipe works best with fettuccine or linguine, but given the price, I chose to use spaghetti instead:)