From Scatch

I used to spend a lot of time, money and effort making sauces from scratch, now I use jars or packets and pimp them up with extra herbs or by using them in different ways. If you’re cooking for more than 2 then homemade sauce can definitely be cheaper and it’s also quite a bit healthier than the jarred variety with all of it’s added sugars and salt. Except when making a sauce from scratch takes all of the energy you had for cooking and leaves you reaching for the easy junk food...then it’s no healthier at all. That’s the reason I buy either ready made sauces or the ‘just add milk’ sort of powders, I don’t have the energy to make a sauce completely from scratch as well as making a somewhat healthy meal. The energy I save by using shortcut sauces I then use to chop veggies and to me that’s a worthwhile trade-off, so you’ll find most of the recipes I post will use them but always feel free to trade in home-made sauce if you prefer.

Garlic oil is practically a staple in my kitchen, right up there with bacon and bread. Every few weeks or so my small mason style jar will run empty and I’ll simply chop two or three cloves in half and bung them in before topping off with regular cooking oil, you could be fancy and use olive oil I guess but I’ve found vegetable or sunflower oil to be the most versatile. Subbing garlic oil for the usual oil when cooking up practically any meat or vegetable instantly makes it so much better and is a simple way to add some extra flavour. The same thing can be done with all kinds of flavoured oil, I just love garlic.

Vegetables can be expensive, hard to prep and when it’s only for one or two people they most often go off before you use them all. Frozen veg, especially the steam bags are one of my favourite things. Frozen veg can often have more nutrients than the fresh we buy in supermarkets which is already a few days old as most is frozen within a few hours of being picked. It comes in all different kinds of mixes as well as separate vegetables, perfect to store up in the freezer to add quick nutrients to any meal. They’re always fairly cheap, you do have to weigh cost against quality in some brands but I stick to mid range supermarket own products and find they usually come up at a good value. Again, you’ll see them pop up in most of my recipes.

Similarly frozen rice is a great invention, kudos to the person who figured that out. Rice is fairly easy to cook, it’s cheap and healthy so I do still buy uncooked rice but, sometimes even that’s too much effort. Frozen rice often comes mixed with veg and already seasoned so it can be a quick and easy way to bulk out a meal without relying on unhealthier staples like chips or bread. Can you tell that I love my freezer? I truly believe a freezer, a mixer and a good frying pan are a low-energy-kitchen's best friend.

Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that I'm aware that not all of choices are the healthiest and often not always the cheapest either but, there are a few factors I have to consider. Some of which are maybe outside of what you consider when shopping:
- Value, is this worth the money I'm paying for it?
- Storage, will it last for very long or do I need to eat it soon? My appetite can disappear at a moments notice so perishables can often...perish, before I get to them. Avocado's are my love and eternal pain, it's so hard to time them to be ripe the same time I have an appetite for them.
- Allergies and intolerances, can I eat this without too many undesirable consequences? Some foods I can eat small amounts of without much of a problem whereas others will have be in trouble after just one bite.
- Energy, how hard is this to prep? Does it need to cook for a long time and require forethought? I often forget to eat until really late so things that need to cook for a few hours don't always work or else I'm really hungry right at the moment so I don't want to wait around too long for a meal before I reach for junk.
- Location, can I buy this in my normal supermarket? If not, how far away is the store, is it worth it?
- Versatility, can I only cook one type of meal with this? If I don't fancy that meal, can I change it to work with something else?
- Health, does it provide me with at least some form of nutrients? Can I add staple vegetables (carrots, sweetcorn and broccoli for me) or would only certain vegetables work?
- Leftovers, can it be eaten another day? Would it freeze well? Again when my appetite changes I often have leftovers, plus coking for one nearly always means leftovers.

What do you have to consider when looking at recipes?