• Lemon slaw

    Published On: September 18, 2025Categories: Healthy food, Recipes

    I don't like mayonaise but like the thought of eating a slaw. We were having family around for a meal and I wanted to make falafels in wraps and needed something else to put in [...]

  • My connection with food

    Published On: September 17, 2025Categories: Finding Happiness, Foraging For Food, Growing Food

    Since retiring and having time to forage and grow food, I have felt a stronger connection to the food that we eat. It is no longer a habit to eat because it is a certain [...]

  • 3 cooking ingredients with 1 kg of tomatoes.

    Published On: September 13, 2025Categories: Prepping, Saving money on food

    I have a glut of big tomatoes at the moment. We are eating lots every day but I don't want to waste any. I have no more jars to make passatta, and no room in [...]

  • Spicy summer cous cous

    Published On: September 13, 2025Categories: Healthy food, Light Meals, Recipes

    I love cous cous. It is so quick to make. Today we had some bits and pieces to use up from the freezer and so I made spicy summer cous cous to accompany them. I [...]

  • Hawthorn ketchup

    Published On: September 11, 2025Categories: Foraging For Food

    The other day I picked hawthorn berries. I want to use them for medicinal uses. It is sad that a lot of us have forgotten, or never learned, the connection between food and medicine. The [...]

  • Airfried chick pea snack

    Published On: September 9, 2025Categories: Healthy food, Snacks

    I had the munches today but am trying to be good. I therefore decided to make a healthy, crunchy snack to eliminate my craving. I soaked and boiled some chick peas yesterday and so I [...]

  • Better way of harvesting tomatoes

    Published On: September 7, 2025Categories: Growing Food

    In the past I have waited for tomatoes to be red and ripe before picking them. However, this year, after research, I have found a better way to harvest my  tomatoes. They are beautiful and [...]

  • Getting ready for Autumn

    Published On: September 5, 2025Categories: Living Simply, Prepping

    The garden is slowing down and the leaves on the trees are starting to go yellow. This has given me a nudge to start getting ready for Autumn and the following winter. I can't believe [...]

  • Still learning in my kitchen and garden

    Published On: September 3, 2025Categories: Living Simply

    Every day is a school day, and every year I like to feel that I am still learning in my kitchen and garden. I have been growing food and cooking for so many years, but [...]

  • Healthy carrot cake snacks

    Published On: September 1, 2025Categories: Healthy food

    I am on a mission to have healthy snacks in September. We have a wedding to go to in February but I usually put weight on over winter. I am therefore trying to get into [...]

  • Quick stretched turkey burgers

    Published On: August 30, 2025Categories: Light Meals, Mains, Saving Money

    I needed to make some turkey burgers in a hurry but didn't  have a lot of turkey mince. The turkey mince had been in the freezer a while. I was worried that it wouldn't taste [...]

  • Cheese, onion, bacon potato layer bake

    Published On: August 30, 2025Categories: Mains, Recipes

    This potato, cheese, onion, and bacon layer bake is a meal that my family and I like to eat when we have lots of potatoes. It is tasty without bacon, but family were coming for [...]

  • Beetroot gnocchi balls

    Published On: August 28, 2025Categories: Mains, Recipes

    I am trying to be more imaginative with the way that I use my crops. The idea is that they form part of the main dish rather than a side. Today I made filled beetroot [...]

  • Feeding us with few bought ingredients.

    Published On: August 28, 2025Categories: Saving money on food

    We have had to eaten similar food each day recently as there is just no room in the freezer. My priority is to freeze vegetables and fruit for winter nutrition. During the summer when the [...]

  • Managing a low food budget

    Published On: August 26, 2025Categories: Saving money on food

    Managing a low food budget is not easy, and takes time and planning. I seem to be spending a lot of my time preserving food at the moment. Trying to be food secure is a [...]

  • The benefits of foraging

    Published On: August 24, 2025Categories: Foraging For Food

    When I gave up my allotment, i knew that I wouldn't be able to grow the same amount of food in my suburban garden. Being on a fixed low income, I needed to subsidise for [...]

  • Using oats to save money

    Published On: August 23, 2025Categories: Saving money on food

    One thing that I like to do to save money, and cut down on shopping, is to buy ingredients that I can use in lots of recipes. One of these items is oats. Having them [...]

  • Extreme Frugal habits to save money

    Published On: August 21, 2025Categories: Saving Money

    My lifestyle involves spending as little money as possible and making good use of any resources that I already have. Some one asked me the other week if my little, extreme, frugal habits actually make [...]

  • Saving money in summer

    Published On: August 11, 2025Categories: Saving Money

    We try to use the seasons to our advantage to save money. I wish that we had solar panels to use the free sun's energy, but we don't. When I enquired 25 years ago I [...]

  • Water bathing compote

    Published On: August 8, 2025Categories: Foraging For Food, Prepping

    We have a massive bag of foraged apples to process, and we went blackberry picking today. I managed to squeeze one bag of blackberries into the freezer, but had lots left. Water bathing  blackberry and [...]

  • Bottling satsumas

    Published On: August 5, 2025Categories: Preserves

    I was lucky to get one of those £1.50 Lidl veg boxes last week. It is produce that needs selling quickly before it deteriorates. Luckily everything was in reasonable condition. Mr S was happy as [...]

  • A saved supermarket seed

    Published On: August 5, 2025Categories: Growing Food

    Last January I got one of the £1.50 veg boxes from Lidl. It had a few yellow and orange tomatoes in it. One was squashed and so I saved some seeds. Only one germinated, but [...]

  • Play dough

    Published On: August 4, 2025Categories: Crafts

    At last it is raining. Apologies if that sounds insensitive to any one who has experienced flooding. I know that it has caused devastation to many. We have just had a drought and hosepan ban. [...]

  • Lentil Salad

    Published On: August 2, 2025Categories: Healthy food, Light Meals

    My daughter rang me today asking me for the recipe of a lentil salad that I made for her birthday buffet. It is full of flavour, has great texture and lasts 4 or 5 days [...]

  • Late summer madness

    Published On: July 31, 2025Categories: Foraging For Food, Growing Food

    We were up at 5am walking with a tub in our hands this morning. Bramble/blackberry season has just started here in Yorkshire. Luckily there were not too many ripe ones yet and so that should [...]

  • Increase your harvest

    Published On: July 30, 2025Categories: Growing Food

    I don't have a large area to grow food. In fact a lot of it is grown in raised boxes and tubs. We  therefore have to make sure that I can get the largest harvest [...]

  • Rhubarb bread pudding

    Published On: July 27, 2025Categories: Baking, Desserts

    It is time for picking the last of my rhubarb now. I rarely pull rhubarb past the end of July. This helps it preserve it's energy and produce a good crop next year. We have [...]

  • Free energy supplement.

    Published On: July 23, 2025Categories: Foraging For Food, Nutrition, Wellbeing

    The free energy supplement is nettle seeds! Today I was collecting female seeds from nettles when on my walk. I dry them out in order to use them in bread, porridge, smoothies, and seed bars. [...]

  • Easy courgette fritters.

    Published On: July 23, 2025Categories: Healthy food, Light Meals, Vegetarian

    These courgette fritters are very similar to the courgette waffles, but cheaper as no egg is needed. I make these a couple of times a week now that courgettes are in season. They are great [...]

  • Spicy Airfried Courgette

    Published On: July 22, 2025Categories: Uncategorized

    Air fried courgettes is a fairly new way to cook courgette for me. I had seen it on a couple of videos on Youtube. Mr S loves it, and it is quick and easy. As [...]

  • Black currants a super crop

    Published On: July 14, 2025Categories: Growing Food, Snacks

    Yesterday it was Operation Black currant leathers, and making  cordial. When dehydrated I will cut and roll the leathers up in grease proof paper for a sweet treat for myself and my grandson. These last [...]

  • 2 person Greek pastie

    Published On: July 12, 2025Categories: Mains

    I had been given some out of date pastry. Friends give me their out of date food as I am always banging on about not wasting anything. However, except for fruit, I didn't have anything [...]

  • Use it up day.

    Published On: July 8, 2025Categories: saving waste

    During the 2nd World war there was a slogan in the UK to help people to save resources. "Use it up, wear it out, or do without," posters were prominent. I still live by this [...]

  • Stretch sausage and bean pie

    Published On: July 7, 2025Categories: Mains, saving waste

    It was a use up what we have in the fridge day today. I will often have half a tin of beans in the fridge and one or two of our thicked, cooked sausages. If [...]

  • Garden abundance.

    Published On: July 5, 2025Categories: Growing Food

    This is a really busy time of year, and some days I feel like I am on a production line. I often get two harvests a day. We have to make sure that the garden [...]

  • Learning to thrive

    Published On: July 1, 2025Categories: Finding Happiness, Wellbeing

    A friend asked me to help her balance her budget last night. She is worried about how she will survive all of these recent price hikes and the threat of more to come. I know [...]