A few months ago, I decided to try doing the bulk of my shopping for a month at one time. I take a weekend and make my rounds of the stores, the produce stands, and the market (sometimes). Then I get the bulk of the food ready to use in meals (washed, chopped, frozen - whatever). It's been working quite well. I was a bit worried that during hot season (when we normally have more power outages), having a month's worth of food in the fridge or freezer would be too big of a risk, but so far everything's been fine.
This month I tried some new things -
I did a little research and discovered that orange blossom water (diluted) can be used as a natural astringent. In the absence of anything like SeaBreeze, I decided to try this as an alternative.
If nothing else, it smells exactly like my backyard back home, when our orange tree is in full bloom.
Hey Mom, remember how some of the curry recipes we have would call for "nigella seeds" (black onion seeds)? Well, I think this is the same thing - green tea with "nigella", ginger, and lemon. It's actually a lot better than it sounds. :)
Crab-flavored ramen noodles - neither incredibly delicious nor incredibly disgusting. Just acceptable.
- - -
After I get back from the store(s), the fun begins.
I have a stack of receipts to enter into my budget spreadsheet (which I do enjoy...call me crazy if you want).
I unload everything and soak my produce in bleach water.
Then I start prepping things (to freeze or otherwise).
This month's shopping trip resulted in...
- chopped and frozen peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and mango
- several bottles of homemade juice (bissap and bouye)
- shredded cheese (Yay for the store having real cheddar!)
- banana and mango yogurt frozen in small portions (The bananas were tiny, as you can see!)
- shredded carrots, zucchini, apple, and pineapple frozen in small portions (A tasty addition to oatmeal.)
- whole wheat bread frozen in roll-sized portions
- plantain chips (I tried baked and fried - the baked ones didn't turn out right at all, but the fried ones were good. Quite good, actually! Just not at all healthy. :))
- dried apples
...and a happily full freezer!
- - -
Here's a close-up of making bouye (also known as monkey-bread juice).
The seeds are soaked in cold water to dissolve the whitish powder that covers them.
The powdery liquid (the juice) is strained off and the process is repeated until no powder remains on the seeds, and they look like...
...this.
At this point, you can add sugar, milk (powder), and other flavorings. I decided to try using apple juice to sweeten it instead of sugar. Result: definitely acceptable.
I tried the same thing with bissap. Result: not-quite-up-to-par. I think the ratio of bissap (which is puckeringly sour by itself) to apple juice was too high. I'll have to do a little tweaking on it next time.
So there you have it. :)
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