Motherly Advice...Use your noodle...or rice, or pasta...

    I've been watching Eat Well for Less. Have you?   What an eye opener!   What people DON'T know astounds, embarrasses and infuriates me in equal measure.   And what they can SAVE is even more astounding!   A common issue seems to be that they all have pantries and refrigerators, overflowing with ingredients they've used once.   Here's the thing.   Modern day recipes and cooking shows are a rort.   Many are produced by the supermarkets themselves (even Eat Well for Less has product placement for Coles and Aldi all over the place), and are an inducement for you to purchase the necessary ingredients to conjure up a meal for the family.   This is utter nonsense.   Let's get our head around ingredients and meal planning for a family. Or even for a singleton.   Protein is protein, be it beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, or tofu.   A carb is a carb, and could be rice, pasta, crepes, corn, rice noodles or bread.   Most curry pastes have similar ingredients and with the addition of dry spices, can work well...or create a new taste sensation.   Fruit is fruit is fruit. Banana bread can be strawberry bread. A berry smoothie can be a mango one. Orange and Almond cake can just as easily be mandarin, lime or cumquat almond cake.   Nearly ALL recipes come about through someone else's necessity. NOT by the luxury of having ten different versions of the same thing cluttering up your pantry, refrigerator and mind.   Not only that, but in terms of saving money, you can make a few clever substitutions, and have enough ingredients for a whole extra meal. I do this all the time.  

 

You can save your family so much money, simply by asking yourself:   'What is it?' or 'What is its purpose?'.   Here are some examples:

No bacon or ham? What is its purpose? To add smoky flavour - so add smoky paprika. You might have the bacon or ham, but that can be another meal-in-the-making.

No berries for a recipe? What is the purpose of the berries? Probably to add flavour and possibly moisture - so add strawberry essence, strawberry syrup, or another fruity flavour (anything you have on hand), citrus zest or citric acid even, and add fruit juice or oil for moisture.

No chocolate chips for cookie baking? We all know why they're there. For yummy flavour and texture. Instead add cocoa, broken Easter eggs, chopped cooking chocolate, dried fruit, nuts or coconut.

No cherry tomatoes for that fancy recipe? It is just tomato for flavour and colour. So chop up regular tomatoes or make a tomato puree based dressing or sauce out of tomato paste. No tomato paste? Use tomato sauce.

No shallots, chives or leeks? It is onion flavour you need, so use normal onions or even dried onions. I have these on hand always, and they take up no space at all.

Cheese is cheese. Try substituting any kind or even use the long life parmesan for a cheesy boost.

For Celebration recipes that require a liqueur, ask yourself the same question. Its purpose is to add flavour so just use flavoured essence, adding orange juice for Cointreau, hazelnut essence for Frangelico and so on. It's a lot easier on the pocket with no loss of enjoyment.

 Here's a few more...   Buttermilk - yoghurt - milk with vinegar or lemon juice added   Butter in a cake - oil - fruit or vegetable puree`   Spices - just add any spice in your pantry. Italian flavours include pungent things like Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Sage, Rosemary, Garlic. Greek flavours includes flavours like aniseed, lemon, and mint. Middle Eastern influences include fragrant, earthy things like Cumin, Coriander, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Sumac. Indian cuisine includes aromatics like Turmeric, Fenugreek, Cardamom, Cayenne Pepper, Chilli, Fennel, and Mint and so on. If in doubt, Google the cuisine, and add another similar spice from the same family.   Milk - equivalent amount of powdered milk or evaporated milk, diluted or reconstituted, coconut milk or coconut cream, or just use water, yoghurt, cream, custard or juice. Again, what is the function of the milk in that recipe?   Coconut milk - powdered milk made up to a thicker mixture or evaporated milk, add some coconut essence or even desiccated coconut. It's not authentic, but you get the flavour, and a really lush texture.   Flour - Cornflour. Now that we are gluten free, I've substituted Cornflour in baking a few times. I can assure you it works. Similarly it works for Béchamel sauce and any sort of gravy.   Onion - shallots, spring onion, garlic.   Soy sauce - Fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Tamari sauce, Vegemite or a stock cube (boullion cube), mixed with some water. Again not authentic, but you'll get the colour and a flavour boost.   Sesame oil - try Peanut Oil, Sesame Seeds, or add any other sort of nuts for flavour.   Eggs in cake baking - 1/4 cup mashed banana, or stewed fruit, or soda water or vinegar in water.   I just made some Dhal and needed some lime juice to go in the Natural Yoghurt accompaniment. I had none, so used a pinch of Citric Acid in place of the lime juice...it worked like a charm :)   No potatoes for mash? Make a red lentil mash by microwaving about a third of a cup of red lentils with some stock until they go to mush. Yummier than it sounds.   Tinned peas, heated an pureed make a good replacement for mash too.   I've recently tried cauliflower 'rice' and really loved it but then, I love cauliflower. Cauliflower mash is another alternative.   Sour cream - use natural yoghurt, long life cream with a bit of vinegar added, or ricotta or cottage cheese. You can make your own ricotta/cottage cheese easily. See my recipe here.   Imagine that you are a long way from any supermarket.   In fact I know some of you are.   Challenge yourself to reduce the clutter in your refrigerator and pantry.   See how many substitutions you can make in your own recipes.   Don't buy a bigger house, or a bigger kitchen, to house a madness forced upon us by the modern world.   Don't have $2,000 worth of food cluttering up your pantry, like the couple on this weeks episode of Eating Well for Less.   Make do.   Our parents and grandparents did it.   We can too.