In my garden it is WAY easier to grow spinach than basil. I usually grow basil in big pots so I can keep and eye on it but have masses of spinach out in the garden. So, when I make pesto, I find that cutting at least 50/50 with spinach makes the basil go much farther, you can barely tasted the spinach especially if you like your pesto garlicky and cheesy. I try to keep jars of it in the fridge to make quick pasta meals when it's hot and all else fails.

#garden #frugal #homesteading #food #FoodSecurity #homegrown

Can someone please recommend a good way of watching movies on demand? Considering getting a Netflix subscription, because I enjoyed it before. Is there a better, more comprehensive, less expensive alternative?

Thanks! 🙏🏽☮️❤️

#Movies #Film #Streaming #StreamingServices #Frugal #Netflix

Current favourite use for ChatGPT is to ask it how to make sweet treats with the few ingredients I have and limited equipment. Much quicker and easier than google which gives broad results rather than very specific. Also easy to follow up with 'I don't have X ingredient, can I substitute Y/what can I sub' and it explains what the purpose of the ingredient is, so why things can/can't be substituted.
And yes, I do use it for meal planning, meal prepping, healthy food too, particularly because food is not abundant now.
But yeah, the microwave cup cake with dates yesterday is my highlight.
#frugal #baking #ChatGPT #cake #recipe

i was gonna buy a weighted vest then i got fat & depressed #frugal

This is a recipe for emergency cake: it's late at night, you've run out of groceries, and you need to put food in your belly. If you have flour, sugar, baking powder, oil and water, you can have cake in a little less than hour.

I'd describe this cake as "surprisingly good." It's not the best cake you'll ever eat. It's not hugely exciting. It's just a really decent cake made of very few ingredients that takes relatively little effort to make. For comparison: start to finish, this recipe takes far less effort for me than box pancake mix.

NECESSARY INGREDIENTS:

🌱 2 cups all purpose flour
🌱 2 tsp baking powder
🌱 3/4 cup granulated sugar
🌱 1/4 cup vegetable, canola or olive oil
🌱 1 cup water

OPTIONAL FLAVOR ADD-INS:

💫 2 tsp vanilla extract (maple syrup, whiskey, bourbon, etc will also work)
💫 Lemon zest
💫 Cocoa powder
💫 Espresso powder
💫 Cinnamon
💫 Lavender
💫 Any other flavors you have: this recipe is basic, and you can add whatever you like to it. We added saffron and orange extract to ours last night.

NOTE: if you have tea, coffee, or juice, you can use that instead of water in the recipe to add more flavor. When I've tried this with steeped tea, I've found that it's a *very* delicate flavor, so make a strong cup if you're looking for a strong flavor.

INSTRUCTIONS:

🍰 Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking dish. The original recipe asks for a 8 inch round spring-form cake pan. I've used a 9x9 glass baking dish and had no problems.
🍰 Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, dry flavor ingredients if using) in a mixing bowl.
🍰 Add wet ingredients (oil, water, vanilla or other extract/liquor if using) and mix until the batter is smooth.
🍰 Pour batter into your greased baking dish. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden at the edges and/or a toothpick comes out clean.
🍰 Let the cake cool before serving. Optional toppings: powdered sugar, syrup, jam, canned fruit, or whatever else you have.

Recipe taken from this website: https://kirbiecravings.com/water-cake/

#VeganRecipes #Baking #Frugal #Food #Recipe

The #frugal, #vegan stew I made for dinner today and which (although not spicy) I enjoyed:

🍲 Renee Kohlman, "Vegetable Stew in a Spicy Peanut Sauce", *Saskatoon StarPhoenix*, 25 October 2019, https://thestarphoenix.com/life/bridges/food-vegetable-stew-in-spicy-peanut-sauce

The prologue of the recipe at the above link includes statements about healthfulness and calories. 1 difficulty in my developing a repertoire of vegan recipes has been the prevalence of healthism/wellness culture/diet culture in recipes. I copied the recipe only, minus the prologue, and pasted it below with my adjustments. No healthism/wellness culture/diet culture here!

Ingredients, with my adjustments:

🌼 2 tablespoons neutral oil

🧅 1 yellow onion, chopped

🌶️ 2 jalapeño peppers, seeds removed, brunoised

🧄 4 cloves garlic, minced

🫚 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

🥬 3 cups green cabbage, chopped

🥔 3 chef potatoes, 1/2-inch cubed

🧃 3 cups tomato juice

🐔 1 cup vegan "chicken" broth made with this vegan "chicken" bouillon powder recipe: https://www.livveganstrong.com/vegan-chicken-broth/

🥫 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes

🥒 1 large zucchini, 1/2-inch cubed

🌿 1 bunch cilantro, chopped (1/2 cup for cooking + more for garnish)

🥜 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used a generic for Jif, a sweetened peanut butter, and it was fine; Kohlman recommends natural peanut butter, and I agree that natural peanut butter might be better here)

🧂 Salt and pepper to taste

Directions, with my notes and adjustments in square brackets:

1️⃣ "Warm a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. [Our 4-liter Dutch oven was too small. I switched to our next-largest cooking vessel, our 10-quart stockpot, and the stew ended up filling it about halfway.] Add the oil. When it has warmed, sauté the onions for about five minutes. Stir in jalapeño peppers, garlic and ginger and cook a few more minutes. Add the cabbage and potatoes. Cook for another few minutes.

2️⃣ "Stir in the tomato juice, [vegan "chicken" broth] and tomatoes. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir in the zucchini and cilantro and cook five minutes longer.

3️⃣ "Turn the heat to low, stir in the peanut butter and simmer gently until ready to serve. [...] Garnish with more cilantro. [Season each serving with salt and pepper to taste at the table.]

"Serves six."

Next time I want to add whole peanuts at the same point at which the zucchini and cilantro are added.

#recipes #vegan #VeganRecipes

💫 Thinly slice potatoes. A mandolin works best, but a knife will do. Take care to keep your fingers clear of sharp things.
💫 Soak sliced potatoes in a bowl of water + 1/2 cup vinegar for 30 minutes. This is to remove the starch and help your chips crisp up in the oven. The proportion of water to vinegar isn't really important, just make sure your slices are fully submerged. If you don't have vinegar, water alone will work fine.
💫 Preheat oven to 425F.
💫 Drain and dry potato slices. Dry slices = crispy chips.
💫 Coat slices in thin layer of oil, salt, and spices of choice.
💫 Arrange on a parchment-covered baking sheet with a smidge of space between each slice. Bake for 12-16 minutes.

In my test run yesterday, one potato needed two baking sheets. My plan today is to arrange them by size so that I can do a sheet with smaller slices + shorter baking time and a sheet with larger slices + longer baking time.

My impression from yesterday is that this recipe is too involved for the type of purpose that potato chips normally serve, especially if you don't have a mandolin. That being said, this is "fuck you" cooking: fuck you, I'm not paying six dollars for a bag of chips. If you don't have the time, energy, and/or resources for this recipe, shoplifting a bag of kettle chips is an excellent dupe.

#baking #snacks #frugal #food #cooking

A note: I'm sure there are big problems with this recipe and how I've written it that Real Bakers can spot. I am not a Real Baker. This is not a recipe for Real Bakers. This is a recipe for people who want cheap bread.

The whole process takes at least ~16 hours start to finish, but less than an hour is active making time. For me, it ends up being about 15-20 minutes of active time the night before, and then around 15-20 minutes of active time the day of baking.

Tools:

🛠️ Large bowl to mix dough in.
🛠️ Measuring cup and teaspoon.
🛠️ Sieve for sifting flour. You can do the recipe without one, but you might get some small flour clumps in your bread.
🛠️ Something to stir with. I use a big wooden spoon, but I've also had success using a metal fork.
🛠️ Something oven-safe to bake your bread in/on. I use a dutch oven, but a casserole dish, skillet, baking sheet, or other oven-safe thing will also work.

Ingredients:

🌱 3.5 cups of all purpose flour
🌱 1 packet instant or active yeast
🌱 2 tsp salt
🌱 1.5 cups of water
🌱 A bit of oil for greasing the baking vessel.

The night before baking:

🍞 Pour 1.5 cups of warm water into a large bowl. (I mix the dough in my dutch oven, which is also my baking vessel.)
🍞 Mix a packet of dry yeast into the water. If using "active" yeast (rather than "instant"), let it sit for ~10 minutes to re-hydrate before you add the flour.
🍞 Add the flour one cup at a time and mix into the water+yeast, sifting the flour through a sieve if you have one. Look out for flour clumps if you're not using a sieve.
🍞 I include the salt with my first cup of flour. If you want to be sure the salt is evenly distributed, mix it into your flour before adding the flour to the water+yeast.
🍞 Mix until combined, making sure to scrape the sides of your bowl to incorporate all the dry flour.
🍞 Once all of your ingredients are mixed together, you should have a very sticky mess of dough. It shouldn't be liquid, but it won't come together into a nice shape. It'll stick to everything. That's fine.
🍞 Leave the dough in the bowl and cover the bowl. You can use a clean towel, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, the lid to your bowl, or whatever else you have on hand. Make sure that whatever bowl you're using has room for your dough to rise. You're done for now.

The next day:

🍞 After at least 12 hours have passed, check in on your dough. By now, it should be much bigger and there should be little dots on the surface.
🍞 Tip your dough onto a floured working surface. It'll take some scraping with your stirring tool to get it all out. Once it's all out of the bowl, it'll be significantly deflated. Using your hands, gently fold it over on itself a few times and then try to shape the dough into a ball. If you're not able to get the dough into a (loose) ball shape, let it rest for about 15 minutes and try again.
🍞 Important: you are not *kneading* the dough. You're just folding it a few times and shaping it into a ball. (Effort is subjective, but my advice is to not put in effort.)
🍞 Now it's time for the final rise. Add some oil to grease your baking vessel and then place your ball of dough into/onto it. Loosely cover the dough and let it sit for ~2 hours.

Baking:

🍞 Once 2 hours have passed, preheat your oven to 450F. Put your dough on top of the stove so it can benefit from the oven's heat.
🍞 If using a dutch oven or other high-walled vessel with room enough for the bread to rise: bake covered for 30 minutes; then remove the lid/foil and bake for an addition 15-20 minutes.
🍞 If using something else like a skillet or a baking sheet: bake for 30-35 minutes. You can put a little dish of ice into your oven along with your dough to help it get a nice crust.
🍞 Remove bread from the oven when the crust is golden / golden-brown.
🍞 It's now out of the oven, but your bread is still cooking. (It'll be making cracking and hissing sounds, which I find delightful.) Let it cool for ~30 minutes before you slice into it. Eat.

#baking #bread #frugal #recipe #food

🔗 I recommend this video tutorial for #handsewing "sew-through" buttons by Rokolee DIY: https://youtu.be/gslzx1CreAY

🔗 For "Tips and Techniques for Sewing Buttons the Professional Way" (sew-through buttons), see this video tutorial by Bias Bespoke Supply Co.: https://youtu.be/vohhB2kU614

Why I love sewing buttons:

1️⃣ When I started wearing #menswear only and shopping for menswear in thrift stores, I found clothing items of good quality and in good condition that were missing 1+ buttons where I think they were donated *because* they were missing 1+ buttons! Many men avoid sewing because of sewing's associations with women in domestic and industrial settings and its associations with gayness and gender-nonconformity in men (in other words, because of misogyny and anti-LGBTQ bigotry). Their loss, my gain. Handsewing buttons is instrumental for my #frugal #butch wardrobe in multiple ways.

2️⃣ #SewingButtons are part of the appearance of a clothing item, so changing the buttons on a clothing item is a way to affect the appearance of that clothing item.

3️⃣ When a person around me has a clothing item with a loose or missing button and the person has less opportunity or ability to sew buttons than I have, I can help them.