Day 10 of 31 - Mung Beans, Quiche and Crazy Food Questions!
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| Today's first 'make' was a second bean sprouter! |
My homemade mung bean sprouter seems to be working but there's a slight problem - I added too many beans and they'd totally filled the jar by the time I got up this morning!
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| Sprouting mung beans |
I can easily see why bean sprouts can be a frugal source of nutrition but I was somewhat surprised by their technical dietary data. A one-cup serving has the equivalent of 6g of carbohydrates and two thirds of that is sugar!
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'Phoebe' duck has been doing well and producing an egg each day, so I had yesterday's and today's to use, meaning 2 more shells to turn into mini planters. I now have these cut and primed, ready for painting tomorrow, so I'll need to get some more macramé done to keep up with the egg laying.
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| Cheese & onion base for quiche |
To use up the remainder of the pastry from pie-making, I rolled it into a tray, added a diced onion and a sprinkle of grated cheese then baked this with the two duck eggs beaten with a little milk, salt and pepper. Quiche for tea tonight and we'll eat the rest tomorrow lunchtime. (Sorry, I forgot to photograph it coming out of the oven.)
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| Onion rerooting - I think?! |
On the 'veg for free' experiment, the first of those musty peas have begun to sprout in the tin can planters on the window sill and, believe it or not, the ones I threw into the planter at the back door also seem to be germinating! The red cabbage base is amazing, with more and more tiny leaves unfurling all around the base and across the cut surface. The photo above is of the onion base, although I am not convinced this one is at all possible. I mean, how can another onion grow from it? I think someone's kidding me on about this one, but I'll leave if for now.
VEGETARIANS & VEGANS, LOOK AWAY NOW!
The above is a competition sponsored by MuscleFood.com and I am hoping that I can gain an entry in order to be in with a chance of winning, so if you haven't already done so, but have been considering it, give them a go for your meat order and have it delivered to your door. Not many can beat £5 per kilo for quality chicken breast fillets. But I have to warn you, their 'exotic meat' section is becoming more and more exotic!
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| Choice of freebies with your first offer |
I was quite perturbed at seeing horse steaks listed but will admit that I have unwittingly eaten this in the past while on holiday in Europe. Now, however, their free offer for new customers has been expanded to give you a choice of meat free with your first order - tonight I see horse steak is one of them! Not sure what to think of this... but do take a look at what is available to buy for home delivery! It's quite an eye-opener to see:
- Springbok steak burgers
- Zebra haunch burgers
- Tilapia fillets (I had to search that one to find out it's fish that the southeast of England is apparently going crazy for - recipe included here!)
- Kangaroo steaks
- Buffalo stew
- Ostrich steaks
- Horse meat variety pack
What are your thoughts on the above list of meats and would you eat them? Is it just my upbringing on plain foods? Or perhaps my lack of interest in culinary adventure? Maybe it's simply lack of choice by way of my continued rural lifestyle or it could even be a deeply rooted, Old Testament induced belief on what's 'allowed', as far as the food chain is concerned?
I don't know... I have a fear of the unknown, but perhaps a bigger fear of actually discovering I like something that I otherwise 'shouldn't'.
Making my mind up about this could take some time, as I do remember the big meat scandal when authorities discovered container loads of kangaroo meat coming into Britain and ending up in school meals. That was in the late 70's, early 80's, so we do know that this sort of exotic meat has been reaching our shores for the past near 40 years, at least, but ... no! I won't pursue my line of thought because I'll end up sitting until midnight blogging for The Paranoid Times!
NYK, Frugaldom
We have eaten and enjoyed Buffalo, Ostrich and more common Venison , as long as you know what it is and its your choice thats fine with me. Your quiche sounds very tempting though!
ReplyDeleteI've tried ostrich and goat meat is available locally, but had never considered venison or any of our seasonal game as exotic. I do remember ostrich farms being in fashion at the start of the 90's and I know there's buffalo available in our region. Perhaps I should set myself a culinary challenge but there's no way my houseshare would entertain it. I feel a frugal stagflation with more adventurous friends or relatives coming on soon. :)
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DeleteMy first response said 'staycation' when I typed it on the Kindle - apologies for any confusion. LOL
DeleteI've eaten zebra, ostrich, springbok, horse and kangaroo and I've found all of them to be delicious. We can be very squeamish about which animals we eat (and which parts, even though offal isn't actually 'gross') yet there's no real difference to eating 'exotic' animals other than we're not used to them being available socially. If they're available I will always give something interesting a go, why not? You're eating animal anyway if you're not vegetarian or vegan.
ReplyDeleteI do tend to agree but the whole 'need' for eating imported meat while pursuing a frugal lifestyle versus attempting to 'eat local' is becoming a discussion point in its own right. Imported foods can be easier and less expensive to purchase than anything within easy reach of a rural location. It's really quite sad in that respect.
DeleteTilapia is a very common fish here in Canada. Haven't tried any of the other meats though.
ReplyDeleteI had to do a search for tilapia, I'd never heard of it. :)
Deletethink I'll stay with the sprouting shoots....no meat/fish for this lifelong vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching for the first dandelions and am really looking forward to a bit of foraging again soon. There isn't much growing about here yet but my pocket guide to identifying free food is at the ready. :)
DeleteWhen I was a meat eater I ate zebra and camel, amongst other thing, it was fine.
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