No mucking about here

I was just thinking about my meals, how easy they are to make. How simple they are and how quick I can rustle something up. I have been preparing food this way for many years, using my own imagination when it comes to which ingredients to use. My tastes are simple, I know what I like. I don't have tons of those small glass spice jars, I don't need them. I don't posses a cookery book, I did have one but as I hadn't looked at it for 30 years I gave it to a charity shop. They might be great for those who can't cook very well, or want to try new recipes, but I can cook, and I'd rather stick with the food I like. 

Some people might think that would be a boring way to eat, same old, same old, but I can vary my meals by switching ingredients, which largely depends on what was on special offer or reduced at the supermarket. 

 My theory is that you can spend many hours in the kitchen, preparing, chopping, boiling, stewing, smashing, casseroling, wrapping things in pastry, mixing, mashing, then smothering in sauce, and the outcome is still the same, you serve it up on a plate, it gets eaten, and it's gone. I get the same result with my simple meals, except they take me longer to eat, because I chew every mouthful very carefully and savour the natural flavour of every ingredient. I use the few spices I have very sparingly, so as not to overwhelm the taste of the vegetables I am cooking. 

Life is made a lot simpler by not eating meat. I make a veggie stew, it can be ready in 15 - 20 minutes when I do it in a pan on the top of the gas cooker. Add meat to it, and depending on the cut, it can take an hour or more. Put a meat dish in the oven and you're looking at a couple of hours. I am not on a mission to turn everyone into a vegetarian, each to their own, but from the look of some of the meat on the butchers slab as I walk through the market, it would be more suited to serve it up to the dog. Anyway, that's my opinion, you eat what you like. 

I am of the mind that the closer you can get to raw, simple, and non mucked about food, the better it is for you. Boiling vegetables is sacrilege, I never do it. If I make a stew obviously I am boiling them, but then the water is flavoured with spices and is eaten as part of the meal.  Steaming is the way to go, either in the microwave or on the hob, or in an electric steamer. I prick them with a fork to see how they are doing and remove from the heat the minute they are done. There's no soggy sprouts or mushy spuds in this house.

I am mindful of how much oil I use, it's hardly worth me buying any I use so little. I do like toasted sesame seed oil though,  it tastes lovely. I drizzle a bit on my steamed veg, it gives them a lovely nutty flavour. But, I am on my last bottle which I got from the cash and carry for £1. It might be a long time until they get any more in, so when it's gone it's gone. They sell a small bottle in Tesco for around £1.50, I won't be paying that, so I will do without.  

This is what I had for my lunch. Simple and non mucked about. Salad leaves, coleslaw, and some of yesterdays pasta. I deliberately made extra for my dinner last night, which I had with the last of the cheap home made vegetable soup. Tonight is steamed sprouts and broccoli. 

If cooking is your hobby and you enjoy it, as long as you get the pleasure from all the time you put into it, that's fine. My food is simple slap it on a plate type of food. I don't eat with my eyes, and I don't need to create masterpieces. All these cookery programmes which pile farting bits of food on top of each other, with not enough to fill a gnat's belly, you can keep them. I don't watch them, I've seen the trailers, and the pictures in magazines. What's it all about eh!

Blimey, I should have asked Nellie to write this post, ha ha.  
Toodle pip