Polly's Plastic Lakeland Bags...

My Mum is great. She's kind, generous, funny, warm, a good cook, a great babysitter, Mum, Granny, friend, etc. Sometimes however, she can be somewhat over enthusiastic about certain things and when presented with the result of this enthusiasm, I don't always know quite how to react.

One of the latest objects of this enthusiasm is a simple storage device called the Bread Bag produced by Lakeland Plastics. Little more than a white cotton draw string bag which is lined with plastic, this item received little more than a cursory glance. Horror of horrors, she'd actually bought four of the blessed things and presented me with two of them, one medium and one large sized.

In the same breath I was informed that she no longer needed the fancy stoneware bread crock that I'd bought her once upon a time and that I could have it for whatever I decided to do with it. Fair enough, I thought, as we'd both had similar problems with the storage of bread in said article - ie the bread went mouldy within a couple of days occupation. Currently my bread crock holds enormous quantities of rice, keeps it dry, pest free and easily accessible. To be honest, it's a godsend!

So, without more adieu, I decided there and then that the newer, slightly larger stoneware bread crock would make a fantastic place in which to store root vegetables like spuds. These too have proved problematic, in that they're inclined to sprout at the slightest opportunity, so far the bread crock seems to have this particular issue under control.

So what of the plastic lined cotton bag? Well, eventually I decided to try it out. I did so somewhat relunctantly, as I truly didn't have any faith in the things but didn't want to upset my Mum. Rather than be accused of spurning her generosity I stuffed a Tiger Loaf from Tesco's into it and hoped for the best, nearly one week later it remained soft and fluffy, no evidence of age to make it taste stale and certainly there was no sign of mould. I was surprised, no actually I was shocked!

My next experiment was a soda bread cake. As delicious as it was, I deliberated and decided that out of sight was indeed a case of out of mind. Wholewheat soda bread is delicious, especially with a layer of butter upon it and reeks havoc on any healthy eating plan, so it had to be vanished - or else face the consequences. Where better to stuff it than into Lakeland's bread bag, whereupon it languished for the best part of a week before being rediscovered. Aw, so what? Well, normally soda bread lasts no more than 24 hours before it becomes stale and unpalatably dry but not in this case. I was actually amazed this time...

Over the past few weeks I have stuffed various different bread products into my Lakeland Bread Bags ranging from soda bread to pitta bread, tiger bread to donuts and each one has remained soft and fresh for inordinate lengths of time. I don't know how they stay fresh, they just do and whoever invented this solution to an age old problem needs a pat on the back and a round of applause.

My recommendation would be for anyone who likes their bread, especially if they live alone or as part of a small family, is to go out and try the Lakeland Bread Bag for yourselves. It works for me and hopefully it'll work for you!

Polly's On A Reducing Diet...

Okay, so I am supposed to be on a diet, but what happens when you head off on a weekend jam packed with Scouting activities outdoors and under canvass? Anyone who has done any of the above would probably be inclined to argue that good intentions fly straight out the window and they might be right...

This weekend was like most other weekends, except that food was a plenty and it was there for the taking. Ordinarily we have set rations of food for meals and loads of junk, ie crisps, biscuits a2nd sweets. Now while this scenario is much the same on any Scout camp that I've ever been on, one must remember that they can actually say "No thanks!" when assailed by massive quantities of junk. Not only this, but it is possible to take your skimmed milk along and to avoid high fat spreads and chocolate.

This weekend we feasted on one of the cheapest meals ever produced by the 1st Tullamore Scout Troup; Lamb Rhogan Josh with rice. Not only was it cheap, nutritious and FILLING, there was enough for seconds and all but one scout enjoyed every single mouthful, he's the one who opted for a hard boiled egg and boiled rice for dinner. Next time he's going to give what we're eating a try!

For ten people we used 1.9kg joint of rolled shoulder of lamb diced reduced to just €3.45, 2 cans chopped tomatoes, 1 can coconut milk, five medium onions, two bell peppers (orange & red), two birds eye chili's, five cloves of garlic, one thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger, 1/2 punnet mushrooms, 1 punnet baby sweetcorn, two jars rhogan josh sauce (much to my disgust) and of course 2 tablespoons of Polly's secret spice mixture. Approximately seven tea cups of easy cook american rice were also used.

No oil or fat was needed as the fat from the lamb was rendered down and used for the initial sauteeing of the meat & vegetables. The basic recipe was adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe except that I mixed up my spice mixture using ground seeds instead of whole, for the sake of convenience and also because most of our charges aren't used to the presence of whole spices in their food!

Polly's secret spice recipe included english mustard powder, fenugreek powder, curry leaves, cumin, ginger, paprika, salt, chili flakes, (ground cardamom for the lamb) & turmeric. To be honest this would have been more than sufficient, but my Scouting colleague decided to pick up a couple of bottles of Rhogan Josh sauce which in my opinion was a waste of money, but never mind. An additional couple of cans of tomatoes would have been better value!(all of 6.5c per person!)

The jars of sauce cost .80c each, canned tomatoes .45c each, baby sweetcorn .79c, onions .79c, garlic .21c, peppers .90c, mushrooms €1.29c, ginger & chili's .40c, coconut milk €1.50, lamb €3.45 and easy cook long grain rice .89c which comes to a total of €9.78 or .98c per person! To be fair, there were actually enough left overs for one more portion, which would have brought down the total cost of the meal .89c per person (.82c without cook in sauces!)...

Now the one thing I'm unable to factor into the equation is the spices. Principally this is because the cost is minimal. I tend to buy spices from my local pakistani shop in what might be considered bulk, ie not in silly little branded jars that cost a fortune from the local supermarket! The one exception to this rule is Colman's Mustard Powder which costs €1.25 for 57g...

So, when you're eating this healthily and for so little it kind of stands to reason that dieting is not high on one's list of priorities. Combined with the fact that we were camping out in temperatures as low as -1C and continually on the go from morning till night, I probably burned off more calories than I consumed. I'm hopeful that my Thursday morning weigh in at Unislim will prove my theory and I'm sticking to it...

Polly Pierce

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