In the first episode of "The Hairy Dieters" where the Hairy Bikers endeavour to lose weight, Dave and Si made a lasagne using blanched, unrolled leeks as the "pasta" sheets. They cut a slit down the length of a stalk of leek, detached each layer and then blanched each layer and flattened it out. It looked like a great success.

First kill your tofu, then skin it...;-)

Costs are rising for lots of things but I have also seen prices go down on some things as well. Food companies are well within their rights to make a profit and as long as they declare the amount of contents on the packaging, I have no problem. I have a choice as a consumer to buy other brands. Along with freedom of choice comes personal responsibility.

Being on a very tight budget I never just grab the same brand each time - I always compare brands and ALWAYS look at the unit pricing for items.This is a habit so I don't feel it is too onerous. There are a handful of goods that I will always buy the same brand of but they are ones that will have to be priced ridiculously before I will stop buying them.

I would think that if you live in a slum area you wouldn't be eating 'out' as a treat but rather because you couldn't afford to buy all the ingredients and fuel for the cooking equipment or you may not even have a cooking area or cooking equipment.

Leftover Thai food and a toasted crumpet with marge and Vegemite.

Roasted chickpeas. Swiss chard chips. Chocolate mousse made with whipped silken tofu. Thin slices of skin-on pumpkin, seasoned and roasted until chewy/crispy.

Could you just ask your favourite nacho place to add shredded lettuce to the top?

Yum!

Oh no mamachef, I've just been on the interweb to see what a Planter's Peanut Bar and no, no, no it is NOTHING like the chocolatey, chockablock with peanuts goodness that is a 'Whittaker's Peanut Slab' from New Zealand.

There is no other chocolate bar like it in the world! Here's a picture of one...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nagoya20...>

The oddest thing about this is the fact that your boss just leaves the stuff on your desk without telling you about it. I think it's fine that it's expired as long as he tells you about it and asks you if you want it.
I have a work colleague who is really picky about food - won't eat expired food, won't eat bananas if they have any hint of brown on the skins, will throw away food items that she finds she doesn't like rather than grin and bear it or remake it into something else.
She knows that I am on a tight budget and hate waste and am not very fussy so she happily offers me all the grocery items she buys but ends up not wanting. However, she always runs it by me first and tells me why she is giving it away.

Maybe your boss thinks he is doing you a good deed, even if the food has expired, but thinks he might embarrass you if he discusses it. Did you maybe have a recent conversation where you may have mentioned that you are happy to eat expired food? Maybe that stuck with him and gave him the idea.

Sounds like Sesame Dressing. I've got bottle of it in my fridge called "Deep-Roasted Sesame Dressing". I got it from my local Asian grocer. It's cream-coloured but studded with bits of sesame seeds. Can't read who makes it because it's all in Japanese and the English label that the importers have stuck on it doesn't translate the manufacturer.

+3

Question for Americans - how do the electronic scales in US shops display weight? I would have thought it would be in ounces and pounds so that people could ask for smaller amounts.

They are also nice made into a spring roll with ready-to-eat ingredients and eaten as is, i.e. not fried. My mum uses them to make Indonesian matarbak with egg and mince. I also deep fry the skins on their own and eat them as a crispy snack.

Just make sure you make the miso soup yourself as traditional miso soup isn't vegan/vegetarian as it has dashi in it.

You could also have a plate of hummous with some toasted pita, a bowl of Dahl, felafel - basically anything a vegan would eat at other times of the day!

I completely disagree about letting her eat --or not eat--as she pleases. If she were completely healthy I would agree with you but because she has emphysema and is elderly she needs more calories. The OPs grandmother sounds full of life - would you let her waste away or not have enough energy to enjoy her life and her family just because she isn't getting enough nutrition? When all it takes to get that extra bit of nutrition is to make the food palatable for her and to coax her?

I applaud the OPs efforts. A good idea would be to lose the concepts of having to eat larger amounts at breakfast, lunch and dinner and just let her eat whenever she wants. If she feels like eating a larger amount at 11am just let her go for it and then don't worry of she doesn't eat a lunch-size meal at 'lunchtime'.

I'd say tamarind paste, but I agree with the other posters - just buy a bottle of Worcestershire sauce. It's cheap enough and nice as a condiment if you are worried about not using it in enough recipes. I have it on eggs (particularly nice with boiled or fried eggs), hot chips, steak, schnitzel, pot noodles, cheese on toast, basically anything really! There are loads of uses for it.

Seasoned avocado on toast is elevated with the addition of a few squeezes of lemon juice.

"But I had no idea anyone in the UK was eating chili of any sort! " - Indian food is one of the most popular food styles in the UK and what do you think is used to give heat to Indian dishes?
Also, I never thought of chilli powder as being a mixture of spices, to me it's just ground up dried chillies.

Rick Stein for me.

Heat up slices of the the roast lamb leftovers in a bit of mint gravy and serve in hot pita bread.

Roasted tomatoes are yum.

"Some more suggestions - a whole leg can present a few problems because of the triangular shape it cooks unevenly...."

To me, the unevenness is the beauty of a roast leg or other non-uniform roast. It means that there are some bits that are well-done and crispy and other bits that are more rare. It's a great way of pleasing a group because there will inevitably be those who prefer more well-done meat, those who hate well-done meat and those who love a mixture.

Raw bacon - especially the fat and rind.

"My MIL continually offers her daughter ice cream, milk, etc. She's been off dairy for years..." I think it's a Mum thing. I remember visits to my mother where she commented that I'd put on a bit of weight and then offered me biscuits and snacks and urged me to eat up!

I'm with Peg - is this an American thing? No-one that I know would ever consider an eating-out invitation to be the initiator's treat. The default assumption would be that everyone pays for themselves.

Whenever a server offers a special or something else off-menu if I'm interested in it I always ask how much it is and how it comes. Otherwise it is just a case of 'buyer beware'!

Gelatin will dissolve if not kept cold, so agar-agar would probably work better if you don't have xanthan gum or glycerin.

I'll complain about anything that I feel isn't up to par or isn't what is described on the menu. I won't complain if something isn't to my taste unless it's obvious, like oversalted etc. I am also an excellent complainer (my friends often comment on it). When I do complain I'm unfailingly polite and friendly and make it clear what I would like them to do to satisfy the complaint (usually a replacement item or dish).

I ALWAYS get what I want when I complain, sometimes even more than I was expecting (in a good way).

Here in New Zealand supermarkets always have 'Reduced to Clear' items of all sorts. Fresh meat, deli items and produce as well as packaged items. Produce that is bruised but otherwise fine have the bruised/damaged bits cut out, are packaged together and sold at a knockdown price.
One chain has a large 'Yesterday's Bake' section where they sell everything from their in-store bakery that is a day old. it's usually still very fresh - never stale.
It's brilliant - I always buy these type of items and have never had a dud.