Today has seen fourteen job applications go in, painstakingly typed on this Jurassic mobile phone, for care work, shop work, factory work, minimum wage work, any kind of work, because quite simply, this doesn’t work. For reasons unbeknownst to me, this month my Housing Benefit was over £100 short. I didn’t get a letter that … Read more
Tonight I decided to make my ‘best ever chilli’ – but instead of soaking black beans like I usually do, I decided to make this a little easier. It was late, we wanted to eat in 15 minutes, so here’s my quick-n-easy version. We had this for dinner, and are having it for ‘big lunch’ … Read more
From today’s Independent on Sunday: “When the first Pink List was published in 2000, it was essentially a list of 50 influential people who were brave enough to be “out”. This year we received more than 1,300 nominations and had to reduce thousands of potential contenders to just 101. The judges decided that a Pink … Read more
With the headlines today about David Cameron’s £139 bread maker and ‘artisan’ £30.20 Cotswold flour, the first thing to pop into my head was my own ‘Airy fairy easy peasy soda bread’ recipe – with no fancy bread maker required and around 32p a loaf… Oh but you think you can’t make bread? That’s something … Read more
After speaking on panels and at fringe events on food poverty and the bedroom tax, at the Labour Party conference, Green Party conference, and TUC congress recently, this Tuesday I will be entering unfamiliar territory in Manchester, to address the Tories on the rise of food bank use as the direct result of cuts to … Read more
As featured on Great British Chefs: How to make budget friendly almost-florentines. It’s rare that I do a ‘sweets and treats’ recipe, but sometimes you just want one, you know? This little beauty came about on Saturday evening, after I’d been buried in work all day, and finally came up for air craving a florentine … Read more
Based on my original Feisty Soup recipe, I’ve made myself a batch of this this afternoon to try to combat a very heavy cold. It normally works very well; the chilli blasts the sinuses, the lemon and ginger eases that accompanying stomach ache, the onion and garlic are packed with antioxidants and the carrots and … Read more
An article in the Guardian recently claimed that ‘austerity has been hijacked by the moralisers’ – and judging by George Osborne’s latest announcement that ‘austerity works’, it seems they were right. As though it’s all just ‘cosy frugality’, as though we are all just living in a snapshot of a nostalgic poster of post-War Britain. … Read more
“Hey Sprout, do you want tomato and cheese with your pasta, or peas and cheese?” “Cheese!” “Yes, but do you want tomatoes, or peas?” “Peas!” “Peas and cheese?” “PEAS AND CHEESE!” That’s how that conversation went with SB today, having spent all day painting and cleaning and coming home to a rather limited cupboard (and … Read more
I discovered a bit of a trick with falafels last night – goodness knows I’ve made enough of them over the past year, and sometimes they just seem to crumble and fall apart. However tonight, I discovered that 2tbsp water and 2tbsp flour was the best falafel-rescue-remedy so far. Forget eggs or ‘excessive mashing’ – … Read more