tinned meals

[Brambles]

Have you got a pressure cooker? ...

No, but that's not a bad idea. I've been trying to make dal, but after an hour I decide it has been cooking long enough already so I never get it to the disintegrated stage (even with pre-soaking). And dried beans are so much cheaper than canned.

... You could consider a haybox cooker too - plenty of discussion on this site.

Thanks, yeah I've thought about them. Biggie for me is I have no idea where to get hay around here. If I do, I may as well go the whole hog and re-stuff the mattress too

Pet shops, Wilkinsons, B&M, QD, Home Bargains and the usuual supermarkets all sell bags of hay for a pound or two, enough to make a haybox.

[Arzosah]

Have you got a pressure cooker? ...

No, but that's not a bad idea. I've been trying to make dal, but after an hour I decide it has been cooking long enough already so I never get it to the disintegrated stage (even with pre-soaking). And dried beans are so much cheaper than canned.

The red lentils disintegrate much, much quicker I've found, and I agree about dried beans being so much cheaper than canned - take up a lot less space to store, as well! I also think that if I saw something really bad coming down the pike, I'd focus on the beans that don't take as long to cook - chick peas take a ridiculous amount of time in the slow cooker, even after boiling for 10 mins, and you get can chick pea nutrient from gram flour, which you can use in ordinary cooking. Pinto beans, black beans, butterbeans, split peas, a few others, they all take an hour or just under.

... You could consider a haybox cooker too - plenty of discussion on this site.

Thanks, yeah I've thought about them. Biggie for me is I have no idea where to get hay around here. If I do, I may as well go the whole hog and re-stuff the mattress too

It doesn't need to be hay! Shredded paper or newspaper (even crumpled will do), stuffing from old pillows after you've washed it. I've asked for leftover sheets of insulation from builders and I have lovely big pieces to make the main insulation layer.

[Jan Smits]

Pet shops, Wilkinsons, B&M, QD, Home Bargains and the usuual supermarkets all sell bags of hay for a pound or two, enough to make a haybox.

Unfortunately it's so urbanised round here I have to go pretty far to find most of those places. I should manage to find a pet shop. Strange, I had this idea it was only sold by the bale! Shows what I know.

The red lentils disintegrate much, much quicker I've found...

... Shredded paper or newspaper (even crumpled will do), stuffing from old pillows after you've washed it. I've asked for leftover sheets of insulation from builders and I have lovely big pieces to make the main insulation layer.

Some good suggestions there, thanks! lowimpact.org suggest insulation board, and say the whole project should be easy so I have no excuse not to give it a go.

I'm exploring the different kinds of beans and lentils, butter beans I can demolish with very little else added, green lentils and barley go surprisingly well together. Red lentils I kind of add to things as a filler, which maybe isn't giving them a fair go. To me, the perfect dal I'm trying to perfect has to be yellow lentils though, maybe a pressure cooker for the dal and a haybox for the veg curry is the way to go. The kitchen does get a bit too steamy at times.

Thanks for the helpful tips everyone