back to article LOHAN chap compiles 'tenner a week' cookbook

It's a tip of the chef's hat today to Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) chap Neil Barnes, who's released a cookbook inspired by his participation in the Live Below the Line challenge, with all profits going to Malaria No More UK. Neil Barnes in his flight suit with LOHAN patch Last year, paragliding aficionado …

  1. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Facepalm

    For God's sake!

    Don't let Iain Duncan Smith see this.

  2. keithpeter Silver badge
    Windows

    £20 a week next

    Middle price recipes next ok?

    Worth noting that Lulu allows purchase without creating yet another login and accepts paypal. Watch out for the naughty marketing opt-in on the penultimate screen.

    Might get into the self-publishing thing...

    1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: £20 a week next

      This, please! Upping the monetary limit to a still relatively modest level should, in theory, greatly expand the options. That would be very useful for helping university students break out of the "Ramen Rut" and also allow some healthier* choices.

      * I acknowledge that definition varies based upon whom is asked.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let us know when it makes it across the pond.

    1. Somewhere in the Colonies

      ...or is available on that Interweb thingie (in exchange for actual money, rather than the conventional stolen method).

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
        Flame

        I'm having serious difficulties persuading Lulu to accept a perfectly valid and verified epub file.

        Not a happy bunny.

        1. JassMan
          Thumb Up

          @Neil - epub

          If you are having problems making a hardware version, do you have it available for ebooks? At that price I would happily pay the same for a Kobo version and presumably, you would then have more dosh to give to the charity.

          I am sure a large percentage of reg readers would also welcome an ebook file.

          1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

            Re: @Neil - epub

            It's already a valid ebook, checks out with all the verifiers, and works fine on my kobo, but Lulu's verifier won't pass it, and the error messages are no bloody use at all.

            Still trying alternate options.

            1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

              Re: @Neil - epub

              Right, finally persuaded Lulu to accept/make an ebook.

              It is not formatted as nicely as I would have wished, and there are extraneous entries in the TOC, but the TOC does at least work on my Kobo.

              It's an epub.

              £2.99 to make the same dosh for the charity.

              Thanks,

              Neil

              1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

                Re: @Neil - epub

                Imagine if I'd remembered to post the link...

                http://www.lulu.com/shop/neil-barnes/food-for-a-tenner-a-week/ebook/product-22087085.html

        2. John Gamble

          Can you post here when you do? That will make it the second book I've bought from Lulu then. Thanks.

  4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Coat

    You what?

    You want a whole weeks food budget just for one mangy book? (inc P&P)

    (I'll be ordering one later on)

  5. skeptical i
    Pirate

    Dumpster diving, yes or no?

    Is dumpster diving (free!) or other hunting/ gathering/ scavenging/ active procurement (using the dandelion greens from ones yard, picking fallen fruit from neighbors' trees, game hunting) cheating?

    1. Sarah Balfour

      Re: Dumpster diving, yes or no?

      Probably not, but it'll get you arrested. Nicking stuff shops have chucked out is still theft, apparently. I've been cautioned - and fined - for it a couple of times. How's it still their property if they've chucked it in a dumpster…?! It's wasteful! The homeless are routinely arrested for taking food from bins - hunger is a crime. I fucking hate this fucking country!

      Even though it's in a good cause, I won't be buying it, the fact the page show is a recipe for Saag Aloo puts paid to any hopes of it containing any healthy high-fat/low-carb palaeo stuff.

      My food bill comes to FAR more than £10pw, simply because, thanks to the NHS's war on anything remotely healthy, the cost of everything is astronomical. My meat alone costs £50.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Dumpster diving, yes or no?

        Per Wikipedia, yep.. it's illegal in Blighty. But legal in the US. YMMV so check the local laws....

      2. Martin Budden Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Dumpster diving, yes or no?

        Assuming you meant "paleo" instead of "palaeo", that fad is a load of old codswallop. The British Dietetic Association said it is "a sure-fire way to develop nutrient deficiencies".

        The reason there are so many humans swarming all over this planet is we are extremely adaptable, and our adaptability extends to diet as much as anything else.

      3. Vic

        Re: Dumpster diving, yes or no?

        but it'll get you arrested. Nicking stuff shops have chucked out is still theft, apparently

        Taking anything with an intent to deprive the owner of it is theft. There are a couple of "kinda sorta" exceptions for salvage, but that's a law unto itself, and unlikely to trouble too many here.

        The trick with taking stuff from bins is to *ask* for it. You're usually met with a strange "why would he ask me that" look, followed by a stammered "yes, of course". At that point, the items belong to you, and you can take them. But taking them without asking first is theft, and that gets you busted.

        I've had loads of stuff from bins over the years - I've even had the owner drive stuff to my house to drop it off. Most people (and many shops) are happy for you to take their crap away. But if you haven't asked them for it, it isn't yours, so taking it is stealing.

        My food bill comes to FAR more than £10pw, simply because, thanks to the NHS's war on anything remotely healthy, the cost of everything is astronomical. My meat alone costs £50.

        I lived for nearly 2 years on quite a lot less than £10/week. It's tricky, but doable. And very, very tedious. If you're spending £50/week on meat, you're eating far more meat than you *need*. Whilst that's very nice to do, it's not a necessity.

        Vic.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Makes me feel quite guilty

    I spend more than 10 quid a week on take-away coffee alone.

    1. Martin Budden Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Makes me feel quite guilty

      Then you are doing it wrong: I spend more than 10 quid a week on beer :-)

  7. keithpeter Silver badge
    Windows

    Micro Review

    OK, a copy landed on the mat this morning packed in one of those cardboard sleeve things. You get 122 pages in a glue spine paperback. Recipes divided down by food type (Bread, Pasta/Pizza, Meat &c) rather than meals (breakfast, lunch dinner). There is a section on veg cooking and buying that might help clueless students (e.g. me, 30 years ago).

    Biggest omission (in my opinion): oatmeal. Cheap source of carbohydrates, good for you and would sort breakfast out when made half-in-half with milk and water. Something like a quid for all week mainly depending on the milk as oatmeal can be had for £1 per kg and keeps for a year or two. Add another £1 for a month's worth of honey for sweetening. Or chop half an apple in or some nuts or dried fruit. Or throw in some scavenged blackberries - ace.

    Savory oatmeal for a warm lunch or light meal: fry onion in some kind of fat (bacon fat would be tasty for meaties, butter is good as well) in a small saucepan, add one cup oatmeal and stir in for 30sec then add two cups water, salt and boil for the usual 5 min. A good handful of spinach leaves helps appearence and taste. Towards the end of the boiling, chuck in a stingy handful of the strongest grated cheese you have. For a main meal pop a poached egg on top. Pepper to taste.

    Oatcakes: Continuing the bread theme in the book, you will need a whisky glass of course...

    http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/520634/scottish-oat-cakes

    No yeast so might be an easier way into bread making for those of us who have never got round to trying.

    Second biggest omission: kidney beans &c. I just use the canned ones as the factories get the beans fresh and steam cook them on an industrial scale. Barbunya Pilaki made with Borlotti beans (aka Roman beans) could be a pre cooked neck filler when served with pittas and homous.

    The audience: if this goes to a second edition, the thorny issue of educating the clueless students without nagging them arises. Drip feeding information about storage of left-overs (lifetimes in the fridge), diet balance for a weekly menu into the recipes might be an idea. Or just go for it and put a chapter in about a typical weekly menu at the end.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: Micro Review

      Thanks KP.

      Might I ask which side of the pond you live? Oatmeal seems uncommon in the UK - though there is the recipe for oats in Muesli (and indeed, I eat them regularly largely for their low GI).

      I did have a recipe for oatcakes but testers didn't like the result, so out it went.

      If I do it again next year it might be a selection of other people's ideas...

  8. keithpeter Silver badge
    Windows

    oatmeal = Porridge oats

    UK.

    The stuff in the breakfast cereals section that comes in a polythene bag and does not cost much. Not the hipster rolled variety but the flakes. Cheap. Antioxidant. You can do a week's breakfasts for a quid (half and half milk/water sweatened with cheapo honey).

    "If I do it again next year it might be a selection of other people's ideas..."

    Huevos rancheros. With kidney beans in the tomato sauce. I can walk 30 miles on that. Serve with rice for main meal. See

    http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/eggs-recipes/mexican-breakfast/

    I use pitta breads instead of tortillas and just use the tinned tomatoes, onion and a pinch of chilli powder.

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