As a one-time chef I'm sometimes surprised at how hard I find it to think of something new to cook. And it isn't as if I don't have a few resources to fall back on. One of the hardest things to give up when we became rat race escapees was my cookery book buying habit. As a bookshop employee, I took full advantage of a generous staff discount and bought a couple of new titles every month. (Not to mention a wodge of fiction.) In the last five years, I've only had the resources for a handful of purchases, which is perhaps fortunate as the designated cookery book and garlic hanging shelves are chocker-block.
It has taken a few years of having to rely on the veg plot to get to grips with menu planning. Using what I have, rather than what I would like to have is now second nature, but boy did we eat some strange combinations in the early days. What do you do when you only have two beetroot and an artichoke to play with?
We try and eat our essential five a day, or whatever it is right now, and try not to lean too heavily on supermarket fruit; my banana and orange growing still need some work.
