Whacha cookin?

Here are some of the things I like to do.

1. Home-made peanut butter (avoid cancerous shitty brand stuff [the peanuts they use often are mouldy or something]), you simply shell some peanuts, put them in the oven on a baking tray for about 10-15 minutes on 200c (they should start smelling super nice when they're done, and they should be getting slightly darker). After letting them cool, put them in a salad spinner and shake em up or something to remove the outer skin, but if you don't mind a darker butter, leave the skins on. If you do remove the skins, and can only do it by hand, it takes ages. After that, just put them into a seed blender (one of those typically smaller blenders which turns stuff into powder) and blend until it's not powdery, but oily. I find it easy to do a small handful of nuts at a time. After it's all processed, put into a nice little seal-able bowl, add some olive oil or some other oil, bit of salt, and mix. After that, keep it in the fridge, and eat on whatever. I think it keeps for about 2 weeks or so.

2. Home-made tortilla wraps are easy to make. You put flour, salt, melted butter/oil, baking powder, and warm water into a bowl, and mix it up well. You can make these as healthy as you like with wholemeal flour and good quality ingredients, and they're not too glutinous as they're pretty thin. Once mixed, take off chunks and grab the edge points pulling them into the middle to create a soft round edge all the way around. Flip over and use a rolling pin to thin out into a round tortilla. Chuck that into a pan, and cook on low/medium heat for a couple of minutes, flipping when it bubbles. You don't need oil in the pan, just a dry pan. You can do a stack of these and they'll keep for a bunch of days in the fridge. I don't need to remind you that you can put a ton of stuff into tortillas. They're very good. Follow this recipe for ratios.

3. Home-made pizzas are super easy too. But they can take a bit longer, because of the wait times. Make a dough like Jamie's here. I like to add herbs to the base too, like Oregano. While you're waiting for it to rise, throw some onion, garlic and fresh chopped tomatoes into a frying pan with some oil in it. When the tomatoes become like the canned tomato consistency-ish, add some seasoning to taste with herbs and whatever, and then when it's cool enough, throw it into the blender and make it smooth. When pizza dough has risen and is ready to roll out, follow the same kind of procedure as with the tortillas to make it round and even, before using a rolling pin to flatten it into a good-sized base. Smear the sauce on top however the fk you like, and add fresh toppings of your choice, followed by diced cheese cubes and finally a sprinkling of herbs. One thing you can do to make pizza toppings nicer is to marinate them in a dressing of some kind for a couple of hours previously. If you have the foresight to do this, it need only take an extra 2-3 minutes. You can literally use any kind of dressing that you like, from salad dressing to BBQ sauce or whatever.

4. Black-bottomed cupcakes/muffins are super good, but not healthy so skip this is you are at all health-conscious. This lady knows her stuff, and is more of a traditional woman. I recommend these because for many people, who simply have never tasted good quality cupcakes or muffins, these are a revelation.

5. Home-made hummus is great because you can tailor it the way you like it, and has a good amount of protein. This recipe is pretty good, I've made it a ton of times with different variations. The lemon juice is a key ingredient for me, because I like sour and sharp tastes. If you make a big batch of this, you can leave it in the fridge for 3-4 days and it will be good snack food. You can also put it on buttered toast for breakfast. If you have chips or salad sticks, they're great to dip too.

Some of these ideas might be slightly better for more than one person, but can all be made for a single person too, and eaten over a couple of days.

I'd like to help if anyone gets a question.