Continuing to itemise my grocery shopping

 During January, I uploaded photos of most of my grocery shopping, and summarised at the end. I wanted to know how long I could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables, and whether I could avoid anything ultra-processed.  The reason was that there's increased awareness of the dangers of eating too many ultra-processed foods. And while there doesn't seem to be any absolute definition of what constitutes an ultra-processed food, the working definition is anything that contains ingredients that one would not normally find in a regular home kitchen. 

I've never bought a lot of ultra-processed products, in part because many added ingredients are migraine triggers for me. What used to be a nuisance turns out to be a blessing, if it's true that artificial nitrites are carcinogenic, and that everyone should avoid additives such as MSG and artificial sweeteners.  Of course there are other problems with the western diet - too much sugar, for instance, and too much red meat. But very often they go together: for instance, deli meats are often from pork, and contain ultra-processed additives. Some sweets have no valuable nutrition, containing nothing other than sugar and additives. 

I continued taking photos of shopping this month, for my own interest, but I won't bore readers with uploads of everything. Suffice it to say I spent rather more, since several things had to be replenished. We did more entertaining in February, too, and I had used up most of the meals that I had prepared previously and frozen. 

I continued mainly buying fresh fruit and vegetables.  But in addition, during the first week of February, I also bought:

800g chicken mince
2 x 800g chicken breast
800g chicken thighs
1kg pangasian frozen fish
4 x 70g pots of tomato paste
1kg Greek yogurt
2 4-packs of toilet paper
2kg wholegrain bread flour
1kg sugar
1kg white cake flour
500g oats

On the first Friday, we went to Lidl, mainly for canned 'wet' cat food.  We were fairly restrained - we didn't need any more chocolate, for instance - and this is what we bought:

In addition to cat food we bought coffee, washing fluid, soap, frozen beans, large lentils, frozen salmon, more frozen pangasius fish (as it was on offer), and - yes - our first possibly ultra-processed product of this year, Alaska pollock fillets in breadcrumbs.  I had read an article online from a reputable source (though I can't now find it) which said that, while we should in general avoid anything highly processed or ultra processed, there are some foods which are beneficial in other ways that we shouldn't boycott. They included jarred pasta sauce (so long as free of nitrites or colourings), wholegrain bread, ideally with seeds, and fishfingers.  We're all supposed to be eating more fish, after all. We don't generally eat fish fingers, but we do like these breadcrumb-coated fillets, and the ingredients list isn't too bad. So they were included in our Lidl shop. 

I did not, however, buy any puff pastry - something which is good value in Lidl - and I experimented with a flaky pastry recipe using hard vegan spread [bought in December], to make spanokopita. Rather more work than using ready-made puff pastry, but I was able to use half wholegrain flour, and it turned out pretty well. 

The following week, as well as lots more fresh fruit and vegetables, I bought some cartons of juice, some small jars of spices to replenish ones we were running low on,  some cartons of passata, a bag of dried red lentils, frozen peas, frozen broad beans, and a box of twelve free-range eggs. 

In the second half of February, I bought another kilogram of Greek yogurt (I do like on my breakfast muesli; it's my one regular dairy product), two 300g tubs of 'planton' vegan yogurt, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and some coconut oil. 

We went to Metro, for the first time since Christmas, as I wanted to buy some more dry cat food; once again we were mostly quite restrained, and this is what we bought:

Cat treats as well as dry 'Brekkies' food, some white cleaning vinegar, some malt vinegar for cooking, two jars of instant coffee (another thing I have to admit to liking, though I know it's not considered real coffee by many), pineapple chunks, brown basmati rice, a rather large bag of garam masala, but I haven't been able to find it in smaller quantities, two cans of coconut cream with minimal additives... and some mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is processed, maybe ultra-processed, but I haven't been successful in making it, and it's a lot of hassle. And we don't eat a lot of it.

We made another nut shop visit, too, and bought our standard nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc, as described last month.

The following week, as well as yet more fresh fruit and veg, I bought another kilogram of wholewheat bread flour, and one of white bread flour. I also bought a bag of cornflour, and another processed product: a pack of digestive biscuits. I use them from time to time to make various desserts, and don't like to run out. But I'm going to look for recipes, to see if I can make something equivalent to keep in the freezer.

So, rather more 'extra' products this month, but the only ones that might be considered ultra-processed are the breaded fish, the mayonnaise and the digestive biscuits.  Given that reports state that, in most western countries, over 50% of the food eaten is ultra-processed, I'm not too worried. 

Shopping at Lidl

 Lidl supermarket, an international chain, has been in Larnaka for ten years this month. When we first visited, lured by some enticing advertising, we weren't all that impressed. By that stage we had got into the habit of doing one major grocery shop per month, at Metro, and in between times I would pop to the local discount shop, or the fruit shop. And it was clear that while Lidl had some products at excellent prices, the range was too limited for our regular needs.

However, in the past ten years we've been there quite a few times. Their advertising brochures arrive most weeks on Saturday, and while I throw most junk mail straight into the paper recycling, we usually browse the Lidl one. Richard has bought some inexpensive and reasonable quality tools there, and we've bought a few appliances, too, when they're on offer.  

We like their coffee beans, although we haven't been able to find any for some months now. And there's the biggest problem: we understand that the 'special offer' products, often connected with a specific country or culture, are only available for a short period. But they also have regular products, which are sometimes there, sometimes not. They always have some basics - sugar, white flour, toilet paper etc - but there's no guarantee of any particular brand, nor of some products. 

This week's catalogue showed some silicon muffin pans, something I'd been thinking about for a while. I have plenty of small cake tins, but sometimes I want to make bigger cakes, the ones generally referred to as muffins (or American muffins, as the muffins I grew up with, known as 'English muffins' in America, are rather different). These muffins pans weren't going to be available until Thursday, so we knew from previous experience that we needed to go first thing on Thursday to have any chance of buying any.

Of course 'first thing' is actually mid-morning now, since we're under 65 and in good health, so we can't go to shops before 10am.  But shortly after that hour, we headed to Lidl, armed with a short shopping list of things we would be running out of in the next few weeks, and which we have previously bought there. 

I was pleased to find that there were still plenty of muffin pans, albeit at the bottom of a box with various other silicon cookware. We pondered buying four, but decided that two would be sufficient; it's not as if I make muffins all that often. I just like to have the option. 

I didn't hold out much hope of coffee beans, which is just as well as there weren't any. On the other hand, there was a good amount of a Columbian ground coffee that we tried a while ago, and which I liked very much. We can't find Fair Trade ground coffee here, but at least it has the symbol for Rainforest Alliance.  We bought three packets, which should keep us going for a while: 

I didn't hold out much hope of finding my current favourite peanut butter, as there wasn't any last time we were at Lidl, but I was pleased to find that they had it in again. It was even on special offer, reduced by quite an amount. So I picked up two jars:

Chocolate - thankfully the basic dark chocolate is usually excellent value, and is the one I use for cooking. It's dairy-free and UTZ certified, so we're happy to buy that regularly. Perhaps six bars was a tad extreme, but I doubt if we'll go to Lidl again before the New Year. 

The only pasta we generally buy is wholewheat spaghetti, and that's something Lidl usually has in;  one 500g pack lasts us around five months as we're not great pasta eaters. Lidl is also also a good place to buy dried chickpeas, which are useful for many things. Both products were on my list, and I was pleased that I managed to find them both, even though the store shelves regularly change, presumably to encourage people to look around the entire shop in the hope of finding what they want.

We also bought some battered cod and some salmon, but I put those straight in the freezer when we got home, so didn't take photos. But I couldn't find any mayonnaise; for several months Lidl stocked our favourite brand, but I couldn't find any this time.  Nor could I find raspberry jam, something I dislike having to buy, but since we can't get raspberries here, I can't make it.  

The other thing we bought was a pack of sharp knives. I managed to break the tip off my favourite sharp knife just over a week ago, so when I saw that there were some knives on special offer at Lidl this week, I thought we might look at them. I hadn't realised that they would be in a set of four, but at €6.99 for four, we thought them well worth getting. Ernesto seems to be a reasonable brand, and they're guaranteed for three years. 

The other thing we bought was a small poinsettia plant. We like to have one each year, coming up to Christmas; our living room table by the window seems to be an ideal place for poinsettias, and they last, usually, at least until Easter. November is a bit early, but we know from experience that they can be harder to find, higher priced and less attractive looking if we wait until December. 

So, once again our visit to Lidl was something of a mixed experience. A couple of very useful non-food purchases, a few random food items that were good value... but we'll still need to go to Metro next week for groceries that we can't buy at Lidl. 

I know some people boycott Lidl; their policies for workers aren't great, and they don't score well on many of the ethical categories. However, we try to buy products with some kind of ethical labelling, and don't usually go there more than five or six times per year. 

Overuse of plastic in Cyprus

At the end of the catch-up post I wrote last week, I mentioned that Cyprus was supposed to be reducing the amount of plastic used. It's such a problem here that I think this topic is worthy of a post in its own right.  Plastic bottles and some cartons are recycled here; I just put out our last month's worth of paper and 'PMD' (plastic, metals, drinks) recycling, before starting this post, and was struck by the irony that we have to place our items in designated non-recyclable plastic bags....

Whatever people think of the problems of global warming and wherever they stand politically, I don't think there's any doubt that we humans use far too much unnecessary plastic. A lot of it ends up in the sea, and causes serious damage to marine life. If you haven't seen the stories (and some horrific images) then a quick online search for 'marine life plastic' (or similar) should set the scene.

One issue which recently hit the news is the over-use of plastic straws. When we were in the UK recently I looked for paper straws, which I remember from my childhood, but could not find them. There are some available at vast price online, but mostly intended for parties, with bright patterns and colours.  They did not appeal. I've seen re-usable straws made of metal or silicon, but am a tad dubious about the difficulties of washing them sufficiently between uses.

We don't use straws in the winter, but in the summer I make frappés rather than hot coffees after lunch, and we like to drink them through straws.  I was wondering if we could learn to drink them without straws at all, when I came across an article online about a restaurant which had started using straws made of pasta.  When we were in Metro I checked what was available - we don't cook pasta, other than wholegrain spaghetti and the occasional lasagne, so I had not previously looked - and found that long macaroni was available. It was even on special offer.  Sealed in plastic, of course... but still, we thought it worth trying.

The weather has been hot, so we've been drinking frappés for the past couple of weeks now, and have become quite accustomed to these longer-than-usual but very effective straws:

We can't decide if there's a slight taste to them or not. It's not a problem, anyway, and even though we have to throw them away after each use (we tried rinsing them out but they cracked and couldn't be used again) they are biodegradable.  If a family who eats this kind of pasta used them, they could probably rinse them out and store them in the freezer until there were sufficient to cook for a meal, and that would be even more efficient.

One of the biggest uses of plastic used to be the flimsy carrier bags given away by supermarkets. I say 'used to be...' because in most of Europe there are now charges for carrier bags; customers are encouraged to bring their own, either stronger re-usable plastic ones, or those made of cloth.  I recall a bit of negative muttering about it when this was first introduced in the UK, but most people are reasonable, and if nothing else could see that it costs something to produce each plastic bag.

In Cyprus, however, we tend to lag behind most of mainland Europe.  At the end of 2010 when Lidl supermarkets first came to the island, they were unusual in not giving away free carrier bags. We were not in the habit of taking our own at the time, and found this a bit irritating, but realised it was reasonable. We bought some of their heavy-duty carriers, and once or twice bought the inexpensive ones. We only went there rarely, at first, anyway.

Almost a year ago, Cyprus was warned that it should do something about the immense amount of plastic wastage. We read that a 5 cent charge on carriers would be imposed from 1st July 2018, and that in January supermarkets could introduce a 2 cent charge, to help customers become used to the idea. We decided to make more of an effort, so it's now become a habit to take cloth bags with us either to supermarkets or the local fruit shop.

I don't know what can be done about the small produce bags which are used in the fruitarias.  Here's a typical few euros' worth of fruit and veg:

I don't put everything in produce bags, but when buying - for instance - apples or oranges, it's important to use either the pink, green or blue bags because they're a code for the cashiers, to establish which aisle they're from. I use a lot of 'pink bag' produce, in the reduced section of the shop.  Even if that were not a problem, it would be impossible for them to weigh everything separately if I simply piled my selection into a trolley without bagging items separately.

However, even reducing the main carrier bags should make a difference.  We assumed that when the shops opened after the New Year break, they would have a two cent charge for carriers. But January came and went, and carrier bags were given away just as they had been before. Cashiers no longer started putting things in carriers automatically, or not so readily - but perhaps that's because they got used to us, and some of our friends, taking our own bags.

In the UK, prior to the introduction of the charge for plastic bags, a lot of the supermarkets ran promotions on 'bags for life', and cloth bags with logos. We haven't seen any of those here, until - as mentioned in the previous post - we saw an advert in Metro for trolley bags.  They seem to fit any large trolley and we think they're a great idea. So here's another photo of them in use:

Cutting down on plastic is a slow process. Each family who adopts a cloth bag or non-plastic straw may feel as if it makes no difference; but, as is oft-repeated, the ocean is made up of tiny drops of water.

If anyone has other recommendations for cutting down on unnecessary plastic, feel free to leave a comment.  

Summer in Cyprus. Approaching yet again.

Once again, the inevitable is happening. A chillier-than-usual winter in Cyprus gave way to a pleasant spring. I very much like March and April here. The sun shines, but it's still cool overnight. I have the energy to get things done, and the landscape is green with a wide variety of wild flowers, and cultivated ones too for those who go to the trouble of growing them in their front gardens.

It's been a pleasant 20-23 C in the daytime for much of the past few weeks. Now, as April draws to a close, the predictions are for hotter weather ahead. Here's what the Weather Channel site is showing for the next couple of weeks:

Yesterday, for the first time since about November, I spent most of the day without any sweatshirt or jacket of any kind. We went into town for various errands, and I found it was too hot in the sun, though still pleasant in the shade. Last night we ran our bedroom ceiling fan. It was only on the slowest speed, and we're still using a duvet... but the air felt still, and my face was too warm without the fan.

Today we realised that we haven't used our warm jackets for a week or two, and are unlikely to do so for the next few months. This is what our coat rack looked like:

Two scarves, and about five warm fleeces and coats. I removed them all, and put most of the jackets in the washing machine.  A few hours on the line and they were dry, so they're now hung up in our landing closet upstairs. I took the opportunity to put more of my winter clothes there, and extract my shorts... which I expect I'll start wearing soon, if the forecasts are correct.

I found my sandals, too, looking rather grubby, so washed them as well, in preparation for needing them all too soon.

Then I collected our surprisingly large collection of sun hats and put them on the now empty coat rack:

If Murphy's law holds, now I've made these preparations for Summer, we could be due for some unexpected and extra chilly weather meaning I need to get the jackets out again.  I won't mind in the least if that happens, but it's unlikely in May.

In the next few weeks I shall wash all our curtains, and we'll clean the air conditioners which we try to avoid using until at least June.  We'll switch to our very light-weight duvet, too, and then - probably only a couple of weeks later - just a duvet cover or flat sheet to cover us at night.

In other unexciting but typically Cyprus fashion, we went to Lidl just over a week ago. The shop has grown on us since our first unimpressed visit several years ago when it was new to the island.

This time,  I wanted to get some of their cat litter, which is about half the price of our usual brand and seems to work just as well. I also wanted a 2-litre bottle of olive oil, as our current one was running low, and theirs is usually the best value.  We didn't even look at the weekly brochure telling us what the special offers were, because we were only going in for these two items...

This is what we ended up with (plus two bags of cat litter) :

When we arrived, we remembered that our digital kitchen scales had recently gone faulty.  They were consistently weighing everything at about 75% of its correct weight, which was irritating and I didn't always think about the adjustment.  Happily, Lidl were offering good value kitchen scales with a bowl.

Then we saw a digital medical thermometer. I'd had what was probably a sinus infection the week before, and one day felt very shivery. We realised we had no thermometer, so no way of knowing if I was running a fever. Not that it mattered much, but at 2.99 euro it seemed like a good idea to have one.

Richard needed new crocs/clogs for casual use when sailing. We know the controversies about them, and that they're a bad idea for anything other than use on the beach or as slippers in the house, but he found just ONE pair in his size, in a colour he liked. So those were added to the basket. Along with our usual Lidl dark chocolate, and a new fresh basil plant, and a couple of jars of honey, and a couple or rolls of duct tape... and some seeded bread rolls for lunch.

A nicely eclectic mixture, not atypical for our Lidl visits. We still can't find most things we want there, and their fruit/veg are over-priced (in our view) but their special offers are often very good. 

The last ten days of July

As I wrote in my previous post about restaurants, we had a very busy week, out every evening seeing various local friends. It seems a long time ago now. I got as far as our anniversary on Thursday 19th July, but that wasn't the end of the busy period. On Friday we had our usual 'cell group' get-together on the beach, as we do during July and August. We hang out, swim a little, play with the children, eat our picnics, and chat about life, children, and anything else that comes to mind, staying there until darkness falls shortly after 8.00pm.

On Saturday we were out in the evening again, playing a Settlers game with our usual game-friends, and on Sunday they came to us for a DVD (for the children to watch) and yet another game for the adults, followed by a cold shared supper.

Then on Monday we were privileged, once again, to be invited to the 'family dinner' for our friends' daughter Katie, who was about to turn seven:

It was actually a day before her birthday, but she was about to go to Germany for ten days with her mother and two younger sisters, so she had an early celebration including a star-shaped cake:

I contributed some home-made ice cream, as I usually do.  Katie was expecting to have a 'proper' party after her return from Germany, but for various reasons there were no dates that worked with her chosen guests, so it was all the more special that we were counted as part of the family for her birthday meal. 

And then... 

We had a VERY quiet ten days. I don't just mean because we didn't see my three favourite small people who were away for that time, but we didn't see the rest of their family either, other than for a couple of minutes when they came to borrow a drill. 

And I didn't see any other friends, since just about everyone else we know seemed to have gone away to the UK, or US for a while. It makes sense to get out of the heat and humidity of Cyprus during the summer months, but I don't recall quite such a mass exodus last year.  

Besides, last year Tim came home for a couple of months, which was wonderful. This year he has a job, so is not coming back until Christmas. 

Richard has been working on cataloguing the various tools and other bits and pieces we have in multiple locations, and I've been reviewing and writing and reading, and keeping the house going, and generally coping with the high temperatures. In the evenings we played games, and watched more DVDs than usual, but by Sunday afternoon I was feeling in the need of something different. 

Richard had made the comment a few days earlier that I hadn't done any jigsaws this year. I replied that I hadn't done any jigsaws for, probably, seven years.  Other than a couple of small ones done for fun with friends at Christmas, the last time I did any real amount of jigsaws was Summer 2005 - I posted about the completed jigsaws in September that year. 

I pointed out that we no longer have the huge table where it was easy to do jigsaws and cover them with a cloth for meals. And I don't have anyone to do the puzzles with, now the boys have left home. And since we have small people visiting quite regularly, I don't think a puzzle would be very safe to leave out.  There were lot of good reasons for not doing them... 

Then on Thursday morning Richard needed to get some glue on special offer at Lidl. I wanted to go to the nut warehouse nearby, so I went with him, and in wandering around I spotted a 'jigsaw roll'. It supposedly allows a jigsaw puzzle up to 2000 pieces to be rolled up when partly done and put away.  It wasn't expensive, and I have a hard time finding anything I want to buy with my birthday or Christmas money, so I decided to be impulsive and buy it.

On the Friday evening the Olympics opening ceremony was broadcast and Richard had a link to watch it via his computer... but since it didn't start until 9.00pm UK time, that was 11.00 here, which is past the time I like to be asleep. He'd been sailing with a 

And on Sunday I got it out. It was just the right size for our small Ikea kitchen table. I also found a puzzle that I was given last Christmas, but had never done. Actually there were two puzzles in the box, so I picked one at random, not knowing which one it might be.

It was a bit strange working on green felt, and I had a bit of a battle to keep the cats from jumping onto it but at least pieces didn't go flying everywhere.  And it was useful having the approximate outline for a 1000-piece puzzle. It looked quite tricky, with patches of colour and not much to focus on, but I sorted, off and on, while cooking lunch, and then set to work on the sky, and it was a lot easier than I had expected: 

After lunch I pottered a bit, and kept sitting down to do just a little more to the puzzle, but had to give up eventually as I was getting neck-ache.  Still, I was quite pleased with what I'd achieved: 

So then I rolled it up and put it away!  I haven't got it out again yet... 

On Monday evening we watched an entire film on DVD (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) - something we do maybe two or three times a month at most. And on Tuesday evening, we played a game of Seafarers of Catan (Fog Island), where Richard insisted I take a photo at the end to show my rather excessively long 'trade route' - I think it was 28 roads and/or ships in all: