A very simple and super quick lunch. A tin of sardines in tomato sauce on a couple of slices of granary toast. Just to up the tomatoeyness even more, I added a handful of cherry tomatoes as well.
A tin of sardines in tomato sauce varies quite a bit in price. The cheapest I could find today on mySupermarket were in Tesco & Morrison best price at 34p, Aldi 40p, Sainsbury and Waitrose 60p, although strangely, Ocado ones were 49p, exactly the same pack, and Asda 50p.
Not counting the tomatoes, if you had a nice loaf, say £1.25, 2 slices would be 11p, plus 34p cheapest sardines, 45p for a healthy lunch. I don’t use any butter or spread. A value loaf would work out at 38p for lunch.
I began to ponder on just how healthy it is. We are all being urged to eat oily fish a couple of times a week, for the Omega 3. This page, like many similar ones I found, says that 91g sardines provides 61% of the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Omega 3. I’m not sure how much the weight of sardines to tomato sauce is, but a tin is typically 100-120g.
Another good source is dark green leafy vegetables, which seem to be the healthiest thing in the world to eat. Whenever I look at nutrition, they seem to come up.
So one lunch of sardines on toast, some dark cabbage through the week, and as far as Omega 3 goes, it seems you are there.
Mmmm, that pasta with wrinkly olives and hot pepper flakes sounds yum.
I love sardines and anchovies. Tinned fish is extremely expensive here, two or three times the cost even in the cheapie shops.
I am lucky that we have some excellent small local shops where I can buy them individually, by weight, salt packed or in olive oil so I can get just enough for a recipe.
My favorites are with pasta and wrinkly olives and hot pepper flakes or on a nice toasted end of baguette.
Love them with kale like you made or sauted dandelion greens if I can get them.
Memory lane for you then!
Ooh, haven’t tried that, toasting the sardines too. I will def try that next time I have them
I enjoy the ins and outs of people lives too. The internet is such a massive life changing thing, wish we had it when I was young.
I say to my grandchildren that the internet didn’t exist until very recently and they can’t quite grasp it!
That is exactly what I do with these apples! I give them to friends and strangers and there is still plenty left to make 24 pints of applesauce. Even the postman gets a bag or two. I leave them on doorsteps. I’m not fond of applesauce but, thank goodness, my son in San Francisco likes the stuff so he gets most of it. I don’t know what kind of apple it is. When I moved in an elderly (that means older than my almost 70 years) neighbor waggled her finger at me and demanded that I take good care of The Tree so I do my best but by August 1 I will be having evil thoughts of taking a saw to it. I never do as I find it a rather amazing tree.
I very much enjoy peeking in at your life. I also follow dovegreyreader who lives in Devon. I met her in March 2012 on my last trip to England when she came to London the same day I flew in from California. That was very fun. The Internet is a great joy to me as I am on a tight budget and cannot travel much. I’m saving up for my next trip but progress is slow. Time for bed here. Cheers !
The important thing is to toast the sardines as well as the bread. They are good in baked potato as well if you mash them up with the potato and then bake or grill a bit more – perhaps in the remoska. NB while I’m here thanks v much for the crumble recipe – very quick and tasty
That is my lunch sorted tomorrow ! Not had that since I was a child !
It’s interesting to hear what other people grow, and can’t grow, where they are. Like the sound of the micro greens, they are super tasty.
I wonder what your apple tree is. I had a very productive tree with Discovery apples on in our last place. They were superb eaten fresh from the tree, even a few hours after picking the flavour deteriorated, and they, like yours, cooked to a mush, which wasn’t very nice. Shame as the tree had loads and loads of fruit every year. They were a favourite of the chap in the local post office, so I used to take him a paper bag full every time I went there.
Oh, you are making me hungry!! This is one of my favorite lunches. It is almost 11 a.m. and I’ve had no breakfast so I’ll be off to the kitchen to have you know what! I often chop some sweet onion and tomato to put on top and I add some Topatillo, which is a Mexican hot sauce made here in California. YUM!
I am enjoying the progress of your room addition and your garden. It is cool most of the time where I live so I grow greens, peas and radishes all year long. I planted some microgreens in a six foot section of roof gutter that is installed on my back porch railing which works in the winter when the sun is low but not in the summer because there is a large structure over my parking place that also covers the porch. My snap peas do not often make it into the kitchen as I also just stand there picking and munching–so good! I envy you your fruit trees and berries. I have an apple tree that does not require much chilling in winter. It produces loads of small apples that are good for eating and making applesauce but fall apart if you try to make a cobbler or pie. The funny thing is that they ripen in July so I am about to be inundated. The deer come by to check the ripeness and I see they have begun their tests already as I have apples on the ground with bites out. I do not mind sharing with them. All the other local creatures come by to have some, too, and I can hear them munching and crunching in the night–skunks, raccoons and opossums. There is one, don’t know which species, who sits outside my bedroom window and takes a bite and munches while making clear signs of gustatory pleasure! He makes me laugh. I’m off to kitchen now.