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Quinoa: (pronounce KEEN-wah or KEE-no-uh)- "An ancient food native to the Andean region of Central America. Prized by Inca warriors for increasing stamina. Although cooked like a grain, botanically it is actually a seed. Similar to Couscous."

Big is beautiful when it comes to shopping: do it all in one go, stuff it in an industrial-sized, fully recycle-able bag and don't even think about shopping for seven days.

The amount of needless, wasted packaging that goes in to modern food retailing, however, is a major turn-off.

I'm pleased to see that M&S's packaging reduction strategy is having an impact on competitors. Morrison's is the most recent example, having launched its 'today' initiative, similar to Marks and Spencer's Plan A.

Anyhow, notwithstanding my desire to do the shopping all in one go I invariably forget stuff (who doesn't?) and need to pay a visit to a city centre metro store of some type.
During one of my recent mini-market sweeps I asked a spotty teenager, laboriously placing tins of beans on a shelf, where I could locate quinoa. The response? A blank look, followed by a questioning "maybe next to the rice pudding?"

As you may well guess, I failed to find the missing ingredient for my evening meal.

I've also noticed a distinct lack of ackee and plantainand have been told this is down to the recent catastrophes in Burma and last season's hurricanes in the Caribbean.

All this darting around and wasting time looking for my favourite food has made me realise that I could make so much more of the recent balmy evenings by planning ahead, getting the grub in early and forgetting about it.

If only I would. Which leads me to start thinking about tonight's shop - maybe an environmentaly-friendly visit to M&S Simply Food.

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