Jam Drops

Yummy yummy jam drops. This is definitely a childhood favourite. Fairly easy to make, like all baked products. It is also a very cheap recipe, as it relies on staples that you will always have in the kitchen; unless of course you don't usually keep flower in the kitchen. I do I should use it.




Ingredients:
Gluten-free flour; 2 cups
Sugar; 1/2 cup
Margarine; 3/4 of a cup
Salt; one pinch
Soy milk or alternative; 1/2 a cup
Strawberry jam to top

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the gluten-free flour into a bowl and then add the sugar and salt. Mix these ingredients together well. Melt the margarine and mix the melted margarine and the soy-milk or alternative into the flour mixture. When completely mixed together spoon the mixture onto a greased tray. One spoonful should equal one biscuit. Make little indents in the top part of the biscuits. Dollop a small amount of strawberry jam into the indent. Place the tray into the oven and bake until golden brown.

Go on a diet; save money.

Bad eating habits can be quite costly. The quickest way to save money on your food bill is to start cutting unnecessary items out. Examples of this are quite obvious, such as chocolate, biscuits, pastries, ice cream and other junk foods. Not only are the majority of these easier to make it home from scratch from the point of view of the budget but they are also small items that you don't think about when you're putting in your basket. They are cheap enough that we fall into the habit of justifying it as a cheap luxury. However if you are spending, say two pounds a week, on biscuits that can add up to over £100 a year. The same logic applies to all regularly bought junk food. Pizza, for example, is very cheap to make at home. From scratch it may cost maybe a pound, including home-made base. From the store, even a cheap pizza will cost you up to 3 pounds. More expensive pizzas will cost you upwards of seven pound. Even one pizza a week over the year will cost anywhere from £150-£370 depending entirely on the price of the pizza you buy every week.


Luxuries are a good thing to have in our diet, but we fall into the trap of eating them too often. I find by cutting them out, that I enjoy them far more when I do eat them. By cutting out a lot of the junk food items and not overeating I have effectively halved my food bill.

Dish liquid: cutting the cleaning costs.

Ordinary washing up liquid is very versatile and can be used as a replacement for most cleaning products. it can handle everyday grease and grime on every surface, from toilet bowls to shower tiles and glass. It can serve as a replacement for toilet disinfectant, cream cleaners, shower and bathroom cleansers, window cleaner, and everyday disinfectant. A mixture of hot water and dish-washing liquid is enough to kill household bacteria, as well as remove grease, grime, and dirt. When used on tiles and window glass it serves to remove built-up oils and can be buffed to a shine that competes with commercial window cleansers. It is pleasantly surprising how much dish-washing liquid removes. The only household duties it won't handle are heavy duty jobs such as the build-up of lime scale or stains such as coffee or tea (if you are staying away immediately you are fine, but if you allowed it to sit for a while the coffee or tea stain will burn into the surface).

If you are using products like Ecover (an environmentally friendly dish-washing detergent made from plan to derived sources), the washing-up liquid is so gentle that it can be substituted for hand-soap, shower gels, and soaps.

Dish-washing liquid:
Glass Cleaner
toilet cleaner
antibacterial spray
general-purpose surface cleaner
floor cleaner
shower and tiles spray
and so much more

Deep cleaning, the slow and painful process

Blargh

Suddenly really lacking in energy or motivation to even get up.  I have trouble finding the energy to make coffee, it's that bad.  It has been a harsh month and half with uni and despite my holiday I'm no where near recovered.  But at least my stomach isn't trying to land my hospital any more.

Still I'm planning a few posts and a few recipes. :)