Blogger is not my friend

Sorry, I'm having a little trouble with the blogger publisher.  No matter what i do my post text keeps coming out wrong - like in the last post, half the text was huge and the rest was too small.  And there's that stupid highlighting thing it is doing with my text.  Can't seem to figure out why it's doing this to me.

Basil Pesto; Dairy free

Pesto is a tasty and highly nutritious pasta sauce, but it is always frustrating that commercial brands contain cheese.  Depending on your level of sensitivity to lactose/dairy, the level/kind of cheese contained in pesto can irritate the digestive tract.  If you find this is the case then this recipe can be a nice substitute to classic pesto.  I found this recipe at Vegan Spoonful. Other recipes can also be found on many vegan sites.  If you dislike the taste of the yeast, this item can be left out.  Once you have your pesto simply stir t through some cooked pasta. :)

Ingredients:

Basil; 3 cups

Garlic; 2-3 large cloves

raw pine nuts; 6 tablespoons

salt; 1 teaspoon

olive oil; 6 tablespoons

nutritional yeast; 1/4 cup

Directions:

Place the nuts, basil, garlic and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until finely chopped.  Add the olive oil and blend again.  Finally, add the yeast and blend until the pesto becomes creamy.

Budgeting tips: Reduced items.

On Wednesday I blogged about saving money by shopping around.  This is just one way of saving on your necessities bills.  Today I would like to introduce another way of saving on your grocery bill: buying reduced items.


Supermarkets such as Tesco's, Sainsburys and the Co-operative often reduce stock simply because they have a new shipment coming in or because there are slight cosmetic marks on the product/product packaging.  They also reduce items because they are about to go past the the use-by/display-until date.  This means that quite often reduced items are of high quality.  This is often t he case with items nearing the use-by date.


Use-by and Display-until dates are often inaccurate.  Food and product safety legislation and control tends to veer towards the side of caution.  Most foods will be safe for consumption after the use-by date if they have been correctly packaged and stored.  Generally speaking, it is usually easy to tell when a food product has gone bad and this can happen before the use-by date in rare cases.  This is why it is is always necessary to have common sense when it comes to food.  Buying items when they are reduced can save you so much off your food bill that it is worth chancing the rare this that might go off quicker then you would like.


This week I have been food shopping three times.  Between the three trips I have saved £30+ Pounds on items that had been reduced to clear; £17 pound of that tonight.  There is the argument that I am spending money I otherwise wouldn't of food just because it is reduced.  However I have found this not to be that case - A lot of what I have bought is stuff that I would like to get but normally don't because the original price is to expensive.  So, in essence, I am saving money on food I would like to begin with.

Lemon Chicken; Gluten-free

Another in the range of budget recipes.  I love being poor. :)  This makes an excellent main with side dishes of mashed potato, pasta, honeyed carrots or practically anything else you can think of.


Ingredients:

4 Breast Fillets; diced
Lemon Juice; 1/8 cup
Corn Flour; 1/4 cup
1/4 Onion; Diced
3 Garlic Cloves; diced
Tarragon; 2 teaspoons

Directions:

Mix the chicken, corn flour, tarragon, and lemon juice together in a bowl.  Stir the mixture throughly so that there are no flour clumps.  Fry the onion in a pan until it is brown.  Add the chicken mixture and Garlic to the pan and cook until golden brown.

Budgeting tips: Shopping around

A simple way of saving money on your essentials is by doing a simple price check of other stores.  An obvious example of this is mobile contracts - these differ from provider to provider as the result of competitive pricing.  This logic also carries over to essentials such as food, cleaning products and other day-to-day items.  The same item will be priced differently in different chain supermarkets.  So it is worth checking around before you buy.   This simple tactic can save you pounds off your bill.  It is also important to check with in chains of the same supermarket as stores base there pricing on the location they are in.  I went to buy some vitamins the other day.  In the Boots on North Laine, Brighton, UK, the box was on sale for £14.99.  At the Boots on George street, Hove, UK, The same product was on sale for £11.25.  With the 3 for 2 deal this came to £22.50 instead of £29.98.  Big price difference!

Honeyed carrot and sweetcorn

This a tasty and cheap way of getting vegies in your diet.  It is also naturally allergen friendly.


Ingredients:

10 baby carrots or 3 large carrots; diced
130g sweetcorn
1/2 medium onion
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon mint
2 teaspoons thyme

Directions:

Steam your carrots until they are cooked.  In a shallow a frying pan fry the diced onion to a golden brown colour.  Add the carrots, sweetcorn, herbs and honey.  Stir until the mixture is heated through.

Please Share

Hello everyone :)  I'm afraid I have nothing new planned for today.  I thought I'd devote today to increasing allergen awareness in the only way I can.  Most people who have to deal with two or more allergens really struggle to find food that's safe, let alone find help dealing with combination food allergies.  Sites like my blog aren't all that visible to search engines.  This a shame because there is a ridiculous number of sites out there that are dedicated to recipes and advice for specific allergies. However, if these don't come up in search engine, how are people supposed to come across them in the first place?

Here's how we can help.  Most blogs and sites, like mine, already have share buttons included in their design.  Most sites will feature theses buttons to the left or right of their content or at the bottom of the post.  Mine, for example, can be found to left of my posts and at the bottom of my posts.  That said, everyone lays out their sites differently.  Please take 5 seconds to share good content when you find it.  This increases the contents visibility and makes it easier for those who have just discovered a new allergen to find the advice they need.

And, Finally, thanks for reading. :)