Strawberries and chocolate sauce; dairy free, gluten free

This is a perfect example of why you shouldn't blog while very hungry because you've cut all junk foods out of your diet.  I am sitting here trying to think of something that is edible but doesn't contain to much sugar or fat.  This is extremely hard when all I currently want is fatty, sugary foods.  Like, mmm donuts.  Or fresh strawberries with chocolate sauce... yummy.

Although I refuse to believe this option is anything but healthy.  It has fruit! You don' have to have a lot of sauce, really.  The preparation for this is in two parts




Ingrediants:

Strawberries:

A punnet of fresh strawberries
Lemon juice.






Sauce:
A block of Dark chocolate (Vegan/raw); 100g
soy milk or preferred alternative; 1/4 cup
sugar; 1/4 cup
corn flour; 1-2 teaspoons




Directions:

The directions for this comes in two parts as, obviously strawberries and sauce are prepared separately.  It is recommended you prepare the strawberries first as by you have prepared then the sauce would have cooled.

Strawberries:

Wash the strawberries and remove the leaves.  Slice in half and place them all in a bowl.  Drizzle the lemon juice over them and stir around so that the lemon juice has covered the strawberries completely. Cover and place in the fridge while you prepare the sauce.  The lemon juice will prevent the strawberries browning in the mean time.

Chocolate sauce:

For the sauce you will a pot and a heat-proof bowl, the bowl must be able to rest in the pot.  Half fill the pot with water and place on the stove.  Place the bowl in the pot and turn to med-high.  Break up the  block and drop into the bowl. Pour the milk and sugar in and stir until the chocolate is melted.  If the mixture is to runny add the cornflour to thicken it up.  Remove the sauce from the heat and serve with the strawberries.

Ecover review.

Ecover is quickly becoming the most well known eco-friendly brand, and overall this is well deserved.  All the cleaning product they make are fully biodegradable.  The only niggle I have is that while the plastic they use for packaging is fully recyclable I can't seem to find any information on whether they accepted they packaging back for further use.  This seems to defeat the purpose of the three R's: Reduce, Re-use and Then Recycle.  Not only do they not seem to reduce consumption by making bulk packaging more available but they don't seem to Reuse the packaging they produce in the first place.  Of course, this is not to say you can't reuse they packaging at home your self, but the only information on refill comes in a new bottle for old trigger sprays.  So while they produce products that don't impact on the environment the packaging it comes in only serves to further consumption of an unsustainable product i.e. the production and further use of plastic.

Having raised this problem I did some further investigation into is.  Ecover sells to shops in bulk with the idea that these shops will sell refills, therefore reusing packaging.  However this relies on other companies selling the cleansing products at an affordable price per litre, which very rarely seems to be the case.  More to the point Ecover website advertises that that these refills are done from 25ltr containers.  I have yet to see this in any shop nearby and would very much like to know where one is because the closest shops that do refills only re-fill from 5ltr containers, which I can by myself.  While this option is nice in theory, it would be better is the company offered the option of taking back packaging for reuse.

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