Not just any old houmous recipe!

After a couple of attempts of failing to make decent houmous I finally did it and made something that I think is delicious - smooth, creamy and flavoursome hummous!  I have to thank the people who commented about adding more water on my original blog post and this great article from Smitten Kitchen who helped this to come about! 

One evening I peeled the chickpeas while watching some hilarious TV and the next morning I couldn't help myself and had hummous on crackers for breakfast.  The feeling of satisfaction I felt can only be understood if you have a go yourself - so go on what are you waiting for?

Ingredients:

1 can cooked chickpeas
4 tbsp water (can use reserved water from the can of chickpeas
1.5 unwaxed lemons
1 medium sized clove of garlic

3 tbsp cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (make sure you get the real thing!)

2 tbsp tahini paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. Open a tin of chickpeas, drain the water into a bowl and reserve for later
2. Peel the chickpeas!  It makes all the difference and doesn't take long - around 10-15 minutes. If you are watching your favourite tv programme at the time you will barely notice you are doing it!
3. Put your chickpea skins in a compost or green bin
4. Blitz the peeled chickpeas in a food processor - I only have a handheld blender and I blitz mine in a tall measuring jug which although a bit slower, does the job. 
5. Once the chickpeas are completely blitzed add reserved water and blend further (or at this point you can just mix with a spoon).  It is important to blitz the chickpeas dry as they don't seem to grind up as well once wet and you could end up with lumpy bits (which is fine if you like it that way, but not if you want it to be smooth)
6. Then one after the other (mixing well in between times) add the rest of the ingredients - I usually add the crushed garlic first, then the lemon juice, then the olive oil, then the tahini and then the salt, paprika and pepper.  Adding them gradually ensures that the texture stays smooth.
7. Once made it can be eaten immediately or stored in the fridge for later use.

As far as cost effectiveness goes, I'm not sure if this is much cheaper than buying it in the shops.  It is convenient though as I can make the quantities I need when I need them and so there is less likelihood of wastage, plus there are no little unrecyclable plastic hummous pots to worry about.  Another good reason to make my own houmous was so that I could control the fat going into it as even organic houmous doesn't contain cold pressed extra virgin olive oil!

If you do have a go at this houmous recipe I would love to hear what you think and how yours turned out in the comments below!

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Posted in: eco,Food,Frugal,Green,homemade,houmous,recipe,thrifty

15 ways we have managed to reduce our rubbish!

Rubbish reduction is not something that we have specifically focused on, however recently I have started noticing that we only need to put our bin out every couple of weeks and we only need to put out the recycling around once a month.  Now this may not be as impressive as some rubbish reducers out there such as the bloggers at My Zero Waste and The Rubbish Diet whose sites are well worth a visit, however it is a significant reduction in our rubbish which we have achieved as a by-product of our eco-friendly lifestyle.  

We have managed to reduce our waste significantly because of the following:

1. We use reusables instead of disposables wherever possible e.g. flannels and cloths instead of kitchen paper and wipes in the kitchen.  Wherever possible we also replace foil, baking paper, clingfilm and plastic bags with reusable boxes and bags and natural non-stick surfaces when cooking e.g. seasoned stoneware.
2. We buy (or swap) most things secondhand e.g. toys, books, clothes and furniture for example - these things don't come with packaging so there is nothing to throw away
3. We make the vast majority of our meals from scratch using raw ingredients and although we still encounter packaging it is often recyclable and there is usually less of it than in pre-made, processed meals.
4. We buy certain things in bulk e.g. rice.  This comes in a large sturdy bag and is then reused.  It saves lots of little bags being thrown away or recycled if possible.
5. We reuse our rubbish - I keep glass jars for storing food and other things.  I reuse envelopes to make a never ending fridge magnet notepad.  My husband is growing carrots in toilet roll tubes and for Valentines day this year I made little toilet roll packages.
6. Although we can't put certain things in our recycling bins e.g. textiles and old shoes, we save them up and take them to places where they can be recycled - kids jeans with holes in go to our sons nursery, old textiles go in charity recycling bins and old shoes go the same way..
7. We are virtually tee-total, so there are very few bottles being put in the recycling
8. We drink water most of the time and have very little in the way of drinks cartons or bottles to recycle
9. We compost waste fruit and vegetable peels and skin, as well as egg shells and teabags.
10. Whenever we go out anywhere we take a packed lunch with us containing homemade sandwiches, fruit and chopped vegetables with no packaging.
11. We don't buy crisps or things in little pots e.g. yoghurts/ deserts (I make our own yoghurt) - the only snacks we buy in packaging are rice cakes, oat cakes and ryvita and I am currently trying to work out how to make my own - see my rye waffle and oat cake posts.
12. We try to get portion sizes right so there isn't much food waste.
13. If we can't sell something or give it to charity, we put it in a pile for freecycling (this is something on my to do list as we haven't given anything away via freecycle yet!)
14. Since I have gone sugar free I have been avoiding giving my children sweet foods as well.  Beforehand I was doing lots of baking which avoided packaging, but now we are just avoiding the sweet stuff and eating more fruit, vegetables and crackers.  Shop bought sweets, biscuits, cakes and so on come in a lot of packaging!
15. My husband has got the vegetable garden up and running again this year and that will hopefully reduce the amount of vegetables we need to buy later on in the summer and again reduce packaging.

I think that just about covers it!  I know we could do more e.g. have a wormery so we can compost all of our food waste and work out why we still have as much waste as we do and try to reduce it further, but I'm still pretty happy we have managed to make a significant reduction in our waste.  If you have any hints or tips on how we could do better I would love to hear them in the comments below!

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Posted in: eco,Frugal,Green,recyle,reduce,reuse,rubbish,rubbish reduction,thrifty,zero waste

Why I love buying my clothes from charity shops!

There was a time when I would feel embarrassed to be caught buying my clothes in a supermarket let alone a charity shop.  Times have changed though and now instead of being embarrassed about shopping for clothes in a supermarket, I would simply prefer to go to a charity shop and buy things secondhand if I can and this is why:

• Secondhand clothes are sooo much cheaper than new ones and more affordable.  
• If you shop in a charity shop the money goes to a good cause 
• Buying secondhand is an eco-friendly option
• If you have young children they can play with the toys in the charity shop while you are perusing the clothes.  
• Preworn clothes have most likely already been washed and any leaky dyes/ chemicals added to the clothes have already been washed out - I will ashamedly admit to buying some new jeans recently and I have noticed that they have been leaving blue residues on my chairs in my kitchen and even on my legs!
• I find making the decisions about whether or not to buy something much easier and less stressful as the items are low cost and the money spent is going to a good cause.  

I have found that it is worth picking your area for the type of clothes you are after as although there is a usually a range of clothes to suit all ages in most charity shops some areas will have more kids clothes and others will have more suited to an older person for example.

Today we hit the charity shops as I have gone down two dress sizes since going on my sugar free diet and my clothes are starting to get a bit too big for me.  I was particularly looking for tops and I managed to find 7 that I liked (as pictured above) spending a total of £16.50!  I'm pretty sure my weight will continue to go down as I have a little more to lose and I may soon find these clothes are too big for me. At that price however I don't mind investing a little for the meantime.  Plus I can always sell them on/ donate them back to charity when I am done with them.

My husband and two children also joined me on my shopping spree and to keep my 4 year old entertained we gave him £2 to spend in the shops and told him it was his choice what to do with the money.  He loved it and he bought a small hot air balloon toy and a puzzle with his £2, which then provided the afternoons entertainment when we got home!

I really enjoyed the shopping trip today and am looking forward to wearing all my 'new' clothes!

How do you feel about buying your clothes from a charity shop?  Would you feel proud or embarrassed to tell people your clothes came from a charity shop?

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Posted in: bargain,charity,eco,Frugal,Green,Secondhand,shopping,thrifty

Savoury rye waffle recipe

Recently I've been going a bit crackers for crackers!  I've been eating lots of oatcakes, rice cakes and ryvita.    I don't want to buy them though, I want to make my own and today I tried (again) to make rye crackers.  The thing is although the ingredients in ryvita seem very simple - rye flour, salt and water there seems to be some kind of magic involved in making them as my attempts to make rye crackers out of rye flour and water have been pretty rubbish and I can't find any recipes using those ingredients only.  

I did a little reading on how to make rye crackers and there was mention of hot irons.  I have a waffle maker, so I thought great I will try that.  I didn't make crackers, but I did make waffles!

Rye waffle ingredients (makes 3 large waffles)

• 100g organic rye flour 
• 250g water

Method:

• Grease your waffle maker with either cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or butter, set it to a high temperature and turn it on.
• Weigh out the flour into a bowl and gradually add the water mixing it well 
• Once the waffle maker has reached the correct temperature pour some of the mixture into the waffle maker, put the lid down and leave it for at least 5 minutes before having a look to see how it is doing. 
• Leave the waffle in for around 8-10 minutes in total
• Eat straight away or leave to cool completely before storing
• Repeat until the mixture has been used up.
• Store any left over waffles in an airtight container or freeze.

I'm not going to lie, these waffles didn't taste of much, but I'm sure that could be easily rectified with the addition of some seasoning and herbs - something I will definitely try next time!  The great thing about the waffles though is that there are no extra ingredients other than rye flour and water and if you don't want to add anything else you don't need to.  I have made sweet waffles in the past and found that they freeze really well and then are easily revived in the toaster when needed, so I'm assuming it would work well for these waffles too.

I would love to know the secret to making crackers out of rye flour and water though, so if anyone knows how to do it please share in the comments below!

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Posted in: eco,Food,Frugal,Green,recipe,rye flour,thrifty,waffles