Well, this is what I think:
I want to help keep the countryside safe and retain traditional farming methods by supporting small producers and avoiding supermarkets and brands sold in supermarkets.
To do this I will need to pay more for my produce so to counteract that I will make as much food as I can from raw materials.
Where this is not practical I will buy the product so, for example, I will buy creamed coconut and coconut milk, evaporated milk, tinned tomatoes and breakfast cereals and, if I can’t persuade Whizz to give it up, Coca Cola, but I will make bread, drinks, cakes, biscuits and all cooked meals.
I will buy my meat from a local butcher who knows the farms that raised his meats and I will buy my cold cuts, pates and dips raw and cook them myself but I won’t make sausages!
As for vegetables, I have decided to have them delivered by a local organic distributor, Abel & Cole www.abel-cole.co.uk . They offer a better range of vegetables than my local whole food shops and the arrangement will save on petrol.
There are three main disadvantages I have so far discovered to this new lifestyle;
1. I need more trips to the shops (I should get better at this as time goes on)
2. The bags are heavy! I may need a bag with wheels 3. I am spending ages in the kitchen (again I should get better at this once I get into a routine)On the plus side: 1. I have really enjoyed shopping and planning
2. My family is having more nutritious and interesting food
3. I am learning more about food
4. I am lucky to own lots og gadgets so I cqn make bread, icecream and juice quite easily in different machines. I also have a liquidiser on a stick by Bamix www.bamix-blender.co.uk and a top quality Magimix food processor www.magimix.co.uk .Today I popped over to a friend to congratulate her on becoming a grandma. I was there until midday and narrowly escaped drinking Champagne; she was disappointed to find that she had run out over the weekend. I can’t say I was too upset as the afternoon would have been lost and there would still be no flapjacks in the tin.I found another couple of health food shops and managed to purchase puffed rice, organic bread sticks – I will make them one day but not yet. I also found an organic yogurt mix called Easiyo but picked up the wrong Yogurt maker so can’t test it yet. It looks good though. Look at www.easiyo.com. I have found that health shops don’t do cow things, they seem to think they’re not healthy.
By the time I’d struggled back to the car with my purchases, which also included strong white flour and two bottles of juice (this to tide me over until I’m more organised you understand), I had completely forgotten that I had a huge list of other things to buy at other shops, so I went home. This means that I must go out again tomorrow. Hmmm.
Upon my return I topped the flapjacks with chocolate, delicious, made some rice crispy cakes with added nuts and raisins, made a baguette and some bread and also mayonnaise which I plan to blend with the low fat yogurt to reduce calories.
Thanks to www.flapjackrecipes.com/chocolate/index.html for the flapjack recipe to which I added chopped almonds and raisins. I use the best chocolate possible in all my recipes. A little goes a long way and the flavour is far superior to cheaper brands.
Don’t you think it’s amazing to find a web site entirely devoted to flapjacks?
Butcher tomorrow then cook the ham and the chicken for snacks and sandwiches and make leek and potato soup and chicken liver pate for the freezer. This is mad but fun.