I will survive!!

When I started the No Plastic Challenge I had a few worries. The biggest one was cookies. Unless you're willing to pay £1.60 for a cookie at Starbucks and the likes there is no way you can buy cookies plastic free. In fact, it is often triple wrapped in shiny and shouting packaging.

And to be fair, often the cookies themselves are a bit rubbish. Lot's of sugar, low quality ingredients.

So Carrie came up with the idea of making cookies ourselves. I  never thought it would be so easy (ok, the first batch was made by Carrie, but she urged it is dead easy).

Now there are three rolls of cookie dough in the freezer. Every time I crave cookies I can chuck a slice of oatmeal/cranberry or chocolate/walnut in the oven and 15 minutes later voila, freshly baked cookies! And that just makes me extremely happy.

And I did a great discovery at the Real Foods store today. Crunchy peanut butter in glass jar with metal lid (big jar £3.85). There is a God! Ask Carrie how much peanut butter I can eat. I never get sick of it. So I think I will survive the month...

Juice for Carrie!

Packaging plays with your mind!  Has anyone noticed how oranges in those net bag things are more expensive than if you buy individual oranges?  So very strange.  30p for individual oranges, but up to 55 pence if in a package.  Surely thats an argument for going packaging free?!




We noticed this the other day as we were shopping for oranges for home -made juice in the mornings.   We have one of those electric squeezer things so its really quick to do - and tastes so much nicer than store bought juices.   If you are not already doing this, I'd definitely recommend it - its a very happy way to start the day!





Likewise, if anyone is missing buying cordial or squash in plastic bottles, here is my latest discovery from the Leon cookbook - home made lemonade!

170g fructose (or a third more sugar if you want to use that, it's less sweet)
165ml water
250 ml of lemon or lime juice

Shove the fructose or sugar in a pan with the water, and heat until it dissolves.  leave to cool.  In the meantime squeeze the lemons / limes.  When the sugar solution is cool, add the lemon / lime juice.  Put into a bottle (glass of course!) and keep in fridge.  Use like a cordial.   Its delicious and takes about 5 mins to make.

You can get some cordials / squashes in glass bottles but they are pretty expensive!  I'm trying to find cheaper alternatives...   I make this every time I see there are lemons or limes on deal at the local veg shop (strangely, quite often - I got a bag of 12 limes for 49 pence yesterday) - so it works out pretty cheap.

Anyone else have other good juice or squash ideas?

OR - even better - recipes for plastic-free cocktails?  Apparently Mark created a ginger ale, elderflower cordial, fresh lime and spiced rum cocktail last night...so good he had three.   perhaps we should have a mid-month cocktail challenge... anyone up for it?

Is this plastic? Argh... that's a fine for me!

What do you think?

 I think it might be aluminium foil, with paper on the inside - and laminated outside.  Drat!  That's a pound fine for me then - this is the only butter not in a plastic box in my local store, and I was halfway through cooking when I realised I needed more.  no chance to jump on my bike to the bigger supermarket where they have wax paper wrapped butter.

So - Jan is on £2 for fines (he bought some cheese from LJ Mellis and it came in a plastic wrap, and  a 4 pack of Grolsch which he then realised had plastic round the top... this is tough!!).  I'm also on £2 for above mentioned butter.  Doh.

Drinks at the end of the month should be good!!    How is everyone else doing?!

Lush

Following Paul's post about toothy tabs and shampoo soap yesterday, I paid a visit to our friends at Lush.  I explained our plastic-free challenge to the salesperson and asked what products around the shop would qualify.  Her answer?  All of them.  She said that we could even buy liquid products in our own containers if desired.  Will they actually allow this?  For those who are in the market for the fruity delight of Lush shower gels, do let us know.

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you...

PLASTIC-FREE PASTA!!

I am so excited I can hardly sit still.  Barilla pasta (blue cardboard box) does all sorts of pastas, completely plastic-free.  And with spaghetti at £1.39 it's not completely unaffordable.

I found it at Peckhams in Newington - along with affordable cheddar cheese (£1.05 per 100g), wrapped in paper.  Yes!

Now all I need to find are dried fruit and nuts with no plastic.  Can anyone help out there?  

I am now the proud owner of lush toothy tabs. They foam really well and come in various different flavours. I chose dirty which contains spearmint but have since been told that Ultrablast is very good as it contains wasabi, which is a very good anti bacterial! Not sure if I want to test that one out!

The Dirty toothy Tab!

I also bought a shampoo bar. only one bar of shampoo is the equivalent of using four 500g plastics containers of shampoo!

AND for the follically challenged among us out there (you know who you are!) the clove shampoo bar that I bought is supposed to help stimulate the scalp and hair follicles and would that not mean then in some case perhaps  to help re-generate hair! Well watch this space .....

I'm loving it. Never had such smooth hair!

Something Fishy

People, do you know how hard it is to buy fish without plastic wrapping?  Even when you have a happily compliant fishmonger, such as the good people at G. Armstrong in Stockbridge?  Some fish don't mind a bit of paper - witness Exhibit No. 1, hot smoked salmon:







  Plays well with others

Things fall apart - literally - when using normal paper to wrap smoked salmon.  However, your intrepid author was determined to obtain said morning staple plastic-free (other than the used Tesco bag in which to carry the finished product).  The result is smoked salmon with an unexpected second skin:

Oh dear, oh dear.......

Nothing that a little rinse under the faucet won't remedy.