My Best Organic

My two year old son saw some other children eating biscuits recently - and started asking for them…so I put together this rather indulgent recipe this morning. The biscuits turned out really well - very sweet, but lovely. It also does not contain any transfats.

Ingredients

• 125g coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar (You could use less if trying to cut down; even with half a cup the biscuits would be sweet enough)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of plain flour
• Half a mug of self-raising flour
• Half a mug of porridge oats
• Half a mug of chopped up soft dried apricots

I used an average sized coffee mug for measuring.

Method

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees
• Cream the coconut oil with the sugar, egg and vanilla until quite light
• Add the flours, cinnamon and porridge oats until mixture starts to stick together
• Stir in the apricots
• Shape mixture into balls - each one should be about a tablespoon’s worth of mixture
• Place on baking tray/baking paper. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes
• Biscuits will still be quite soft when they first come out of the oven, but don’t worry, they will become crisp on the outside as they cool. They’ll stay soft and slightly moist on the inside.

This amount made about 25 biscuits - kind of lost count as my son and I ate quite a few as they came out of the oven!

This post was submitted by Susannah.

I tried out this new idea yesterday, and the results have all been eaten, so I guess it was a success. I wanted to create a breakfast type snack for those with multiple allergies and for vegans who are trying to cut down on wheat based cereals. This quantity makes about 20 small squares - so about four breakfasts/snacks worth for a toddler.

Ingredients (all quantities are approximate)
75g Nature’s Path Organic Millet Rice Flakes
10 soft dried apricots
2 handfuls of sultanas
2 teaspoons golden linseed
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds

Method
Place seeds in blender and blend until quite fine
Add sultanas and apricots into blender along with seeds and blend
Add millet etc., flakes and whiz briefly to combine ingredients
Press the mixture firmly into a small shallow dish
Leave for about an hour to settle
Cut into squares

Exceedingly healthy! (But still delicious x)

This post was submitted by Susannah.

We received a lovely big parcel yesterday, full of organic goodies. I was quite excited, as I had ordered a couple of new products. I did, however, feel a little guilty about having goods delivered to our door. What about the packaging? What about the environmental costs of the transportation?

I decided to have a look into the policies of a few well known eco/organic providers.

Abel and Cole are really great in that they collect all packaging from you and state that they reuse it (I even return the string). They also ‘experiment with alternative fuels for their vans’ and do not air freight. I wonder how many times a cardboard box can be reused - particularly as the vegetables are usually (and fantastically!) covered in soil. The reusable crates and ice-packs used for fridge and freezer items are a great idea.

Goodness Direct uses biodegradable or recyclable materials wherever possible, including the use of biodegradable corn chips which disintegrate on contact with moisture. I did an experiment to see if this was true, and they did need a bit of persuasion to disintegrate, but we got there in the end. Even the boxes for chilled and frozen items are 96% biodegradable.

Ethical Superstore use ‘fuel-efficient delivery organisations’ and give customers the opportunity to offset carbon emissions by donating £1.00 per order, which is used on eco-projects. I have also personally seen that their packaging is kept to a minimum and is recyclable.

These web-based businesses also don’t contribute to the issue of plastic bags, and should be more energy-efficient due to not running retail units. OK. My guilt has evaporated…particularly as I reuse all packaging myself too x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

As a follow-up to my previous article about milk whey being present in my washing-up, I’m pleased to let you know that I’ve found an alternative. In fact, it arrived today and I’m really pleased with it. It works much better than my previous one and I quite like the look of the bottle. I realise that it’s a bit strange to wax lyrical about such a mundane product, but, if like me, you wash up three times a day (and do a lot of baking, so create lots of stuff to wash) you’ll know where I’m coming from.

NaturalCollection.Com sell a wide range of Bio D products, including the washing up liquid in 1 litre and economy size bottles x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

There’s no denying it, Jamie Oliver is a bit of a legend. His work to raise the standards of food in schools is fantastic. I’ve recently seen that a firm are producing vending machines for schools that are stocked only with organic and healthy snacks - what a great idea. Children like vending machines! Schools, unfortunately, have in some cases become reliant on the extra income from selling snacks so it’s such good news that businesses are starting to provide alternatives for forward-thinking institutions.

Another aspect that I think Jamie has been helpful in, is encouraging new gardeners to have a go at growing their own food. On his website that he even has organic herb seeds with shiny grow-bag gift packs. With such enticing packaging and with Jamie’s name on it, who could resist? With fresh organic herbs so difficult to come by, it seems like a sensible solution. In that spirit I have a pack of basil seeds to try. I don’t have a particularly successful history of looking after plants, but I’m guessing the motivation of fresh basil in my quiche and in pasta sauces will be quite useful x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

I’ve just been looking at the 40% off sale on Ecotopia, and found some excellent bargains - particularly the herbs and spices. For example, organic ground ginger for 59p.

This post was submitted by Susannah.

The other day I was washing-up and glanced at the back of my all natural, eco-friendly washing-up liquid. To my absolute horror, there’s milk whey in it. That means that I’ve been washing the dishes etc., for my milk-allergic little boy…with milk! Thank goodness I always rinse dishes after washing them. So, vegans beware - there might be milk in your cleaning products x

This post was submitted by Susannah.

As the free delivery special offer at Nigel’s Eco Store runs out in a few days, I was having a quick browse to see if there were any items I just had to have. What I did find was this really cool handbag made from recycled juice packs by a cooperative in the Philippines. It’s very reasonably priced, eco-friendly and supports a worthy cause. I think it looks particularly summery, too. Let’s hope we get some sunshine soon!

This post was submitted by Susannah.

You know those moments when you think yourself a genius? Well, it doesn’t happen often for me, but today I had one of those moments. I experimented with a new carrot cake recipe and the results made all who ate it squirm with pleasure! Even my husband said it was the best cake he’d ever eaten (and he’s eaten a lot).

The great thing is, the recipe is dairy-free, does not contain any hydrogenated or trans fats and is substantially lower in fat than the average cake. However, two drawbacks are: because it’s made with coconut oil, it does contain saturated fat (I think about 4g per slice - recommended daily intake for adults is between 20-30g per day) and it does require a bit of faffing about in the kitchen. It took me about 20 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook (and about 10 minutes to wash-up as I don’t have a dishwasher). But it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• 250g organic self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 50g coconut oil
• 250g sugar (I use organic unrefined)
• 2 teaspoons apricot extra jam
• 4 eggs
• 10ml vanilla extract
• 2 large carrots

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees (might need slightly higher for non-fan oven)
2. Peel the carrots. Chop one of them and put in small saucepan with some water and bring to boil. Let simmer for about 15 minutes whilst you do rest of preparation
3. Grate other carrot and put aside
4. Blend the eggs and coconut oil together. Add sugar, cinnamon, jam and vanilla extract and blend some more.
5. When carrot has simmered for approx 15 minutes, add to blended mixture and blend some more until quite smooth
6. Put blended mixture in a large bowl and fold in flour
7. Add grated carrot to mixture
8. Pour mixture into a prepared cake tin (about 10″ diameter. I do usually find that using unbleached baking paper gives a better result and ensures that no chemicals have leached from tins
9. Bake for about 25 minutes until a knife comes out of cake clean if stabbed into it all the way to bottom of tin
10. Let cool in tin for about 10 minutes
11. Turn out onto wire rack - and try to resist cutting a slice immediately x

This post was submitted by Susannah.