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Reducing waste does save money

Well this week our 6 month wheelie bin contract came up for renewal so I rang up and cancelled it. The last few months between trying to reduce waste, reusing and recycling more we have ended up with quite a small amount of rubbish at the bottom of the wheelie bin most weeks. There are cheaper companies around and we probably only need a smaller bin picked up every fortnight so I’m going to see if there is a company who will do that. I was surprised when I rang up to cancel my contract from Waste Management that the employee just said “OK”. I would have thought at the moment that companies would be trying harder to hang on to their customers. If she had asked me why I was cancelling my contract she might have been able to have signed me on to another contract that better suited my needs. With unemployment figures rising it would seem to be a sensible self-preservation technique for employees to help their employers stay in business.

 

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Free range pork

We walked into Pak n Save today and there was free range pork chops from Freedom Farms – shows the power of the consumer. I didn’t check to see if they had their bacon as well as we weren’t buying bacon today. They had Freedom Farm leaflets there as well with the product which was interesting – I’ve never seen any company have leaflets in a supermarket before? (Freedom Farm link can be found over on the right in the links). One thing that struck me reading the pamphlet that was also noticeable in the news coverage the last few weeks is the lack of focus on products that have a pork component e.g. sausages. How many kiwis would give up their staple sausage? Over the last few months since I wrote about the shocking conditions that many NZ pigs were kept in (Feb 2008) hubby and I have come to a compromise as he would not give up all pork. Roast pork, pork chops etc, sausages are not on the shopping list. Hubby will still have bacon but I won’t, thereby reducing the amount we have to buy. Ham we have reduced the same way as well. We will probably change to free range for ham and bacon now that it is a bit easier to get but will just continue to try not eat other pork products as much as possible.

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River Cottage

We’ve just finished watching the final of River Cottage Autumn Series. I was balancing the accounts for the week, freezing stewed feijoas and packaging puff pastry apple ‘turnovers’ ready for lunch over the next few days while watching TV. We don’t have a garden at the moment as our land is still a building site so it’s nice to live vicariously through enthusiastic Hugh. River Cottage, promoting small holdings, was in huge contrast to the Sunday programme on Channel 1 earlier in the evening regarding the farming practises of pigs in sow crates in NZ Mike King tackles pig welfare after seeing “despairing” pigs | NATIONAL.

 

I love watching Hugh cook his recipes even if I’ll never have access to many of his ingredients. His recipes can be accessed from http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalRecipes/.

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Power Pricing again

I wrote a little while ago about investigating my power and changing to a lower use rate – this gives a higher unit rate but lower daily charge. My bill came in last week and working out old plan vs new plan I saved $5.30 last month by changing plans. I’ve set up a spreadsheet so I can easily see each month if this plan stops being economical. A really long brochure (40cm long!) got posted to me from Meridian over the week – not sure why an environmentally aware company couldn’t have given me the same information on a smaller piece of advertising? They are trying to grab new customers by offering deals:

q       Fixing rate for two years, 11% discount for prompt payment and paying electronically

q       10% prompt discount with a bucket of Ecostore products

q       10% prompt discount with 6 months magazine subscription/6 month Fatso subscription.

(conditions apply).

 

According to http://www.consumer.org.nz/powerswitch/ calculator I am a little better off with Genesis than Meridian but I know that new/old customers often get different rates than the standard rate on the websites so it might be worth ringing Meridian. In the meantime have to run – have to go pick up a secondhand bookcase from Trade Me, can’t wait to get all my books out of storage.

 

 

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Anzac Day

I realized the other day looking at my shopping list records that we haven’t bought a packet of biscuits for over 4 and a half months. That time seems a different life now! Watching Simon and Alison Holst cooking on Anzac Day inspired me to try Anzac biscuits – biscuits I haven’t eaten since my youth. Not only do they taste delicious but they freeze really well, thawing very quickly. They have become a new favourite in our household the last couple of weeks. They are so popular I made smaller biscuits this week to make the same mixture go a little further J

 

Anzac Biscuits
100g butter
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 – 1 tsp vanilla or almond essence
1 cup sugar  (I use a bit less)
1 cup rolled oats (I use a bit more)
1 cup coconut
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp warm water (I use a bit more)Heat oven to 160degC. (I do mine at about 170- 175). Melt the butter in a fairly large saucepan. Add golden syrup and stir until blended. Take off heat. Add next five ingredients to the saucepan. Stir everything together then add baking soda dissolved in the water.

Using your hands, shape into walnut-sized (or smaller) balls, and place on baking paper on baking trays, leaving room for spreading. Bake for about 15 minutes, until evenly golden brown.

Transfer to a rack after 1-2 minutes. When cold, store in airtight containers

..

 

 

Simon and Alison Holst’s recipes – ANZAC biscuits, corned beef hash – 24 April | GOOD MORNING | TV ONE | tvnz.co.nz

 

Of course there are lots of different recipes, many use a lot less golden syrup or leave out coconut. Hubby and I and visitors love these though because they are so chewy. A good discussion of the history of anzac biscuits can be found on  

Allyson Gofton – eCook – Recipes, Food Ideas and Inspiration for New Zealanders

 

 

 

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Autumn Soup

Well it’s that time again when our thoughts go to warm hearty soup. Last weekend and this weekend I’ve been using up my bag of carrots cooking an old favourite – Curried Carrot and Cashew Soup and a newcomer – Carrot, Apple and  Cashew soup. Hubby doesn’t eat soup (because it’s not a slab of meat) so I’ve been sharing my soup with other family members as well as stocking the freezer. 

Curried Carrot and Cashew Soup – Alison & Simon Holst

500g carrots

2 small onions

1Tbsp butter

1-2Tbsp Curry (my note: play around with this, may not want this much)

3 cups water

3tsp vegetable bouillon powder

1 cup toasted cashews

 

Slice the carrots & chop onions finely. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the curry powder and onions, and sauté until the onions are soft but not brown, Add carrots, water and powdered stock until carrots are tender. In a blender process the toasted cashews to the consistency of ground almonds (can be toasted under a grill with 1/2tsp oil). Drain cooked carrots and onion and put into blender with ground nuts. Process adding stock as required to get the desired consistency. Taste & adjust seasoning. Reheat to serve. Top each serving with a spoonful of yoghurt sauce made with one cup unsweetened plain yoghurt mixed with 1 tablespoon chopped mint and 1 clove finely crushed garlic.  

 

 

Carrot, Apple and Cashew soup from The Cranks Recipe Book

I was given this book as a gift while on my first OE 14 years ago (thanks Sian & Richard) but just tried this recipe today for the first time. Moral of the story – never throw out your recipe books.

 

450g carrots

Large onion

Small potato

Large cooking apple

50g butter

1.2L vegetable stock

50g broken cashew nuts

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Roughly chop the vegetables & apple. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the prepared vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are just tender. Allow to cool before blending in a liquidizer. Reheat to serving temperature and adjust seasoning to taste. 

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Winter growing

With renovating our house the outside of our property is still pretty close to a construction site so there is little chance of growing anything at the moment. I decided to get motivated yesterday though and create a herb garden inside the house in our dining area which is an absolute sun trap. I refrained from going out and buying pretty new containers – scrounged around for old plastic pots in the shed and ice cream containers. Hopefully my first indoor growing endeavour will be successfulJ

 

Last Saturday’s Dominion Post had an interesting article regarding making seed pots out of newspaper rolled around a glass and then folded in at the bottom. Once the seedlings have grown ready to be put out in the garden the whole newspaper seed pot can just be put straight into the ground minimising the risk of transplanting shock. I guess toilet roll holders could be used as well for growing seeds. Of course you need a warm area to grow seeds in. A gardener on a TV segment the other day shared that she grows her seeds in the back of her hatchback in winter! My laundry is the warmest place in the house at the moment so I might see about setting up a little sort of greenhouse there. Perhaps I could create some plant gifts over the next few months.

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Power pricing

Got a letter from my power company yesterday pointing out that I might be better on another plan as I was a low user of electricity (not low enough for my liking!). I checked out the pricing and they’re right – I could save about $60 a year by changing price plan. While I was pricing I decided to check on http://www.consumer.org.nz/powerswitch/ to see if there was a cheaper company. Powerswitch is an independent pricing review service carried out by the Consumers Institute. You just enter your last bill details into their calculator and they search the power companies for you. I also tried Powershop given all their advertising on TV but it’s cheaper for me to stay with my company and change plans than go with Powershop.

 

So I’ve changed my pricing plan. Now I need to keep working on reducing my electricity consumption. We turn all our appliances off, we only have lights on when necessary (Earth hour wasn’t a big deal for us), we wash in cold water, our fridge/freezer is always full for power efficiency…… I think it might be time for a timer in the shower J  

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The non-consumer train: Be a voice!

I’ve been going through some of the boxes we had in storage after our renovation. Books take up a lot of that box space. One of the books I came across has been my reading the past week – Earth Time by David Zuzuki. It must have been just published when I bought it back in 1998. It’s moved with me at least five times in that period and has been read more than once but it still provides lots of inspirational motivation. Last night I came across a section which discusses that we can’t save the environment until we confront the heart of the problem – our demand for more. We can recycle and conserve all we like but ultimately we continue to go on consuming. The challenge is this: “If you’re like me and would like to avoid looking like a monster to your grandchildren, then I suggest you stop being silent about our plan to go on consuming the world until there simply isn’t any more there to consume (Quinn. D, cited in Suzuki, 1998, p.101). The silence might not be a conspiracy, but it may be just as effective” (Suzuki, 1998, p.101).

 

I like that challenge – not only reduce my consumerism but also don’t stay silent about society’s over-consumption. Question what I see and hear and believe and try each day to get others also thinking about the way they live.

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Music Holiday

I’m on holidays at the moment and money is pretty short so there are no trips away. I decided to create a theme holiday to make it a memorable break for when I’m back at work so this one is music based. Each day as I carry out the many projects that I’ve put aside until ‘holiday time’ I am also playing through my CD collection and reminiscing over the songs and the memories they bring back from through the years. My husband came home from work this evening and sat on the couch with me while I was watching a music DVD – we had a sing along of some old favourites! One of my holiday jobs was to sort out all my old music books and sheets of music and set up a corner in the spare room to get me into playing the guitar again. I got creative this morning and created a music box for all my music books – covered a box and lid with music sheets from my old piano book. It looks great. I’m up to day three of my holiday and haven’t spent a cent yet and have hardly put a dent in my CD collection yet. Looking forward to tomorrow!