I like clothes and I like shopping for them but over Christmas I looked at my wardrobe and decided enough was enough; no more fast fashion, and I’ve been looking for guilt free shopping alternatives ever since.
I’ve adopted the following Fashion rules
Do I really need a new…..?
Will I wear it more then once?
Is it really worth the cash?
Is it well made?
And no more fast fashion-stores; Primark being at top of my list.
In January my first initiative was actually selling old clothes which I no longer wear on ebay and using the money to either buy vintage items that I couldn’t usually afford, expanding the organic fibres in my wardrobe or saving the money for a rainy day. This has been working brilliantly as I’ve sold in total 22 items and made some shrewd purchases including a pair of Vintage Terry de Havilland wedges. I’ve only had to make a couple of trips to the post office and in the process cleared space in my wardrobe and am now the proud owner of a great pair of shoes with some cash put aside for that rainy day.
Whilst enjoying my tea and toast this morning, I was pleased to hear the news announcer declaring that America anticipates pulling itself out of the recession by the end of the year. This headline was music to my ears, as surely global recovery will eventually follow. I’m sure everyone is as sick of hearing about ‘the current economic climate’ as I am, so an end to this Credit Crunch will be a huge relief.
With so much doom and gloom in the media, one would be forgiven for thinking that everything in our economy has ground entirely to a halt. However here at Ethical Superstore we’re absolutely delighted that even in this current economic climate (sorry – I couldn’t resist using the phrase!), people are still staying true to their beliefs and their ethics and continuing to buy what they believe.
Beliefs and principles are important to all of us, but the good news for consumers is that often products that are easy on the environment don’t need to cost you a fortune – We’ve got plenty of energy saving gadgets which will help you to reduce your fuel bills, and many of our household and cleaning selection are great money savers too. But beyond these items, we are so pleased that so many of you are staying faithful to your loyalty to fair trade and organic products amongst other beliefs, despite their (often unfounded) reputations for being slightly more expensive.
Mothers are great. They do so much for us every day, but sometimes we forget to say thank you quite as much as we ought to.
This is where Mother’s Day steps in – it’s a chance for us all to think about our Mums, and most importantly, it’s a chance to say a great big Thank You.
Here at EthicalSuperstore we’ve got loads to thank our Mum’s for…
But what is the best way to say thank you?
Our number one tip is to make sure you put thought into it – after all, whether you can be with your Mother on Mother’s Day or not, they definitely deserve recognition and some top notch looking after – they’ve certainly earned it.
So we’ve racked our brains and come up with a masterplan…
…just click the promise voucher above, print it out, then fill it in as appropriate and deliver. Don’t limit yourself to Mother’s Day with this one – You could give a voucher any day of the year as it doesn’t actually need to cost you a penny – it’s definitely a case of ‘the thought that counts’, making it a perfect Credit Crunch busting Mother’s Day gift idea.
It’s the perfect way to treat your Mother, because you can tailor it perfectly – and even better for your Mum, she can cash in your gift whenever she fancies.
This is a gift that keeps on giving – it’s a surefire Mother’s Day winner!
So we are now in week 3 of Lent and still the Ethical Superstore diet is going pretty well (in summary, for six weeks I’m only going to eat what we sell in the Ethical Superstore range).
At first my biggest problem was giving up milk in tea and coffee. I really didn’t like the taste without milk and the various substitutes work well for most things apart from in tea and coffee. However, I think I’ve become acclimatised to no milk in my hot drinks now – in fact I accidentally put it in my tea on Tuesday morning and couldn’t understand why my tea tasted so horrible. Maybe black tea and coffee will be a change for life….
Bread making continues to be the high point using the Doves Farm bread kit. Experimented with adding a little sugar and vegetable fat (around a teaspoon of each) and ended up with a bigger loaf and a more even “rise”. There is a chocolate cake in the range too – so I think I’ll make that my treat this weekend.
I guess that the biggest challenge of eating only from the Ethical Superstore range for anyone with a busy life, is the lack of ready meals. The Just Wholefoods range comes close and has allowed me to make meals with cous cous and biriyani without too much effort. The veggie bangers are lovely too. Also at £1.35 for a pack that serves two people – they are good value too.
However, the only reason why the challenge can work at all is the fantastic
Having messed around with my family’s food and drink options during Fairtrade Fortnight, I’ve decided to sneakily introduce Meat Free Mondays at a time when their defences are low.
Before I move on to that, my fair trade education went down a storm. As expected, there was outrage when one member of the family got a bar of chocolate and the rest got none. Not sure how much the message got through their own seething sense of injustice at that stage. Then the emotional pressure exerted on the most fortunate one worked and we experienced a family bonding moment as he broke the chocolate into pieces into the fondue pot and let us all dip fair trade fruit into it. Touching. Memorable. An insight into fair trade? Time will tell…
Back to Meat Free Mondays. This idea has been brewing for a while, having read about it in a magazine. My husband is back to being a full-time vegetarian; my ten year old daughter is toying with the idea; and we are definitely eating more vegetables since joining the organic veg box scheme. Even my oldest son is being pressured by his girlfriend to eat
It was with some sadness that I realised that after having feasted on a variety of incredible slow cooked lunches, today I’d be returning to sandwiches.
The week had been a real voyage of discovery for me. I’ll be forever grateful to Elaine for introducing me to harrissa relish and appreciate both Analisa and Twanna who have opened my eyes to cooking in drinks rather than stock.
However it was probably Analisa’s demonstration that the slow cooker is worthy of kitchen worktop space in the summer as well as the winter, that got me thinking most. I’d mentally pigeon holed the slow cooker as simply a hot comfort food provider on cold, dark winter evenings, but now I know better!
A slow cooker isn’t just for dinner; it can kick start the day too – as a hot comfort food provider on cold, dark winter mornings! With the unwelcome return of icy weather I decided to experiment. I left the slow cooker on its low setting (the versatile Ecolectric slow cooker has a choice of three heat settings) over night to see if what I’d heard was true – that – slow cooked porridge is amazing.
Last week we welcomed Rude Health Organic Foods to the shelves of Ethical Superstore. With a ‘Rude’ brand name it may not surprise you to learn that some of their product names sound a little cheeky too,
I'm so optimistic that when I tilt my head I can see the shape of a jelly bear in this kiwi
So week one of my ESS challenge is successfully completed. For those of you who missed my first blog, I am trying to only eat and drink things that you can buy from the Ethical Superstore for the whole of Lent. My only relaxation is drinking water from the tap.
After 7 days things are going pretty well. I’ve lost a couple of pounds in weight and I’m eating much more healthily (well apart from the Divine Strawberry truffles which have gone past their best before date – lovely!).
Breakfast has been either homemade bread using the Dove’s Farm bread kit (cooked in my breadmaker – just add a cup of water and turn on) or Rude Health’s Morning Glory porridge. The latter was a little bit of a shock – I thought it was just porridge. Turned out to be a mixture of seeds and grain plus porridge oats. A little bit of an acquired taste but I’m happy to say I have now acquired it; even when made with just water rather than milk.
Lunch has been soup, soup and more soup. Tried most of the Seeds of Change range and today began working through the Suma Soups starting with the Thick Vegetable. All very tasty.
The main meal has been tricky although the organic vegetable box has generally come up trumps. Vegetables used in casserole, stir fry and pasta have all worked well with the awesome Harrissa sauce working a treat to give even the most mundane looking plateful a zing of flavour.
The slow cooker has fast become a valuable member of my family; my mum bought me one as a gift last year when my oven died and she promised me it would be save me time and deliver an easy nutritious tasty meal. Boy, was she right!
I use my slow cooker mainly for joints, curries, and chilli’s. Following on from a conversation with friends I was amazed when they told me their slow cookers are usually packed away during the spring/summer months as it’s associated with comfort winter food! Not in our household!
I decided to try a recipe that is one of our family favourites – Nigella’s Ham in Cola . In the winter its fab with mashed potato and roasted vegetables – in the summer it’s delicious with salads, jacket potatoes and warm breads – for anyone who hasn’t tried it please don’t be put off by the title – soooo delicious and moreish!
The Spring People Tree catalogue has just plopped onto my door mat and my Fairtrade Fortnight pledge has come up trumps – what better way to stick to buying only organic and fair trade products than to revamp my wardrobe? The sun is shining, spring is in the air and ethical retail therapy is about to work its magic!
Living off organic and fair trade produce for the past week has proved surprisingly easy. Homemade lemon drizzle cake and banana bread have lifted spirits and won over some hearts. Trips to Asda, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers have kept hunger from the door. Looking forward to rich pickings in the Co-op tomorrow – apparently the price of all fair trade products is currently reduced by 20%. Of course, my husband’s Lenten pledge puts mine in the shade (not that there’s any sense of competitiveness there, of course!), and all of this is certainly raising awareness in our household and provoking much discussion.
Example of discussion: Young daughter: That’s garbage, that is.(pointing to organic fruit and veg box)
Ethical Mum: Don’t be silly, sweetie. (secretly sympathising with this view when observing the amount of
For my slow cooker challenge I’ve tried to do the easiest cheapest and most flavoursome slow cooked recipe which requires minimal effort.
So here goes with Easy Slow cooked Moroccan lamb.
The ingredients
Lamb neck fillet chopped into bite size pieces you don’t need loads about 300g
1 massive sweet potato or the equivalent of about 400g
1 Tin of tomatoes chopped
Fresh tomato’s if you have any
1 Jar of Biona Harrissa relish
1 medium red onion
1tblspn plain flour/1tsp cinnamon/1tspn ground cumin (used for coating the lamb)
The Method
To start with I chopped the onion and then fried it off / softened it with a little olive oil and added it to the bottom of the slow cooker.
I then took a bowl added a tablespoon of flour a tsp of cinnamon and some ground cumin and
Our main man @andyredfern has just been on BBC Newcastle live to talk about conservation and bio-diversity - great things to stand up for!
16 hours ago
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