The plastic challenge - week three

This week's shop was pretty successful.  I bought quite a bit of meat including some for my grandmother.  She decided she wanted hers in a container rather than in a plastic bag - it's catching on.  Fortunately our local butcher is extremely supportive and is more than happy to fill up my own containers.

We went shopping on Saturday for some more vegetables, and the one thing we didn't come back with (aside from peas of course) was a cauliflower.  We were in Waitrose and all the cauliflowers are in a plastic bag.  We know that it is the same in Sainsbury's.  The last cauliflower I bought was in Whole Foods Market where they are not in plastic bags.  We could maybe have found one at the market, unpackaged but we decided we would do without as we had bought sprouts in one of our own Onya Weigh bags.

The one bit of plastic we came back with this week was a tub of Philadelphia cheese.  I've decided this purchase is exempt from my plastic challenge as I buy it for making cheesecake or tiramisu which is a good way of using up leftover/stale cake.  We had half a chocolate log in the fridge which had really been there long enough so it got mashed up into the base for tiramisu and soaked in Tia Maria and strong coffee.  Then I whipped up the Philadelphia with some icing sugar and spread that on top and covered it in grated chocolate. It is now all eaten up as pudding after Sunday lunch.

Making tiramisu out of the leftover chocolate log

There was some extra chocolate sauce left over from the chocolate log, and so I turned this into a fridge cake.  This was another plastic challenge as I have up to now made my fridge cake by lining a loaf tin with cling film.  This was easily overcome though, by using a pork pie tin which has a loose bottom, lined round the edge with some Bake-o-glide.  It worked really well and was easier than the cling film method.

My new method for making fridge cake

So why do I consider the Philadelphia cheese packaging to be ok?  Well, it is most certainly reusable in our house.  I always keep the empty pots, wash them out and reuse them for example for snacks like peanuts and raisins or grated carrot and celery sticks which I take when I am working away from home and Junior Daughter takes to school.  There is no other plastic packaging other than the tub itself.

Mid week I decided I needed to buy my cat food as they say you should introduce new cat food gradually.  I did buy the Countrywide brand and the cats like it. So again more plastic, but at least it is in a useful bag.

Here's the Pitt Purchased plastic tally to date:

2 toothpaste tubes with lids
2 plastic bubbles from the battery packaging

In addition, but with plans to make use of the plastic:

1 tub with lid from Philadelphia cheese
1 bag from cat food washed out, dried and back in use.

I have also pulled out of my plastic store a small plastic bag when I've needed one. It was from apples. I'll be keeping this and no doubt reusing it again, because apples from now on will only be purchased loose.

Chocolate Fridge Cake

Why is it that no-one believes me when I say I have 'left-over' chocolate to use up?  Surely it isn't just me?

This time of year I often have a fridge full  of leftover chocolate. Okay I exaggerate a bit - it isn't exactly full of the stuff - but there's often a couple of bowls containing bits of abandoned Easter Eggs and sometimes even some chocolate left over from Christmas.

Chocolate Fridge Cake is an ideal way to use it all up.

Here's a recipe but you can adapt it in lots of ways depending on what you need to use up.

250g Digestive biscuits (or any biscuits that need eating up!)

300g Chocolate - whatever you find lying around the house that you've asked more than once to be moved or eaten up is fair game

100g unsalted butter

150g golden syrup

200g approx of dried fruit e.g. raisins, chopped cherries, chopped apricots, mixed peel  (and nuts if you like) 

Bash up the biscuits in a plastic bag, melt together the butter, syrup and chocolate over a low heat or on low power setting in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Add the biscuit crumbs and fruit to the melted mix.

Line a 20cm square tin or glass bowl with cling film and pour in the mixture.  Leave to set in the fridge for a few hours. When set, turn out the cake and peel off the cling film.  Cut it into chunks while it is still cold.

One day I might be able to post a picture, but the cake keeps getting eaten up before I get round to taking a photo!