Tea Bread Recipe

By popular demand (one person made a request) here is my recipe for my tea bread.


1cup all bran (or equivalent)
1cup SR flour
1cup fruit/nuts 
1/2 cup honey (or sugar)
1cup milk


Add the milk and soak the fruit and bran for at least an hour or two. Add the flour, nuts and honey and mix. Put into a greased loaf tin and bake for 1hr to 1hr 30mins on gas 3/4.
Simples.


Sometimes I use just fruit sometimes I am a bit of a devil and add chocolate drops. Tonights batch had half fruit and half pecan nuts.
Its nice on its own or with a bit of butter and a cup of tea. :)


Enjoy
Cat

Local green grocer delivers

I have been shopping for veg at Country Produce for a few years. I was dismayed when Tesco express opened on Whitecross road and effectively put them out of business. They have now opened on Milton Road and have been re building their business over the last 12 months.
They have now reached a point where they are able to make deliveries to your door. So shopping for veg can be made even easier.
Not only are their prices more than competitive with the supermarkets but the produce is fresher and tastier. Kieran Morris (owner) is more than happy to receive special requests for particular items such as herbs etc and he will do his utmost to seek them out at the markets.
All you have to do is call or email at least a day in advance of his delivery days, it couldn't be easier!

You can always go and browse in their shop at 252 Milton Road for fresh inspiration. (He also does a bit of cheese!) Service is friendly and helpful.

contact details are:
01934 643343
07974403521
countryproducewsm@btconnect.com

Delivery days are Wednesday and Fridays.

So come on shop local, eat fresh, spend savvy. Join our unsupermarket challenge!!


Cat

Unsupermarket Challenge - Week 1, Day 5

We've got a milkman!  Ah well, 2 litres of blue milk is twice the price of Asda's current offer of 4 litres for £2 but Dairy Crest's Milk and More did have a special on Country Life butter this week so I ordered half a dozen and, anyway, milk is my weakness because I had the habit of popping into Tesco Express for it and being coaxed into the ease of shopping there, buying too much on impulse.  One hiccup - our new milkman couldn't find our house but the company phoned, I directed and he got to us eventually. Oh, and the Rich n Creamy yoghurt turned into Virtually Fat Free (not my bag, Baby).

I've also gone halves on a weekly fruit and vegetable box from Cossey Produce with Holly and Mark.  I eagerly await the first delivery.  

And then, of course, there's our WsM Food Buying Group - collectively we spent over £250 and so qualify for the discount. Thanks Holly for instigating and organising this.  So exciting! I've ordered some things practically unknown to our cupboards, including quinoa, which I've never, ever used or even seen.  Recipes are welcome.

Today, I spent about an hour and a half shopping in Weston's town centre: spices, pulses and some fresh produce from Eastern Delight in Orchard Street, where I discussed lamb recipes with the woman who works there. I was appreciative when she opened the door for me and my bags, laden with cheese, eggs, ham and enough sausages to last us a month from Palmer's the Butcher, bread from Winnie's Bakery (both next to Silica) and dried fruit and seeds on special offer plus the baking powder I so needed for our next cake-baking sesh from Julian Graves in the Sovereign Centre.  I faltered at sugar buying and dipped into Marks & Spencer's, the only place that was heaving; exactly what I'm trying to keep away from - the crowds, the crowds.

What qualifies as a supermarket?  Like I said to a friend I bumped into in Palmer's, I don't want this to be an exercise of self-flagellation, do I?  Not the point at all.  So, one day I may have to contemplate browsing the flour and sugar aisle at Co-op or Waitrose.  As long as they're not busy!

The biggest plus is that we've been eating a wider range of nutritious and tasty food than we have since my now five-year old was weaning, when this brand-new, eager mother insisted that everything had to be fresh.  I was at my healthiest during pregnancy, not so much with The Glow but due to a solid, well-balanced diet, without any of my vices/addictions.  Ahem.

Meals are now better planned, waste is already less and I'm having fun in the kitchen and in the shops.  Fun, yes, fun!  I told my daughter that she could pick any fruit from Fruitline in Worle.  She chose a single orange and hugged it to her face all the way to the car, "I just can't stop smelling it!"  She made Fairies spring from it on peeling and sucked the huge thing dry.  The pineapple was also fresher, so much so that it stung her lips.  Our Somerset Brie is ultra-creamy too!

As for the economics of the whole thing, I won't know that for maybe a couple of months but it looks as though it won't be any more expensive than my manic trips to Stressco or Asda.

Happy Eating :-)

Becky x

Milk and More website 

Cossey Produce website

Unsupermarket Challenge - Week 1, Day 1

I buy my food in one of the main supermarkets, usually Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda or Aldi, supplemented by the odd trip to the triumvirate of butcher/greengrocer/baker by the Silica in the centre of Weston-super-Mare.  Unpractised in the art of keeping tabs on food consumption by my family of two, I would estimate that our nutrition (if that’s the right word!) costs about £50 a week, easily our largest outgoing, after rent and utilities.

I’m not keen on supermarkets. In fact, I find any large store oppressive – the music, the crowds, the lights!  If I ever feel ill, unhealthy or unattractive, a study of the other shoppers at Tesco (or Stressco, as Auntie Val calls it) in Weston will fix that immediately.  Supermarkets are a necessary evil, I tell myself.  But they might not have to be.

Inspired by the new WsM Food Buying Group that Holly has set up, some enjoyable home-baking over Christmas and lengthy conversations with friends on twitter, I have decided to take the Unsupermarket Challenge, that is to resist the supermarket catch-all pull and, instead, seek shopping alternatives.  I’m doing this in the search of a healthier lifestyle for my young daughter and me and to support smaller, local businesses. I aim to buy fewer ready-made items, while cooking more.  I’m not sure that I’m coming at it from a particularly green perspective – I drive.  A volcano erupting will cause a hell of a lot more ecological upheaval than all my ancestors, descendants and I ever could.  One transatlantic flight will use more fuel than a lifetime of driving around my neighbourhood.   And anyway, I’m a little wary of ethics, being, as it is, ultra-subjective.  Whose morality, exactly?

The Unsupermarket Challenge is quite an experiment because I pop into any one of the main stores or Tesco Express on the Boulevard at least 3 times a week.  Can’t be bothered to cook; run in for a pizza. Nearly out of bread or milk; grab a loaf or a couple of pints.

Not anymore. From now on, I will endeavour to source our food from elsewhere.   This is very easy to do right now as we are stocked up with most of what we need.  But this change of lifestyle means that a few of questions will need to be answered:

* What constitutes a supermarket – are we just talking the 4 or 5 biggest here or do we include the less successful ones?  Will I pop into M&S for their yummy biscuits once in a while?  Sometimes, probably, yes.

* What about washing products, where will I get them?  If I can find a cheaper way to do my washing and sanitising, then I will use it.

* Where to shop now?  I’m starting with independent retailers, our WSM food buying group, maybe a veg box scheme and grow some of our own on the patio, bake my own bread, biscuits and cakes, perhaps use a milkman.

* Will it be more expensive?  How much planning is involved?  I’m hoping that meals will be more nutritious, better thought out and, therefore, cheaper.   Meals from scratch.

* Will it work?  I’ll try.

* Does this include petrol?  Probably not, though I find myself using smaller stations often already, mostly because the whole experience is more pleasant.

 

Five years ago, my brother gave me his unwanted, little-used bread maker.  This afternoon, I dusted it off and rummaged around in the cupboards for some out-of-date ingredients I bought a while back and I made a loaf of bread.

On my way!


by Dr_Reba