I don’t do big resolutions any more. I have never found that they work, and always made me feel bad.
However there are some small do-able things that would make a real difference if I got to grips with them and so here they are:
- Use the breadmaker more. We eat a lot of bread in our house, and making it at home means I don’t have to keep going to the shops to get it. (Also it’s quicker to set up the machine – assuming I do it in time – than going to the shops.) Plus it allows me to make it lower in salt, which is better for FB.
- Stop buying commercial sweets, and make your own instead. I bought ‘Life is Sweet’ by Hope and Greenwood and a digital thermometer before christmas, and after making various things as christmas presents I’m enthusiastic to carry on once every couple of weeks or so. Plus I don’t buy anything by Nestle any more, and I feel really uncomfortable buying chocolate that isn’t fair trade given the links between commercial chocolate, child labour and slavery. So homemade sweets are the way to go. I’ll let you know how I get on.
- Buy drinks in glass bottles. I have given up my fizzy drinks but I still drink alot of sparkling water, and while I know we can re-cycle our plastic bottles I think it’s probably better that I drink more water from the tap, and that the drinks that I do buy come in glass bottles.
I think that’s enough for the first few months of the year.
In regards to fizzy drinks/sparkling water, have you considered a sodastream (sodastream.co.uk) machine? I don’t drink fizzy drinks myself much any more (stopped when I got braces in my teens) but the sodastream machine was what we used a lot as kids – in fact, I am pretty sure my parents still have and use it and the glass bottles that came with it! The modern ones look very fancy but I am sure they still do the basic version and that way you can still have sparkling water and you can make your own flavours.
W keeps suggesting sodastream – i think it’s something we should definately look at when we move (when hopefully there will be more room in the kitchen.) we used to have one when i was a kid. i remember my friend throwing up some vile bright red ‘witches brew’ halloween drink. 😉
I use my bread machine all the time to make our bread, only I use the dough cycle and then shape it the way I want and bake it in a pan or on a cookie sheet in the oven. I don’t really care for the way that the bread machine bakes it, the size and shape seem awkward to me. It is a huge help though in doing all the mixing and kneading, and rising. I hope you are able to accomplish more of what you want to this year.
i should do more of that – i tend to leave it to bake in there, i weirdly i don’t like the smell of it in the breadmaker compared to the oven. but already i’ve been making pitta bread and chelsea buns dough in the breadmaking and that’s working really well. (i agree about the mixing etc. i love put all the ingredients in, and then… walking away and getting on with some of the other things that need doing each day.)