Obsessed with fairtrade

The thing about Fairtrade is it makes you feel good about yourself when you eat. And for a girl especially, that doesn't happen often. Exept for the Foer book my mom also got me some sugar and candy with Fairtrade labels from Sweden. So now I'm eating unhealthy, BUT with a clear conscience. Thank you mommy!

For you with less amazing moms, visit the Doing Good Accessories Store.

Let's talk this through.

Yesterday I got some weird looks as I bought a kid something to eat. She came begging for money but when I offered food and something to drink her face lit up. It sounds all nice and in order with my thoughts on begging, doesn't it? So why did people act like what I did was strange? I would really like some answers here, because I might be missing something! Perhaps there are factors I didn't consider.

Carnivore yet again

So to sum up my vegetarian experience.. Well, there were no revalations. I like vegetarian food! I like vegetables, pasta, beans etc. I knew this. I didn't try doing something with soy product or quorn, but I know from before that I don't enjoy it much. Anyway, this is the conclution: I could be a vegetarian. I won't though. Why?

I am one of these people who have a pretty strong intuition about things being wrong, but not strong enough to do something about it. It's embarrasing, being one of these people. Someone who's low on principles. My blog is a way of trying to change this! I want to turn my thoughts into action. Respect my own values. The problem with vegetarianism is that it's difficult in social situations. And by that I mean anything from parties to going out to dinner to eating at home with my boyfriend. It's alwasy more difficult to change things when it might affect people around you. So I think I'll probably go on being a part time vegetarian, but that's it.

My mom gave me the new book by Jonathan Safran Foer, called "Eating animals". I read only the first few pages so far. He starts by describing how he's been an on and off vegetarian all his life, and the feeling I was talking about: knowing it's wrong to do it but not finding the willpower to resist. I love Foer and the subject couldn't be more fitting, so I'll probably write a review within the next few days. Good enough? Let's see where I'll end up...

The Real Good deed

Let's not forget to report about Fairtrade coffee day! I had coffee and sticky yummy chocolate cake with my boyfriend. The Fairtrade labeled coffee I found tastes really good! Better than the Jacobs I usally drink. And the cacao was just like any other cacao.

Recepie for my sticky Swedish chocolate cake:

1. Set oven temperature to 175 degrees
2. Melt 100 g of butter. Add 2 eggs and 3 dl of sugar.
3. Mix 3 table spoons of (Fairtrade labeled!) cacao, a little bit of vanilla in the form you prefer and a tiny bit of salt with 1,5 dl of flower. Add to batter.
4. Pour the batter into a baking tin (greased with butter) and bake it for 30 minutes. You know it's ready when it looks ready on the outside. The inside should be sticky! Serve with whipped cream. Yum!

Witches, Shrek, Timon and Pumba are all welcome for dinner! That's todays good deed.

Everything isn't bright and shiny happy here in good deed land. It's not like I expected everything to go according to plan. Mostly because I am ME and lately very few things do go my way. But. One thing that really bums me out when it doesn't go right is cooking. Yesterday is a good example.

You know how as you get older you learn to like food you used to hate? Last night I made spinach soup thinking that it is a healthy veggie meal, and it was probably one of those things you hate when you are a kid but can like as an adult.

It wasn't one of those things.

Green and slimy food. Still no hit.

Taking recycling into my own hands

I found this huge old frame yesterday when I was taking out the garbage. It's dirty, some small pieces are missing and it has gotten some pretty bad repairs already. But I'm sure I can do something with it.. uuhm..

Still a vegetarian

Vegetarian pasta today. Made pennes with a walnut sauce I have been meaning to try. It was nice, but I would have enjoyed it more together with some prosciutto. It got boring before I got got full. Added some sun dried tomatoes to spice it up, and it helped. Anyway, here's how to make the sauce:

1. Roast 170 g of walnuts in a dry pan.
2. Use a mixer to make a paste out of the walnuts, a slice of bread, 1 & 1/2 decilitre of milk, 1/2 a crushed clove of garlic and 25 g of parmesan.
3. Add some olive oil, salt and pepper and mix again. Add some water from the pasta if the sauce is too thick. Top with chopped parsley. Done!

I've discovered a big plus in vegetarianism that nobody tells you about. It's very cheap! Super.

Shape up Greece!

I found two Fairtrade labeled products in my supermarket! It's one brand of coffee and a cocoa. I was so happy to find them that it took me a while before I started thinking about why I haven't seen them before. But it's actually pretty obvious why, and the reson is annoying as hell.

These products are in the supermarket as they are organic and have been placed on the shelf with "organic foods". You can not find the organic coffee next to the other coffee brands. Only in this specific part of the store. Imagine that my supermarket is as huge as... probably 500 sq.m It has 4 floors and I don't know how many hundreds of customers in a day, and they have 2 things with a Fairtrade label. These aren't imported for the label. That I was able to find them was a total coincidence.

This article, written by Katia Antoniadi, confirms my suspicions. For those of you who don't read Greek, I can tell you that the article also says 65 % of the Greeks don't know the meaning of the words "fair trade". And that from the few Greek companies that even replyed to a survey, made by Consumers International, the commercial directors didn't know what products were in this category.

It's clear to anyone that this is an area in which Greece has to improve. I will do my part. Friends are hereby invited to my Fairtrade Coffee on Wednesday. Shall we say around seven?

Free shipping at Amazon

A small tip. If you buy things for £25 or more from Amazon right now you get shipping for free to these countries:

Greece, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Andorra, Finland, Gibraltar, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Vatican city and Poland!

So if you were planning to buy some stuff from my Doing Good Accessories Store for example you should do it now!

Veggie Weekend

Veggie stuff

I admit, I made one mistake. Had lunch out and ordered a sallad that had chicken in it. Yummy as it was I didn't remember my vow to eat only vegetarian food this week, until it was already gone. But it won't happen again! Above is last nights dinner. Potato and onion soup, bruschetta and sallad.

I love this soup. It's the easiest thing to make, really tasty, healthy and cheap. Here's how I make it:

1. Chop yellow onion (1) and leek (4) and fry them in butter in a big pot.
2. Peel potatoes (1 kilo) and throw them in the pot together with water, a bouillon cube, salt and pepper.
3. Boil until the potatoes fall apart, mix with a hand blender and add some cream. Done!