Inexpensive & quick 'Pizza'.

I like pizzas, but I don’t like the price or the packaging, or the fact that many sold in the UK come from Germany or Holland. Here then is a way to make simple, (very) cheap, fresh and great tasting ‘pizza’.

Take two slices of bread put them together and toast them in a toaster so only one side is toasted. Thinly butter the untoasted side and scatter thinly sliced tomato, bacon, mushroom and cheese on top and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Place the slices in a moderately hot oven for 8 minutes, and there you have it!

The Costs:
2 slices of bread 6p
20g of ‘bacon bits’ 3p
½ a tomato 7p
20g cheese 8p
Butter and olive oil 1½p

Total price 32p or about 63c

I have not included the cost of the electricity for the oven, as had I bought a shop pizza I would have still used it. If you don't use meat you can easily have a vegetarian option and use other toppings instead of, or as well as.

DIY Radiator Heat Reflector

It is accepted that between 50% to 70% of the heat emitted by a household radiator is eventually lost into the fabric of the building, mainly behind the radiator and into the wall behind. A reflector panel fits behind the radiator and reduces the wasted heat by insulating the wall and so the heat that is saved either heats the air in the room, warming it faster, or is retained in the system so the boiler is not using as much fuel.

It is very easy to make your own Radiator Reflector. All you need is a tape measure to work out the size of panel, scissors, stapler some adhesive tape, a thin strip of wood, a sheet of cardboard and one of those silver heat reflecting panels you can buy to put in the windscreen/windshield of your car to keep it cool in the sunlight.

Cut the cardbord to size, place it on the reflector, cut that to suit and staple it to the cardboard. Attach a thin strip of wood to the top, I used Duck Tape as it is temperature resistant and drop the completed unit onto the supports behind the radiator!

The Potato Box, progress report...

The detail of how I made my Potato Box is on an earlier post. I put the seed potatoes in the base of the box about ten days after making it and have been have been covering the shoots from the seed potatoes as they appeared. I did this for the last time five days ago. The photo was taken this morning and you can see the growth that has occured in such a short time.

Do you save rainwater?

The average garage will have around 500 SQ Ft of roof and with only 1" of rain this will allow you to save (harvest) around 300 gallons of rainwater. The video above will give you the practical details and click on here for other information and advice from the CAT (Centre for Alternative technology) in Wales, whose main site here is well worth a visit at anytime!