9 Top Tips to reduce food waste

Posted by Rosie

I blogged recently about why we waste food and quoted some pretty hair raising figures from 511 million bananas chucked away each year in the UK alone to food waste costing the average family £700 per year.  There are loads of pages on the internet of recipes using left overs and all you need to do is put "how to use up leftover {insert food of choice}" into a search engine and you'll find lots of recipe ideas. I blogged about ways to use up ripe bananas for example.  What I want to try and do here is offer some other slightly more different ways of saving food from the bin by tweaking what you do rather than just searching up a recipe.

9 Top Tips to reduce food waste

Get into making soup and stock 

Have a look at the bottom of many a fridge and veg rack and you may well find a motley selection of slightly odd, not quite at their freshest, vegetables. There may well not be enough of anything for one recipe so why not combine the lot as a vegetable soup?  Again, the recipes are out there if you search on line.  "Fridge bottom soup" is one of my favourites, never the same but always tasty and always low cost.  

Taking this one stage further and get into making stock then you'll be using even more of your food.  For chicken stock combine the carcass of a roast chicken with a few onions and what-ever off vegetables you have to hand.  You can even add the peelings from the carrots etc that you might have eaten with the roast.  You can save peelings and odd left-over vegetables and freeze them until you have enough to make the stock too.  Worried about using too much gas or electricity as they bubble away?  Both these can be made easily in either a pressure cooker or a slow cooker.  The image below comes from Simplebites where you'll find a great recipe for making stock from vegetable peelings

Vegetable Peeling Stock

Weekly fridge check

Once a week and before you go shopping have a sort out in your fridge. See what foods are older and need eating first.  Use these first and plan meals around them, only buying any new ingredients you need to make a meal with them.

Monthly food cupboard check

Ditto your food cupboard.  You might be surprised what you find half opened at the back that needs using up before it spoils.

Use herb stalks

These need not be thrown away and have loads of flavour in them.  For example parsley stalks can go into a bouquet garni or stock (see above) and woody stems of rosemary are lovely laid over roasting lamb or chucked on the BBQ for a fragrant aroma. Stalks can be frozen until you need them.

Freeze small quantities of left-overs/dry bread etc

As with the bones and vegetables that you need for making stock, you can freeze small quantities of things like left over food, stale bread etc until you have enough to use.  With bread keep adding slices to the bag until you have enough to use.  Dry bread can also be cut into cubes ready for croutons (which can be cooked from frozen) or whizzed up into breadcrumbs.

Buy a stack of lidded containers to make storage easier 

If they are stackable that's even better. And with your newly found weekly fridge check such left-overs shouldn't end up at the back going mouldy.  I bought these ones in Lakeland years ago (they come in a bigger size too) and they are fabulous.  Strong, well fitting lids and stackable.

Label everything you freeze

And keep a record of what's in there.  Make sure you date things to and again use the older things first.  This is my failing which is why I once found 7 year old berries in the bottom of the freezer and threw what I thought were kidney beans into a pork stew only to realise they were blackcurrants!

Lower your standards

We have long been conditioned into thinking that perfect looking vegetables etc are what we should be eating and anything a bit limp or blemished in some way is only for for the bin.  This simply isn't true.  So if the end of your carrot is a touch soft, don't worry as in a soup or stock it will taste just fine.  A bit of a brown bit on an apple?  Simply cut it off and eat the rest.  Supermarkets love it when we throw away food as it means we are back through their doors to spend more money to replenish our cupboards and fridges.  It's time to fight back and show them that we don't need to waste all that food and all that money.

Get a pet

OK - maybe this one is a bit tongue in cheek but guinea pigs are much less fussy about the look of their veg and will happily eat peelings etc and our dogs are more than happy to eat small amounts of leftovers. Just make sure you don't feed your pet on foods that are poisonous to it and ensure they get plenty of "proper" food and don't become overweight. Oh and don't end up with a goat as fussy as ours!

Do you have any more tips on reducing food waste or what about favourite recipes?  Please do add a comment below.

Kitchen Utensils that can save you Money

Posted by Rosie

I blogged recently about how you can use your cooker and hob more efficiently to reduce energy when cooking and so save you money.  There are also various kitchen utensils that can also help reduce energy costs although these do come with a word of caution ... 

Most are expensive to buy new and so will not save you money if you rush out and buy them all today and then they sit unused in your cupboards because you didn’t get on with them. If you can, borrow one from a friend before buying and then if you feel you’ll use the utensil, see if you can get one by any of the following means:

• Try your local Freecycle/Freegle etc
• Look on Ebay (or leboncoin if you are in France)
• Try bartering for one
• Search the small ads of your local paper
• Look in charity shops

If however, you have to buy new, I recommend spending out that little bit more and buying a quality product.  It will last longer and save you money in the long run especially if you use it a lot. This also goes for pans – when you need to replace you cooking pots and pans go for the best quality you can afford and also chose those best suited to your cooker.  I bought my pans over 20 years ago and whilst they cost me a lot of money they are still going strong and there is not a wobbly handle or uneven base to be seen.

So, what kitchen utensils could save you money?

 

• A pressure cooker – great for one pot meals and stocks that normally take a long time to cook.  I would recommend buying the biggest you can afford so even if you want small meals you can freeze extra portions for later.

•  A slow cooker – again, one pot meals cooked slowly this time but with minimal energy.  I have also just discovered you can bake cakes in slow cooker!  This Slow Cooker Chocolate and Mint Aero Bubble Cake sounds wonderful!

• A wok – high temperature cooking but very fast.

• A steamer – all your veg etc on one ring.

• Haybox or Wonderbag  - and finally something a bit different.  In the past people would heat up a meal such as a stew until it was boiling and then place it in a box filled with hay.  The hay would retain the heat and the meal would cook gently through the day, in exactly the same way an electric slow cooker does ... but with no electricity at all being used after the initial heating.  It is now possible to buy a modern equivalent called a Wonderbag.

Wonderbags

Oh and don't forget, if you have a woodburner with a hot plate you can cook meals on there too! 

Have you any kitchen utensils you would recommend to reduce energy costs when cooking? 

10 Tips to Cook more Efficiently

Posted by Rosie

With energy prices only ever heading upwards, we'd all love to cut our energy bills.  Here at 10 ways you can use your cooker for less energy expenditure (and be a bit greener at the same time!):

On the hob:

1. Use the smallest ring possible

Once something is boiling move the pan to the smallest ring and lowest setting to maintain the desired temperature. Never put a small pan on a large ring, you’re just wasting energy.

2.  Boil only what you need

When boiling water in the kettle or in a pan, only boil the amount you actually need. 

3.  Pan lids ON

Unless the recipe expressly says not to, always cook with the lid on. 

4.  One pot meals

Look to cook one pot meals where the whole dish is on one ring eg stews and make use of a steamer.

 

In the oven

5.  Oven pre-heating

When cooking something like a roast and other dishes that are in the oven for a long time, there is no need to pre-heat the oven. Exceptions to this rule are breads, cakes and pastries that need to be at the correct temperature to start cooking. 

6. Switching off the oven 

Switch the oven off 10mins before the end of cooking time and it will retain the necessary heat (But don’t open the door until the 10mins are up). Electric rings can also be turned off a few minutes before the end of cooking time. 

7.  Keep the oven door shut

Don't open the oven door to take a peek at what's cooking inside. Instead, keep the oven window clean and look through it to check on progress. Opening the oven door lowers the temperature inside - by as much as 25 degrees - which increases cooking time and is not energy efficient.

8. Fill up that oven

If the oven is on for one dish but there is space for more inside, bung something else in to fill the gap.  Either cook 2 of the same dish and freeze one for later or add something different i.e. a main course and a pudding both cooked in the oven at the same time.

Generally

9.  Quick cooking recipes

Look for quick cooking recipes – a search on the web will give lots of inspiration but if you still prefer to leaf through a book your local library should have a suitable book.

10.  Raw Food and Salads

Try including more raw foods in your diet. Lots of vegetables and fruits need no cooking and Summer is the perfect time for more salads.

Have you got any tricks to help reduce the amount of energy you use when cooking?  We can always include them in a later post!  And why not head over to the Thrifty Thursday linky and see what other money saving tips people have this week.