Rebekah's blog
After the Challenge
Friday 15th December
I can confirm: we are now back on track! After that terrible week of unnecessary food waste...
I have been taking only half a loaf of bread out of the freezer rather than a full one because every week, without fail, I have to throw out 4 or 5 slices that have gone mouldy.
The fresh bread that we buy on a Saturday morning is usually a bit on the crisp side by Monday but it is perfect toasted and eaten with the chicken soup we make after our Sunday roast. Isabel says my chicken soup is the best chicken soup in the world! I know she may be slightly biased but I don't care - it is delicious!
I have even started making bread crumbs from stale slices and popping them in the freezer.
I cooked too much pasta for the kids on Tuesday but put it in the fridge to use later. It was only a small portion but ideal for my lunch on Wednesday. There was also one lonely sausage sitting in my fridge so I chopped it up, chucked it in the pasta with a bit of tomato puree and cheese and it was really tasty. In the old days, 'lonely sausage' would have had a 3 day holiday in the fridge and then been thrown out, so I was delighted to have put it to good use (OK, maybe 'delighted' is a bit over the top, but I was very pleased).
Last week Isabel liked toasted brioche. This week Isabel doesn't like toasted brioche, so I had about 6 slices to use up. So, one cold, wintry evening, I made chocolate spread sandwiches, coated them in beaten egg, and fried them for a couple of minutes. I agree, that 'delighted' is a bit strong in the sausage context, but boy was I delighted with my chocolate brioche creation.
On a healthier note, I managed to use up half a green pepper, half a red pepper and half a courgette to make a roasted vegetable cous cous dish.
So after a very successful week, hardly wasting any food at all, I now have a problem on my hands as my mum came to visit at the weekend and brought us a box of vegetables containing amongst other things, 4 giant turnips. Maybe I could make Christmas decorations out of them? Maybe not.
Turnip soup anyone?
Thursday 25th November
Oh dear. I’m afraid to say we haven’t had a good week. We wasted food unnecessarily this week and I’m really disappointed as we were doing so well.
I had to throw out some salmon that had gone beyond its best before date, half a bread loaf that I forgot about and a couple of half tins of food that I had put in the fridge to have another day.
We have all been really busy this week with work and a poorly Harry and I think that I became complacent in regards to our new waste reducing ways.
After doing so well in past weeks, it really does feel like a big failure to have slipped back a little. There was no need for that salmon to go to waste. It could so easily have been tossed in a pan with some stir fry veg and noodles and bit of sweet chilli sauce. As for the tins in the fridge – if I had emptied them into containers rather than leaving them in the tin, I would have been able to see them better and they would have kept for longer.
As I feel we have let ourselves down this week, next week has to be different. I need to redeem myself! I am on a mission to reduce the amount of food we waste like never before…. No pressure there then!
I’ve just had a quick look in the fridge and the bread bin to make sure everything is ok. I now know that the left over French bread is to be transformed into toasted garlic bread and will be eaten with the left over pasta, to which I will add the lonely little green pepper, the last few mushrooms, the half onion and the opened tin of tomato puree to make our evening meal.
Oh, just remembered – I put half a block of parmesan in the freezer about 3 weeks ago so we can have that too. See – I’m doing better already.
Monday 14th November
What a lovely weekend. We celebrated Harry’s birthday at home with family and lots of party food on the Saturday, followed by a much more relaxed affair on Sunday.
My brother-in-law (who has taken to calling me ‘Swampy’) was quite concerned with what I was going to be feeding him after hearing about our food waste challenge! He seemed to think that I would be serving up a meal made from a weeks’ worth of random left overs and his over active imagination was creating all kinds of revolting possibilities.
I think he was pleasantly surprised when I served up a family favourite or ours, cottage pie. Which I might add was made from fresh mince and some left over mash, carrots and gravy amongst other ingredients. I had actually planned on using any left-over mince from this lunch to make the delicious ‘Anything-goes quesadillas’ from the recipe card Laura left us but everyone went back for seconds and there were no left overs!
Last week I added peelings, teabags and egg shells to our compost bin, and all of my other food waste went in to our brown bin. This now feels like second nature and really doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes a day to sort out.
You can also make use of many little left overs to feed the birds. Chopped bacon rind, cake and biscuit crumbs, left over cheese, the last bit of dusty cereal in the box that no one wants and potatoes are all birdy favourites. Just make sure you don’t put too much out as you don’t want to attract any rats.
So as well as reducing the cost of our food bills, it’s also really good to know that by disposing of our food waste in the best way possible we are helping the environment and even the animals in our garden.
Actually…I think this watching your food waste behaviour is catching, as my family did a tremendous job of ensuring there were no leftover cakes and biscuits after Harrys party. Well done everyone, I’m glad to see you all embracing the concept.
Friday 11th November
We have been left to our own devices this week with no one checking up on how much food we are wasting but we don’t seem to be doing too badly actually.
I was struggling to think of something to do for dinner last Friday evening but after a quick look in the fridge Isabel, Harry and I decided to make homemade pizzas.
We managed to use up half a block of feta, half a red pepper, half an onion and the last slice of ham which would have been a bit crispy round the edges by the end of the weekend destination bin! In fact all of these things were on the verge of being relegated to the bin.
We had a great time making funny faces with the toppings. Isabel even asked if we could do it every Friday.
I cooked way too many potatoes for dinner the other evening but used them up the following day by mashing them and making a cottage pie. It was that or chop them and cook them to make potato wedges but I also had some mince I wanted to use up too so mash It was!
I’ve also got my eye on the bunch of bananas that are slowly changing from yellow to brown! I am determined that for once; they are not going to end up in the bin. I’m going to peel them, chop them, freeze them and use them to make banana muffins with the kids when we find ourselves bored and in need of some baking fun!
It’s really not hard to make a difference. Im seeing big benefits from small changes. And it only takes a bit of extra thought and planning.
It’s Harry’s birthday on Saturday so for once I’m hoping for lots of left overs - preferably cake and buns please Harry. I’m absolutely positive I can put them to good use…
The Challenge
Monday 31st October
I have definitely managed to put a few of Laura's tips into practice on week two of the challenge.
When cooking pasta and rice I usually guess how much I need without giving it much thought. This ultimately results in lots of it being emptied into the bin as I have cooked far too much. I am now being more thoughtful to the amounts of food I am cooking.
Our left over Sunday roast was transformed into a really delicious chicken soup at the weekend and it was really quick and easy to make. And if I do say so myself, It was much tastier than any chicken soup I have bought from the supermarket!
I have also narrowly escaped having to throw away a bowl of tomatoes that had just started to go a little soft. I have frozen them and will use them in a sauce the next time we have pasta. Normally these tomatoes would have hung around in the fridge until it was too late to rescue them, and then gone into the bin. So many things can be frozen including carrots, cheese and even bananas as long as it's done properly. I guess I just hadn't really thought about it before now.
I'm finding that it's taking no extra effort to cut down the waste. I just need to take more notice of what I have in the fridge and what I need to use up. Just keeping on top of this, and thinking ahead a little has made it easy to reduce the food waste.
Thursday 27th October
Week one of the challenge ended on Thursday with Laura coming to empty the food waste we had amassed during the week. And was I glad to see her! After a week of tipping our unwanted food waste into a container, I can tell you it didn't look too pretty!
I had kept a diary of everything that went into the box. This included vegetable peelings, teabags, left over food, food that had gone off etc. I was quite surprised at the amount of waste we had produced in just one week, so imagine what it would have looked like after one month!
Apparently we waste £10 billion worth of food every year in the UK! To put that into perspective - a household like mine, will waste approximately £600 of food shopping each year!
Well, after a week of waste, I am now equipped with lots of handy hints on how to not waste food. I am going to make sure I drastically reduce the amount of waste we have this week by keeping an eye on best before dates, freezing food where possible, planning ahead with meals and ensuring I don't cook more than is needed. On top of that I will be composting what ever I can to help further reduce the amount of waste that goes into my bin.
Monday 24th October
I hardly had any food waste on Thursday and Friday but by the end of the weekend things had changed. The meal that we didn't finish on Friday was still in the fridge on Sunday so had to be thrown away, as was a lunch I had made for Harry. The carrots that I had bought too early for Sunday lunch had gone mouldy so they had to go in the bin too! By Monday morning I had added half a loaf of bread that was stale as we had bought a fresh loaf from the bakery and forgot about our shop bought one. Isabel and I made pizzas on Thursday which were delicious but we couldn't eat all of it so we put it in the fridge for later. I've just had to throw it out as we never got round to eating it.
Already I am surprised at the amount of food we have wasted.
I always thought I was pretty good at making leftover meals into another meal for the following day but if the leftovers are actually just being thrown away a few days later there is not much point.
Friday 21st October
No lunch was made in our house today - so no waste since breakfast. We are however approaching dinner time. Will I cook too much? Will Harry refuse to eat up? We shall soon see!
For a long time now I have thought that the most frugal way to buy the family food is to do it in one go online so I am not distracted in store by unnecessary promotions and can just buy exactly what I need whilst keeping an eye on the final cost.
I do this grocery shop online every 8 or 9 days. When I choose the items for the week ahead I have great ideas and plans for recipes but the reality is that I don't always achieve this and the fresh ingredients I buy for these meals go to waste.
Maybe doing my grocery shop online isn't the most efficient way of doing things. Yes it's convenient for me as I don't have to waste time going out to the shops but does the amount of food I waste cancel out any savings I think I have made my doing my shopping like this?
Thursday 20th October
It's 9am on the first day of the challenge and, as I expected, we already have some food to go in the waste box. I resisted the temptation to insist the children eat every bit of their breakfast as that just isn't what happens in our house. There's always left over toast or cereal.
Everyone in the house has been briefed that no leftover food or drink is to go into the normal brown bin. Harry, my 2 year old, is a little confused as to why but Isabel (7) is keen to get started.
I've been aware for a long time now that we as a family waste food but I'm interested to see just how much and to find ways of reducing this waste - for the sake of the environment and my purse!
