Today is ‘Stop Food Waste Day’ so I wanted to share some simple ideas with you on how we can all reduce the amount of food we waste each week.
I think most of us are guilty of wasting food. It’s shocking how much we easily throw away at the end of each week when we replenish our fridge and kitchen cupboards with the weekly food shop. I know I always feel very guilty when I throw food away that has spoiled, because we haven’t eaten it quickly enough. Or embarrassingly we have just forgotten that food is there in the back of the fridge.
We have three fridges and two freezers (totally ridiculous) and they’re not all in the kitchen, so I often forget what is in the other fridges and freezers. So, I either double up on my shopping and spend money I don’t need to, or I forget what I’ve got in them and food eventually spoils.
When we re-model our kitchen we will have one big fridge/freezer which will help me to keep track of what food is in there. Before that happens I now keep a list of the foods I have in the other fridge/freezer so I can plan meals and cross them off the list when we have used them.
I am also sometimes guilty of cooking too much, so what we don’t eat goes in the bin. I now try to plan meals for the week, which really helps to cut down on wasting food. I like to follow people like Joe Wicks for meal ideas. I sit with his recipe books and plan meals for the week ahead. I then know what ingredients I need to buy for each meal so in theory there shouldn’t be any waste. Or at the very least it cuts down on the food that would go to waste.
Freezing fruits and vegetables when you know you won’t eat them before they spoil, is a great way to stop wasting them. And it means you have ingredients in your freezer ready to make healthy smoothies or juices.
Vegetables which are maybe past their best, but still edible can be thrown into an omelette for a quick and easy way to use them up. Or make a vegetable quiche and freeze it for a later date. There are many more ideas for recipes here.
I like to use up fruit in baking. Muffins and fruit-based loaves are perfect for using up fruits such as berries and bananas. I often use up over-ripe bananas by baking them in a gluten free banana loaf which is delicious and great as a teatime treat or for kid’s lunch boxes.
I’m going to be more thoughtful about planning meals and using up all of our fresh foods from now on.
To help get you started here is the recipe for the delicious -
Gluten Free Banana Loaf
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Rice Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
1 cup Unsalted Butter (Room temperature)
1 cup Caster Sugar
3 Very ripe Bananas
4 Large Eggs
METHOD
· Pre-heat oven to 170°C
· Grease and line a loaf tin
· Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl
· Beat butter, sugar and bananas together until smooth. Add eggs and blend until just mixed
· Stir this into the flour mixture until blended
· Pour the mix into the loaf tin
· Bake for 1 hour – 1 ¼ hours
· Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove and place on a cooling rack
You can also mix some icing sugar with freshly squeezed lemon juice and drizzle on the top once the loaf has completely cooled.