Christmas Food Zero-Waste Tips

It's the time of year when we're stocking up our fridges with lots of festive treats and goodies, but with this excitement comes so much waste. Although it may come as a joy to many who despise the vegetable, over 17.2 million brussel sprouts are thrown away every year. I've compiled a few of my favourite festive zero-waste food tips which will hopefully be really useful for many of you this Christmas time!

1. Plan out your portions before you do the big food shop- check out this meal planner to guide you.

2. Make best use of your ice cube trays in the freezer. These are so handy for freezing extra gravy or bread sauce.

3. Get a turkey that's a size smaller than the one you think you'll need.

4. Get your guests to serve themselves. People know how much they can eat better than you do!

5. Give your leftovers to a neighbour. Haven't heard recently from Terry down the road? Now's the perfect time to share some Christmas love and be food-savvy while doing it!

6. Be creative with your leftovers- no more boxing day cold turkey sandwiches! Here are some ideas to inspire you with ways to use up your Christmassy goodies.

          🌟  Turkey- Turkey curries and stews are a wonderful way to continue the Christmas season in your meals into the new year! Or how about an easy turkey burger which are also super easy to freeze.                 
          🌟  Brussel Sprouts- If your family aren't fans of brussel sprouts yet your Christmas lunch looks bare without them, the trick is to complement their taste with other flavours, like pancetta and chestnuts in this recipe!                   

          🌟 Mince Pies- these work great crumbled up and used as a base to a trifle. They also work wonders in brownies, as shown in this recipe. Two of may favourite puddings in one! 

                      

What to do with Pumpkin Leftovers

It's Halloween season, and your carved pumpkins are sat on your doorstep, waiting to be chucked out. Sound familiar?  According to the Pumpkin Rescue campaign, the UK wastes 18 000 tonnes of pumpkin every Halloween, which is why I have put together a few ideas for what you can do with your pumpkin leftovers.

1) Pumpkin Soup
This is a tasty comfort meal that is so easy to whip up when time is short. Click here for the steps!

2) Pumpkin Pie
An American favourite, this pumpkin pie recipe uses 750g of your carved creation.

3) Chocolate and Pumpkin Loaf
This is a delicious combination, perfect for cosy autumnal evenings! Click here for Jamie Oliver's recipe.

4) Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
A great healthy snack which is so easy to make. Simply sprinkle a layer of pumpkin seeds with salt and pepper and drizzle over a little olive oil. Bake for 7-10 minutes at 190 degrees C until light brown.

5) Pumpkin Curry
A real hearty meal to share with your friends. Check out this recipe to use up one whole pumpkin!

Easy-Peasy Meal Planning

Planning is key to reducing your food waste. I'm not talking counting your calories for every meal or deciding what you're having for breakfast in 5 months time, but a simple shopping list and a weekly meal plan.

As well as this being a great way to have a more nutritionally balanced diet and encourage you to only buy what you need, meal planning is also an effective way to do better in exams as, if you're anything like me, it's easy to zone out of lectures and think about what's for tea!

My Top 10 Planning Tips:

1. Get some nice stationery- okay, this might just be me, but I find I'm far more likely to write things down and not lose it if it's in a pretty notepad!

2. Always have a shopping list on your fridge door- this way you can jot something down as soon as you run out of it. 

3. If there's space, stick another list on your fridge, this time writing all the leftovers inside that need to be used up. This is so important if you have a large family to let people know what needs to be eaten (or what is allowed to be eaten!). 

4. You can probably tell I am a huge fan of lists. If you have a baker at home, I recommend having a list on the inside of your cupboard to remind your family/housemates what is inside your baking tins. This probably isn't a common problem, but often I have come across a cake tin at home with one lonely forgotten (and slightly fluffy!) flapjack.

5. If you buy products on promotion either freeze the extra items or double the recipe and freeze them later- but always check you have enough space in the freezer before falling into this trap!

6. Organise your meal plan around your weekly schedule- I usually have something happening every evening while I'm at uni so I often find it tempting to buy 'easy' but expensive meals from the campus shop. To get around this I try to cook in bulk when I do have time and defrost a meal when I get back late in the evening. 

7. Go with theme nights. Growing up, Wednesday was always 'pasta night' (much to my friends' amusement, this meant I would always have leftover pasta in my packed lunch on Thursday!) and Friday was often 'fish night'. This means you know exactly what you need, how much you need and when you need it. 

8. Check the weather! This may seem like a strange one, but with the changeable weather in Britain you may feel like a warm soup while you're shopping but there may be a heat wave during the week!

9. Allow yourself to have takeaways and eat out from time to time, but have an idea of when this might happen so you don't go buying unnecessary food for these days. 

10. Check out the portion planner on Love Food Hate Waste's website. It's particularly useful if you have a large party to feed and you're not used to cooking for so many! Find it here . 

Appetising Apps

There are so many apps which can help you cut down on your household food waste. Why not give some of these a try and tell us about your experiences in the comment section!

✿ OLIO
Bought too many bananas by mistake? Measured out too much pasta? Don't worry- Olio can help by allowing you to share your surplus food with your neighbours. It is also great for people on a low budget, as you can pick up free food!

✿ TOO GOOD TO GO 
Rescue food from nearby restaurants that is about to be thrown away- great meals at great prices! They are always adding new stores so don't worry if they haven't reached your area yet. 

Today's listings include:
- Cedar Tree Roast Dinner (Was £6.99, now £2.99) in CARDIFF, UK
- YO! Sushi (Now £3.50) in BOURNEMOUTH, UK
- Crocus Seafood Paella (Now £3.25) in READING, UK
- Small Batch Coffee Roasters mixed bag of home made cakes, sandwiches and crusty rolls (Now £2.50) in BRIGHTON, UK

✿ LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
Enter your leftover ingredients into the search engine and the app will conjure up a perfect recipe to save you from throwing your food away!

E.G. I entered "Bread" and "Cauliflower" and I received a suggestion of "Cauliflower Bites" with a simple step-by-step method to follow and an appetising image to give an idea of the end product!


✿ MEALIME
This one helps to organise your week with a clear diary encouraging you to plan each week's meals. It also includes a grocery list section so you don't need to worry about where you left that scrap bit of paper!

Glorious Gadgets

Here are some interesting gadgets I have come across during shopping trips and browsing the web. I must admit, I have not tried out all of these so cannot share my opinion of all of them. If you would like to share your own experiences of using these, leave a comment below!

✿ Food huggers - silicone tools to keep your fruit, veg, cans and jars securely sealed in order to preserve freshness and make them last longer in your fridge.

✿ Spaghetti Measurer - many spaghetti scoops are made with a small hole in the middle which can be used to measure one portion (around 75g) of spaghetti. Alternatively, use a penny and cover the coin with spaghetti to measure a typical portion.

✿ Silicone lids - Heat resistant, universal suction lids to seal onto bowls, sauce pans, jugs etc which contain your leftovers. They keep food fresh for longer and are a more eco-friendly (and successful!) alternative to cling film.

✿  Nanology Fruit and Veg Disc Savers - These discs can double the life of fruit and veg in the fridge. Simply place in your fridge draw or fruit bowl and the discs work by absorbing the ethylene gas produced by your fruit. Each disc lasts approximately 3 months.

✿ Bag clips - These simple clips are a must in every kitchen. They seal bags and packages to keep food fresh. I regularly use mine for freezer items such as an open loaf of bread or frozen veg.

BACK OF THE FRIDGE: How to use up excess milk

Milk is in the top 5 most wasted foods- about 5.9 million glasses are poured down the sink each year! Here are some ways to use up your milk:

1) Scones- there are so many variations you can try out. My particular favourite is a cheese scone! These are particularly good for when your milk is on its last legs- no one will know once they're cooked!

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2) Rice Pudding- these only require 3 base ingredients; milk, sugar and rice. To make your pudding more interesting, cook with fruit (e.g. strawberries, apricots, blueberries, raspberries), serve with jam or sprinkle some flaked almonds over the top. 

3) White Sauces- A staple for many meals, whisk up a quick white sauce from milk, flour and butter and pop in the freezer. Then simply defrost and use with your lasagne, fish, macaroni cheese or cheesy potatoes! 

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4) Smoothies- Mango smoothie can be made with 250ml of milk, 2 mangoes and a teaspoon of honey- perfect for those warm summer evenings!

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5) Pancakes- You don't have to wait until Shrove Tuesday to make pancakes! They are such an easy snack, particularly as the main ingredients are cupboard staples; milk, plain flour, eggs, vegetable oil and salt.  

SPILLING THE BEANS...The Most Common Food Waste

It is clear that we are more likely to throw away certain foods than others. This is largely due to varying lifespans and buying more of the food than necessary. See below some of the foods most frequently found in the food waste bin. 

Over the next few weeks, this blog will feature posts to inspire you with more creative ways to use these foods up- be sure to subscribe to posts at the bottom of this page so you don't miss them!

✿ MILK- pour milk into ice cube trays ready to pop into a cup of tea

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✿ BANANAS- overripe bananas are perfect for banana and chocolate bread. Alternatively I slice the ripe bananas up and pop in the freezer. I can then use the sliced banana in porridge for those cold winter mornings or for smoothies and ice cream in summer!

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✿ BACON- bacon lasts far longer when frozen. Separating the layers with grease proof paper avoids the strips from clumping together

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✿ BREAD- whole loaves last much longer than sliced as less surface area is exposed to air. However, at uni I tend to buy sliced bread and store in the freezer immediately after shopping. This way I can pop a slice straight from the freezer into the toaster or pop a couple of slices in the fridge overnight to defrost ready for a sandwich the next day!

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✿ POTATOES- if you buy a large bag of potatoes, it is often easy to know whether you'll use them all before they start sprouting. Mashed potato keeps well in the freezer, or alternatively parboil them and freeze ready for your Sunday roasties!

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✿ CHEESE- store in an airtight container or bag. Hard cheeses can be grated and frozen, ready to be thrown straight into a saucepan.

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Why We SHOULD Cry Over Spilt Milk

The Problem:

7.3 million tonnes of food and drink is thrown away by UK households each year. That's the equivalent weight of over 1 million fully grown African elephants or 139 Titanics.

So... who cares?

The impact on your purse:

✿ On average, each household wastes £470 per year on food waste and up to £700 if you have children. £470 could pay for a 4 night stay for 2 in a luxury hotel in the Cotswolds, or 9 trips to Cadbury World for a family of 5... definitely not worth missing out on!

If this is not enough to persuade you to change your food waste habits, take a look at some of the facts and statistics of environmental impacts of food waste:

The impact on our planet:

✿ Global food waste is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after USA and China, contributing 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere per year.

✿  Water worth three times the volume of Lake Geneva is used to produce uneaten food each year

✿ Almost 1000 litres of water are wasted when one glass of milk is poured down the sink