Food waste part 2!

Food waste is caused because the vast majority of people don’t plan their food consumption and so much therefore is left over.   There will always be those times when we buy something that spoils before we expected it to.  That’s not your fault, so don’t worry about that.   But we will all find that we buy, say,  coriander, and have some left, or a large pot of Greek yoghurt (because it’s cheaper than small).    We need to train ourselves to think about a menu that will use these ingredients up more quickly in multiple recipes before they go off.  So these are our tips: 

1. Meal plan for a week to two weeks at a time.   

2. You may wish to keep a list of dishes you like so that you can refer to it when doing the meal plan.  Get your kids invested in this list, especially the older teenage ones!  

3. Write down your breakfast, lunch and dinner plans for the week.  Sometimes with a family you’ll have different food likes / dislikes / allergies to cater for, so you can use this plan to help cater for that.  

4. If you have put something down on your meal plan that needs a small amount of something fresh, see if you can make more of that dish to freeze, or use it in another dish during the week.  For instance recently we bought coriander and used it in 5 dishes:  pho noodle soup, onion bhajis (some we froze), lentil dahl (lots was frozen), onion salad to serve with poppadoms, and avocado bruschetta.  We also use coriander in rice salads.    

5. If you notice something in your fridge might be looking past its best, make a soup, or roast or toast  or steam it.  Anything that will cook it to help preserve its life!     

6. Keep jars, tins and pickled things as well as nuts to add to fresh stuff to create a salad.  Then, when you have fresh stuff left over to use up (as for point 5), you can make a meal from something that is in your cupboard anyway.   You can use it for lunch or a side for a meat dish, or add more protein (plant or animal based) to make a bigger meal.  

7. Inspect your fridge on a regular basis, and definitely before you go shopping! 

If you have any of your own tips, do let us know!