Molly's Top Tips To Reducing Your Food Waste
Molly's Top Tips To Reducing Your Food Waste
This week we've enlisted the help of Molly - a student and vegan recipe enthusiast to get you thinking wisely about reducing your food waste.
This has always been a pet peeve of mine about my parents – they NEVER plan their meals. This leads to my mum going out and buying ingredients for dinner pretty much every day. Not only is this a huge waste of time and petrol but it takes its toll on your wallet too; buying that cheeky extra chocolate bar or random item you know you don’t need but want.
Also, how many times have you gotten back from the shops, only to find that you have just bought something you already had tucked away in your stores? How many bags of opened rice do you have? How many mouldy carrots are in your fridge?
By shopping once a week you can make the most of multi-buy deals, keep your cupboards uncluttered and tidy, and removes you from temptation!
2. Check date labels and plan around them
By buying food that has the longest use by date and knowing when those run out, it stops you having to throw out that mouldy bagel or dodgy smelling chicken breast that you didn’t realise had gone off so quickly.
Once you know the dates it’s time to plan your weekly dinners from that! Compare the dates of meat, veg, sauces etc and have the one that runs out first tonight! It may sound simple but it will save you a whole lot of waste!
3. Revive your burnt bakes
I don’t think there is anything more upsetting than spending your entire afternoon baking your yummy goods, only to be betrayed by your oven! All that time wasted, and not even a soft delicious bun to reward your procrastination with.
But wait; there is still hope for those blackened cookies. Why not smash them up with some melted spread or chocolate, and transform them into a cheesecake base?
Why not crumble them over yoghurt? Or grate away the burnt bits, and no one needs know your mistake!
4. Frozen, tinned, dried are your best friends
I am a huge lover of dried and frozen fruit. They are super versatile and are always on hand when you want them. Whizz them up for smoothies/smoothie bowls, make a luscious date caramel, or sprinkle them on over your morning porridge for that extra energy boost.
Don’t worry about the nutrition content being reduced from these preserving methods. You can still get your 5 a day with dried and tinned fruit and veg, in the exact same way as fresh!
Fun fact – frozen sweetcorn and blueberries actually have MORE vitamin C locked in them when compared with fresh! So, you get even more nutrition from your ingredients by buying frozen, tinned, and dried, whilst simultaneously reducing your mushy banana waste!
5. Save your scraps
This could mean peelings from carrots or potatoes, the skins of a baked sweet potato you used the other day for mash, spring onion tops, or half an onion because the recipe only wanted half!
My favourite way to use up lifeless scraps of veg is to bung it all in a stir fry and smother it in your favour sauce…*chefs kiss*
Veg scraps are also perfect to make your own stock with! Save up your carrot tops, peelings, knobbly end of your root veg and celery for example, and boil for 20mins. Strain and voila!
6. Do not hide your fruit and veg; keep them in the correct place
Knowing where to store ingredients is so important to keep them fresher for longer. And keeping them in sight means you don’t forget about them!
Do a little google search for the produce you have and learn something new.
For example, bananas kept in the fridge last longer, apples should be stored away from other fruit because apples release a chemical that make surrounding fruit ripen quicker, and tomatoes should be kept away from sunlight but not in the fridge!
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