In this blog post about food waste, we share tips for meal planning, food storage, using your fridge efficiently, portioning, understanding food labels and a few recipes for using up leftovers. This post has been written in collaboration with Oven Pride.
Reducing food waste, one banana bread at a time
Sustainability, shopping local, low food miles, buying organic, reducing plastic and packaging… the way we view food, shop and feed our families is changing. As a society, I believe we’re becoming more mindful of what we’re consuming and the environmental impact of our choices.
Change is happening.
One of my favourite ways of cooking is to turn unwanted, neglected food into something impressive and flavoursome. Repurposing leftovers, using up those bits and bobs of packages lurking in the back of the cupboard or fridge to even choosing the ingredients for tonight’s meal from the reduced aisles in the supermarket, food which otherwise might have ended up in the bin.
Did you know that during the first lockdown, internet searches for banana bread were up 525% by April 2020? Over 45,000 people shared images of their banana bread on Instagram by then (quite a few of you used my recipe – pictured above), and it looks like we’re not quite done with using up those overripe bananas just yet.
Preventing food waste has been a long-standing theme with Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary (which is now into its 10th year!). Below, you’ll find links to some previous posts I’ve written about how to avoid food waste at home, plus a few tasty recipe links for breathing new life into your leftovers.
Another tip: keep your oven clean. A clean oven is an efficient oven. The heat will be distributed more evenly resulting in better tasting food and you’ll save money in the long run, as food won’t need to be cooked for as long.
Six Ways to Help Prevent Food Waste
Thinking ahead about what you want to cook each week is one of the easiest things you can do to take the hassle out of cooking and shopping. Taking just 10 minutes to write a short plan could save you several trips to the supermarket, last-minute dashes to the convenience store for missing ingredients and will also help you feel on top of things. Storing foods correctly can extend their lifespan dramatically. Some foods don’t get on very well with other foods. For example, pineapples don’t like the fridge and apples are great companions with potatoes to stop them from sprouting. Keeping food in the right company, in the right place and in the right conditions can really help keep them fresher and crisper for longer. One of the greatest contributors to the UK’s food waste problem is the perishables that need to be kept in the fridge. Sadly, many fresh foods are not chilled correctly or aren’t chilled at all, so they don’t last as long as they should. If they don’t last long, you have less time to eat them and then they get binned. Saying that, be mindful not to overuse your fridge either. Some foods won’t flourish or ripen in the fridge, like tomatoes and avocados – these need to be stored at room temperature. Pineapples, potatoes and citrus fruit also prefer to be kept out of the fridge. Bigger is not always better. In fact, it’s very much the opposite when it comes to food. Food waste is heavily impacted by the lure of ‘bigger’. It starts with overbuying as we fall for the endless, seemingly good value supermarket deals; continues in the kitchen with portioning errors during cooking; and ends with oversized meals that we just can’t finish. Food labelling should and can be simple but is often made to be quite confusing. Across the wide range of food products available there are so many different codes, labels and standards that it can be difficult to know what we’re looking for and what it all means for us at home. Getting to grips with three key date labels is very important and can significantly help reduce food waste in the home. Many people throw food out based on how it looks but unless it’s mouldy or smells bad, it is often perfectly usable. Wilting herbs can be used up or frozen for later, soft vegetables are great for cooking and yesterday’s meal can either be eaten again or reconstructed to take on a second life. Let your creativity run wild or simply look up recipe ideas online. Cooking this way saves time and money, and helps reduce food waste too!
Tips For Weekly Meal Planning
Food Storage Tips & Tricks
How to Make the Most out of Your Fridge
6 Tips for Perfect Portioning
Understanding Food Labels
19 recipes that will make you love your leftovers
If you’re looking for something to read while you wait for your is-this-lockdown-ever-going-to-end banana bread to cook, check this book out.
This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Oven Pride, although, as always, all thoughts and opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to do what I love: mess up my kitchen and share food stories.
On the Go with Arla Protein
Thanks for sharing all of these tips 🙂