Clearing Out, Wasting Less, Using Common Sense

For months and months the idea to use my blogs to promote reducing food waste was brewing in my mind. Finally, back in October, I started a monthly linked called Clear Out And Eat (#ClearOutAndEat).

The thinking behind the title is that we should clear out our fridges and presses and see what we have before buying in more and more food. There is almost always something that can be made with the food we have. From soups to stews, smoothies and scones, with a bit of thought and creativity we can use up what we have and bin less food. 

People have become so accustomed to having choice and to doing whatever they feel like that the idea of waste not, want not has been pretty much forgotten. In a report a few years I read that the Germans throw away over 20% of their food purchases due to poor planning*. I mean, THE GERMANS! If their planning is poor, how bad is everyone else's?

Speaking of want not, yesterday I spotted on Twitter that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a new series on the BBC called Hugh's War on Waste. It started last Monday, apparently, with a look at the staggering quantity of food that is wasted in the UK each year (1/3 of the food!**) and continues tonight at 9pm GMT. Look up #wastenot on Twitter for information from the series.

It sickens me that so much food is wasted. So what if we haven't got the food we want in the house? Is that reason enough to let dairy products pass their use by date and or let fruit and vegetables shrivel up and rot? No!. 

So I urge you to be a bit more careful when shopping and cooking.  Use a bit of common sense. Buy what you know you'll use. Cook with what you have and only cook the amount you'll eat. If there are leftovers, freeze them for another day or reinvent them as another dish for the followng day.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

French supermarket Intermarche is doing its part for food waste reduction by selling the vegetables that usually wouldn't have met the criteria that the large supermarket chains set for growers***. They have made a point of promoting these so-called ugly vegetables. The idea is brilliant, although I must admit that I hate the term ugly vegetables. In fruit and vegetables, looks shouldn't be important, rather the nutritional value.

* Source www.handelsblatt.com

** Source www.bbc.co.uk

*** Source www.intermarche.com

 

Keeping A Well Stocked Larder

Nowadays most of us don't have a larder. We have kitchen presses or cabinets or cupboards. Whatever you choose to call them, their main purpose is to stock food. The kind of food you choose to store in them is very important. If they are brimming over with tv dinners, Cuppa Soups and Pot Noodle, then you'll probably always have something to eat, but it won't be nutritious, tasty or varied. 

I like to keep the presses well stocked with products that can be thrown together in various combinations to cook or bake tasty, reasonably healthy and, above all, adaptable meals and snacks. 

If you happened to call to my house and have a root through the cupboards and the fridge, it is quite likely you'd find a selection of the following in there:

In The Press

Tinned tomatoes (for soups and sauces)

Tinned cannelini beans, lentils and chickpeas (for soups, casseroles and curries)
Tinned tuna
Dried herbs (e. g. oregano, bay leaf, thyme) and spices (cayenne pepper, curry powder, cinnamon, salt, black pepper, cloves)
White flour
Olive oil (for dressings, flavoursome marinades and for drizzling)
Sunflower oil (for frying and baking)
Pasta
Rice
Olives (for tapenades, savoury baking, adding to sauces, or for snacking on)
Tomato puree (gives solour as well as depth of flavour to dishes)
Nuts for crunch and flavour (e.g. pine nuts, almonds, walnuts)
Potatoes
Carrots

Onions

Garlic

In The Fridge

Bacon (rashers or lardons)

Cheeses 

Anchovies (for dressings, sauces and tapenades as well as pizzas)

Capers (ideal for fish dishes or sauces with anchovies and olives)

Butter (for baking and sometimes for frying) 

Eggs (a great all rounder - quiche, omlette, fried eggs, boiled eggs, for baking, for binding, for glazing...the list is endless)

Milk (for rice pudding, custard, bechemel sauce, hot chocolate)

On the windowsill or in the garden

Chives

Parsley

Basil

Rosemary

With a good selection of tins, jars, some herbs, spices and a few chilled basics in the fridge there's a huge range of dishes to cook. Throw in some fresh veg, meat or fish and there is no end to the meals you can make. 

How do you ike to stock your kitchen cupboards?

#ClearOutAndEat November 2015, Month 2

I'm a bit of a control freak. I always like to know where my children are, what my bank balance is and what food we have in the house. When I know the answers to these questions, I can plan. I like plans. 

But sometimes I am too busy to keep an overview of everything. So far I haven't lost the children, but I have found myself with no idea what my finances are like or what the state of the fridge is. And I don't like that feeling. 

So what do I do when that happens? I sit down with a pen and paper, check my bank balance and work out how I am fixed for the rest of the month. To be honest, I really enjoy fiddling about with numbers. 

As for the food situation, I take stock of what we have. In a best case scenario we haven't got much and I get to go a do a huge grocery shop. I love that - seeing what is in season, what looks good, what's on special offer and making meal plans in my head as I browse the aisles of the shop or market. In a worst case scenario, we have some too-old leftovers that have gone past eating and some tired-looking veg that can be made into soup. But generally speaking, I keep the cupboards well-stocked with useful ingredients so that even the most basic of fresh ingredients can be easily made into something tasty. 

After seeing all the great recipes and tips that were linked up in October, I'm really excited about this month's post on reducing food wastage, be it through clever cooking, shopping, preserving or composting. 

I've linked up two posts, one from My Kitchen Notebook and one from Three Sons Later to this month's Clear Out and Eat linky. I hope my cupboard essentials post and my green tomato relish recipe will inspire you to get creative and use what you have rather than throw away perfectly good food.
Have you, like me, been making jams and chutneys with the great Autumn produce available everywhere, whether foraged, home-grown or shop-bought? Or have you settled into Autumn by making deliciously comforting warm dishes like pies, stews and casseroles? 
So, whether you have been creating clever meal plans, cooking comforting casseroles or reviving leftovers, link up and let me know. Don't forget to tweet me @threesonslater to let me know what you're sharing. I'll retweet and pop along to read and comment too.

<div class="Three Sons Later-button" style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://www.threesonslater.blogspot.de/" rel="nofollow"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcmZwqN6MT3QWRethjzaFwSz52Gt_x58xioFqskOrPbO4ex3X54PIu0hwEfZKP5nLgLhb1-6bU6-mUno5fVxHld928pylvKEjkceil8xe1Qqq4SSLd9fU3v3taW0YVrmmnKnCQwyFSFogh/s1600/%2523Clearoutandeat+200x200.png" alt="Three Sons Later" width="150" height="150" /> </a> </div>

 
You can link up anything food waste related, for example 
- tips on using up food 
- how not to buy too much 
- meal planning 
- recipes adaptable to what you have to hand 
- composting food waste 
- recipes for gluts of home grown produce
The rules:
You can link up up to two posts, old or new.
Add my badge to your post and link back to My Kitchen Notebook or Three Sons Later.
Please only link relevant posts. Others will be deleted. 
Please comment on at least two posts that others have entered.

#Clearoutandeat October 2015, Month 1

It is well and truly Autumn now. The leaves are beginning to fall and the evenings are getting darker earlier. I have been spending the last while trying to avoid wasting any of the wonderful bounty our garden has produced. We have been harvesting tomatoes, apples, elderberries and even some late raspberries. We've also gone foraging for blackberries to make jam with. Our walnuts have begun falling from the tree now too. They should be dry enough to use by November, so I'll be on the lookout for some good walnut recipes over the next while.

In the meantime, however, I'm going to share my recipe for scones with you. Scones are a great way to use up the end of a carton of cream, milk or buttermilk, even if it has gone a bit sour. Plus they are the perfect base for homemade jams or even to eat with whipped cream and a few late season raspberries. 

I'm looking forward to reading your recipes and tips on reducing food wastage. Have you, like me, been making jams and chutneys with the great Autumn produce available everywhere, whether foraged, home-grown or shop-bought? Or have you settled into Autumn by making deliciously comforting warm dishes like pies, stews and casseroles? 

Whether you have been clearing out the cupboards, reducing your weekly shop or making leftovers into something tasty, I'd love to hear about it. So get linking up, and don't forget to tweet me @threesonslater to let me know what you're sharing. I'll retweet and pop along to read and comment too.

<div class="Three Sons Later-button" style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://www.threesonslater.blogspot.de/" rel="nofollow"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcmZwqN6MT3QWRethjzaFwSz52Gt_x58xioFqskOrPbO4ex3X54PIu0hwEfZKP5nLgLhb1-6bU6-mUno5fVxHld928pylvKEjkceil8xe1Qqq4SSLd9fU3v3taW0YVrmmnKnCQwyFSFogh/s1600/%2523Clearoutandeat+200x200.png" alt="Three Sons Later" width="150" height="150" /> </a> </div>

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up with Tasty Tuesdays

#ClearOutAndEat - A New Food Waste Linky....Coming Soon

One of my least favourite things to do when cleaning the kitchen is throw away food. Very often it is simply laziness that results in food needing to be binned. From leftover soup that wasn't put in the fridge and went off overnight to fruit that went mouldy at the bottom of the fruit bowl, food waste can be avoided with very little effort. 

Luckily, one of my favourite things to do in terms of cleaning the kitchen is to go through the cupboards, freezer and fridge and list all the food we have. It always amazes me how much is there, even on days when I think I simply have to go grocery shopping because there is no food in the house. I then take that list and see what dishes I can cook or bake using what we have and adding as little as possible to my shopping list. 

As well as saving money by buying less groceries, I get to use up all the food in the house and get creative in the kitchen. Some of my regular dishes that result from these clear outs are 

Minestrone and other soups
Stews and casseroles

Banana Bread

Fruit and nut muffins

Homemade Pizza / Baguette Pizza

Puff pastry topped with creme fraiche and roasted vegetables

Macaroni cheese and other pasta bakes

I'd love to hear what you all have to say regarding reducing food waste, so I've decided to start a little linky called #ClearOutAndEat. You can link up anything food waste related, for example

 - tips on using up food

 - how not to buy too much

 - meal planning

 - recipes adaptable to what you have to hand

 - composting food waste

 - recipes for gluts of home grown produce

I'll be hosting #ClearOutAndEat from the beginning of October here and on my recipe blog, My Kitchen Notebook. Please share and tweet and call back in a few days to grab my badge and link up. 

If you're not a blogger but would still like to get involved, leave me a comment here with your tips.