No Waste Tastes Great / Use What You Have

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It’s Friday Guys – time for No Waste Tastes Great

Click here to find out more about my Friday routine

Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge

Okay, so I’ve stepped it up a gear this week. All there is to use up are the grapes, and they’ll be eaten over the weekend. In fact supplies are so low that I have just enough milk left for another coffee this morning before I do my grocery shop.

How did this happen?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about food waste this week. It all started when I commented on this post over at The Frugal Girl. I explained about my minimalistic approach toward storing food. I was then inspired to give my cupboards and freezer a once over, and found that I had accumulated slightly more ‘emergency’ supplies than I normally carry. Possibly minimal in comparison to many households? But still, once I get to this point I like to start thinking about using freezer and store-cupboard items up.

So last night instead of the planned Spag Bol, I conjured up a sausage, pasta, tomato and parmesan dish.

This means that next week I have the following frozen items to use up:

3 haddock fillets, 2 salmon fillets and 450g/1lb of lean beef mince. I’ve already planned my meals around my freezer supplies:

This means I have a very basic shop to do today. Only the bare essentials.

I love having a ‘use it up week’ as it can drastically reduce my already 50% reduced grocery budget. And we won’t go hungry, it’s amazing what you can rustle up from basic items.

So what’s the plan for dinner tonight? If the Friday fridge is bare we have license to partake in a takeaway. But I’m on a ‘use it up’ vibe. Scouting through my jars and tins, I discovered these.

Plus 2 sweet potatoes that I had planned to roast this week, but didn’t.

I’m going to try slow-cooking a Thai red curry with chick-peas and sweet potato. I’ve never tried this before, but hey, that’s the fun bit!

Anything goes at Chez Wright on a Friday!
How’s your Fridge looking this Friday? Anything to declare? Or is it nice and bare? Please share…

No Waste Tastes Great is bought to you (as always) with thanks to The Frugal Girl for the original inspiration.

FoodWasteFriday

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Simply Being Mum’s Spring Sale 2012 Starts

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I read a while back that the average UK household contains £600 worth of stuff that is no longer required and could easily be sold.

Now it’s very annoying when someone quotes a statistic like that and cannot find the source to back it up. Sorry but, I’m going to be one of those annoying people today. I have a good idea it was an article in one of the Hubby’s finance magazines, but can I find it? Alas no. A couple of years ago I would have presumed I’d hidden it away, my opinion this morning is that it’s been enthusiastically recycled (aka chucked)!

The reason this value sticks in my head (and thus I’m confident to quote it) is that lovefoodhatewaste.com also claim the average family throw away over £600 of food each year.

£600 saved by not wasting food + £600 generated from selling unwanted stuff = £1200

Enough for a family holiday in the UK, me thinks!

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Simple (Partly Slow-Cooked) Chicken & Mushroom Pasty Recipe

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I’m not sure whether the word ‘pasty’ is one that would be recognised internationally, but for anyone living in the UK, it is probably most well-known for its Cornish roots.

Pasties are different from pies, but how really I couldn’t say for sure. All I know is I wouldn’t walk along the English coast eating a pie, but I would a pasty!

Pasties originally were made with beef, I believe, but as time moves on so does taste. Anything goes now. So mine are chicken and mushroom – because, well, why not?

Regular readers will know I don’t believe that slow-cookers should only be used when preparing the whole of a meal. My cookers get used for all sorts of things, including simply keeping gravy warm when waiting to serve.

Therefore the first part of this very simple recipe to create your very own homemade pasties is actually from a recipe I posted a while back.

Simple Slow Cooked Chicken and Mushroom Pie Recipe

Follow the above recipe to the part where you spoon the contents of the slow-cooker into a ovenproof dish. You may wish to make the gravy slightly thicker as it is to be placed on top of pastry, and it needs to be rather sticky. Use a spoon to remove the mixture that will drain excess liquid away.

Once you have your mixture for the inside of the pasty, follow these really simple steps.

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No Waste Tastes Great / That’s Why I Don’t Hide Food Away

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It’s Friday Guys – time for No Waste Tastes Great

Click here to find out more about my Friday routine

Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge (taken very early hence awful light)

Nothing to see here!

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What I Do Buy And Why

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I talk an awful lot about what I don’t buy. But of course there are things that I do buy.

Last Tuesday I had a batch-errand day. When I do shop I try to do all the purchases in one outing. This keeps the mind focused on what I need rather than browsing and being tempted to buy things I want.

I don’t allow a huge amount of time for such shopping trips. Last Tuesday I had approximately 90 minutes. So list in hand off I set, and was very successful.

Rather varied? Shall I explain?

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No Waste Tastes Great / Thinking Outside The Recipe

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It’s Friday Guys – time for No Waste Tastes Great

Click here to find out more about my Friday routine

Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge

Quite full by my standards, but as always there’s a plan!

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Not Buying It – School Meals

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I would like to buy school meals. Really I would. And for almost the duration of an academic year I did, for my Daughter.

The idea that I am supporting the local school and my child is receiving a hot, nutritious balanced meal sounds perfect to me.

However there’s always been a niggling doubt that if I sat down and costed it all out, that the maths wouldn’t add up. And in reality, the meal wasn’t as nutritious as I would have liked. That isn’t to say one wasn’t offered, all the main component parts were available. What my Daughter chose to put on her tray was another matter.

The ‘ole brain started a whirring. I love a price comparison, so I decided to calculate how much a packed lunch costs, the way we do it at Chez Wright.

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