How much food do you throw away each week? In our household we veer between doing well and getting the occasional fail sticker, although we’ve improved drastically since I first read the shaming statistics about how much food our nation chucks in the bin. My husband used to find it impossible to resist a bargain, until it finally sank in that it’s not a bargain if you can’t use it before it spoils. My kind of money-saver is one you can freeze, but that sometimes results in things disappearing into the freezer only to emerge as UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) a year later with missing or rubbed-off labels. More than once I’ve defrosted something thinking it was bolognese, only to discover it’s mashed over-ripe banana destined for a cake. Not so useful on a Wednesday night after work. I’m avid about popping leftovers in the fridge and love a fridge-raid dinner and the satisfaction of repurposing those morsels in a guise where Nick (husband) doesn’t realise they’re leftovers – to which he is strangely averse.
Yet my good intentions don’t stop me failing on a regular basis, and I know I’m not alone. With that in mind, we challenged a family to go a week without producing any food waste. The result (p72) taught me a few tricks – including what to do with the limp lettuce lurking in the salad drawer (my previous solution, lettuce soup, wasn’t great). Do let me know your clever ways of using up food leftovers and veg trimmings and we’ll feature the best so we can all benefit from your wisdom and discoveries. Wishing you a great (and food-thrifty) month.