If there is one thing I hate, it is throwing food away! I see it as I am throwing money in the bin which we would never do.
I am concerned about the amount of food that we waste and am always trying to cut it down. I do this in a number of ways.
Firstly, I meal plan!
The weekly meal plan that I do has definitely reduced the amount of food that we throw in the bin. This is due to buying only what I am going to need for the weeks meals but also looking in my fridge and deciding what needs using and adapting my meal plans around it.
Secondly, I use leftovers the following day!
Leftovers make some delicious meals, in fact I often find they make some of the best meals!
Thirdly, I freeze!
If there are any leftovers which I am not going to use the next day I bag them up, label the bag and freeze for another day.
When the hubby saw that The Guardian were running a new campaign he had a look and when he saw that this months challenge is "Reduce Food Waste" he knew that I would be interested!
I have signed us up for the Live Better Challenge . The campaign is running for 7 months in the aim to help us live a little better and think about how we live.
I will keep you up to date on what the challenges are over the next 7 months and how we are getting on.
This week the challenge is to have zero food waste!
Can we do it?
I really do not know, but we will give it our best shot!
Here is this weeks meal plans...
Week Commencing 17th March 2014
Meatballs and pasta
I am making beef, sausage meat, red onions and herb meatballs. They will be in an onion, garlic and herb sauce with mushroom and served with pasta.
Any left over pasta will be used the following day to make a pasta salad for lunch.
Cottage Pie
This is my trusted cottage pie recipe and is full of vegetables!
If there are any meatballs left over they will be chopped up and added to the cottage pie sauce.Any cottage pie leftovers will be kept and given to the twins for lunch the following day.
Smoked Gammon Joint
I will be honey roasting the gammon joint and serving with potatoes and vegetables.
Any leftover gammon will be used for sandwiches the following day.
Poacher Chicken
This is a new idea. We have got some lovely Lincolnshire Poached cheese which needs to be used so I am going to stuff chicken breasts with mushrooms, garlic and Lincolnshire Poacher. It will be served with potatoes and roasted root vegetables.
Any leftovers will be given to the twins for their lunch the following day.
Mushroom Risotto
This is my hubbys favourite! When I do the weekly shopping I will buy a couple of different varieties of mushrooms to make this risotto and serve with garlic bread.
Normally there are not any leftovers with this meal!
Tuna Pasta Bake
This is a great, quick meal and always goes down a treat!
As before if there is any leftover pasta it will be kept for a pasta salad for the following day and and leftover pasta bake will be the twins lunch.
I am really hopeful that we have a successful week. I will let you know how we get on!
Have a lovely week x
I am sharing my meal plan with At Home With Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday have a look for more meal planning inspiration!
Meal planning rarely works well here as everyone is off doing different things all the time (matches, races, lessons etc) so I make a few batches of things each week, freeze LOADS and always have leftover plans. We rarely waste anything.
ReplyDeleteMeal planning definitely helps to reduce food waste. Sounds like you've got a tasty week coming up! When I do a roast ham/gammon, I boil it up first and use the liquid to make soup. Then roast off the meat for dinner, the soup for lunch the next day and if there is ham left - sarnies!
ReplyDeleteI agree, leftovers sometimes make the best dinners!
I recently posted: Steak, Leek + Guinness Pie
I really need to get back to meal planning. Yours looks great
ReplyDeletei don't waste food, but i really need to get into meal planning ..more for just remembering to eat. looks like you have lots of super filling food planned!
ReplyDeleteWe need to start doing this - partly to save waste and money, and partly because I am sick of standing baffled in shop aisles wondering what on earth to feed everyone that day!
ReplyDeleteGood luck, we seem very organized and I am sure it will be a success your meal planning!xx
ReplyDeleteI love all of your choices!!! It has given me some ideas too for what to cook this week x
ReplyDeleteEverything sounds delicious!! Have a great week x
ReplyDeleteMmm that gammon sounds delicious! As do the rest of your meals. Can I come and have tea at your house please? :-)
ReplyDeleteMeal Planning is something we've been talking about implementing in our household in a bid to cut down on food waste. It wasn't until the local council started segregated waste collections that we realised just how much food we throw away each week. It's shocking! Great meal choices for this week though. xxx
ReplyDeleteVikki
Love From Mummy - UK Parenting Lifestyle Blog
I should do this, but am just not into cooking so it is the last thing on my mind. Would be good though as I am sure we would save money x
ReplyDeleteI want to come to your house for dinner! It all sounds so lovely. We always try to use our leftovers in some form or another. The only thing we struggle with is pasta, it just ends up gloopy and stodgey, nothing you'd want in a salad the next day.
ReplyDeleteGosh well done, your meal planning looks awesome. We throw away too much although probably not as much as we used to as we order food weekly. Should do a meal plan too, thank you for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your challenge! I have to say, I actually love leftovers, in fact some foods around here are prepared solely so we could have leftovers ;) I have never tried meal-planning though, and would love to hear how it went for you!
ReplyDeleteYour meal plan looks fantastic. We have just started meal planning again and I am determined to continue using it.
ReplyDeleteI do all of the above! Meal planning has helped cut costs and the mr often takes leftovers to work or we freeze them which saves on waste. A much better way to live.
ReplyDeletePoacher chicken sounds so good x
I love the sound of Poacher chicken, it sounds delicious
ReplyDeletethe challenge sounds like a great idea. my fave from the meal plan is mushroom risotto - yum
ReplyDeleteYou meals sound delicious.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the challenge x
I like the sound of Poacher Chicken. Best of luck with your challenge!
ReplyDeleteI think we should take part in this project as well... we try but still at times we do struggle with food waste and for sure put way too much to the bin
ReplyDeleteI meal plan too and it definitely saves money and the need for a take away weekly
ReplyDeleteMeal planning is something I've never done - I'm in awe of people who can be so disciplined and organised.
ReplyDeleteWe waste very little as we've become accustomed to how quickly produce 'spoils' here in Canada. Back home in the UK a pack of peppers or green beans would last a couple of weeks in the fridge but here they start to deteriorate within days. Canada has very strict laws on chemicals and pesticides (you can't even spray weedkiller in the garden) so I guess the shorter shelf life reflects that.
Good luck with your challenge.
Sounds like some fab meals planned there :) we used to meal plan but we're way to spontaneous and we ended up throwing so much away because we 'weren't in the mood today' lol
ReplyDelete