Eco enthusiast and fellow blogger, Kate Arnell, is someone I truly admire. In July she took on the challenge to live “plastic free” and now she’s shouting about Zero Waste Week on her you tube channel www.youtube.com/ecoboostblog
Now food waste is one area we struggle with in the n4 household. Despite copious planning meetings between Dr. Husband and myself, we always end up throwing food out. Apparently we’re not the only ones, on average each household throws out £60 of food each month. So I thought I’d enlist your help this Zero Waste Week and see if you have any suggestions to help reduce food waste? Currently we’ve taken the following steps:
- Planning all our meals
- Doing a weekly shop
- When it’s not hot, cooking a roast on a Sunday and using the meat throughout the week.
- Buying our groceries from Abel & Cole
You may ask how buying our groceries from Abel and Cole helps? Well they are so expensive that I feel bad if throw any away. Plus, on a totally separate note, they have transformed our eating by making us eat lots of vegetables at every meal. They are also organic which makes us all feel more virtuous.
I’ve also joined an amazing free app called Olio. It connects neighbours and local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. But I confess I have yet to take part, I think I need to get my head around having two children first, and then I’ll try it.
Kate has posted a video with her top tips to help reduce food waste, some of my favourites include:
- Looking through your bin. What is it that you regularly through out? How do you need to change your shopping habits?
- Learning to cook, the ability to produce a meal out of seemingly nothing.
- Investing in useful cooking utensils, items to help you enjoy cooking.
- Shopping in small independent shops where you can buy exactly the right amount of ingredients
I’d love to hear your ideas for helping to cut food waste.
Zero Waste Week runs from 5th – 9th September, for more info please click here.
Totally agree about the organic thing- changes the way you eat!
Thanks for sharing such a brilliant blog post; packed full of advice for others. It’s great how signing up for that box has not only made you healthier but prevents you creating waste because you value what you’ve bought. I think that we often treat food as a disposable commodity instead of realising all the embedded energy from water, fertilisers, time, transportation, packaging etc. It was growing a little of my own food that made me start to value it more because I realise how much time, care and attention goes into it!
Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for promoting it!
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My pleasure Rachelle, I like what you say about valuing food rather than thinking of it as a disposable commodity, I’d not thought of it that way.
My top tips:-
1) know how much people in your family usually eat and cook accordingly (admittedly harder with children) to avoid left overs.
2) Cut things in half and freeze if unlikely to get through it before you get doubtful about it.
3) Every so often make sure you use up the bits in the freezer!
Author
Thanks mum, good tips. I need to be better at using up bits in the freezer, I’m on a mission to do that this week.
Great tips Karen! We try the ready, steady, cook thing too by making (sometimes very random) new dishes out of what we have left. I also take my chances on eating out of date food – not meat, fish or dairy but I’ll often eat food if I think it smells ok or I’ll give it a little taste tester…sometimes I think supermarkets like to cover themselves and actually food, especially in the UK, is good for longer than stated.
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That’s so true Abbie, I need to be better at doing that. I get worried I’ll poison the kids! x