Use your loaf!

Every day in the UK we throw away around 24 million slices of bread.

To put it another way, that’s 29 per cent of all the bread we buy!

But stale bread doesn’t necessarily mean ‘gone off’.  There are lots of ways we can use bread even when it’s past its best.

Love Food Hate Waste have teamed up with Great British Bake Off champion Nancy Birtwhistle for a video showing some creative ways to make the most of your leftover bread.

Watch the video and get more tips to make your loaf last.

Recipe idea – Smoked Sausage and Mixed Bean Cassoulet

A yummy supper for midweek, this cassoulet uses store cupboard ingredients which can be served with crusty bread to mop up the sauce or, if you prefer, leftover rice or mashed potato.

 

Serves: 4-  Prep time:  10 minutes –   Cooking time:  10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 360g pack jumbo frankfurters, sliced
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 400g can mixed beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tbsp tomato purée

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion for 3 minutes, add the sausage and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, beans and tomato purée.
2. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Serve with salad and crusty bread.

Cook’s tip
Try using a tin of baked beans for a more child friendly flavour.

Canned frankfurters are a good substitute and a useful store cupboard ingredient. Leftover cooked sausages work well too.

Extra flavour
Add herbs, BBQ sauce or chilli for extra flavour.

What to do with your pumpkin when the party is over

In the UK in the run up to Halloween it’s estimated that over a million pumpkins are bought ready to be carved into ghoulish lanterns that will adorn doorsteps and windowsills across the country.

Seasonal celebrations bring their own waste and Halloween, is no exception as around 90% of sales of pumpkins takes place then, bought to make Jack O’Lanterns to ward off those pesky witches and ghosts. However how much of the actual pumpkin, which you’ve paid for, do you actually use?

Pumpkin carving is a great way to amuse the kids but what happens to all the succulent orange flesh that has been scooped out of the pumpkins you’ve displayed on your doorstep?

It’s usually among the mountain of fresh tasty vegetables we throw away every year – costing us money!  Pumpkins are rich in vitamins and minerals and a great food source; however it is often the case that once carved; many people simply throw away the tasty contents of the pumpkin– a ghastly thought! To help you save money and stop it going to waste, Love Food Hate Waste has some delicious pumpkin recipe suggestions for you to try:

 

 

Here are some great and tasty ideas from Love Food Hate Waste to save money and waste.

 

If you are unsure of where to put your pumpkin once Halloween is over, cut it up and pop it in your food caddy waste bin for recycling.

Leftover recipe: Sausage and sweet potato stew

This stew has leeks and sweet potato and is also flavoured with sage – a herb that goes so well with pork. Sausage and leek go together very well. Sweet potato adds sweetness and colour to the dish.

The stew is quick and easy to make as most of the cooking happens in the oven when you can do something else. It is also ideal if members of the family are eating at different times, as it can be kept warm in the oven. It could also be placed in the slow cooker for a few hours.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium leeks, sliced
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 4-6 pork sausages (or 10-12 chipolata sausages or vegetarian sausages)
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 2 teaspoons dried sage
• 2 dessert spoons tomato puree
• salt and black pepper to taste

 

 

Method:

1. Put the oil in a large heavy bottomed frying pan
2. Add the leeks and fry for a few minutes until softening
3. Add the sweet potato chunks, stir and cook for a minute or two
4. Add the sage and tomato puree to the stock
5. Add the stock to the vegetables and simmer for 10 minutes
6. Meanwhile chop the sausages into bite size pieces
7. Transfer to a casserole, (two if you are making both a meat and veggie version) cover and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes
8. Serve with mashed potato and a green vegetable

Leftover recipe idea – Lamb Rogan Josh

Here’s another great recipe idea from Love food hate waste which is perfect for using up leftovers, helping you to reduce waste and hopefully save some money at the same time.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. oil
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 2 tsp. 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp. Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. crushed chillies
• 1 tbsp. medium curry powder
• 1 tbsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. tomato purée
• 450g lamb shoulder, diced
• 200ml (7oz) water
• 4 tomatoes, quartered
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp. coriander leaf
• Sea Salt to season
• Pilau rice to serve

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan, add the onions and garlic and cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add the turmeric, crushed chillies, medium curry powder, ground coriander and the tomato purée and cook for a further minute.
3. Add the diced lamb, water, tomatoes, lemon juice and coriander.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes, then season to taste and serve with pilau rice.

Also added tinned tomatoes plus a tin of coconut milk which took a little of the heat out and made it a bit like a passanda!

The story of food

When you throw away food you are not just wasting the food, but also the resources such as energy, fuel, time and water that went into growing, harvesting, storing, transporting and cooking the food. Then it produces methane if buried in landfill sites.

Love Food Hate Waste website shows a diagram of the story of food from seed to the leftovers we throw away. How to make the most of your food and avoid waste.

 

Save money with our sizzling green BBQ ideas

With the hot weather upon us, it’s the perfect time for a BBQ. Try our tips to help keep it green and save money:

• Use your scraps and leftovers. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has lots of recipe ideas for your leftovers including Cheesy Herb Sausages. Or try these Pork and Slaw Sandwiches.
• Keep cool with carbonated drinks, beers and wine but remember to rinse and recycle your glass and plastic bottles (put glass bottles in your separate green box).
• If glass gets broken, you can still recycle it at your local household recycling centre
• Strawberries and cream are the perfect summer treat – and remember to recycle the plastic pots and trays  using the Recycle for Dorset service as well as meat containers, ketchup and sauce bottles (please rinse first)
• Keep the flies away from your food waste caddy and bin. Keep lids closed, out of direct sunlight and rinse out weekly (use washing up liquid or bicarbonate of soda).

Have a green Christmas – recycle more!

The festive season results in an estimated 3 million tonnes of waste in the UK  (Institute of engineering and technology, 2011).

Follow these simple tips to turn Christmas into a recycling opportunity and reduce the amount of waste your household produces:

• Send e-cards, or donate your card money to charity
• Turn this year’s Christmas cards into gift tags for next year
• Recycle any cards which can’t be reused in your kerbside recycling collection
• Use re-usable gift bags or boxes instead of wrapping paper
• Buy unpackaged fruit and vegetables
• Home compost your fruit and vegetable peelings
• The average grocery bill for Christmas is £169. Planning for Christmas helps everyone save time and money. Use the Love Food Hate Waste online portion planner whether you’re cooking for family or a party
• Use up leftovers and freeze food that can’t be eaten
• Recycle any unavoidable food waste using your food waste collection, if you have one
• Re-use plastic shopping carrier bags, or use reusable bags, to carry your Christmas shopping
• Buy a re-usable artificial tree or a potted real tree that can be planted in the garden or reused next year
• Get your Christmas tree collected for composting, if available in your area
• Send gift tokens to help reduce waste and allow recipients to choose their ideal gift
• Buy rechargeable batteries, and recycle used household batteries using your red bag at the kerbside or at your local Household Recycling Centre
• Recycle your old Christmas lights, or any other electrical or electronic items at your local household recycling centre

Find out more information about waste and recycling services over the Christmas and New Year period.

Know your date labels

There are four main types of date that are used on food packaging in the UK, here’s what you need to know:

Save on waste when you’re out and about this summer

Do you find that minimising your waste and maximising your recycling is easy at home but a bit more tricky when you’re out?