Has anyone else noticed their food waste has changed during this rather strange time? One thing I’ve noticed during this time where we’ve been at home, is that we are wasting far far less food and using up stuff much more.
We are also barely eating any ready made meals or over processed packaged meals, in fact I think we’ve only had one meal of those.
I’ve enjoyed cooking and food prep and also find emptying the fridge and making sure we don’t waste anything very cathartic but it has also made me very aware that we have, in fact fallen into better eating and food waste habits and I want to keep that up, as we ease back into normal, even if that’s slowly.
I’m baking bread rather than buying it and we make sure we use up all fruit and veg weekly. I kind of instigated this as lockdown started to save us money and also because we were on the sheileodd list and were relying on grocery deliveries. But even now we are doing more going out and shopping I’m sticking to our better way of eating.
This week I’m also cleaning out and defrosting our fridge and freezer so I’m working on things being eaten so we don’t have much to throw away. I hate defrosting and cleaning the fridge and freezer but it’s a good thing to do so they are running at optimum and working well, this is actually better for energy consumption too.
Our meals look like this. Simple and easy. Use up things. Minimal work for mum who has other house projects happening.
Monday – sticky chicken and rice – This is a recipe I’ve adapted from an old Annabel Karmel recipe. Sticky tofu for me using the same marinade.
Tuesday – vegetarian spaghetti bolognese
Wednesday – jackets and salad
Thursday – Greek salad and pasta
Friday – Emory the fridge food forage
Saturday – picnic lunch and fish and chips
Sunday – lunch out with friends, our first time since lockdown started.
Next week I’m sharing my how to sour dough bread recipe, which I’m hoping will be helpful. A few people have asked.
What are you eating this week?
We are using more food too. All those random things in the back of the cupboards are being eaten.
We did our freezer a few weeks ago and it’s such a faff but good to use up all the leftovers that I seem to stock up on.
Fab meal plan x
We have cut down massively on take outs, and started making more and more meals from scratch. Sadly this has not reflected in my online shop where I tend to go through and click all my ‘favourites’ This means my cupboard and freezers are filled to capacity but I’m spending less and less. I’m definitely fitting in a jacket potato this week, I have a craving, but it will probably be for lunch.
Sticky chicken sounds lovely!
We’ve already been good at avoiding waste but I’m doing more batch cooking, and freezing leftovers more too, which is saving us time and money! It’s good!