In this video she takes some keen young cooks through their paces as they use up bread that would otherwise go stale in a delicious bread and butter pudding:

Did you know we throw away 1m loaves of bread a day in the UK? That’s a lot of potential bread and butter puddings. Instead of throwing away bread away why not try storing sliced bread in the freezer?  Just toast slice by slice from frozen. Delicious.

And in another video she shows that, just like us, she’s a big fan of the shopping list. Our research shows that half of us have got the shopping list habit, but we don’t always stick to it… well, it is hard to resist a bargain and so provided I’ve got cupboard or freezer space for my special offer deal; it goes in the trolley with the things I have planned to buy.

For more on Oxfam’s Green Granny visit the Oxfam website, and if you’re reading this Barbara, we’d love to hear from you!

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We love Oxfam’s Green Granny

We’ve been invited to supper a few times recently – and asked to bring a dish. It’s a great way to keep down costs and share the load, and makes for a really relaxed evening.

Last week, all the guests were asked to bring a Spanish dish. Having a theme does mean you are likely to get complimentary dishes. However, the previous week, our hostess had only specified sweet or savoury to her guests, and ended up with a really interesting array of food and flavours! I quite like that element of risk, but you could be a little more conservative and tell your guests to bring a potato dish or a meat dish or a fruit dish… at least you’d know what you are getting.

The odds are that there’ll be at least one dish that you will really enjoy. But, if you are the hostess, don’t bank on eating the leftovers for lunch the next day. The thing about this kind of do-it-yourself entertaining is that there is never anything left. Some guests seem to think it is OK to ask for the remnants, in a way they just wouldn’t at a posh dinner party. (Sorry.)

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Do-It-Yourself Dinner Party?

Pancakes are easy to make, perfect for the hungry hordes when they come back from school. But while they are delicious for tea, spread with jam or golden syrup, or a squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of brown sugar, pancakes also make a great supper dish. You can add almost anything and roll them up, in much the same way as a wrap.

Leftover chicken with roasted vegetables, or sweet potato and goat’s cheese, or chopped up sausages and apple… the chances are, you’ve got a spoonful of something in the fridge that could make a really tasty meal.

The kids’ favourite savoury pancakes are a take on cannelloni. I stuff them with homemade bolognese sauce, roll them up, place them in an oven-proof dish, and cover with a cheese sauce. You could substitute the bolognese for any manner of cooked vegetables, for a great vegetarian supper. For a bit of crunch, add a topping made from breadcrumbs, crisps or cornflakes mixed with some extra grated cheese, and then just bake in the oven. Couldn’t be easier.

Or for a fabulous pudding, stuff your pancakes with apples, pears, and plums, maybe a handful of sultanas, a sprinkling of sugar, and roll up in the same way. Cover with custard before baking. This is a great way to use up any soft fruits that are nearing the end of their life.

Why wait ‘till Tuesday?

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Perfect Pancakes

Last week, historian Ruth Goodman mentioned that it was possible to buy leftover food in certain shops in Victorian times. Places like hotels and gentlemen’s clubs made their surplus available for the poor to buy. A neat way of addressing food waste!

However, it got me thinking. One of the ways we can reduce the amount of food we throw away at home is to give it away to someone who can use it. I’m not talking about charity necessarily, or offending anyone with my cast-offs, but the sharing of good food that might otherwise find its way into the bin. For instance, even with a hearty Sunday breakfast, it is sometimes difficult to get through the 21 eggs that our chickens lay each week! So when the childminder had the boys an extra hour, I gave her some fresh eggs as a thank you.

We were given a whole wheel of French Brie last week, so our neighbours got a huge wedge and were delighted. After Christmas, I was left with a box of chocolates that on my new healthy eating regime would only languish in the larder uneaten, so I wrapped them up for the people who invited us to lunch at the weekend. When the husband brings home another enormous box of fruit and veg, and we already have a mountain in the fridge, I’ll take it to the librarian who spends ages tracking down obscure books for me.

Pass it on!

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Pass it on…

Until I came up with a few ideas to make their lunch boxes more exciting and encourage them to eat everything.

1. Surprise pots
   Add a small lidded plastic container with a surprise in every day. Some fruit salad – just chopped up fruit with a splash of juice. Or a pick’n’mix with dried fruit, nuts and seeds. Or a few chunks of cheese and veggie sticks.

 

2. Bite-size
   Keeping things bite-sized can help. Cut sandwiches into little triangles, add a handful of grapes or cherry tomatoes, some mini crackers. Smaller items are much more tempting to the kids.

 

3. Breads
   Sandwiches can be pretty dull, day after day, particularly if your child only likes one or two different fillings. Try varying the bread – rolls, pitta pockets, wraps, bagels, or croissants will help keep things interesting.

 

4. Yoghurt alternatives
   Instead of the obligatory yoghurt, try tempting your kids with mini fromage frais, fruit jellies or custard pots.

 

5. Involve the kids!
   While we all want our kids to have a nutritious lunch, there is zero point adding broccoli spears or coleslaw if your child won’t eat it. Get them involved – give them a few options to choose from and let them help you pack it up so they feel their lunch box is really their own!

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5 Top Tips for Child-friendly Lunchboxes (Without Leftovers!)

I tend to keep some interesting breads in the freezer for the post-Christmas sandwich-making frenzy. Pumpernickel works brilliantly with fish – and there’s bound to be some smoked salmon left in the fridge. Just add some salad leaves, a splodge of sour cream or soft cheese, squeeze over some lemon juice and finish with black pepper. Sour dough is gorgeous toasted, spread thickly with leftover pate and a spoonful of chutney. And we always have a version of Croque Monsieur – a spin on the French dish of grilled cheese and ham on toast. It puts the last bits of the ham joint and the remains of the cheeseboard to good use. But my favourite is the Roast Lunch baguette, split and filled with the remnants of the Christmas feast – stuffing, bacon-wrapped sausages, turkey, roasted veggies, cranberry sauce, and several wedges of stilton… I have even been known to souse it in gravy.

Of course, sandwiches only take care of some of the Christmas leftovers. However tired I am after the big day, I do have to provide everyone with a hot meal at some point. An easy supper dish that can be thrown together, is savoury rice. I break up the stuffing into nuggets, chop up some turkey and ham and any leftover cooked veggies and chuck it all in with some wild rice or steamed cous-cous. I might fish about in the fruit bowl for the last apples and pears and toss them in as well. The same ingredients could be rolled up in ready-made pancakes from the freezer, covered with a cheese sauce and baked. And of course they would be delicious cold in wraps for lunch with a bit of salad or coleslaw.

Using up cooked meats calls for a bit of creative thinking if the kids aren’t gong to get bored. Thin slices of ham, beef or turkey can be stuffed and rolled, which makes a quick supper with bread & butter. I grate any odd bits of cheese and mix it up with some mashed potatoes, any leftover roast squash, and maybe a spoonful of pesto for a delicious filling. Macaroni cheese is also a favourite, with added chopped ham and sausages. And the other crowd-pleaser is a Christmas pizza. Raid the fridge and let the kids turn the leftovers into their own gourmet toppings!

For the grown-ups, a wickedly indulgent treat is fried Christmas pudding for breakfast, which is amazing with crispy bacon. Or a steaming hot mince pie topped with a hefty wodge of stilton. (I try not to think about my expanding waistline until January 1st.)

If I’m not sure what to do with it, I use the freezer to store leftovers until I’ve decided how best to use them up. Having said that, there isn’t much that doesn’t  go into my Christmas soup. A huge cauldron that bubbles away merrily with all the bits and bobs of our Christmas dinner in it and a generous slug of brandy. Just the thing for a cold New Year’s Eve…

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There’s nothing funny about turkey sandwiches.

Supermarket Savy!

Featuring Julia Falcon from Love Food Hate Waste! Julia gives some great advice on buying and storing fresh fruit and veg, meat, fish, and dairy products. She explains what those ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates really mean and how to use your freezer more effectively. She’s even got some good tips on buying ready meals and party food – perfect for Christmas entertaining.

Turkey Crumble, anyone?

Alison Gribble from the WI has some brilliant ideas for turning Christmas dinner leftovers into some delicious dishes. She shows us three recipes to use up what’s left of the turkey, stuffing, cooked veggies, potatoes and – even the gravy. She combines her well-stocked store cupboard with her imagination, to make sure her Christmas cooking goes on feeding her family into the New Year.

Christmas Leftover Recipes…

Turkey, Ham and Leek Pie
Christmas Pudding Strudel
Pear and Stilton Toasts
Cranberry Brownies

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Two Great Christmas Films… to help you save money!

Rootling through the fridge, I think I’ve come up with something to make it all seem better. Chicken soup. A hearty warming variety which can sit on the stove top simmering away and everyone can help themselves when they come in. Great for these wintry evenings and of course it is traditionally known for its medicinal & soothing qualities. There’s some meat left from the Sunday roast, and I have boiled up the carcass for stock There’s also a bowl of rice over from yesterday’s curry and half a tub of creme fraiche. In the veggie rack there’s a sweet potato, a sad old leek and a load of carrots which can go in as well.

If I needed any more encouragement to use up what’s left in the fridge, Jane Clarke writes in The Mail Online about the health benefits of leftovers. For instance, did you know that beta-carotene, an antioxidant vitamin that protects from free radicals, is more easily absorbed from cooked carrots than from raw ones? No, nor did I. So there we are – leftovers are good for you.

But if the washing machine man doesn’t show up today, he’ll need more than chicken soup to protect his free radicals!

More Use Up Soup Recipes…

Celery, Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Roast Dinner Soup
Clay Pot Onion Soup
My ‘Use Up’ Soup
Creamy Tomato Soup

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Chicken Soup

Pasta Portions…

I find getting portion sizes right with pasta can be a bit hit and miss, unless I actually weigh it out which is a bit of a faff. When it’s just me and my husband I use an ordinary mug, and cook about one and a half mugfulls (roughly 200-250g) for us both. For spaghetti, you can’t beat a proper spaghetti measurer – a clever little gizmo which removes all the guesswork. The trick is to remember that dried pasta tends to roughly double in size when cooked. Getting the kids’ portions right is a bit more tricky, but it doesn’t matter if I have been too generous. It will always get eaten up the next day.

Pasta Pie…

Our favourite leftover pasta dish is Pasta Pie. It’s really just an Italian omelette made with pasta, and you will have to trust me on this one – it’s delicious! It works brilliantly with spaghetti and it’s a great way to empty the fridge. Just beat a few eggs in a big bowl and then throw in, cooked pasta, cooked meat like bacon, ham, or sausage, cooked veggies, try peas, roast peppers, courgettes, a bit of garlic, loads of grated cheese and herbs and seasoning. Stir it all about, tip into a large frying pan and cook until it starts to brown underneath. Finish it off under the grill until gorgeously golden.

This is great chopped into wedges with a salad for lunch and the kids love ‘pasta pie’ for supper.

Have you got any clever ways to use up leftover pasta that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them…

More Tasty Pasta Dishes…

Tuna Pasta Bake
Quick Pasta Carbonara
Big Spaghetti Bolognese
Ripe Tomato and Basil Pasta
Ham, Roast Garlic & Spinach Pasta
Vegetable Lasagne

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A Piece of Pasta Pie

A fortnight’s food…

I start by writing down what we need for the big one – Christmas lunch. Then I work out who’s coming to stay and what other meals I’ll need to provide. We tend to throw a party the week before Christmas and have people over for New Year, so I plan for those evenings as well. Then I fill in the gaps – a bit like joining up the dots – using leftovers and items from the store cupboard and freezer, until I have the whole fortnight’s food pretty much sewn up.

My extended store cupboard…

I treat my freezer as an extension to my store cupboard, only much colder. I’ve been buying a little bit for Christmas each week, already i have cocktail sausages, streaky bacon, sausagemeat and puff pastry in the freezer. Stocking up now means any unannounced visitors will be easy to cater for and they’ll be terribly impressed by how organised I am! (As long as I don’t lose my lists…)

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Christmas Crowd Control