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

Once you’ve eaten your banana, check out their brilliant recipes to use up the rest of the bunch, including Banana Bread – a great favourite in this house and an excellent way to use up squishy bananas. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to give us mashed bananas with top-of-the-milk and a sprinkling of brown sugar. My children love it – use a dollop of natural yoghurt or a drizzle of cream. Mashed bananas work really well in sandwiches, or smear thickly on toast, sprinkle over sugar and pop under the grill for a minute or two for a golden caramelised finish. Amazing with ice-cream for a treat!

I’ve also discovered some interesting banana facts. Did you know that the banana is the most popular fruit in the world? And that people spend over £10 billion a year on banana’s globally? That’s an awful lot of bananas. But I’d be willing to bet that this house accounts for a generous proportion that consumption. We seem to get through tons of the things. But considering bananas contain tryptophan and vitamin B6, known to help make you feel happy, I want to know why aren’t my kids always sweetness and light…?

Banana Recipes…

Good for you banana ice cream
Banana and peanut milkshake
Mushy banana sour cream pancakes
Banana and walnut bread
Banana and yoghurt pancakes

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Go Bananas

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

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!)

The Husband works with a fruit and veg supplier. Every week he brings home a huge box of delicious fresh produce – particularly welcome because it’s free! However, quite often the box has things in it that are nearing the end of their life – squash that are…well, a bit squashed, apples with a few bruises, soft tomatoes and browning broccoli. If I act quickly, most of the fruit and veg is great. I just cut off the bad bits and no-one is any the wiser. Shoving most of it into the fridge, where it keeps for longer.

I make a lot of soup, which invariably ends up in the freezer. So do tomatoes, which go straight into the pan from frozen when I’m cooking pasta sauces or casseroles. Bananas too go in the freezer if we have an abundance, once frozen put them straight into the blender for yummy smoothies and milk shakes without the need for ice or ice-cream! Bananas (un-frozen) are also perfect to use in custards, puddings and cakes.

At least once a week we eat a variation of bubble and squeak, using up any cooked or soft veggies that are past their best, with the odd apple or pear thrown in. I’ve also made chutneys and  preserves until we’ve run out of empty jam jars. And you can’t beat plain old roasted veg. The chickens take care of a lot of bits I can’t rescue, but there’s a limit to the amount of old cabbage the girls can eat.

At the risk of sounding ungrateful – which I’m certainly not, because that box probably knocks at least £40 off my weekly grocery bill – I’m fast running out of ideas of what to do with it all. You can have too much of a good thing.

If you have any fruit and veggie rescue tips, I’d love to hear them – if the kids get vegetable soup for lunch again, I may have a mutiny on my hands.

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Veggies Galore!

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

Lovely leftovers…

It does mean that we are left with small parcels of different cheeses wrapped in foil in the fridge. Much of it ends up on my plate for lunches during the week, as the kids think stilton is revolting. I’m not complaining! However, due to my expanding waistline I’ve decided to cut down, so I’ve been looking for crafty ways to use up cheese in other dishes for the family (while I suffer another salad…)

Special sandwiches and super soup…

Tortilla sandwiches or quesadillas are great for any bits of leftover cheese, as are savoury muffins too. Soups are an easy way to use up cheese, which adds a creamy depth – stilton works well with broccoli, brie compliments spinach and watercress, and roquefort is fab with cauliflower.

Stirred, sliced, or spread?

Cream cheese can be stirred into mashed potato, a creamy pasta sauce or a risotto. Goats cheese or feta is gorgeous crumbled over a dish of steaming green beans. Fresh tomatoes are delicious with sliced mozzarella and chopped basil, and ripe juicy plums are amazing spread with gorgonzola. Cheshire can be incorporated into the dough when making pastry for savoury tarts and is perfect for sprinkling over a shepherd’s pie.

(All this talk of cheese has made me hungry. I think there is some apple-smoked cheddar that needs using up – perfect with… a salad!)

Let me know your cheesy rescue recipes.

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Cheese, please.