Reviving tips

Some foods, that you might have earmarked for the bin, can be revived and given a new lease of life. Read on and please tell us your ideas too.

• Don't waste wine!

  Submitted by Amanda, London

  Rather than let the end of a bottle of wine hang around only to go sour, pour into a small container or clean yogurt pot and freeze. Use in stews, casseroles or gravies - no need to defrost - put straight into the cooking.

• Fresh and crisp fruit and veg

  Submitted by Jenna, Hartlepool

  In your fruit and veg draw put tin foil in the bottom with the shinny side up. Keeps fruit and veg fresher for longer.

• Cucumbers can last longer

  Submitted by Anne Harris, cambridge

  Put the stalk end of a cucumber in a small container of water and stand in the fridge door. They last much longer like this. Also they'll keep well this way out of the fridge if you are pushed for fridge space.

• Leftover roast

  Submitted by Elizabeth Pratt, Romsey, Hampshire

  If you haven't got time to make a shepherd's pie from your leftover roast, whiz the meat with an onion in the food processor and pour into a freezer bag for later. It is then quick and easy to cook the prepared meat mixture from frozen to make a shepherd's pie or rissoles.

• Lion pasta sauce or lion soup

  Submitted by Lell Picken, Consett co.Durham

  I make pasta sauces and soups from the vegatables that are "lion" about in the fridge! Peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes that are too soft to go in a salad. It's never the same twice. I also do the same thing with fruit and make crumbles.

• Leftover pesto

  Submitted by Sarah, Romford

  Never waste pesto again! Mix left over pesto with butter, freeze in individual portions. Use the pesto butter on steak, chicken, lamb etc. Mix some garlic into it as well for a great tasting butter and spread on a toasted baguette.

• Keeping food longer

  Submitted by P Smith, Northampton

  I use a Fresh Pod in my salad drawers and fruit bowl. It absorbs the gases form the ripening fruit and veg and helps them last much longer.

• Pesto dressing and bean salad

  Submitted by Lynne, London

  When there is only a teaspoon of pesto left in the jar make an oil and vinegar dressing for bean salad using canned kidney beans/cannelli/borlotti (or whatever you have in your cupboard). You can add sliced red onion, sweetcorn (canned or frozen) and green beans. Bean salad can be made into soup or vegetable chilli if you have any leftover.

• Seafood stock

  Submitted by David Wall, Shaftesbury

  When buying fish ask he fishmonger to fillet the fish, then also to give you the bones etc. You can also use the shells of prawns and other shellfish. Boil the bones etc in a little water, then strain through a fine strainer, or a piece of muslin to make excellent fish stock.

• Using up your veg

  Submitted by David Wall, Shaftesbury

  Regularly - once a week or so, clear out your vegetable rack and use everything to make soups, stock, or stews.