Making your food go further!

While the cost of living is rising, an average household continues to waste the equivalent of around eight meals a week.

Wasting food is wasting money. By only buying what you will eat and making the most of what is already in your cupboard, fridge, and freezer, you could save a lot of money, and reduce your impact on the environment at the same time.

Below are some tips to help with leftovers in the kitchen. You might also get some inspiration for your leftovers by visiting the Love Food Hate Waste YouTube channel.

Plan your leftovers

Sometimes what can happen with leftovers is there isn’t enough food at the end of the meal for another meal.

What we suggest is to plan your leftovers and produce more than you will eat in that sitting. For example, if you have a pasta bake one evening, why not cook twice as much to make sure you’ll have enough for lunch the next day. It will help you save time and money.

The same goes for items like sausages – cook the whole packet. You could then have a meal one night and a tasty sausage sandwich the next day. By doing this, you may also save the money on the electricity having to reheat the oven.

For more information about this check out WRAP’s healthy ways to save food, time and money.

Use everything

If you do a Sunday roast dinner, why not slice the rest of the meat ready to be used in a sandwich the next day or a few days after. Or, if you’ve used all the meat up, why not make a stock using the bones and any leftover vegetable scraps – follow this recipe to make a chicken stock or the base for a warming soup.

The freezer is your friend

Don’t be scared to freeze foods that you know you won’t be using within the next few days. A great example is herbs – whether you grow your own or buy them from the supermarket.

What we suggest is cut them all up at the same time and freeze what you don’t use that meal in an airtight container or sealed bag. Use this idea for any leftover lemon or lime juice too! If you’re using a recipe that only uses the zest, juice the fruit, and pour into an ice cube tray. Once frozen, these can then be put into curries or used for baking later.