This week I’m taking part in the Live Better challenge – specifically the reduce food waste one. Largely because wasting food is something I know I do more than I’m comfortable with. Not that we waste tons of food in our house in general terms and eve then we have a compost bin so the vast majority of what does have to go out ends up enriching the garden soil – and hopefully turning into more food!
However, its not as though I’m immune to the frankly horrifying monetary stats so spending less on food by getting better at using the stuff we’ve already got does also have a tempting element to it. I did in fact have a grand plan at the start of last year to start a food project where I’d bulk buy cupboard staples (flour, pasta, rice, lentils and pulses of various kinds) and see how far I could stretch them and blog about it. A good plan, a fun plan even – I love cooking and I like having an excuse to photograph the successes – but it went the way of all New Year’s resolutions. So here I am, a year on, looking hopefully at my cupboards and hoping that a week’s challenge might kick off some better, longer-term habits.
Handily, last week I did a big shop based on – yes you guessed it – using up the random stuff kicking about in the fridge and cupboards. So the ideal place to start this challenge then. I started on a Tuesday rather than a Monday, mainly because I only stumbled across the challenge yesterday while reading the paper over lunch. Breakfast and lunch for the next couple of days are easy because I already had cereal, rolls, sandwich fillings (cold meat and mayonnaise) and fruit bought for that purpose, so I’ll be focusing mostly on dinner.
Cupboard Life 