Food odds and ends

Until fairly recently, I thought that we wasted very little food but then the local council introduced food recycling. We already composted but found that we were able to recycle the non-compostable food waste: crusts, banana skins, meat bones and plate waste. Well, the container filled up quickly and the roll of liner bags which was meant to last six months barely lasted three. So, onto more effort to reduce food waste. I'm not sure about success but we are working on this.

So what do we so to try to reduce waste?

Meals built around jacket potatoes-these meals are great for using up bits of salad, small quantities of cooked meat or grated cheese. We usually need to add other vegetables or a quiche to this.

Casseroles-we add in left over vegetables. A good way to use up left over carrots or baked beans.

Potato patties-this is a popular way of using left over mashed potato. Add a whisked egg to the potato, make into rounds, coat in flour or cornmeal and shallow fry.

Pasta salad-this is a less popular way of using up left over pasta. I could do with more ideas here.

Sweet couscous-left over couscous (needs to be plain not with additional ingredients) makes a easy dessert with icing sugar and ground almonds. Just add to taste.

I would be delighted to have other ideas.

This is linked to the 4Moms posts on leftovers.