Wednesday, 20 August 2014

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #275 Store and Use Leftovers

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #275 Store and Use Leftovers


Keeping on the topic of food and food waste: sometimes we’re not as hungry as we thought we were when we started cooking, or the kids are fractious and won’t eat all their dinner, so we end up with leftover food. Our ancestors were particularly clever at dealing with leftover food and seldom let anything go to waste. Today we have more help available to us in the form of Tupperware containers with airtight seals, fridges for storing and microwave ovens for reheating.
It’s important that we do things like this. Firstly it reduces needless waste from going into landfill. Secondly, it will make a significant difference to your finances – would you consider going to the supermarket, buying your weekly/fortnightly food and then go home and put 30% of it straight into the bin/trash? You might as well if you’re going to waste it anyway – you’ll save energy by not cooking it if you throw it away first.
When I was a kid mum might cook a piece of silverside one night and the next night the leftover meat would be turned into patties (cold meat pieces were dipped in batter and cooked both sides like a pikelet). If there was leftover stew, perhaps only a small portion, someone might have that heated and on a piece of toast for lunch. Mum used to call some of these meals ‘LWL’ (Luxury with leftovers). Perhaps your family has some tips for leftover food.
Save food, reduce waste to landfill, save money, save all the resources used in food production such as water, fertilisers (chemicals), transport, energy – and feel grateful that you have so much food available to you in the first place.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love leftovers! I always cook more than we need and box up a serve or two to go in the freezer for when I don't feel like cooking and we have "Catch & kill your own dinner" nights. By only cooking & freezing one or two serves, there's always a variety of different meals for us to choose from. If we only have a few leftovers on our plates after a meal, our dogs LOVE having "human food" with their kibble, instead of us opening yet another can of dog-food!!