Challenge Update!

Well I am happy to report that so far so good! The Glad Fresh Food Challenge has really opened my eyes to how much food I would usually waste and so I have spent the last week really paying attention to what’s in my fridge and pantry and coming up with new innovative ideas of how to prevent wasting my food.

One thing I have to say is that when it comes to saving food, the freezer is your absolute best friend and I don’t know where I would be without one! This past week my freezer has seen the addition of some finely chopped herbs (which I put into little bags and labelled ready for next time I need them) and bread crumbs. I have to admit that when it comes to bread it was high on my list of items being wasted, admittedly not always...but quite a lot. This week I have just taken the time to get out my food processor and whizz up the left over dried out pieces into breadcrumbs and put them into bags and into the freezer. Never again will I buy breadcrumbs….I have plenty right at my fingertips waiting to be used!

Another great use for your freezer is for meat and fish. I am lucky to have a large chest freezer in our garage so it works best for us to buy meat in bulk (it’s cheaper that way). The key to making this work however, is to break things down into portions. Separate chicken breasts, pork chops and steaks into individual portions before you freeze them (in either freezer bags or try Glad Press & Seal for extra protection) and weigh items such as mince, ground beef or chicken thighs into 1lb portions and freeze in bags that are clearly marked with the contents, weight and date. I do this every time I buy meat and it means I waste nothing. If you want to be extra organised (and a bit of a geek like me!) stick a white board on the wall above your freezer and keep track of everything you put in and take out of the freezer so you always know exactly what you have! It works wonders and I love it!

So there you go, week 1 of the #GladFreshFoodChallenge is complete and so far I am on track! 

How would you manage with this challenge? If you waste food why not try it, you will be surprised at how much you usually throw away and aware of how much money you can save if you stop!

How much food do you waste?

As I mentioned in my Meal Planning Monday’s post I am so excited to be taking part in the Glad Fresh Food Challenge (#GladFreshFoodChallenge). My reason for initially signing up for it was because unfortunately as much as I hate it I am just as guilty as the next person of wasting food every week. I try not to but inevitably something always ends up in the bin. Usually it’s leftovers but occasionally fruit and vegetables that have been forgotten about and are past the point of being revived are thrown away as well.

As I said though, I am not alone with this issue. It turns out that the average Canadian household spends $5572 per year on groceries.  Unfortunately, on average 13% of that food is thrown out which is the equivalent of $725 worth of food ending up in the garbage every year per family[1]. Worse still however is a recent report from the US that states that 40% of food is wasted every year amounting to a shocking $165 billion a year in waste. Of that total 14% of that waste comes from households throwing away food[2].  And in the UK it is reported that around 15 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year with almost 50% of that coming from UK homes. That is the equivalent of the average household throwing away 6 meals a week![3]

The results are staggering and quite simply unnecessary, so it’s time to stop and make a change. The fact of the matter is that a lot of that food just doesn’t need to be thrown out and so with some careful planning, taking the time for some basic food preparation and having the knowledge of how to use or preserve your food, we can all attempt to cut down on the amount of food we are throwing out every year. If you can do that not only will you prevent so much food from being unnecessarily wasted but at the same time you will also be saving yourself big bucks!

So as of today, October 1^st, I am starting the Glad Fresh Food Challenge. My challenge is to waste NOTHING for 2 weeks….not even a single lettuce leaf. After researching the issue of food waste and finding out just how much of a problem it is, I am genuinely excited to accept this challenge. My hope is to share new ideas, tips and tricks of how to save food and stop it from being thrown in the bin. I’ll update my blog in 1 week with my progress but I will be updating my Facebook page every day so stay with me and see how much food I can actually save in 2 weeks and keep good food from going bad! Even better why not join me?! Let the challenge begin to keep good food from going, stop wasting and start saving!

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[1] Information provided by Glad

[2] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041123095923.htm

[3] http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/content/how-much-food-wasted-total-across-uk

Cookbook Challenge Oct. 2012 ~ 31 Days; 10 Books & 1 Challenge!

The Challenge – To cook at least one meal a day from a cookbook of choice for the month of October. The recipes must be followed exactly so as to properly test them and the budget must be no more (and hopefully less!) than an ordinary month.

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That's right folks, for the month of October I am challenging myself to cook at least one meal a day using a cookbook! Now while that might not sound like a challenge for a lot of you, for someone who owns over 1000 cookbooks and rarely cooks from them, this is a challenge for me! Inspired by the bloggers challenge 'Random Recipes' hosted by Dom over at the lovely Belleau Kitchen, I have stepped things up a few notches so that I am not making one recipe a month from a random book, but rather one a day!

With that said however, this challenge isn't quite so random as I have picked out 9 books of choice (fairly randomly and without looking through them) in order to help with meal planning and shopping. The final book for the challenge - book number 10, was picked by you - the readers (through facebook). For those of you that missed it I selected 5 books from my 'library' and the one with the most votes was the lucky book to join the challenge, which turned out to be the Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten. The other 9 books were fairly randomly picked - I tried to do a real mix and choose books that I thought might be fairly familiar to people..... so here they are the 10 books I will be cooking from in October.....

Sweet Heat # 7

So far this year Sweet Heat has challenged you to Rock Indian food and make some Spicy Spanish Tapas, and so now I thought it would be nice to take a trip to South East Asia for some Spicy Thai Food! With Spring just around the corner (apparently!) I love the light, fresh and vibrant flavours of Thai cooking which of course includes plenty of spicy heat. On top of that the Songkran Festival which is Thai New Year begins on April 12^th this year, so what better way to celebrate that to indulge in plenty of aromatic Thai food. Due to the vastness of this months theme you have plenty of options – it can be sweet, savoury, a starter, main course, soup, street food or even a Thai inspired condiment – whatever you like, it just has to include chillies of some form (and they don't necessarily have to be Thai chillies!). So transport yourself and your kitchen and take a journey to beautiful Thailand and start cooking some spicy Thai food to invigorate and excite your taste buds.

As always the usual rules apply......

• You must mention Sweet Heat in your post with a link back to this site. You are more than welcome to also include the Sweet Heat Logo on your post but it's not mandatory.
  
  
• Send your post url, your name and a photo of your creation to vanillacloudsandlemondrops@hotmail.co.uk no later than April 27th.

• You can create your own recipe or make your favourite recipe but please credit the original source if using someone else's, and please if using someone else's recipe, you must write the directions in your own words!
  
  
• You can enter as many times as you like. The more the merrier!
  
  
• Your entry must include chillies of some description, after all that is what this challenge is all about.
  
  
• If you tweet your recipe use the hashtag #sweetheat and tag me @LyndseyFleenor and I will re-tweet it! You can also post the link of your entry on my facebook page.

This month you have until April 27^th to enter, so what are you waiting for?... Can you handle the heat?!