Bought a load of fresh food that you’re trying to use up before it goes bad? Don’t want to be wasting any good bits because you just don’t when your local will have more fresh bits back in? Don’t worry! Check out our top tips on how to make what you’ve got last longer!
Keep Cool. No, literally! Keep ice cool by popping your almost turning veg, fruit, bread or milk in the freezer.
Freezing your food can make it last for at least another few weeks (or until there’s a fresher option instore) For bread, just pop it in as is and you can either thaw the slices overnight on the kitchen counter or pop them straight into the toaster when you want them! Vegetables are best frozen after you’ve washed and chopped them and then you can put them straight into your dishes as you cook them. Smaller fruits like berries can go straight into the freezer but for bigger fruits like bananas, melon, or pineapple give them a quick slice into smaller chunks and then you can use them on your breakfast, in your smoothie or even in your wine glass for a fruity twist. (I’d recommend the pineapple in a white wine!)
Boil your scraps
Onion peels, carrot ends, pepper tops, and potato skins. Sounds like a witches brew right? WRONG! You can use all these together to make stock at home which you can use to make soup, stew, chilli and even a good old pasta. Just pop all your tops, bottoms, and peels into a ziplock bag and keep then in the freezer until it’s full, then into a pot they go. Fill the pot up with water until the scraps start to float, bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Strain the stock into a Tupperware and throw away the veggie scraps and voila! Homemade stock. This will keep in the fridge for 4 days or in the freezers for 3 months.
Learn your dates
This one might sound a bit odd but it’s very important. Not all food needs to be chucked away based on the date on the packaging. Use by dates are about safety so foods need to be consumed by this date (but freezing most food can extend this as food tends to keep for longer in the freezer). Best Before dates are about quality which means the food is still safe to eat after the date shown on the packaging but may start to lose flavour or texture. Don’t throw away tins that have a BBE (best before end) date of last week because they are totally safe to eat and you would be wasting money and food! So learn your dates and save yourself a pretty penny.