to make food last
OK gang. For many reasons, we're going to need to be making fewer trips to the supermarket. But hey! Not to worry, there are plenty of easy methods for preparing, storing and planning what we eat to make it go further and last longer. Which incidentally will benefit the planet too as we will be producing less food waste. Bonanza! Then bon appetit.
As always, any more ideas please send on over to covidresourcebank@gmail.com
Never a leftover left over
Food waste blogger Ann Storr has a fantastic website to help anyone use anything that's in fridge or cupboard and turn it into a tasty meal. With hints, tips and even a free, downloadable meal planner, you'll be amazed at what you can do with what you already have.
Check out: https://storrcupboard.com/ for more
Thanks to contributor Rebecca for the kind notes below! x
Freezing Vegetables
Here are some links to how to get the best results when freezing vegetables, and a starting point for people’s own research:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/blanching-vegetables-before-freezing-1327660
https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze.html
And a recommendation for freezer food storage containers you can lay down to freeze and then stack vertically for easy and effective organisation (there are a few different options on the market, so again, just a jumping off point for further research):
Make Fresh Food go Further
Here are some products that are not just cutting down on single use plastics, but will also help fresh food go further:
https://foodhuggers.com/collections/food-huggers-hugs
https://foodhuggers.com/products/avocado-hugger
https://www.beeswrap.com/ (I kept organic asparagus in the fridge wrapped in this for 10 days, purely by accident, and it survived super well)
How to prepare beans
And when it comes to cooking beans for those who are sensitive to those pesky enzymes that cause bloating (like me), I have found this method works a treat:
1) Soak your beans for at least 8 hours and up to 24hrs. Use plenty of water as the beans will grow in size enormously and they start to rehydrate, about 5cm over the top of the beans.
2) Discard the water the beans have soaked in.
3) Boil beans in water for 10 minutes, and discard this water also.
4) With a fresh pot of water, add salt and one or two bay leaves (depending on the amount of beans you’re cooking) and any other herbs, spices or flavourings to the pot (garlic, onion, etc.) along with your beans, bring to a boil and then simmer until they reach your desired texture. The amount of time this takes varies depending on the type of bean you’re cooking and how long you soaked them for before cooking, so keep testing from about 20 to 30 minutes into this final simmer.
Hands down, this process creates the tastiest, non-gut offending beans time and again.