Here’s 5 simple food waste hacks you NEED to know! There’s so many reasons to reduce your food waste, even if you overlook the fact that we waste 4.5 million tons of edible food each year in the UK.
As I’m sure we all know; being gluten free is expensive. But did you know that reducing your food waste can save an average family of four up to £60 a month? And on a much bigger scale, reducing our food waste can help slow down global warming too. How do I know? Love Food, Hate Waste told me so! Ok, let’s get into the 5 simple food waste hacks you need to know…
(also, if you keep reading to the bottom, I’ll share my recipe for this beautiful ‘accidental masterpiece’ – my heart-shaped spicy gluten free Pepperoni pizza! Take a look at it below ??)
1. Meal plan your way to less food waste.
Planning your meals ahead of time is awesome for many reasons that clearly make you a super-organised human-being. But most of all, it’s a great way to reduce food waste before you’ve even bought any food!
By planning exactly what meals you’ll be having every day of the week, you can buy exactly what you need, right down to every individual ingredient and no more.
And if your paella calls for half a red pepper for example, you can plan another meal during that week which calls for the other half of that veg, like a chilli con carne. Simple!
2. Learn to spot any opportunity for a good ol’ ‘flung together’ meal.
Did anyone else used to watch Ready, Steady, Cook? I used to love watching how they’d reverse engineer recipes – from seeing the ingredients first, instead of starting with the recipe first.
And I like to think I’ve had that sort of thinking instilled in me, even though it now hasn’t been on telly in over 10 years – now I feel old! I mean, would you ever guess that the heart-shaped gluten free pizza in the photo above, was made using all the ingredients in the photo below?
(I only added some lonely leftover pepperoni, gluten free flour, some oil and that’s it!)
So when I look in the fridge on a day I haven’t meal planned for, instead of just seeing a bunch of random leftovers, I now see at least 4-5 different meals that I could make with them. I mean, here’s a good little test for you. What would you make out of the random leftovers below?
We’ve got leftover passata (about half a carton), half a red pepper, half a ball of mozzarella, the bottom of a jar of jalapenos and half a pot of natural yoghurt. Of course, you can throw in whatever store-cupboard ingredients you want as well!
3. The freezer is your friend!
I know it sounds obvious, but it’s true. Plus, this tip relies on one very important factor… having space in your freezer! Our freezer was in massive need of defrosting recently. Once we did it, we had *tons* more space that was previously taken up by a Titanic-sized iceberg.
Now, anything that’s nearing its expiry date goes straight into the freezer. Plus, we’ve also started to batch cook with the sole purpose of freezing those meals. It not only makes our lives so much easier, but those meals then last anywhere from 2-3 months. So there’s no danger of it going off any time soon!
Plus, this is how Mark discovered that he actually love eating frozen grapes. Trust us, try it if you haven’t, it’s amazing!
4. Use up the entire food.
This is a really easy one for me! There’s parts of fruit and veg that we’re quite happy to peel off without thinking, like apple skin or potato skin, carrot skin. Then there’s foods like broccoli where we often only use the florets and the stalk goes straight into the food waste.
But if you really want to make a massive difference to your food waste, skip the peeling and don’t waste any part of the veg. Yep, you can eat the stalk of broccoli!
Obviously, this doesn’t apply to banana skin though I swear I’ve seen people use it to make vegan bacon recently?! Not sure about that one. But when it comes to potatoes and carrots etc, not only is the skin packed with tons of good stuff, but it’ll also save you loads of time on peeling too.
5. Be storage savvy.
It’s a simple fact that, if you don’t keep certain foods at the right temperature, they’ll go off faster than you’d expect. And potentially, even faster than the use by date on it! Can you answer these three questions correctly?
Should you keep an avocado in the fridge? Should you keep potatoes in the fridge? Do eggs go on the fridge, or the cupboard? If you’re unsure of even one answer to those questions then definitely head over to Love Food, Hate Waste’s website and check out their Food Storage A-Z list.
I didn’t know that you should actually keep eggs in the fridge… because when you buy them at the supermarket, they’re never kept chilled. They’re just out! So see if you’re right or wrong when it comes to individual items like that – it’s quite fun!
Oh and here’s the recipe for the gluten free heart-shaped pizza in the photos. You really can top it however you like and it’s a great way to use up leftovers!
My Gluten Free Heart-shaped Spicy Pepperoni Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
For the base
- 260 g yoghurt I use plain coconut yoghurt, but any plain yoghurt would work
- 250 g gluten free self raising flour
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder optional
- 1/2 tsp salt optional
Pizza toppings
- 200 ml passata about half a carton
- garlic infused oil
- salt and pepper
- half a ball of mozzarella
- half a red pepper
- a few slices of leftover pepperoni
Instructions
- Add all your base ingredients into a bowl and mix together. I initially just do this with a spatula and then as it starts to come together I use my hands to ensure it's all pushed into a big ball.
- Knead the dough briefly so it's smooth and combined (you might need a little flour if it's a bit sticky, it shouldn't be)
- Cut the dough into 2 pieces.
- On a lightly floured surface use a rolling pin to roll out your dough. I roll mine to just over 0.5cm thick in a fairly round shape. For the heart shape, I just use a sharp knife to lightly cut out the heart. If you have any leftover dough, you can use it to make flatbreads with, or freeze it for next time.
- Heat up a frying pan - no oil needed.
- Carefully lift up your rolled dough and place it in the heated frying pan (I like to use my cake lifter to lift the dough). Allow to cook on one side for a few minutes, you should start to see some puffing up.
- Once some golden browning has occurred, flip the pizza base and cook for slightly less time on the other side. Once done, repeat with the other half of your dough (any excess dough can make a third pizza or a little garlic bread!) Place your bases onto a baking sheet.
- Heat your oven to 200C Fan / 220C.
- Mix together some passata with a couple of tsp garlic infused oil, some salt and pepper. Spread this sauce onto the base, leaving a little crust.
- Thinly slice your mozzarella and add it to the pizza. Then top with pepperoni, your sliced up red pepper, or literally any other thinly sliced veg, ham, cooked meats etc. that you want. It's a great way to use up leftovers!
- Place in the oven until the cheese has melted to your liking. Probably about 8-10 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
If you’re looking for any more food waste hacks, then definitely head over to Love Food, Hate Waste’s ‘Spoiled Rotten’ post. It’s a great place to start and there’s lots to point you in the right direction.
Any questions about the pizza recipe? Please do let me know by following me on Instagram and leaving me a comment on a recent photo!
Thanks for reading,
Becky xxx
This is a sponsored post with Love Food, Hate Waste.
