The last 6 months have been a large upheaval for me, hence the downturn in the number of my recent blogposts.
Having spent the last 12 years rentingor living like a nomad in numerous countries and countless towns, I’ve finally put down roots and become a London property owner. It’s great to have chosen to put down roots, it’s an incredibly grown up decision but it hasn’t come without sacrifice. I’ve given up my rental property with a large eat in kitchen to move into a property with a kitchen that isn’t much larger than a closet.
I’ve made the most of the reduced size by deciding not to sacrifice valuable work top space with modern amenities such as a microwave and toaster. I’ve also taken to pretending that I’m Rachel Khoo from ‘A Little Paris Kitchen’ but the truth is that I’m not in Paris, I’m in overlooking a London A-road, I also miss my dining table, dishwasher and most of all my freezer. This brings me on to how I earth does all this babble relate to food waste and the fact is the last 6 months has seen a massive increase in my personal food waste due to a number of factors.
Firstly the upheaval:
Moving house, falling out of routine and having an out of bounds kitchen covered in builders dust meant that meal planning became obsolete for a number of weeks. Grabbing food as and when I needed to eat, not considering what was already in my fridge and not particularly wanting to cook in my dust enfused minuscule kitchen saw a number of bags of salad start to rot, a few forgotten tubs of yoghurt fester mould and half a dozen eggs become almost ready to hatch.
Secondly a new compact and poorly located fridge with a particularly compact freezer section.
My new fridge is located behind a door in a corner which I have to contort myself into the shape of a crouching tiger to see what’s inside, it sounds ridiculous I know but I swear it’s really contributed to my increase in food waste. It’s really difficult to see what’s still in the fridge, despite it’s size it’s mega deep, I’d compare it to the wardrobe out of The Chronicles of Narnia except reaching into the back of it I’m not venturing into a snow covered fairy tale but am more likely to be pulling out a block of fur covered cheese.
The other issue is the freezer space, as any of my regular readers will know I’m a major fan of the frozen leftover but my freezer space is so tightly packed it’s like a championship game of Jenga to get food in or out of it. Both of these points are embarrassing to admit as a food waste advocate but at least I’ve identified the problem and joy oh joy I’ve found solutions.
Firstly getting back into a routine has been key and starting to meal plan again has helped but I have to be stricter than before the move. In the past meals cooked in batches would be frozen but space restricts this so now the leftovers have to be eaten that week which isn’t terrible it just means I have to cook less.
Secondly my brain wave idea has been a humble blackboard. Most people I believe use the old blackboard as a shopping list however mines the opposite, it’s a list of what’s in the fridge so I don’t have to crouch down and venture into Narnia to see what needs using up. It’s actually revolutionised the way I shop and cook.
Having the list in front of me has made me look at it before any shopping trip and say hey what can I make, as I’ve got more confident in cooking I’m finding that I’m using less of other peoples recipes and coming up with more of my own which in turn gives me a huge amount of material to blog about
So to summarise, there is always a reason behind why people throw out so much food but if you can identify your reason, be it too little time or too little space etc, there’s probably a simple solution which might just involve a small adjustment that can help contribute to a reducing global problem.
For information on how to meal plan and batch cook, please check out my previous posts below:
The Food Waste Diaries 