Festive Food
It’s the season to be jolly so let’s have a go at making our food happy too – let’s eat it up instead of putting Spud, Slice and their food friends into a big, round and merry bin! With 2 million turkeys and 74 million mince pies thrown away each year our bins get to eat very well at Christmas.
How much have you spent so far on food for Christmas? Our Waste Elf Sarah has been food planning for 7 adults and is determined that none of the very large amount of money spent on that food will end up in the bin. If the average family throws away £60 of food in a typical month – then how much gets thrown at Christmas when we’re buying a lot more?
Roasted meat
So make the most of your festive food.
Make a meal plan
Write down what you’re going to eat on each day, you can use our Festive meal planner to help. Check what you’ve already bought. Then write your shopping list using the planner so when you hit the shops you know exactly what you want and don’t spend lots of extra time just staring at the food laden shelves.
Plan your portions
Whether you’ll be cooking for 2 or 10, or will be eating away from home most days, knowing in advance what your plans are will help to make sure that you have the right amount of food. The Love Food Hate Waste portion planner can help you work out how many you carrots or potatoes you need for Christmas dinner. Simply put in what you want to cook, how many you’re cooking for and it will tell you how much you need.
Plan for the unexpected…
Of course, even with the best laid plans, at this time of year, it pays to be prepared for the unexpected. Friends or family could pop in for a drink and still be there for dinner or after a particularly busy few days, a spontaneous meal out could be just the thing you need to help you relax, both of these could throw your carefully laid plans out the window but it’s easy to be ready just in case.
Make sure you have some store cupboard staples (rice, pasta sauces, tins of tuna etc) that can be added to any leftovers or other ingredients you have to create quick and easy meals for unexpected guests. If you do change your plans and go out to eat, then just remember to put food you’re not going to get to eat in the freezer, to use at another time.
Get ready to store those leftover ingredients
You’ll probably have extra cooked turkey after 25th December. It can be used as an ingredient in so many meals but you’ll need to make sure you have enough airtight plastic containers, foil and cling film to store the turkey and other foods in your fridge ready to become a whole new meal.
There are lots of different ways to use up all your Christmas foods, and lots of places to look for ideas. Here are just 2 you could try – check out Love Food Hate Waste and #FestiveFreeze.
