Our latest free cooking session with Love Food Hate Waste was at the Newbury Community Centre in Buckley Farnworth, Bolton, and what a great facility this is too! So many activities were happening while we were getting ready to cook a veggie chilli with our enthusiastic group, who got all the veggies chopped small under Kim's direction. She explained about having less waste by not peeling veggies, just give them a good scrub first.
During the quiz, one group came up with many more ingredients sitting unused in their cupboards and fridges than the other, so we had good fun with the challenge of devising recipes from a rather scant list but this really got people thinking creatively about what they could do with the items and some fantastic and tasty sounding ideas were made. I love how the participants always get really involved in the task and always come up with inspired ideas!
We chatted about our shopping habits and the best times to shop (not hungry!), and said it was a good idea to make lists and stick to them, take the correct cash and, most importantly, not be seduced by BOGOF offers unless you're going to freeze the extra or use it up. Everyone felt they could benefit from following these tips. Kim discussed portion sizes and how it was especially easy to cook too much pasta and rice. She showed us that only a handful of uncooked rice was enough of a portion for one person and proved this by only cooking that amount. She also showed us how to steam rather than boil rice as this was more energy efficient so saving on our ever-costly energy bills too.
Our chilli was lovely and as usual there was no waste and all leftovers were enthusiastically taken away in food cartons. Another excellent session.
For details of our FREE Love Food Hate Waste cooking sessions throughout February and March in Wythenshawe, Partington, Oldham, Salford, Bury, Rochdale and Bolton visit the Cracking Good Food website.