Love my food, but hate to see waste!

A tweet on my timeline this week has really made me think. It was about some food that was past its use by date, and whether it would be ok to use or not. In this particular case, it happened to have been off after checking, but it got me thinking, people throw so much food away because it's 'out of date', when really it's fine to eat, in some way or another, eg some fruits and veggies that aren't at their freshest can be made into smoothies, relishes, chutneys, jams etc...  This then led me on to look for some tips online as to how to keep food to make it last longer, and thought I'd share some of my faves,plus some things I already do myself.

When I buy fruit/veg, I always take it out of the plastic packets before keeping it in the fridge, so I am relying on sight, touch, smell etc rather than dates anyway-best before and use-by dates haven't always been stamped on food you know!

Tips:

*Remove mushrooms from the plastic and cling wrapped boxes they come in and store in  paper bag or wrapped in kitchen paper. This way they do not 'sweat' and last much longer.

*Store your celery in a jug of water in the fridge, replace water every couple of days.

*Keep your nuts in the freezer (ooh-er Missus!) Things that contain oil can spoil, but freezing nuts keeps their freshness for yonks.

*Freeze small amounts of leftover cream, creme fraiche etc in an ice cube tray, and add them to sauces, mashed potatoes etc as needed.

*Remove packaged herbs from their plastic and put in a bowl of cold water for 10 mins. Then store in fridge wrapped in damp kitchen paper in a tupperware tub.

*If you are only going to use half a pepper, leave the stalk and seeds attached to the half you aren't using and store in a plastic bag in the fridge.This will give it a couple of extra days.

*Turn the unused ends of a loaf of bread into crumbs in a food processor and store in a zip-loc bag in the freezer. Add to the bag each time you have some more crumbs, and use straight from frozen.

*If you have a veg drawer in your fridge line it with kitchen paper, and change often. It will soak up any moisture and prevent it from spoiling your veg!

*Pesto spoils quickly in it's jar once opened. Either, freeze in ice cube tray and use from frozen, or, wipe round the top of the jar to clean, and then put a couple of tspsns of olive oil on top of the pesto, and store in the fridge, no more bad wasted pesto!

*Grate your whole wedge of parmesan cheese when you buy it, and store in a tub in the freezer, rather than leaving it to dry out in your fridge.

These are just a few, as I have run out of time and must dash off to meet a friend, but I'll share more as I discover them!