Love barbecuing?

Top Tips to help you waste less

 

We now spend around £35 on food and drink for a barbeque, up from £19 just five years ago. With an average nine barbeques each, that’s a whopping £315 a year*.

We have lots of ideas to help your money go further…

•  Keep the fridge below five degrees to help food stay fresher for longer. 

• Use up any ginger, garlic and lemongrass lingering in the fridge by making a simple marinade for king prawns, lamb, beef or chicken skewers. Chop and mix with olive oil.
• Squeeze any spare – or past their best - lemons and combine with a sprinkling of sugar and sparkling water to make a thirst quenching lemonade.
• Sliced lemons can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for a refreshing addition to cold drinks. Why not freeze grapes and use as tasty ice cubes.
• If you’re inviting lots of guests and aren’t sure how much to buy and cook, try Love Food Hate Waste’s online perfect portion calculator at lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions
• Use a cool box or cool bag to help keep food fresh and tasty.
• Store-cupboard essentials like dried noodles make delicious cold oriental salads when mixed with chopped leftover veg like baby corn and sugar snap peas. Perfect to go with your barbeque.
• Any fish that needs using up can be wrapped in foil and barbequed.
• If you’ve got veg which is past its best - such as courgettes, aubergines and peppers - brush them with olive oil and chargrill until soft. Or why not try a Roast Vegetable Lunch
• If salad is looking tired and wilted put it in a bowl of water with a couple of ice-cubes to get it nice and crisp again.  
• Chop up spare veg from your salad drawer into little crudités for dunking into hummus or your favourite dip.
• If salad is looking tired and wilted put it in a bowl of water with a couple of ice-cubes to get it nice and crisp again.  
• A dollop or two of coleslaw and hummus make delicious additions to salads. Why not make your own coleslaw to use up your veg by combining grated carrot with shredded cabbage (red or white) and some mayonnaise.
• If raspberries, strawberries and blueberries look past their prime, cook gently in a saucepan until soft and then serve with crème fraiche or ice-cream for an easy pud.
• Keep the children entertained by giving them refreshing lollies made with left over fruit juice, smoothies and yoghurts frozen into ice-lolly moulds. 

Find out ideas for when the sun goes down here…
For more safety advice visit: www.nhs.uk/livewell/summerhealth/pages/barbecuefoodsafety.aspx