#SmallSteps week 6 and do we eat everything we buy?

If you're new to this theme, I am blogging a series of Monday posts about SmallSteps lifestyle changes I think might help our disUnited Kingdom communities to get through the post-Brexit turmoil ahead. You can read the first post here. Let's at least keep our towns and communities afloat and vibrant whatever the politicians decide for the country as a whole.

I've decided to keep a track of my attempts to practice what I preach! My four SmallSteps are:

1) to CheckTheLabel and BuyBritish whenever possible
2) to ShopLocal and spend at least £5 each week in independent local shops
3) to eat healthily and walk or cycle short distances
4) Not to use self-service checkouts or Pay At Pump

and this week I am adding

5) to reduce food waste completely

So how did I do this week?

We managed to BuyBritish duvets manufactured by Fogartys so our guest room now has almost everything - except beds! Foodwise, we bought UK lamb, tomatoes, potatoes and bread.

Hostess trolley from Vintage Now 

My ShopLocal spend this week isn't quite as astounding as last week, but still in triple figures at £245 because we found a beautiful mirror and this fun hostess trolley at Vintage Now Interiors in Newton Abbot. The trolley is going to make a perfect TV and hifi unit. We also were promised 'the best chocolate limes' from American Delights sweetshop in Torquay though actually our jury is still out. They are very limey, but not so chocolatey as other brands! Drowers in St Marychurch, Torquay, is a wonderful find - a proper old-fashioned hardware store where we bought lighter gas and a meter box key, and I found a gorgeous long rust coloured skirt for a tenner at Classic Clothes just down the road. St Marychurch also has the Precinct Bazaar which is a delightful Aladdin's Cave of a shop. We bought an adapter plug here before, this week I got yarn for making placemats!

We did drive to St Marychurch, but have otherwise been walking for all our Torquay journeys including our theatre trip on Thursday. We didn't use automated checkouts and, because we didn't drive much, we didn't need to buy any fuel.


My theme for this week is food waste. BuyBritish can be more expensive than buying imported goods, especially for good quality food, but I wanted to see how much money we might be wasting by throwing away uneaten food. Could I make savings to offset the increased spend?

I read an excellent blog post over at Milli Grace on this subject. Milli went on a Love Food Hate Waste jaunt to Smithfield's in London and some of the food waste statistics she relates are almost unbelievable. I was reminded of her post by seeing council issued food waste recycling bins here in Torquay. This wasn't something we had in Sussex, although we did have our own large compost bin for the garden. I wonder if the new people in our old house still use it? Space for such things is limited in the flat, but I found an elegant indoor compost bin at The Kitchen Shop on Torquay harbour front (another ShopLocal!) so we can keep track of exactly how much we throw away. So far this week it's just one withered celery stick, but I've only had the bin one day!

Left Over Lamb Pie recipe 

Love Food Hate Waste has great ideas for saving money and using up leftovers so it's definitely worth checking out their website. We already plan our meals and try to buy items with long use-by dates. However, I am always tempted by those bright cut-price stickers, especially on fruit and veg, and it's easy to get carried away buying more than we could eat so not really saving money at all. Now we have a full size freezer, rather than a caravan ice tray, I plan to make good use of it. We can buy larger pack sizes which usually work out cheaper per portion and freeze half for another day. The BuyBritish lamb joint I mentioned earlier will do for two meals. It has already been roasted and the meat we didn't eat is perfect for my Left Over Lamb Pie recipe. I submitted this to the popular Credit Crunch Munch blog challenge and you can see loads more frugal recipes on these posts. We're also looking into ingredient substitutes. Dave makes a delicious spiced beef mince dish which incorporates black eyed peas thereby reducing the amount of meat needed to make it filling. The peas are much cheaper than good mince! I will try to remember to blog the recipe next time he makes it.


Please do feel welcome to shout out your favourite / your own BuyBritish and ShopLocal businesses in the Comments. Make sure to say in which town they are so other nearby folks will know to look out for them! And let me know your food waste tips too!

Finally I have made a blog badge from my SmallSteps logo image. If you would like to join in this Monday (or any day) blog theme, feel welcome to display the badge and let me know about your post so we can link up.

SmallSteps @ Stephanie Jane

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Frankfurter and apple pasta salad recipe

Frankfurter and apple pasta salad 

I thought it was a while since I had submitted a Credit Crunch Munch recipe and, checking back through old posts, I saw that it has been three months. The last was my Smoked Salmon Pie recipe back in January! Credit Crunch Munch was devised by Camilla at FabFood4All and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours. It's a great monthly resource for good food on a budget and April's host is Sarah at From Plate To Pen.

This month's Pasta Salad is great for using up part packets and could be infinitely varied to suit whatever you have to hand. I had two frankfurter sausages left from a previous hot dog lunch and a few ounces of French macaroni curves that Dave wasn't keen on, so rummaged in the fridge and cupboards to fill out a whole salad that would provide a couple of lunches me. Dave doesn't DO salad!

Ingredients
100g (ish) macaroni
2 frankfurter sausages
2 Cox apples
Small tin sweetcorn
2 tbsp mayonnaise
A good slug of Mustard flavoured salad dressing

Cook the macaroni according to its packet instructions then drain and rinse under cold water to cool it down.

While the pasta is cooking, cut each frankfurter into four pieces, then each quarter into four lengthwise sticks.

Peel, core and dice the apples.

Drain the sweetcorn.

Put the frankfurters, apples and sweetcorn into a large bowl - remembering it must also be large enough to add the pasta later (yes, oops!). Stir in the mayonnaise and enough salad dressing to taste. We've still got a bottle of a French Bouton d'Or creamy mustard dressing in the fridge at the moment so I used some of that. We've also got pesto which I think could have been nice too.

Stir in the cooked and cooled pasta. Serve either just as it is or with a big handful of fresh green salad leaves.

I did expect this salad to be more colourful - I do love brightly coloured food - but the mayonnaise muted the yellow sweetcorn and pink frankfurters so it does all look at bit magnolia! It tastes good though and I liked the sweetness of the apple against the mustard in the dressing.

Baking mad: Courgette / Zucchini Cake recipe and Irish Soda Bread

Another Credit Crunch Munch post today because I am entering my

Courgette Cake (or Zucchini Cake for American speakers!) for July's link up. Credit Crunch Munch was the brainchild of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All, and this month's round is being hosted by Camilla. Take a look at her blog where she posted a supermarket fresh produce haul that is a good basketful and all for 24p! Now that is frugal shopping!

However, before we get to my frugal cakey dessert, I have also been

Irish soda bread 

baking loaves of a completely new-to-me yeast-free bread over the past couple of weeks. I first saw this Irish Soda Bread recipe on Julie's Family Kitchen blog when we were in Spain in March and it took me until June to try it out. I can't believe I waited so long as it has lots of flavour and is much quicker than a yeast bread. If, as I did, you have trouble finding buttermilk locally, follow Nigella's advice and mix 150ml of Greek yoghurt with 150ml of ordinary milk instead. I used Fage Total which is authentically Greek and, let's face it, their economy needs all the help it can get right now! The soda bread goes perfectly with homemade veggie soups (several recipes here), or strongly flavoured cheeses and tangy jam.

Irish soda bread 

And if you've still got room after eating all that bread, how about baking a Courgette Cake for afternoon tea? I love vegetable cakes because they are reliably moist and tasty as well as being a great way to use up veg box surpluses. This cake calls for a small courgette, but obviously half the large courgette left over from last night's dinner will do just as well. They are in season throughout the summer and, as we know from when we grew a few plants one year, once they start producing there is an incredible glut in no time. Make friends with neighbourhood gardeners who may well be glad to let you take as many courgettes as you can carry! The ingredients below are sufficient for a standard sized loaf tin.

Ingredients:

Courgette Cake 

125g butter
225g brown sugar
2 eggs
175g self-raising flour (or plain flour including 3 tsp baking powder)
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp orange juice
1 small courgette
40g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease a loaf tin. If preferred, you can line the tin with baking paper and then grease it to make removing the baked cake easier.

Grate the courgette onto a plate. I don't peel the courgette as I think the little green flecks are pretty in the finished cake. If you are trying to hide all veggie evidence though, you might want to do this.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and eggs then stir in the two eggs.

Add the flour and mixed spice and stir in to combine.

Add the orange juice and stir in. Last time I made this we didn't have orange juice so I used Mango and Papaya instead. It worked just as well.

Stir in the grated courgette and sultanas.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Don't worry when the mixture is stiffer than a usual cake mixture. The courgette will release water during its cooking.

Bake at 180c for 50 minutes to one hour. Test by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked through. If your cake starts to darken too much on top before it has completely cooked through, cover it with a piece of aluminium foil.

Once out of the oven, leave to cool a little before turning out onto a wire rack. The cake is delicious both warm and cold. Serve in slices alongside a good cup of tea!

Slice of Courgette Cake