Did you hear me on Jim Davies morning show on BBC Radio Leicester? I was invited to talk easy eco, green cooking tips with Jim and a listener, Judith, who only eats vegetables she has grown in her garden, to help keep her grocery bills down.

Talking about vegetables and getting the most out of our food, always brings us round to leftovers – something I absolutely love to talk about (and eat!). But as Jim pointed out, it’s not always easy to eat fresh produce in time, plus conjuring up a meal from leftovers can sometimes leave us scratching our heads.

So to help us all get the most out of our food, whilst saving time, money, waste and energy, I have put together my top 5 products, plus I’ve posted links to some fabulous websites that’ll get you out of those leftover menu dilemmas.

1. Whirlpool WBC 3546 A+ NFCW Frost Free Fridge Freezer 6th Sense White
- your food storage best friend. Perfect for lengthening food storage times and ideal when batch cooking

2. Lock & Lock Food Storage Set 7 Piece
- not only are these fantastic for bulk cooking, they are perfect for keeping the portions right – no need to over cook, or over eat!

3. 3 Tier Stainless Steel Multi Steamer Pan
- fantastic for keeping in the nutrients in your food, plus they use less energy (3 vegetables can be cooked simultaneously on one ring)

4. Storage labels – ideal for keeping track on how long your food has been stored, plus they also show you when it has to be eaten by. No guessing or waste

5. FOOD STORAGE BAGS-POTATO-VEGETABLES- KEEP FOOD FRESH
- fruit and vegetable storage bags keep food fresher for longer, ensuring you have plenty of time to eat them up.

For some brilliantly practical leftover recipes, visit:

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Want to know what vegetables are in season, check out:

www.eatseasonably.co.uk

Have lots of ’spare’ land or want to find an allotment, visit:

www.landshare.net

I’d love to hear what your favourite easy eco cooking/storge saviours are, plus how do you get the most from your food. Do leave your comments below.

Keen to make sure I spread the Queen of Easy Green message far and wide, I am proud to announce that I am now writing a monthly eco, green column for my home town newspaper, The Boston Standard.

As New Year’s resolutions are still (hopefully) in the forefront of most people’s mind, my first column shows you how easy and green, it can be to save money whilst losing weight.

To find out more, either see the article below, or visit www.bostonstandard.co.uk.

Please feel free to add your own ideas and hopefully I’ll be able to include them in my next column.

After seeing my guest blog post for www.energyrethinking.com, Simple skincare got in touch to say they had really enjoyed reading it, and my other easy eco blogs here and over at www.queenofeasygreen.co.uk , and would I kindly write a blog post for their Simple VIP’s.

‘Yes, I’d love to’, was my immediate reply and so I have.

The New Year is such an inspiring time to kick off great habits such as getting more exercise and eating healthier – but would you ever consider that you can do both of these and be more energy efficient at the same time.

Well, as the Queen of Easy Green™, I’ve written a timely guest post for Simple.co.uk to say – yes you can.

Not only that, you will find out how these can be achieved easily and econveniently, whilst saving money at the same time. To find out how, just bob over to my guest post at www.simple.co.uk – and please, don’t forget to add your comments and suggestions while you’re there, I’d love to hear them.

p.s. don’t forget while you are there to sign up as a Simple VIP – they have some great offers, discounts and prizes to save you even more money and keep you looking simply fabulous!

What a fantastic start to my New Year – first of all my new website, www.queenofeasygreen.co.uk has been launched, plus my first ever column for At Home magazine has been published AND I have kicked off the New Year joining the lovely Melvyn Prior at BBC Radio Lincolnshire. Here’s what I’ve been talking about…

As with most people, at this time of year I resolve to live a healthy life and lose a little weight, and being the Queen of Easy Green™ I am always looking how I can achieve things whilst also saving time, money and waste.

Usually, many of us have wonderful intentions, some of us sign up for the gym, others enrol on a dieting support course and many stock up on salads and juices – but these can all be very expensive and unfortunately, as most people find out, me included, they don’t usually last beyond the first few weeks of January.

So this year, I have decided that I am going to tackle my waist and waste problem at the same time with some easy and inexpensive solutions. To find out what my ideas are, pop over to my column at At Home and have a read. If you’ve got some more ideas, please feel free to add them to the article and also pop them on here – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I was also discussing more ideas with Melvyn Prior on his BBC Radio Lincolnshire morning show, to find out what we talked about and to hear his listeners thoughts, you can listen again here. (start’s around 1.40)

Don’t forget to comment below and share your green and easy dieting tips, the more the merrier. Let’s kick off 2011 losing the lbs and saving £’s!

TTFN

Lyndsey

I am so excited to announce, that after months of planning and anticipation, the Queen of Easy Green™ website  www.queenofeasygreen.co.uk is launching today.

As the Queen of Easy Green™ my mission is to help busy households save time, money and waste in the home, effortlessly.

Sharing my fun, practical, money-saving tips and advice, I will help you get the most value from your food, time and money, whilst also reducing unnecessary waste.

‘Rising food prices tops consumers worries, with 50% of consumers anticipating higher food bills in the coming year … with almost 70% of consumers searching for ways to save money when food shopping.’ (Mintel, 2010)

Rather than preach unrealistic, austere budgeting measures, the Queen of Easy Green™ is all about effortless, opportunistic money-saving tactics, savvy tips, ‘easy to be eco’ products all delivered in a down-to-earth practical manner from a fellow busy mum’s perspective.

To help us all live an easier, greener lifestyle, as the Queen of Easy Green™ my tips and advice include topics such as:

• Savvy food shopping, eating local, frozen food, eat seasonally
• Grow, make and pick your own
• Econvenient food preparation and storage
• New, innovative time and waste saving gadgets and gizmos
• Quick, easy family recipes – make once – love twice, loving your leftovers, storecupboard saviours
• Energy saving, ethical, environmentally-friendly products
• Simple ways to reduce, reuse and recycle

The Queen of Easy Green™ is not about being penny-pinching, it’s about being money wise. With any extra money saved, I believe we should treat ourselves – why not, life’s about having fun with our friends and family – now what could be a better incentive than that?

To keep up with the last eco-easy news, advice and hot products, pop over to www.queenofeasygreen.co.uk and join in the conversation, or just let me what you think about my new site. With a little bit of savvy saving and canny know-how, together we can make 2011 our easiest, greenest yet.

See you there,

Lyndsey

Fabulous news, as the Queen of Easy Green™ I have been invited to join the At Home magazine and every fortnight, commencing January 2011, I will be sharing my exclusive easy eco tips and advice, to help us all save time, money and waste and live a greener life.

Keeping it seasonal, my first guest blog post is all about trimming our waste. But I don’t just mean our food waste, I mean our waist-line too. I’ve got some fantastic ideas that’ll help you lose lbs but save £’s at the same time. To find out how, just pop over to www.athomemagazine.co.uk. And don’t forget to leave a comment, I’d love to hear what ideas you have for your new year – waste-watching!

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by Energyrethinking.com asking me if I’d like to guest blog for them.

energyrethinking is a joint initiative with Shell, The Energy Saving Trust, IoD, Michelin and Tomorrow’s Company and is all about finding ways to use energy better.

Sharing my love for easy eco ways to help us all save money, reduce waste and use less energy, of course, I jumped at the chance. Here is my first guest blog post for them,

http://www.energyrethinking.org/earth-mummy

Don’t forget to keep popping over in the New Year too,  you’ll find loads of great energy saving information, as well as some more tips from me.

TTFN

Lyndsey

p.s. I have an exciting announcement to make very soon – pop back shortly to find out what it is.

Here it is, my quick and easy, eco-friendly, locally sourced, low cost, low waste dinner … and it’s low fat too.

Lemony Chicken Stir-fry

Ingredients – this is what I used…

One chicken breast – cut into strips (mine was from my local butcher who rears his own stock – limited packaging and low mileage)

1 red/green pepper – chopped (an outgrade because of its uniform colour, often found in bumper packs in supermarkets, low cost)

4 small red onions – chopped (home grown)

1 garlic clove – finely chopped (home grown)

2 tbsps frozen peas (full of vitamins as flash-frozen with hours of picking, no wastage as use only what you require)

2 small lemons – zest and juice (supermarket outgrade due to small size – found in bumper packs – low cost)

Olive Oil

Soy sauce (labelled with a Count On It label, to ensure I use it up in time and avoid wastage)

1tsp cornstarch

Preparation

In a small glass bowl mix soy sauce, lemon juice and lemon zest with cornstarch. Add chicken pieces and coat with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Heat oil in a large pan, fry garlic, add chicken (reserve the marinade), followed by red onions and red/green pepper. Stir-fry for about 4 minutes, until chicken browns.

Add marinade and cook until sauce is slightly thickened.

Serve with rice or noodles.

A perfect dish for all of the family that’s not only healthy, it also saves you time, money and waste in the kitchen too. The kids will love it because it’s sweet and colourful, you’ll love it because it only takes about 30 mins (eat your heart our Jamie Oliver).

And if you want to hear how I got along, listen here to my first live on-air cooking session with Jonathon Lampon on BBC Radio Leicester. It was fabulous fun. Let me know what you think.

It starts from 1.08

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00c077f/Jonathan_Lampon_12_11_2010

I’m really excited to say that tomorrow, Friday 12th, I will be Jonathon Lampon’s guest on his BBC Radio Leicester ‘Foodie Friday’ show. As the Queen of Easy Green™, I will be cooking one of my specialities, a quick, easy, time and money saving dish. I’m not saying what my dish is yet, other than it uses locally sourced meat, homegrown vegetables, frozen leftovers and misshapen supermarket vegetables and it tastes delicious.

I’ve never cooked on air before, so I’m a little nervous, hopefully it’ll all go well and Jonathon will enjoy what I rustle up.

As the Queen of Easy Green™, my aim is to show other busy mums like me that cooking fresh, tasty food in the kitchen can be quick, convenient and save them time, money and waste, if they have the right tools and know a few tricks.

On the show tomorrow I’ll also be talking about how we can all reduce unnecessary waste by using our freezer more, storing food correctly and how Count On It® labels and other kitchen accessories can also help us get more value from our food – whilst saving us time, something we could all do with more.

To listen live, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_leicester

After the show, I’ll pop up the recipe, so if you want to give it a try, everything you need to know will be here.

Speak soon

Lyndsey

Masterchef winner, Lisa Faulkner with Chef Tony Tobin

This week I was lucky enough to be invited along to the launch of Hotpoint’s Campaign for Cooking Confidence with Lisa Faulkner, which aims to encourage UK households to be more adventurous in the kitchen.

According to research carried out by Hotpoint, 90% of us stick to cooking the same meals over and over again because we lack confidence in the kitchen. Afraid to experiment and short of time, 1 in 4 of us cook what’s on offer in the supermarket and on average we spend only 1.6 hours in the kitchen every day.

Our busy lifestyles and great number of work commitments have lead to nine out of ten people being surveyed saying that they are thoroughly stuck in a creative rut, only cooking the same few meals over and over again. So, what are the top ten most cooked meals in the UK, well according to the survey, they include Jacket Potatoes, Roast Dinner and our number one favourite is Spaghetti Bolognaise.

But what can we do to get out of these culinary ‘ground-hog day’ scenarios? Well Lisa Faulkner, Hotpoint’s Campaign for Cooking Confidence Ambassador and Masterchef 2010 Champion, with her panel of experts, including top chef Tony Tobin, aim to equip us with all of the culinary skills and inspiration to be more confident in the kitchen and adventurous with ingredient and meal ideas.

Lisa said, “I’ve teamed up with Hotpoint and their Campaign for Cooking Confidence, to help give others a helping hand. I learnt the importance of planning ahead and have a grasp on what on flavour combinations work well. This has enabled me to take pride in my cooking and I feel much more at ease in the kitchen – it’s opened up a new world to me!”

Although many of us enjoy spending time in the kitchen, we sometimes struggle when deciding what meals to make and opt for the safest, easiest options – subsequently falling into a rut of repeatedly making the same dishes. At the event Tony showed how by mastering a few skills, going with (and trusting) our own taste combinations, not being afraid to try out new flavours and ingredients, we could open up a whole new world of taste sensations.

Talking leftovers with Chef Tony Tobin

During the demonstration, I asked Tony how practical the skills and recipes where for busy mums. To my delight, he confirmed that everything he was making could be made in batches and frozen, as well as being adaptable to be able to create several diverse dishes – from glitzy dinner party, to weekday family meals.

It was also great to learn that the red pepper sauces and garnishes he’d made could be made from mottled peppers and limp basil, then frozen ready for use whenever required. As both he and Lisa pointed out, absolutely everything in a professional kitchen is used up in stocks, soups and sauces, ensuring no food goes to waste unnecessarily and this was of equal importance to them in the home. Getting the most value from their food and minimizing food waste wherever possible.

As many people already know, not only does lack of confidence in the kitchen hinder our culinary repartee, it also has an adverse on the amount of edible food waste that goes in our bins. Unsure of what to do with leftovers, many people throw them away instead of making another meal from them. But as Lisa, who ‘absolutely hates’ throwing food away, has now found out, just by adding a little bit of creative flair you can rustle up another tasty, nutritious meal – saving not only time, but money and waste.

Tony sharing his passion for food

Tony Tobin, renowned restauranteur and Hotpoint Ambassador, summed it up by saying,

“By following a few simple mantras … planning, a bit of experimentation and a few effortless styling tricks we can all create restaurant quality food at home”

and at just a fraction of the price!

To find out more about the campaign and for more cooking tips from Lisa Faulkner and Hotpoint’s panel of experts, visit www.hotpoint.co.uk/vitalingredient.