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.

Today I went along to BBC Radio Nottingham to talk about easy ways to get more for your money with food and save time too.

As you will know there’s been a lot in the press lately about food waste, the price of food going up and how supermarket packaging isn’t decreasing. We’ve seen programmes on the BBC, ‘Great British Waste Menu’ and Channel 4 ‘Food’ highlighting the issues surrounding food production, preparation, storage and wastage – and this is all fantastic to know, but  not all of us have got the time or skills to make radical changes, so my mission was to give people some down-to-earth, practical tips to help us get more for our money, without having to completely overhaul how we shop, prepare our food and what we eat.

In case you didn’t catch the programme, here’s my top tip to give you more for your money and more time for you (and no, there isn’t any convenience food to be seen – so it’s healthier too)

Budget food swaps where the only difference is the cost
• use long grain rice instead of basmati; dried beans and chickpeas instead of canned
• swap large, perfect peppers for bags of mixed peppers when cooking chillies, curries
• use canned tomatoes instead of fresh when making soups, stews or sauces
• buy frozen peas instead of fresh, you can have them all year round and use only what you need
• go shopping at the end of the day, when supermarkets and markets are reducing the price of their perishable produce
The hidden hero in your kitchen, – your freezer
• frozen food keeps longer than fresh, is more convenient, frozen vegetables and fruit can be more nutritious and tastier than fresh as it’s flash-frozen within hours of harvest, they are also in season all year round.
• Frozen food can help you with portion control, only cook what you need – the rest goes back in the freezer.
• any foods that are nearing their use-by dates which you won’t get chance to eat, stick them in your freezer and have them when you’re ready
• Don’t buy pre-grated cheese, grate your own and pop it in the freezer, you’ll always have some at hand to go onto of lasagnes and shepherds pies.
• Buy frozen fish, it’s fresher than fresh as it’s flash-frozen on board the boat within 4 hours of catch, unlike fresh fish which can take up to 48 hours to get to your local shop.
• TheNewIceAge.com has some great ideas and tips for getting the most out of your freezer
How to get a night off cooking every week
• When cooking something like chilli, bolognase, stew – double up the portions, eat one that night and freezer the other for another night the following week – don’t forget to label when you made it
• Invite friends/neighbours round for one night and cook for them, then them for you

Enjoy your own personal breakfast blend at half the price
• Save money on expensive boxes of muesli by buying big bags of your favourite oats, flakes, nuts, seeds and dried fruit, then mixing them together in a big jar or cereal dispenser
• To add an extra boost, sprinkle on frozen fresh fruit, like blackberries, they’re fabulously juicy and you can taste the summer all year round.

How to get a free lunch
• Use leftover cooked pasta and mixed with the French dressing, pesto, cucumber and tomatoes for a packed lunch
• Use leftover chicken or beef from Sunday lunch, shred and mix with beansprouts, salad vegetables, sweet chilli sauce and French dressing
• Or just mix chicken with leftover stuffing and mayonnaise and pop in some crusty bread.

Finally…
• Keep safe by storing food correctly,
• be aware of the ‘use-by’ labels,
• labeling how long food has been opened or stored in the fridge and freezer,
• keep yourself, your work surfaces and equipment clean

‘More for my money’ MMM (not for profit) campaign

Waste is growing problem in the UK and not only does it affect the environment, it affects our pockets too.

According the WRAP the average family with children throw up to £610 worth of edible food away each year.

Unfortunately, most of this waste occurs because people have lost touch with food, a lot of families today are used to eating pre-prepared food, perfect vegetables vac-packed and mass abundance.

The days of hunting and gathering are long gone, we don’t even need to forage at the supermarket ourselves these days, we can ‘virtually select’ our goods and they come delivered to our door.

As a consequence of this mass convenience, food is seen as a disposal resource, most people do not know, or even care, where our food has been grown, what’s in it and how much of an impact it’s production, transportation and packaging costs the environment – we just want it perfect, available and cheap and if we don’t use it all, or can’t be bothered to eat it, so what – there’s more where that came from.

This situation cannot go on forever and unfortunately one of the main reasons people are carrying on like this, is because they aren’t aware there is an alternative.

Fortunately there are people out there who do care and who have a long term view of what’s happening with our food and environment.

There are schemes, businesses, producers, manufacturers that are all doing their bit to help us get more value from our food – and that’s great. But, and it’s a big but, they are all ‘out there’, like buried treasure in the ground, without making a conscious effort to dig around and find them, they are buried from the mass.

That’s where MMM comes in. The idea for ‘More for our Money’ is to unearth all of these amazing businesses and put them in one, easy to find place – our MMM website.

So, wherever you sit within the fresh food and produce supply chain, grower, retailer, producer, household, if you want to find out how you can reduce your waste and save money, you can pop along to MMM click on the appropriate section and voila, a list of resources, tips, advice is there to help you.

Here’s an example, a busy mum wants to find out how she can reduce her weekly shopping trips

1 – she can click on retailers, and find out if there are local producers who can deliver to her door,
2 – click on kitchen gadgets to find out who provide tools to help you her get more out of her food, e.g. Count On It labels
3 – click on services and find Menu Planners who can devise her own personal shopping lists and email them across to her
4 – she wants to find out where she can buy British-grown, knobbly apples click on growers to find out if there any local to her

We want to help people get more for their money, reduce unnecessary waste, buy British whenever possible and help support local businesses and schemes.

If you’d like to find out more about MMM ‘More for My Money’ please drop me an email and we’ll put you on the mailing list and let you know when our site is live.

To hear the programme again it’s here Frances Finn’s programme

Thanks Lyndsey