In the meantime lots of you have been asking  how I came up with the idea of Count On It® labels, my first invention.   Earlier this year I did an interview with the lovely Tara Roskell on her inspiring website Ideas Uploaded.  Tara’s blog pulls together inventions, resources and interviews with inventors (that includes me!) to help others move forward and hopefully bring to market their own ideas.  You can listen to the interview by clicking here.

In the meantime if you are interested in purchasing Count On It labels for yourself please click here.

Count On It labels, the easy peel, food calendar, kitchen organizer label. These removable labels are perfect for jars, freezing leftovers and baby food storage, freezing baby food. No need for Sharpies, Count On It labels self adhesive labels can be used on freezer bags, food storage tubs and glass storage containers. Ideal for safe food storage, First In First Out – they are an easy to use food storage calculator. Count On It food storage labels for safe food storage

One thing that a lot of people need to be specifically educated on is what exactly constitutes ‚ ‘recyclable material’. The fact is, what you can recycle is not strictly limited only to the glass and plastic that you are used to simply tossing into your recycling bin. In fact, there is a huge range of household materials that you can recycle, some for the use of their parts, some for reuse as whole products, and some simply to prevent trashing the environment with excess waste. For example, did you know that your out-of-use electronic products are recyclable? Everything from old computers to old mobile phones can be put to great use if you simply take the time to dispose of them properly.

Why recycle these products, you may ask? Well, for starters, the most sensible response is why NOT recycle them? Generally, people simply allow such things as old computers and outgrown mobile phones to rest unused in closets and drawers, never to be touched or put to use again. So, for starters, there is no attractive alternative option to recycling ‚ you may as well do some good!

As for what good, exactly, you will be doing, you should know that recycling old electronics saves a great deal of helpful materials. Mobile phones and other pieces of electronic equipment are made up of a variety of valuable metals and plastics, and saving these materials for reuse is a big help. Additionally, many of your used electronics may be able to be booted up for reuse by people who receive them as donations,  not only does this help other people, but it also cuts down on the need to manufacture more products, which ultimately cuts down on carbon footprints! All of these are extremely worthy reasons to look into doing your part in an increasingly eco-friendly world by looking to recycle a bit more.

Guest editorial provided by 02.co.uk

Did you know that the average UK restaurant throws out 21 tonnes of food a year. Astonishingly, 30% of that comes straight off diners’ plates. That’s 6.3 tonnes – or close to the weight of a double decker bus.

To combat this appalling waste a fantastic campaign “Too Good To Waste” has been launched by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA).   The idea behind it is simple and direct – the humble doggy box.  And what’s more, top chefs including Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall, Thomasina Miers and Anthony Worrell-Thompson are backing the campaign.

The SRA has distributed 25,000 custom made biodegradable, recyclable doggy boxes to nearly 100 restaurants in London.  The SRA has also provided the restaurants with information packs to help them reduce their waste by up to 20% and save lots of money as well.   Participating restaurants will display a sticker to show that they are taking part.   Alternatively you can check out www.toogood-towaste.co.uk to find a restaurant near you that will be happy to pack up your leftovers.

For those of us outside of London do not despair the SRA hope to roll the campaign out nationwide in 2012.  In the meantime, there is nothing to stop you asking a restaurant to pack up any left over food. You should not be too embarrassed to ask and any chef worth his or her salt would much rather you took the food home to enjoy the next day, than have it chucked in the bin.

If you over-catered a meal at home would you throw the remains in the bin or would you box them up, put them in the fridge or freezer and heat up another time? Well, if the answer is the latter, then why not do the same when eating out.

Have you ever asked for a doggy bag and what was the response? Or are you too embarrassed?  We’d love to know your thoughts on this so please let us know in the comments section below.

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1. Portion control - Only prepare and cook what you will eat. It sounds so simple, but then it is always so easy to over-cater at parties. But this time, be realistic about what everyone will eat. If you’re unsure, calculate an average plate-worth of food, then multiple it by the number of guests.
2. Try not to be tempted into buying disposables – Yes, they can look fab and funky, but they are incredibly wasteful too. If you’ve not got enough crockery to go around, get everyone to bring a small selection of dishes themselves. If you’re out and about, choose eco-friendly, biodegradable ‘crockery’ instead –once used these can simply be put on your compost heap.
3. Make homemade where possible - That way you will reduce unnecessary packaging and it’ll be far tastier, healthier and less expensive too. A great way to get a mix of dishes for your party and to save time, is to get everyone to contribute at least one dish. Another bonus is that everyone will get a taste of their favourite dish.
4. That goes for drinks too - Avoid small bottles of pre-mixed cordials and cocktails – make your own instead. Buy large undiluted cordials and mixers then create your own celebratory concoctions. Don’t forget to recycle the empty bottles afterwards.
5. Finally, my favourite – leftovers – Take your fresh leftovers and put in the fridge or freezer (if not previously frozen) as soon as possible. Leftover fresh meat, vegetables and fruit can all be enjoyed over the next couple of days, either as sandwich fillings, soups, smoothies, curries etc – in fact the list is endless. For lots of ideas on what to do with your leftovers, pop over to http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/for some terrific recipe suggestions.

Hope you have some great parties and if you have any green party tips you’d like to share we’d love to hear them. Check out this great article from The Queen of Easy Green to see what you can do to reduce waste when eating out (anyone for a doggy bag?).

Count On It® labels, our scratch-off, food calendar label help families manage their food more safely, whilst reducing unnecessary food waste by making sure you will never have to remember when you opened a jar.

Are you a Sniff & Hoper?

Many people pride themselves on being a ‘sniff & hoper’, but most don’t realize that although foods may look, smell and even taste fine, they may still contain bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

To help keep you safe consider these food safety reminders:-

1. Make sure your refrigerator is cold enough – Your fridge should be between 0ºC and 5ºC.
2. Refrigerate perishable food straight away – All foods that go off quickly or have a label which says ‘keep refrigerated’ should be stored in the fridge and eaten within two days.
3. Follow storage instructions – some jars and bottles must be kept in the fridge once opened and eaten within a certain time. Always check the label and keep a track on how long they have been opened – Count On It® labels are just to job for this – just scratch off the date and you will have a permanent reminder as to how long they’ve been stored.
4. Food should not be kept out of the fridge for more than four hours, so if you’ve prepared anything beforehand, keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to eat it.
5. Leftovers – cool these as quickly as possible then store them in the fridge. Once stored, leftovers must be eaten within two days, except cooked rice which must be eaten within one day. Don’t forget to store them in a food container and label the date when first stored.

Are you a Chucker-outter?

According to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com one of the main reasons people throw away edible food is because of ‘cooking or preparing too much’ or because food ‘is not used up in time’.   The problem with this is two-fold, not only are we needlessly wasting perfectly edible food, we are wasting our money too.
Consider these money saving tips to help you love your food more:-

1. Regularly check what’s in your fridge and freezer – By tracking how long things have been opened or stored, you can be sure it is still safe to eat. To save you from trying to remember all of the dates, Count On It® labels will show you exactly the date of opening each product.
2. Buy one, get one to freeze – rather than leave a bulk pack in your fridge and hope you’ll get round to using it all, split the pack, store some in the fridge and the rest in a labelled food container – this way you will know exactly when you first froze it.
3. Leftovers – Get storing all of your leftovers, be it leftover vegetables from Sunday lunch or the last portion of a midweek chilli con carne. Just pop the leftovers in a food container, label it, then pop it in either the fridge for the next day or freeze it for a ‘ready meal’ at a later date. Not only do leftovers save you food waste and money, they save you time. What could be simpler and nicer than a pre-prepared homecooked meal in minutes.
4. Plan your meals – Rather than guessing your way around the grocery store, simply check your refrigerator, freezer and cupboards before you go and then write a list of what you actually need. Another good idea is to forward plan your week’s meals – it may sound like a long job, but at least during the week it will save you time as you will know for sure you have the food in plus I find I spend much less at the supermarket when I do this.

Count On It® date labels are perfect for helping households reduce food waste – but they are also great for labelling other non-food consumable items such as medicines, contact lenses, cooker hood filters or anything where a reminder of an expiry date is needed. Count On It® … to remind you.

What do you use yours for?

Last week Red Magazine announced its shortlist for the Red’s Hot Women Awards 2011 and I am incredibly thrilled (and surprised) to announce that I am one of them.  I have been shortlisted in the ethical/eco category as the creator of Count On It labels and for my eco brand The Queen of Easy Green™.

The awards, which will be hosted by BBC 6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, recognise the achievements of  British women who have shown “impressive talent, success and imagination in their fields of work”.

To say that I am in amazing company is an uber-understatement, as fellow nominees include creative director and designer, Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington OBE, author and Conservative MP Louise Mensch and TV presenter and retail guru, Mary Portas.

Awards categories include; Blogger, Community / Charity, Creative, Ethical / Eco, Fashion, The Rose Gray Food Pioneer, Internet, Media, Pioneer, Returner, Start Up, Woman to Watch and the new Celebrity Woman of the Year category – the winner of which will be announced on the day.

The judging panel for this year’s awards include some of the most inspiring professional women in Britain including; Sam Baker, Editor-in-Chief, Red magazine, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, Partner, DLA Piper, Gillian Tett, US managing editor, Financial Times, Lorna Clarke, Network Manager Radio 2 & 6, Karren Brady, Vice-Chairman, West Ham Utd FC, Sarah Brown, Charity Campaigner,Karen Mattison MBE, Director, Women Like Us, Anya Hindmarch MBE and Kirsty Dale, Public Relations Director, Coty Prestige UK.

The awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 23rd November.

Sam Baker, Editor-in-Chief of Red, comments;
“I am thrilled to announce the shortlist for this year’s Red’s Hot Women Awards. It’s hard to believe we are already in our third year and the level of talent is more impressive than ever. We are looking forward to announcing the winners and hope to inspire women across the country with the results.”

As you can imagine I am really honoured that my brand, Queen of Easy Green™, has been recognised as a worthy nominee for this award and I’d like to thank Red Magazine for shortlisting me.

I am also thrilled that this is a great opportunity for me as the Queen of Easy Green™ to spread my message that living a littler greener everyday is fun, easy and if everyone of us made just a few small changes together we’d have the power to make a huge difference to our families’ future.

With exciting plans for Count On It labels in the offing and further products under the Queen of Easy Green™ brand, 2011/12 is set to be another milestone year.

For further information on Red’s Hot Women Awards 2011 please visit www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/red-s-hot-women-awards

In fact, every year, the average dustbin contains enough unrealised energy for 500 baths, 3500 showers or 5,000 hours of television.

Now when times are lean, it’s vital we get the most value out of our food and our money, so where better to start looking at how we can save money in the home, than to start with our bins. Yes, you heard me, our bins.

That’s exactly what I’ve just been doing for the Walker family in Watford. Energyrethinking.org, the consumer facing site of the Energy Saving Trust / Shell / Michelin, invited me over to share my easy green tips to help regular families like the Walker’s save energy and money in their home.

From freezing bogofs to date labelling – there are so many easy ways in which we can get the most from our food and our money.

So come and join me, in the bin!

Sponsored Post

Unlike other meats, Turkey has the dubious honour of being primarily associated with Christmas and is usually not considered by many, beyond then. Most families rush out to buy it for the big day, then complain incessantly about the quantity of leftovers that remain.

Now I think this is a great shame and fortunately I am not alone, charismatic top chef, Marco Pierre White has joined forces with Bernard Matthew’s Farms to try and change the British public’s perception of this fantastic bird and to get us eating turkey all year round by changing our meat not our menu.

In Bernard Matthews Farms latest advert you’ll see Spandau Ballet’s (and my favourite) Martin Kemp join Marco for an unscripted lunchtime meal. As you’ll see from the advert, Martin immediately exclaims ‘Turkey, why is it Christmas?’ as his meal was served. However, as Marco points out, turkey is a superb all year round meat, not only is it delicious, it is low in saturated fat, high in protein and is a great source of essential vitamins and minerals. Martin then comments on how, when his wife cooks it, it is always too dry, but as Marco eloquently puts it ‘It’s never the turkey – always the cook’ – to which Martin quips back ‘What, are you having a go at my wife?’

What I really love about turkey, aside from the fact that it is a healthy alternative to other meats, is the fact that it is brilliantly versatile.

As an absolute fan of getting the most value out of our food, turkey can be used in a variety of different ways and there is always a great recipe for the leftovers. For example, a cooked turkey is perfect for a Sunday lunch, the leftover cold meat can then be used in a salad or sandwiches the following day (think how much money you’ll save by not purchasing shop bought lunches). If you have any more leftovers remaining, simply make a quick and easy stir-fry or curry, just chop up the vegetables you want, then throw in the leftover turkey – delicious.

So that’s at least 3 meals you’ve had from the one bird – you can’t get much better value for money than that. Don’t forget, to keep track on how long you’ve had your leftovers in the fridge!

To find out all of the other ways in which you can make a simple meal time switch when using turkey, check out their recipe website http://changeyourmeatnotyourmenu.co.uk/

If roasts aren’t you thing, Bernard Matthews also have a whole range of other turkey products, something for everyday of the week – all with no artificial colours and flavours, for more information check out their website www.bernardmatthewsfarms.com


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image: ©Marcus Lyons

Here is a a fabulous post all about the challenges of choosing Fairtrade from the lovely Nicki Cawood:-

When Lyndsey tagged me in her post about Fairtrade Fortnight as a fellow “Frugalista”  my answer to her call was to promise to change my shopping habits with immediate effect, wherever possible, to include more Fairtrade (FT) items.

I know they are out there but as I told Lyndsey, it’s pure laziness on my part that has stopped me from actively seeking them out in the past (well it is- I won’t fib!).

I thought this mini-challenge I’d set myself would be very easy…. I was wrong, and it has opened my eyes up to 1) How FT products are advertised / displayed and 2) the fact that I actually knew very little about Fairtrade!

I “know” about Fairtrade, I know why products are sold, what the general benefits to those in need are but I didn’t realise until I looked online what a big difference Fairtrade has and continues to make. How much do you know about Fairtrade? We all bandy the word Fairtrade about but until I started having a good dig about I didn’t realise just how much good the Fairtrade Foundation has done in the past 15 years, since the first products hit the shelves. However, this isn’t a post about the achievements of the Fairtrade Foundation but about my grocery challenge. If you want to find out more about the Fairtrade Foundation & the work they do visit: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/(you won’t regret it!).

Right, as I said, I didn’t really think this challenge through past “I’ll buy bananas, coffee and chocolate”. It turns out there are a lot more products available that that- so off I trotted to find them.

Not as easy as I’d expected!

I generally do my weekly shop with Mr T- and despite my intense digging, couldn’t find any dedicated Fairtrade section and the products that were available weren’t well marked and were dotted all over the place. Not helpful! I would have thought such a large store would be firmly behind Fairtrade and be doing it’s upmost to advertise it. This may be the case but I was not pleased with what I found.

Determined not to be thwarted next I went to Co-op. The Co-operative is well known for it’s ethical stance and it’s Fairtrade policies and I wasn’t disappointed to find a whole range of items available, clearly labelled, well stocked and affordable!

Unfortunately my local Co-op store isn’t big enough to do a big weekly shop, and being in a rural area, there aren’t any other bigger food stores, so it was online & to Sainsbury to do a shop and see if they were anymore Fairtrade Savvy. I am happy to say they most definitely are! Not only do they have a vast range of Fairtrade products but these are easy to find and surprisingly cheap. Some of the Sainsbury’s Basic range includes FT items, so there is no reason to worry about FT products being more costly / unavailable.

I normally use Sainsbury’s rarely as in truth I am a Clubcard point tart, but this has really raised their profile in my eyes, and as a consequence, I will be using them more. Whilst I didn’t get around to making my own fruit-bowl hat or similar, Fairtrade Fortnight has really opened my eyes to the issues around Fairtrade, the huge differences it has made to so many people and places, and “on the ground” what I can do in my own little way to help, with actually very little effort on my part!

First off… an email to Mr T!

Nicki Cawood, Freelance writer, blogger, Frugal Mum of 2.
www.curlyandcandid.co.uk

Thanks Nicki – I too have found Co-op to be really Fairtrade savvy, as you put it, but again, like you my rural Co-op is not convenient for a family shop. I’m a Mr A fan, so will check out how well they fair in this challenge. To everyone else out there, I’d like to know your experiences are of buying Fairtrade, which major food retailer is the best in your opinion. Also, since hearing all about Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight, has it made you reconsider what you are putting in your supermarket basket, I’d love to hear your thoughts? Thanks again Nicki, brilliant post

It’s been a busy month already what with Fairtrade Fortnight and International Women’s Day – did I mention I was invited over to Strasbourg to attend a conference at the European Parliament?

Back at home, I’ve been busy writing my column for top lifestyle magazine, At Home, and being a typical women I’ve multi-tasked and produced a double whammy – ideas on how to celebrate International Women’s Day and support our fellow women by choosing Fairtrade. Here’s the article – if you get a moment, do comment. Thanks