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.

Wondering how to make ends meet? Want to get your grocery costs down but keep the quality high? Menu4Mums, the online family meal planners, have given us these top tips to help you save on your grocery shop. Why not challenge yourself to see how much you can save?

Tip 1: Plan your meals. Look online at supermarket offers (or look at the Menus4Mums Bargain Spotting page) and build meals around these ingredients. Plan a suitable meal for each day with a good balance of protein (eg meats, pulses), carbohydrates (eg potatoes, rice, pasta), and vegetables. See what needs using up in your freezer or fridge. Think about using up leftovers too. And try to include an interesting variety of tastes and textures. Then write your shopping list.

Tip 2: Never shop on an empty stomach. If you do, you just know you’ll end up at the checkout with a trolley brimming with cake, crisps, and chocolate – and a huge grocery bill to boot! Instead, if you are feeling a bit peckish, have a banana or a quick snack. It could save you a lot of money.

Tip 3: Taste test lower range products. We don’t mean suddenly going from premium brands to the most basic products. But if you give some of the middle range brands a try, the chances are you won’t notice a difference. Look at the health data on the packaging too – some lower range foods are actually healthier than the premium varieties.

Tip 4: Give the supermarket a miss sometimes. Try buying your meat at your local butcher – you’re likely to be impressed by the quality. Plus if you want just 3 chicken breasts, you don’t have to fork out for a pack of 4 so you only end up paying for what you need. Seasonal fruit and veg is often cheaper at your local market or farmer’s market, and you could turn it into a trip out with the family. Or check out your local farm shop for quality, local, seasonal produce.

Menus4Mums help busy parents ditch the takeaways and ready meals and serve up tasty, healthy food for their families, saving them time and money in the kitchen. Find out more at www.menus4mums.co.uk.

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!

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.

With Christmas nearly upon us, our focus more than ever is on food, as well as ways to make our money go further. To show us how we can all be more energy efficient and save money in the kitchen, please welcome our guest blogger Natalia Gameson editor of  the money and energy saving website, energyrethinking.org.

Seasonal Food

With food price rises on the horizon, going greener in the kitchen this winter could be a key way to take back control of your finances. There are three main methods of saving money in the kitchen: cutting down your food bills by eating produce that’s in season; cutting down on your food waste; and cutting down on your gas and electricity use. energyrethinking.org, the energy saving community, has put together the following tips to help you make a start.

Eating seasonally
Eating food that’s in season, is a well-known money saver – it’s cheaper to buy items that have been grown in the UK and are readily available, rather than forking out a small fortune for a punnet of strawberries in February, for example. Squashes, celeriac, apples, pears, coriander, mint and scallops are all currently in season. If you want to eat seasonally but are not sure where to begin, www.eattheseasons.co.uk, has lots of helpful advice and recipe ideas.

Our new seasonal food video featuring TV presenter, Vicki Butler-Henderson, also has plenty of easy-to-follow tips. The video follows Vicki as she visits a food exhibition to gather tips on cooking a low-cost meal for friends in an energy efficient way.

Food waste
Each year, we throw away an estimated 8.3 million tonnes of food, according to WRAP. A truly astonishing figure considering food costs are rising. But if you’re throwing away too much food, it’s easy to stop by making a few simple changes.

Firstly, plan your meals at the beginning of each week, so that when you go to the supermarket, you’ll know exactly what you need to buy, and exactly what you already have in your fridge at home.

If you’ve cooked too much food, put it in a Tupperware box and take it into work the next day as your lunch. For more advice on using up leftovers, see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/recipes. (don’t forget your Count On It labels to help you keep track – Lyndsey)

Cut your energy use
Make sure your appliances are in good working order. If the rubber seals around your oven door are broken, for example, your oven may not be as well insulated, and could be using up to 50% more energy than usual to maintain the oven’s temperature.

When cooking food in the oven, avoid the temptation to keep checking on it– every time you open the oven door, precious heat escapes.

Similarly, when you are using the hob make sure the ring matches the size of the pan you’re using – heating a tiny pan on the biggest ring will waste energy you don’t need to use.

Defrost food overnight in your fridge rather than using the microwave. This will help your food to stay at the right temperature – without costing you anything.

For more tips on saving energy in the kitchen, check out our tips at www.energyrethinking.org/cooking.

Do you have any money or energy saving tips in the kitchen? We’d love to hear them at energyrethinking.org/user-tips