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.

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

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

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

After watching Great British Waste Menu on the BBC a couple of weeks ago (and blogging about it), a few of us got together on Twitter (where else) and have decided that something has to be done to help everybody make a positive impact on this country’s wastage.

We’ve come up with a campaign called ‘More for my money’ #m4mm and the aim is to bring all existing waste reduction schemes, campaigns, businesses under one roof. So if anyone, wherever they are in the fresh food/produce supply chain, wants to find out where and how they can reduce waste, all the info is in one place.

Instead of searching in one direction for recycling tips and advice, then in another for composting info, then in another for products that help you reduce food waste like Count On It labels, all of this information will be in one place – a one stop ’shop’.

This is the vision:

• a one touch resource ‘centre’
• helping the individual (wherever they sit in the supply chain)
• to bring together all existing campaigns
• practical and useful advice
• one step at a time attitude (not preaching)

So, if you like this idea and would like to join us, it’d be great to have your support.

Lots of things are happening already, we’ve got volunteers to do our website, interviews lined up with local BBC and a diverse range of people who want to be part of the campaign and support it where they can.

If you want to know more, please drop us an line and we’ll put you on our circulation list so you get to find out how you can join in and hear what’s happening next.

Thanks again for your interest and hopefully we’ll speak again very soon.

Lyndsey

p.s. keep you eye out for the #m4mm on Twitter – and join in the conversation :0)

What an absolutely fantastic week it’s been this week. Here’s just a taste of some of what I’ve been up to:

Monday

To start off the week, I was invited to address 300 Business Link, UKTI and Train to Gain employees at EMB Ltd’s staff conference at the East Midlands Conference Centre. David Polkey and the fabulous PR and Communication Team at EMB Ltd wanted to use me as their Case Study story, somebody who has set up their own business and has an interesting story to tell! Well, with help from David who put together my powerpoint presentation, I told the conference about how my ‘Why Not?’ philosophy had taken me from inputting electricity meter readings, to Zimbabwe then onto Downing Street. Going from my childhood, I explained that how by setting goals, focussing on my dreams it had enabled me to travel around the world, do charity work, be on TV’s Deal or No Deal, win money and invent a successful product, Count On It labels, which now retail nationally and internationally.

After my presentation I had some great feedback, people said that they really enjoyed my presentation and that it was inspiring to see that someone who had experienced setbacks along the way, still maintained a positive focus on their dreams and aspirations and was doing what they loved.

Since doing my speech, I have been asked to do another presentation which is fantastic. Motivational talking and presenting, is definitely an area where I feel I can make a difference – watch this space!

Tuesday

Funnily enough, my second appointment of the week was again at the East Midlands Conference Centre. This time I was there as I had been shortlisted for the Extraordinary Women Awards 2010, in the Extraordinary Entrepreneur category. What a fabulous day this was, organised by Vicki Espin and her ‘extraordinary’ team, the day was a fun-filled, enthusiastic and inspirational event. Attended by inspirational women from around the UK, the event aims to recognise the achievements of women who have not been recognised before. Women who are living extraordinary lives, having extraordinary achievements. After listening to fantastic presentations by Sue Stockdale, Lisa Warner, Trish Davidson and Alicia Kite, the time had come to announce the winners, they were:-

Nikki Sharpe who won Extraordinary Personal Contribution 2010
Patricia Eufron Lunn who won Extraordinary Personal Endeavour 2010
Kim Cottee who won Extraordinary Young Woman 2010
Alison Thompson who won Extraordinary Organisational Success 2010

and me, Lyndsey Young, who won Extraordinary Entrepreneur 2010!

I was absolutely flabbergasted as I was shortlisted in the same category as Alicia Kite and Gillian Brown two fantastic ladies who are achieving amazing things. But there it was, I was announced the winner.

What a wonderful day it had been, I couldn’t have imagined that just by doing what I absolutely love, my passion, I would have received an award, but I am really grateful and proud. To anyone out there who has a dream go for it, for those who know someone who is doing something extraordinary, nominate them – I cannot recommend it highly enough. Nominations for 2011 are now open and all the details are here: http://www.extraordinarywomenuk.com/

Good luck!

Lyndsey

p.s. Wednesday was a great day too, radio and press interviews and photos, I’ll update you soon…

I am enjoying this. Been on the morning show on Radio Lincolnshire with Judy Theobald today. She was very interested in Count On It and I had about a 30 minute interview and managed to get www.count-on-it.co.uk in several times. Again I offered the first 20 listeners free samples, producer said afterwards that they don’t normally do that, but told me not to worry, seems strange that BBC Radio Leicester are quite happy with that, but not Lincolnshire – makes you wonder who is up to date with the current BBC policy. Anyway, all in all a successful second live interview – I am really going to try and get some more of these arranged, the hits on the websites certainly peak during and after the interviews.

Well my first venture onto live broadcasting went really well. I got a good response from the interview, quite a few hits on the website and also sent out samples to the first 20 people who contacted me via the website. Radio Leicester want to put Count On It labels in their Community Service Volunteer packs, a promotion they run that encourages the community to recycle amongst other things. They’ve already got shopping bags for life etc, so Count On It will fit in perfectly.

Interview at BBC Radio Lincolnshire tomorrow, hopefully this will be as successful – need to keep on spread the word. Next – recruit more word of mums (or moms as they say in USA).

Having my first radio interview tomorrow. On the lunchtime show of Radio Leicester (small steps in the right direction!). I am really looking forward to it, but apprehensive about how it will go. I’ve got my notes, general stats about how much food is wasted in the UK etc – it really does make great listening. Hopefully I will get plenty of opportunities to mention www.count-on-it.co.uk. I am also going to offer the first 20 people to email me, via the website free samples – to generate more visits to my site and also another opportunity to get a wider range of people sampling Count On It food freshness labels. Here goes….