Leftovers are traditionally much-maligned, with the announcement of “leftover night” bringing groans from the family.  But if they are stored well and used imaginatively, they are every bit as delicious as the original meal.

One of my fears as a cook, is that people will leave my table hungry.  So I admit to being someone who cooks a little more than I think will get eaten.  Having some food left over at the end of the meal reassures me that everyone has had enough.  But I can’t bear waste, so I try to put these leftovers to good use.

One big lesson I have learned is that leftover food needs to be stored properly.  Putting it into the fridge in the big baking dish it was cooked in means it dries out quickly and looks unappealing. (Meaning that it’s less likely to be selected by one of the three teenagers who constantly have their heads in the fridge and pantry.)  It also takes up a lot of fridge real estate which is annoying.  So, any leftovers go into an appropriate-sized airtight container, ready to be reheated for lunch the next day or sent to school. I have involved the whole family in this so whoever is on kitchen duty knows what to do.

Not everything is appealing after being refrigerated and reheated.  Some things need to be re-worked.  Vegetables, for example.  Cold mashed potato, cooked green beans, carrots, zucchini and so forth are kind of ghastly to contemplate on their own but chop them up, add some cheese, crumb and fry them for yummy vegetable croquettes.  Cold roast vegetables can be mixed with some eggs, a tiny bit of flour and some oil and baked for an “impossible pie” – awesome picnic food, by the way, or add a bit of salad for a whole new dinner.  Leftover veg can also be used for kids’ lunches in these cheesy lunch muffins. http://www.juliegoodwin.com.au/recipe-cheesy-muffins.html

When we are having a green leaf salad on the table for our family meal, I don’t dress it but let everyone do it themselves, on their own plate.  Undressed salad leaves can be stored and used again the next night, whereas dressed salad goes slimy and disgusting very quickly.

Here’s a food saving method that will sound quite gross, but it’s true – if your hard cheese (tasty, parmesan, cheddar) grows a bit of mould on the outside, just take a slice off all the surfaces and voila.  Edible again.  I promise!  Make sure it’s wrapped tight in the fridge to prevent mould growing again.

Rice and pasta is something that often gets thrown out because once it’s cooked and refrigerated, it goes quite hard and doesn’t necessarily improve with reheating.  To refresh it I add a tablespoon or two of water, cover it and microwave until hot.  The water generates steam which softens the rice or pasta and makes it nice to eat again.

When I look for ways to save in the kitchen I find it useful to think back to my nan and the way she used food.  Nan grew up in the depression and not a single thing was wasted.  It was during eras such as these that dishes like Shepherd’s Pie were created.  Shepherd’s pie was, traditionally, leftover roast lamb and veg baked in gravy with mashed potato on top.

Leftover sausages were turned into a mild sausage curry for the next night.  Leftover corned beef (home cooked of course!) became lunch for the week served cold with cheese, pickles and bread.  Lambs were bought as a whole or a side and every part of the animal was put to use.  Lamb shanks, until recently relegated to dog food, have made a comeback in recent years.  Here’s  a beautiful way to use them as a pie… http://www.juliegoodwin.com.au/recipe-lamb-shank-pie.html

While I am probably not even close to getting my boys to eat lamb’s fry on a regular basis, I can still channel the thrifty nature of Nan’s generation and be as waste-conscious as possible in my own kitchen.  In her era it was mainly about saving money.  Now we know that it’s not only economical, it’s earth-friendly and it’s one of the many things we can do as individuals to contribute to the future of our planet.

Leftover night?  Hooray!

The good news is that by changing the way we shop and eat, we can significantly reduce our impact on the environment, as well as help to build a fairer and healthier food system for all.

Here are our top 5 tips for making a big difference:

1. Buy local, seasonal and organic produce

Buying local, seasonal and organic produce means you are supporting a system where food travels less from paddock to plate and is grown without the use of oil-based synthetic chemicals and pesticides that pollute and damage our waterways. It also means you are supporting the local economy as well as local farms that are often family-run. Food grown in this system is fresher, tastes better and is better for you, the farmer, and the environment. Learn more about organic produce and why it’s better here.

Download our free (and very pretty) pocket Seasonal Produce Guide here!

 2. Eat less meat, and choose ethical and sustainable meat & seafood

Reducing your meat and fish intake is one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. Meat production impacts the environment through methane emissions from animal grazing, land degradation, and through heavy water consumption (it takes an estimated 50,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef). We also grow enough edible grain to provide 50% more than is required for every person in the world, yet much of this is transported to feed animals for meat, dairy and egg production.

Commercial fishing can be equally destructive. In fact, the world is set to run out of ocean fish by 2048 if current demand continues.

So eat less meat, and when you do, choose meat and fish that has been ethically and sustainably farmed or sourced (it tastes better too). You can learn more about meat production in Australia through the Meet your Meat section of our website, and our free pocket Sustainable Seafood Guide can help you make the best choices for our ocean.

3. Reduce waste and start composting

In Australia we throw away $5.2 billion worth of food each year. This not only represents a criminal amount of waste of valuable resources, but this excess food ends up in landfill where it decomposes and produces methane—a greenhouse gas with 23 times the global warming potential of CO₂.

Plan your meals to prevent produce going to waste, order less at restaurants and take away venues, start a compost bin or worm farm or buy some backyard chooks to make best use of your food scraps.

 4. Eat whole foods, not processed foods

Whole foods are foods that haven’t been processed or refined; they are eaten in their natural state. Think polished white rice compared to whole brown rice, canned corn compared to fresh corn. Overall, less energy and resources have gone into producing them, they are free from added preservatives and chemicals and most of them can be bought free from packaging. They are not only healthier for you but they also have a much lower environmental impact.

5. Ask Questions

As a consumer you have the power to avoid purchasing items that do not fit your environmental and ethical standards. The only way that shops, restaurants and supermarkets will change what they serve or stock is if sales decline and they recognise that their customers want something else. Remember to ask these questions:

• Is the meat organic or free range?
• Where was the seafood sourced? How was it caught? Is the species over-fished?
• Is the produce organic?
• Was the produce grown locally?

There are many ways we can help to build a fairer and more environmentally sound food system for all, like changing where we shop, growing our own food and reducing our use of food packaging. Check out our website for these and more. And remember, every dollar you spend is a vote for the type of food system you would like to be part of.

About this guest blog post by Sustainable Table – Sustainable Table is a not-for-profit organisation who uses food as an entrée to explore sustainability issues, helping to overcome today’s environmental challenges, one meal at a time.

The SAVE program will give you the tools to ‘SAVE’ in your daily life through 6 key focus areas – FOOD, DRIVE, WEAR, SHOP, POWER & INVEST. The program will be rolled out one focus area per month for 6 months. First up is FOOD, running for the entirety of Feb.

Now, the blog throughout the SAVE program is going to be acting a little differently, it’s going to be our hub for guest bloggers, who will bring you fabulous, informative and inspiring articles and stories relating to the focus area of each month.

This month’s guest bloggers for FOOD include -

• Sustainable Table – Sustainable Table uses food as an entrée to explore sustainability issues.
• Julie Goodwin – Australia’s first MasterChef
• Maeve O’Meara – Award-winning food and cooking author, journalist, broadcaster, television producer and presenter & 1MW Ambassador
• Sam Mostyn - AFL Commissioner & leading climate and sustainability adviser & 1MW Ambassador
• Lish Fejer – DIY Green queen at Green It Yourself & 1MW Ambassador
• AND MORE TO COME

Food is a BIG part of our lives, and one we can all take action in.

The 1MW ‘SAVE’ approach to the food in our lives focuses on eating well, cutting waste, becoming more self-sufficient, and saving you money. During this month the target is you learn how to save over 500kg or more of CO2 pollution per year and $500 a year, and a lot of water and other resources too by managing your food better.

We all eat, let’s build a ‘SAVE way of living’ into your daily diet!

Find out more about SAVE – visit the website 

1MW – it’s time to get ready for SAVE!!!

SAVE is the national program we have install for the first half of 2o12 – a program to save money, energy and earth!

Our SAVE launch was held in Syd on december 14th, where 700 Sydney-siders showed up to give their support and pledged to SAVE in the new year.

Layne Beechley, Julie Goodwin, Abbie Winspear, Noni Hazlehurst, Helen Wei and Natalie Isaacs at the 1MW Summit to launch the SAVE national program for 2012

It was an amazing turn out…. and now we are going to be preparing the rest of the country for what is coming from 1MW.

Here is a snapshot of our SAVE program -

- Runs for 6 months – January to June 2012
- Includes 6 Elements, 1 element each month – DRIVE, FOOD, POWER, WEAR, SHOP & INVEST
- Driven by the 1 Million Women website, our Facebook & other social networks, and you our members

THE SIX ELEMENTS OF SAVE

1. FOOD (February) – growing food, buying food, preparing and cooking food, and not wasting food.
$ – Save $500 or more each year & CO2 – Save up to 500kg of pollution each year

2. DRIVE (March) – when you drive, how you drive, what you drive, and if you drive at all.
$ – Save $250 or more each year & CO2 – Save up to 400kg of pollution each year

3. POWER (April) – what we turn on or off, what we turn up or down, and the appliances we choose.
$ – Save $150 or more each year & CO2 – Save up to 700kg of pollution each year

4. WEAR (May) – fashion and accessories, what we buy, care and cleaning, recycling and swapping.
$ – Save $100 or more each year & CO2 – Save up to 100kg of pollution each year

5. SHOP (June) – how we shop, where we shop, what we buy and what we don’t buy.
$ – Save $100 or more each year & CO2 – Save up to 100kg of pollution each year

6. INVEST (July) – using our savings to make ‘clean’ money and cut pollution into the future.
$ – Reinvest $1000 or more each year & CO2 – Lock in future pollution reduction in your life

Now… is the time to start using everything we already know and have learnt through our own actions, and from the campaign about living sustainably, making the right choices, choices that don’t cost the earth! Now is the time to put in into practice and achieve what the whole 1 Million Women campaign is about – long lasting behaviour change.

Let’s face it, we have one earth, and we have this oppurtunity, to SAVE!

If you are excited to get started – check out our SAVE Action plan

And please stay up to date with the BLOG – because this is going to be where a lot of action will be happening in 2012. Constant updates and info about SAVE…we will be also looking for guest bloggers, and we want the blog to become a hub for ideas and sharing of information through readers comments too!

Now we would like to end with a giant HAPPY HOLIDAYS and HAPPY NEW YEAR from 1MW! Looking forward to your support in the New Year.
1MW Team x

Filed under: 1MW SAVE, Drive, Food, Invest, Power, Shop, Wear ]]> http://1millionwomen.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/get-ready-for-save/feed/ 0 onemillionwomen Screen shot 2011-12-05 at 3.30.02 PM SAVE Summit - Launching our SAVE program for 2012 http://1millionwomen.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/permaculture/ http://1millionwomen.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/permaculture/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:36:07 +0000 1millionwomen http://1millionwomen.wordpress.com/?p=110 Continue reading →]]> Hello 1MW readers,

This month 1MW has been especially interested in food following the launch of Love Food Hate Waste from the NSW Government. As the 1MW Events Coordinator, it has been great looking into alternative ideas surrounding food, especially for those of us like myself who are living in urban/city areas. Ideas such as co-op food shopping, community gardens, and also, one that has really taken my fancy, Permaculture.

Haven’t heard of Permaculture? It was actually developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s and is one of Australia’s intellectual exports with a now global network of practitioners and teachers.

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems modeled on the harmonious integration of the landscape and people to provide food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way, often using patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect while minimizing wasted energy.

Simply put, it is sustainable land use design. 

Many people are engaging with Permaculture around Australia and the world, and for me it holds many possibilities for urban areas. For example, Melbourne based network Permablitz who bring together gatherings of people and in a day create an edible garden where someone lives,  regularly in suburban or city areas. Or how about Sydney city restaurant Tetsuya’s who have turned a concrete courtyard into their own on-site garden providing some of the restaurants produce needs, and also acting as a test site where head chef gets creative with what he grows so he can create inspiring and original dishes.

These are lovely examples of sustainable land use design to transform urban spaces into places that could provide some of our basic living needs such a vegetables, fruit, eggs and much more.

Do you have any unused urban spaces that you could transform? I know I am inspired, and have a new project which involves turning the space in my backyard where the cubby house used to be  into an edible garden for my household.

If you are interested to learn more, come to the Sydney book launch of ‘Permaculture Pioneers’ on August 25, 7pm at the Chauval Cinema in Paddington. The stories in this book represent the scope, depth and diversity of Australian permaculture.

This event will also be a premiere for  the Australian documentary ‘Anima Mundi’ directed by Peter Charles Downey. Featuring David Holmgren, Stephan Harding, Vandana Shiva, John Seed, Michael C Ruppert, Michael Reynolds, Noam Chomsky, Permablitz and more. This film provides an insight into permaculture, peak oil and climate change, and if you keep an open mind has some interesting ideas on how we interact with and appreciate the earth.

The book launch and screening are a benefit for our lovely friends at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, 100% Renewables Campaign and Beyond Zero Emissions. Tickets $20 and $10 concession from www.animamundi.eventzilla.​net or at the door.

So come along! Maybe you will get inspired as I have been to endeavour on your own permaculture project

Bronte x

When food waste is thrown away and sent to landfill, together with other organic materials, it becomes the main contributor to the generation of methane – a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change. National greenhouse inventory data tells us landfills contribute to two per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Households across NSW could help save more than 470,000 tonnes of CO2-e per year by reducing household waste by at least 50 per cent.

Wasting food wastes the energy, water and natural resources used to grow, package, transport and market that food.

For every household in NSW more than $1,000 of food is thrown away each year – fresh food, leftovers, packaged and long life food, unfinished drinks, frozen food and takeaways.

Sad, isn’t it?

Loving food is about wasting less every day – saving you time and money, making a difference to our environment and living more sustainably.

What is food waste?

Food waste can be ‘unavoidable’ or ‘avoidable’. ‘Unavoidable’ food waste is food waste that cannot usually be eaten such as pineapple skins, teabags and vegetable peelings.

‘Avoidable’ food waste is food that is wasted due to:
• buying too much
• cooking too much
• storing it incorrectly
• not using food items before they expire or are no longer usable.

How much do we waste?

• 40 per cent of the average household garbage bin is filled with wasted food each week.
• NSW households throw away more than 800,000 tonnes of food each year.
• In NSW, more than $2.5 billion worth of edible food is thrown away each year.

By simply planning your meals, shopping to a list, using leftovers and storing food correctly you can avoid food waste.

What do we waste?

Each year in NSW we throw away and send to landfill:
* $848 million of fresh food
* $694 million of leftovers
* $372 million of packaged and long-life products
* $231 million of drinks
* $231 million of frozen food
* $180 million of takeaway/home delivery

Love Food Hate Waste provides practical tips and tools that will make it simple for all of us to reduce food waste at home. By simply planning your meals, cooking the right amount and learning how to best store food, you can reduce food waste.

1 Million Women is encouraging members in NSW to register as a Love Food Hate Waste ‘food lover’ .

Register now at- www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au
Waste less food, save money and our environment

It’s not surprising that things have been heating up for our campaign, because we’re all about getting on with climate action, and that’s the biggest political challenge in Australia right now.  At issue is whether we’ll put a price on carbon pollution to propel our nation down the decades-long path to a low carbon, more sustainable economy.

Several weeks ago we decided we should find out what our 1 Million Women community wanted. Using an online survey, in the lead up to Mother’s Day, we asked members if they wanted the Australian Government to put a price on carbon pollution in 2011 – ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Don’t Know’.  We got a huge response. An overwhelming majority, over three quarters (75.6% to be exact) of the 3000-plus respondents said ‘Yes’, with the balance fairly evenly split between ‘No’ and ‘Don’t Know’.

We also had over 1300 women leave us beautiful messages about what they’ll tell their mothers or daughters or other loved ones about the importance of taking action on climate change and protecting the environment. And all but 3 out of 3174 respondents described practical actions they were taking to cut pollution in their own lives.

So when our biggest week ever arrived, we were ready:

•    It all started on Monday morning May 30^th when Prime Minister Julia Gillard joined the 1 Million Women campaign and helped us to launch our new 10,000 Teens program at the Ravenswood School in Sydney, with nearly 1000 girls

•    But that was just a warm-up for the huge weekend coming up with the Sydney Ice Bear, (a polar bear carved out of a 9 tonne block of ice) symbolic of the greatest challenge humanity is facing,  including a public event in front of Customs House, at Circular Quay, from 12 noon to 1.30pm on Sunday (June 5th, it’s World Environment Day!)

•    And the Sydney Ice Bear in turn would coincide with the ‘SAY YES’ rallies for climate action being held around the country this Sunday, coordinated by Get Up and including great organisations like our Ice Bear project partners WWF Australia and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC)

This is what I’ve been saying to audiences of girls at school after school, and it’s a similar message to what I use with every audience

Tell all your friends and become a leader of change for your generation. Help the 1 Million Women campaign to spread the word, to get on with action to cut carbon pollution, and also to raise our voices, the voices of the women and girls of Australia, with a simple message for our political and business and community leaders:

We’re getting on with climate action and you have to do the same. Time is running out, there’s no time to waste, and there’s so much to be done.

 We can’t dodge this. We can’t make excuses about energy prices rising, or how we have to wait for other countries to act, or wish climate change would just go away of its own accord. We have to get on with it.

- Natalie Isaacs, CEO and Founder 1 Million Women.

It’s politically legitimate, if sometimes very disappointing, for our politicians to argue about exactly how we should respond, even the timing. But it is reprehensible to fuel the madness of climate deniers and to promote fear in the community that worthwhile action will somehow destroy our nation’s socio-economic fabric.

Leadership is paramount right now.  Without solid leadership from the top the unraveling of (already) confused people will take hold.

Last year the 1 Million Women Campaign took a stand at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show in the Fashion and Style pavilion.  We signed up over 3000 women in 14 days, so the campaign had a great time.  Importantly, we had the opportunity to speak to thousands of women.

It didn’t surprise me that many women were confused about what to believe in regard to climate change. Nor was I shocked to discover a still relatively small number of outright non-believers. But I was very interested to encounter a lot of frustration, bordering on anger, at the lack of decisive leadership on a critical issue for the 21^st century. I saw I was far from alone in wanting our leaders to just make a plan and stick to it. One year on its getting worse.

People want action and a clear direction. We hear a lot about business needing policy certainty, and that’s what people want too.

The sad truth is that Australia is still waiting for political leadership on climate change to match the scale of the threat. So is the world! We can’t afford to wait any longer.

Did You Know? Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. As consumers we have incredible power to just say NO to overpackaged goods. 

How do we get the message through on packaging. Share your thoughts.