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I Only Ate Food Scraps For A Week – Here’s What Happened

Sponsored by Love Food Hate Waste
Sponsored by Love Food Hate Waste
I Only Ate Food Scraps For A Week – Here’s What Happened

Food waste is not a matter to be tossed down the drain. In fact, it's far bigger than many people realise.

Although attention is increasingly turning towards how to tackle the issue, householders in the UK still throw out over seven million tonnes of food each year for various reasons, of which a whopping five million are avoidable.

Part of the problem is that perfectly edible scraps of food - vegetable stalks and peels, those dastardly bread ends, even pizza crusts - are going to the trash pile because people don't want to eat them, don't want to prepare them, or in some cases don't even realise they're edible.

But like the cheffing crusader you didn't know you needed, we here at Pretty52 are swooping in to teach you all about the benefits of what we call 'Compleating' - eating every part of your valuable ingredients.

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Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

By doing so, the average person can save around £20 or more every month, while also helping to slash food waste across the country.

To help you on your journey, I decided to prepare dinners for an entire week using only the ingredients that my flatmates and I would've otherwise thrown straight in the bin, to give everyone (me included) some inspiration to start doing the same.

Remember, this is not a rule book - this is purely a way to gift you with a few ideas as to how to use up all of your food shop. Scraps and all.

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Day one: Hotpot hottie

So when I learned that every household in the UK throws away around 170 potatoes each year, I thought what better place to start than with a chicken and potato hotpot. Oh yeah, and we had a whole load of leftover chicken from last night's roast.

The entire dish was extremely economical - I left the skins on the potatoes and carrots, used a few limp celery stalks I found in the fridge and pulled it all together with some stock cubes that had been sitting at the back of our pantry for about a year.All in all, it was a success and I felt all the better eating it knowing I had made the meal using all the edible parts of my ingredients.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52
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Day two: Happy caulidays

Day two I was feeling rather confident and decided to go for one I'd been dying to try for ages: cauliflower pizza. There are some great recipes online, but if you want to do it the Compleating way, be sure to use the entire cauliflower, including the stalk, when you're making the base.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

Yes, the finished product didn't quite come out looking quite as Insta-ready as some of the others online, but they sure did taste delicious. I'll definitely be making this one again. And when it comes to the toppings, go mad! Even sad vegetables come to life when they're cooked in cheese.

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Day three: Apple of my eye

Now, when it comes to fruit, if you're anything like me then you often inadvertently transform your fruit bowl into a breeding ground for penicillin after leaving a half-eaten six-pack of apples in there for far too long.

We're all guilty of it - recent figures show that a staggering 4.4 million whole apples are being thrown away untouched every day in the UK. It was these figures that motivated my next culinary adventure: savoury baked apples.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52
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With the Compleating mantra firm in my mind, I left the apple skins on, stuffed them with goats cheese (including the rind) along with red onion and walnuts, and even sprinkled on a crunchy topping made from those unloved bread ends. It was a success! These were gooey deliciousness and healthy too.

Day four: Hot and sweet

By this point I was midway through the week and wanted some stodge. After uncovering some sweet potatoes lurking at the back of the cupboard, there was only one thing for it: loaded potato skins.

When it came to the stuffing, I went for what was in the cupboards: canned tomatoes, a tin of beans and a wilted red pepper, which I brought back from the dead by slamming in some cold water for half an hour.

Baked with grated cheese and this dish turned out to be the crowning comfort face-stuffer I was hoping for. I munched the whole thing - there are a lotta nutrients in those potato skins, after all.

Day five: Scrummy crumpets

Over halfway through the challenge, I decided to venture into the Baltic wasteland that is my freezer.

Although there wasn't a lot on show, I did find a packet of crumpets leftover from Christmas. After a quick Google I found a recipe for 'apple thins', which sounds way fancier than what it actually is.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

In reality, apple thins are just crumpets, caramel and sliced, fresh apple with the skin left on to finish. I did encounter a bit of a pitfall making the caramel (side note: don't try to make this in the microwave), but sweet lawd, did they taste good. I would definitely recommend to give this one a try.

Day six: The souperior choice

Taking into consideration that every UK household throws away an average of 19 loaves of bread every year, I decided to face my demons and use up the wholemeal loaf ends I'd been avoiding for the best part of a week.

Not wanting to just eat toast for dinner, I centred the dish with cheese and broccoli soup, which definitely would've been nicer had I stuck to the recipe and used actual stilton instead of an old crusty lump of cheddar. But it was still tasty enough and the bread ends made for a respectable filler.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

Plus, I used every last bit of the broccoli - the head and the stalk - while cooking the soup. Well, nearly... except for the bit my dog nabbed.

Day seven: Rice is nice

On the final day, my creativity was wavering. All that was left in the fridge were some brussel sprouts from last week's roast, a couple of truly dead spring onions and various condiments and spreads. Even the husk of cheese was gone.

Delving back into the cupboards, I found tofu, rice, noodles, sesame seeds... it was at this point a light bulb emerged and I envisioned a stir fry. The end result was a delicious sticky ginger dish with brussel sprouts, fried tofu and white rice.

To get there, I roasted the sprouts whole in the oven, and even used the water from the tofu to loosen up the sauce. However, sadly the spring onions were unrevivable and I had to throw them out.

This was a fail on my behalf, but it did teach me an important lesson - to eat the Compleating way, it's essential to adopt the right mindset, keep a check on what's in the fridge and ensure that everything is used on time.

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

Aside from this slip-up, the stir fry turned out to be the best meal of the week. Victory couldn't have tasted sweeter.

What did I learn?

Overall, the entire challenge turned out to be an incredibly enlightening experience. In fact, I wouldn't call it a challenge, as much as the start of a journey to transforming the way I think about the food that goes on my plate (and how to avoid it going in the bin).

My flatmates were so impressed with the mouthwatering meals I'd made the Compleating way that, several days on, we're making a continued effort as a household to find new recipes and creative ways to use up every last bit of the ingredients we buy.

I thought it would be a fun challenge to take part in, which it was, but I didn't think it would have such an impact on my cooking habits as a whole. Now my flatmates and I are doing our best to Compleat breakfasts, lunches, dinners and even snacks and treats (those apple thins are a new mainstay).

Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52

Not to mention, my bank account is looking a lot healthier. Factor in the tenner on the Friday night takeaway, another on the Sunday cook-up and the weeknights where I'd often buy fresh ingredients despite having a kitchen full of edible food, by the end of the week I figured out I'd saved approximately £30. That's about £130 per month. Or, to put it into even starker perspective, £1560 per year. And that's just on the dinners!

From a wider perspective, the task got me thinking about sustainability on a national, and even global level. We all have a part to play in the caretaking of this planet, and with the help of a little creativity, we can all find ways to use ingredients in their entirety. Which would ultimately assist in slashing food waste and benefiting the environment.

To think you can save all of this money, cook healthy and delicious recipes and do your bit for the world we live in - well, it's a no-brainer.

So next time you go to the fridge, remember: don't just eat it. Compleat it.

Five pro-tips to help you on your way:

  • Instead of throwing limp veg in the bin, put them in a bowl of cold water and they'll come back to life in about half an hour - no need to peel, just chop and eat!
  • Don't fancy the crusts of your pizza or the ends of your loaf of bread? Us them as breadcrumbs on top of a casserole, savoury crumble or, our new fave, baked apples
  • Leftover Brussel sprouts, kale and even cauliflower leaves make great (and healthy) crisp replacements - just sprinkle with salt and parm, drizzle on some oil, bake for ten minutes and voila!
  • If you've got leftover beans or pulses, blend with some garlic, lemon juice, herbs and any veg you need using up for a hummus-style dip
  • No need to peel a thing! Mashed potato, sweet or not, is tastier and more nutritional when you leave the skins on
Credit: PRETTY52
Credit: PRETTY52
Samantha O'Sullivan
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