Savour the Flavour Prt2 (Money saving tips)

So, our night of gorgeous food and chat continues!  We got to hear from a lovely lady called Karen from Love Food Hate Waste telling us about food wastage in Scotland. Did you know we throw away 566,000 tonnes of food in Scotland each year and this costs each household an average of £430 a year! The good news is there are things we can do to reduce this waste.

1) Portion size.  Love Food Hate Waste have a great spaghetti portion gadget to help you to cook the exact amount you need and not be left with loads to chuck in the bin. The same goes for other pasta and rice.

2) Love Food Hate Waste also show you how food date labels can be your friends getting the most out of your food.

3) Planning each meal for 2 weeks so when we do our food shopping, we buy ingredients for those meals and then write the meals out on a list and stick to the fridge. It's great! - it saves hubby or myself getting uninspired and lazy lulling around saying "WHAT'S FOR TEA????"

4)Checking your cupboards to see what you have in the house so that when you are in the supermarket you don't end up buying essentials that you still have in the house.

My favourite tip of the night - our chef who was cooking for us on the night only needed half a tin of Asian Kitchen coconut milk and someone suggested that she poured the rest into ice cube trays and pop them into the freezer until they were needed. BRILLIANT!

If you want to save yourself money and let's be honest you woudl be crazy NOT to want to save your money, please check out this page Love Food Hate waste at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com or www.scotland.lovefoodhatewaste.com !

Savour the Flavour

Alison E, Alison H, Janice W and I.

Last Friday evening, us ladies set off down to Stonehaven to attend the last date of the "Savour the Flavour" cooking show. It was put on by The Co-operative and in conjunction with Just Trading Scotland. What a great informative evening we had!

The cooking itself was done by Fi Bird and a cheery assistant who volunteered from the audience. Our menu was designed by Fi and a restaurant in Glasgow called Calabash.

We got to taste ALL the gorgeous food prepared in front of us. I would say the food wasn't pure "African" but more precisely a wonderful fusion of European and African ingredients and flavours demonstrating wonderful ways to use Fairtrade ingredients!

Coconut Kilombero Rice and Elmwood Chicken
Serves 6
What to find:
300g Malawi Kitchen Kilombero rice (2.5 cups)
410g Elmwood Chicken Breasts (pack)
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 large red onion, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon garlic paste
3-4 pieces Lazy Ginger, rinsed and finely chopped
1 small chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons coriander, chopped (plus extra to decorate)
3 peppers, mixed colours, finely chopped
½ 400ml can coconut milk (Asian Kitchen if available)
Freshly ground pepper
What to do:
1. Rinse the rice and follow the cooking directions on the packet.
2. Put the chicken breasts in a pan and just cover them with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken juices run clear when tested with a knife. Allow to cool and cut into small slices or cubes.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok or large frying pan and cook the chopped onion with the garlic, ginger and chilli until the onion is soft.
4. Add the tomatoes, bring to the boil and simmer to reduce until thick. Add the chopped coriander and cook briefly. Remove the sauce from the heat and put it in a bowl.
5. Add the rest of the oil to the washed frying pan and stir fry the peppers for 2-3 minutes. Add the coconut milk. Stir well and then add the prepared tomato sauce, cooked rice and chicken.
6. Return to the hob briefly to heat thoroughly, stirring continuously. Add the extra coriander and serve immediately.

This event was in support of Scotland's bid for Fair trade Nation status!

To find out about the other wonderful recipes used that night and what else we got up to, check back for my next blog post very soon.

Soap with a conscience!

How delighted was I when I found out I had won a shopping spree with The Visionary Soap Company? That's not all I am excited about. I really want to tell you a bit about this great pioneering and thriving business. 

Visionary Soap is the UK’s leading fair trade body care company whose whole range carries the FAIRTRADE Mark. Their company has been entirely dedicated to fair trade since it was created in  2005. Their products are handcrafted in the UK and abroad using ingredients from producers in Palestine, India, Ghana, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa. 

Visionary Soap say "When others do the bare minimum, we strive instead for the maximum. As more ingredients are certified, we are committed to incorporating them into our products, thus boosting these percentages and supporting our Fairtrade producers even more! " GREAT TO HEAR!

I promptly received my order and was delighted with all of it. The gift sets were packaged in beautiful boxes which are all recycable and compostable - BONUS POINTS FOR THEM! To find out more about Visionary Soap - click HERE

To be in with a chance of winning some of these great goodies, make sure you have "LIKED" our Facebook page to find out about offers and competitions!