The Food Up-cycling Project

I grew up in quite a large family and was used to seeing my parents buy in bulk. As this is generally the most economical way to shop I never really considered doing anything else when I left home and was responsible for my own groceries.

However, when there's just two of you, bulk buying just tends to end up with a lot of waste as bag after bag of 'buy one get one free' salad goes in the bin followed by half a block of mouldy cheddar and a punnet of mushy strawberries.

Throwing out food is not only expensive, I also feel that it is immoral. Who's mum hasn't said to them "Finish your food - there are children starving in Africa"? whilst whether you finish your lasagne or not will make absolutely no difference to whether people go hungry on the other side of the world, we need to remember just how lucky we are in the affluent West and endeavour to waste as little food as possible.

The Great Bella Bake-Off

I love cake (love da cake), but Mr. F's not fussed so I don't bake that often as I have to eat it all myself, and let's face it - there's only so many cupcakes a girl can get through on her own.

Anyway, Mr. F has found a (virtually) calorie-way of fulfilling my baking cravings - I make cake and he takes it in to work!

He recently moved floors in his office and to curry favour with his new colleagues he asked me to do a bumper bake for him to take in.

So I dusted off my mixer, did a monster Tesco shop and got stuck in.

As with any kind of cooking, good preparation is the key to stress-free success. I like to get out all of my ingredients and tools and line them up so that I know that I have everything I need. I also make sure that the dishwasher is empty and put away each ingredient as I finish with it so that when I'm done the kitchen's virtually already tidied up.