Love Food Hate Waste is a UK-based campaign to raise awareness and reduce food waste. The website is full of ideas, recipes, and information on reducing food waste. The website consists of six basic categories:

Perfect Portions: How to adjust recipes to create the portion desired  
Save Time & Money: Meal planners, food dates explained, pantry essentials
Recipes: Cook Once, Eat Twice and Rescue Recipes
Top Tips & Storage: Keep food fresh longer or revive food past its prime
About Food Waste: Why cutting food waste matters
Add Your Voice: Add your opinion to the campaign

Users can also share suggestions for saving money. Many of the recipes are in metric measurements, so if metrics are a foreign language to you, use a good Conversion Calculator.

For additional information on preventing food waste, check out this article from the Guardian on how to break the habit of wasting food (it even mentions LoveFoodHateWaste.com).

Looking for a quick, inexpensive meal to make with the ingredients you already have on hand? Try a Stir-Fry! Stir-Fry is an easy way to improvise with just a few ingredients. Keep pantry staples such as rice or noodles on hand, along with a variety of pre-made sauces, and you will always have something to make for dinner.

Many bottled sauces are now available in low-sodium versions. With the rise in popularity of global cuisine, many companies are now creating high quality sauces such as sweet and sour, teriyaki, Schezwan, and other traditional take-out favorites.

Above: Homemade Sweet & Sour Chicken, with a little help from bottled sauce.

Pick a Protein

Find a protein that you enjoy, such as beef, chicken, pork, or tofu. You will need about 1 pound to make a stir-fry that serves 4, but you can get away with less if you add nutrient-rich veggies and grains such as sweet potatoes, eggplant, portabella mushrooms, or quinoa for serving.

Select a Sauce

Once you have a protein, find a complementary sauce. Some combinations are classic, such as sweet and sour sauce with chicken, but you can also experiment. Beef sometimes works better in spicy dishes, where chicken and pork are good in sweet or tangy sauces.

Build the Basics

Most stir-fry recipes start with a few basics: onions, garlic, ginger, celery or mushrooms. You do not need to use all of these (especially if your sauce has garlic or ginger), but select a couple to enhance the flavor of the stir-fry. Try green onions with hoisin sauce, red onions with a spicy sauce and beef, or sweet Vidalia onions with a tangy sauce.

Vary the Veggies

Now have some fun by adding a variety of vegetables. The key to keeping stir-fry exciting is to add different colors and flavors: broccoli, sugar snap peas, red or yellow peppers, sweet potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, and cabbage, just to name a few. Change up your vegetables to keep stir-fry interesting from week to week. Aim for 2 to 3 different vegetables per stir-fry, about a half-pound to pound each.

Add the Extras

Once you have the main components figured out, add on extras like bean sprouts and sesame seeds. Try adding some fresh fruit, such as pineapple, orange segments, or mango slices. Top your stir-fry with chopped scallions or herbs such as cilantro.  

Serve a Side

Stir-fry should be served on top of a grain, such as rice or noodles. Look for flavored rice, brown rice, egg noodles, rice noodles, or any other grain that strikes your fancy.

Basic Instructions

Prepare side grain according to package directions. Set aside and keep warm.

Take your basics (mushrooms, celery, garlic, onions) and sauté in a small amount of oil over high heat for about 3-5 minutes. Once softened, set aside in a bowl but keep warm. Add your protein and sear for 1-2 minutes per side. Add enough sauce to coat and return onion mixture to pan. Add vegetables to pan and additional sauce to coat. Sauté over high heat until protein and vegetables are cooked as desired. Add any extras, such as fresh fruit, and additional sauce as desired. Cook until heated through and serve immediately.

Above: Chicken marinated in teriyaki sauce with veggies and egg noodles.

Notes

Vegetables should be thinly sliced or finely chopped in order to cook quickly. Some vegetables, like eggplant and sweet potatoes, might require additional time. Add items to the pan based on the time required to cook through.

Some sides, such as rice noodles, cook quickly and should be served immediately. Read package direction to determine when to prepare an unfamiliar side dish.

With some Asian cultures, it is traditional to serve fresh fruit at the end of a meal. If you cannot work fruit into your stir-fry, serve after the meal as a quick dessert and palate cleanser.

Experiment with different combinations of protein, sauce, and vegetables. Don’t confine yourself to ingredients you think are “Asian.” This will keep stir-fry an exciting and unexpected meal (BBQ Stir-Fry, anyone?).

Here’s an Econofest Quickie from the folks at Ideal Bite: Turn off your dishwasher’s “heated dry” option and save approximately $25 a year in electricity costs, which is great for your pocketbook and the planet.

Want to sign up for Ideal Bites daily bite-sized ideas for light green living?

www.idealbite.com

Everyday Food magazine, one of my favorite publications, recently ran an article on 5 ingredient dishes designed to reduce stress and grocery bills. The recipe was fairly simple, so rather than follow the exact recipe I improvised with some of the ingredients.

The main idea here is to use what you have on hand (mushrooms and pears, for example). The recipe called for fresh thyme, but rosemary is what I had. Improvisation!

Pork Tenderloin with Mushrooms and Pears
adapted from Everyday Food

1 pork tenderloin, about 1 lb
2 Bartlett pears, ripe but still firm
16 oz whole mushrooms
1 small onion, diced
3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced 
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over the prepared sheet.

In a large skillet, heat about 1 tbsp olive oil. Add onions and garlic with a pinch of salt, saute until onions are tender and translucent. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Rub tenderloin generously with sea salt and sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper. Drizzle additional oil into the skillet and sear the tenderloin 3-4 minutes on each side.

Placed seared tenderloin on the prepared sheet and arrange mushrooms around the tenderloin. Layer onion mixture over the pork and mushrooms. Place rosemary sprigs on top of tenderloin.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until mushrooms are near done and tenderloin is almost cooked through.

Meanwhile, halve the pears and use a spoon or melon baller to remove the core and stem. Cut pears into slices and sprinkle slightly with black pepper.

Remove tenderloin and arrange pear slices around the pan. Return pan to oven and cook an additional 7-10 minutes until pears are warmed and pork is cooked through.

Once pork is done cooking, place on a plate and allow to set 5-10 minutes. Slice tenderloin, then add mushrooms and pears around the pork slices. Pour onions and any juices over top of the plate and serve.

After the tenderloin is sliced, I like to take some of the leaves off the rosemary sprigs and crumble in my fingers, then sprinkle over the pork slices. The sprigs could also be used as garnish.
 

Looking for cheap meal ideas? Wise Bread has the answer! One of my favorite sites, Wise Bread has an awesome archive packed full of frugal ideas for house and home. It is a treasure chest of goodies for those looking to save money and possibly help save the planet. Most of the articles have a green twist for those of us wanting environmentally friendly options for cooking, cleaning, and living.

Check out Lentil Love: How to Sex Up a Simple Staple and Save, loaded with recipes centered around the humble lentil. The author includes links to recipes for dips, soups, salads, and even lentil bread in a variety of ethnic cuisines such as Moroccan, Ethiopian, South African, German, and Mediterranean.

Once you’ve had your fill of lentils, hop over to Cooking with Cabbage: Ten Cheap Meal Ideas. This article includes ideas for slaws, soups, and Chinese favorites low mein and egg rolls. Also check out the author’s Survival Mode Produce List, which includes (what else?) cabbage.

Still hungry for more? Look up 8 Meatless Dishes for Meat-n-Taters Lovers, great recipes for those who favor meat and potato meals but are looking to expand their palates and shrink their grocery bills.