How I love a leftover! Does that make me a User-Upper I wonder? Thrifty McThrifterson at your service Sir, how may I help?

Anyone who knows me will know that I have a great love for a leftover. Now I’m not just talking Christmas day dinner made into bubble and squeak the next day, (which is something to behold with a fried egg on top), I’m talking non food items as well.

I was genuinelly appalled this week to read that families in the UK throw away an estimated 20% off of the fresh food they buy each week. What an astonishing waste. Conversely I was taken aback with positivity reading that supermarkets in France are being fined for destroying unsold food and so are donating to charities or finding another use for it. It’s certainly a start and a move in the right direction.

Too many people go home and think ‘what do I want for dinner?’ I know people who go to the supermarket almost every day in fact. For me, it’s ‘what do we have and what needs using and how can I use it as the base for my dish tonight?’ Some of the best meals are made with random fridge finds and I always make enough for lunch the next day. It drives me mad seeing people buying plastic sandwiches for lunch when you can have something amazing with literally no more effort, just stick it in a plastic tub and off you go.

Back to green peppers and red tomatoes and Ready Steady Cook.

I think it’s important to have all of your store cupboard staples to hand and by these I mean things like tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, dry pasta, rice, couscous, quinoa then all of your herbs, fresh and dried. Frozen peas and sweetcorn too and I keep ’emergency’ frozen butternut squash too, that’s a revelation.

Random veg in your fridge you’re not sure what to do with? Pasta bake or vegetable lasagne. Cook them all off with tomatoes and herbs and stir through freshly cooked pasta or make a cheese sauce and get out that old packet of dry lasagne sheets from the back of the cupboard and layer up. Nom Nom Nom.

Got a limp pepper lurking in the bottom of the fridge? Don’t just bin him, chop him in half longways and stuff with couscous. Top with feta/halloumi/goats cheese, whatever you have. Triumphant.

Nothing much except far too much milk which runs out of date tomorrow? Macaroni cheese. That’s also great when you have leftover cheeseboard items lurking in your fridge. I’m very much a fan of Delia’s all in one cheese sauce method btw, though it goes against every ounce of my learning at school the ‘proper way’ to make a roux. Or a Michel as I like to call it.

My courgette fritters are a staple favourite and were born from a user-upper meal. You can change the ingredients slightly depending on what you have about. Sometimes I swap onions for leeks or feta for halloumi. Totally depends what’s in. I’ll post a how to when I make them next.

Aside from the food stuff leftovers, did you read my post Do you wanna shorten curtains? See that left me with a huge width of beautiful Laura Ashley Corby check fabric. Not quite enough depth to make cushions, but I couldn’t just throw it away and a few days later KABOOM! – the idea popped into my head to make a matching draught excluder. Just the thing for a 390 year old house.

So I measure the door, mock up the rough size in lining fabric, re-measure, all looks good so I go and find an old cushion inner that’s a bit flat loitering in the airing cupboard and cut him open to give me all the stuffing I need!!! I knew there was a reason I hadn’t thrown him away. Then I make the cover, cutting it 1cm bigger all round than the inner. Pin and then sew three edges on the reverse side, turn it in on itself so you have the correct side out. Put the stuffed liner inside, and to seal the last edge, turn it in on itself and seal across. If it needs more than a sponge down and a full on wash in the machine, it will go in just fine so I can’t see the point in making a removable cover.

Here he is! Taaaa-daaaahhhh! Matches the curtains perfectly and he was sort of free, made with just leftovers. Made in less than an hour and looks brilliant, I’m so chuffed. And nobody else has one quite like him 🙂