Stop food waste-recipe ideas #5

This one somehow slipped through the net-I wrote it ages ago and then promptly forgot about it and it has been sat in my Drafts file for months now…!
But in the spirit of Waste Not, Want Not, I am not going to ‘waste’ a blog post, so here goes…

The last post for now in my little series of posts designed to help stop food waste. In case you missed them, the original post is here, and the others are here, here, here and here!

And obviously, after all the virtuous savoury bits, we all need PUDDING!!

So here are my ideas for using up manky bits of fruit…

Smoothies-the best thing for using up all the squidgy soft bits of fruit

• Chop it all up, stick it in the blender, and whiz! You can add a dollop of yoghurt (any flavour/type) too if you like
• Anything with banana in works very well-I knew that you could freeze bananas that were going black and then whizz them up for smoothies, but someone recently told me they chop all their manky fruit up and stick it in freezer bags ready to make smoothies whenever the Small people occassion demanded-Genius!
• You can also freeze it in lolly moulds for a healthy summer treat too *virtuous mummy emotion*

Fried fruit-sounds wierd I know, but bear with me.
My children have the frustrating endearing habit of starting an apple or a pear and eating some of it and then discarding it wherever they are sat. It then discolours, and I get told “eurgh, it’s gone all manky, I’m not eating that”. Yay! If yours do the same, this is what you can do (other than cut the manky bits off and chop it into a fruit salad, or, heaven forbid, eat it yourself..!)

• Collect up all the discarded bits, slice them, and then fry them gently in some butter with a spoon of sugar sprinkled over until the fruit is soft. You can add a handful of raisins if you are feeling particularly extravagant
• Serve with yoghurt or ice-cream, or custard, or on top of pancakes-they will never know….!

Cakes and muffins

Lots of fruit can be used in baked goods, but especially good old bananas! As I said above, you can freeze any bananas that are going black, just as they are, in their skins. If you want to bake with them, then it does help to try and remember to take them out of the freezer a couple of hours before you want to use them.

Here is one of my favourite banana recipes-Chocolate banana muffins-rather inevitably from Nigella-this time her “Kitchen” book

This is what you need to make 12 muffins:

• 3 very ripe or overripe bananas
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 2 free-range eggs
• 100g soft light brown sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 3 tbsps cocoa powder-Nigella says to sift….
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 12 hole muffin tin and paper cases

This is what you do:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/gas mark 6
• Line the muffin tin with the cases
• Mash the bananas-this is a great one with to with the Smalls, as they love mashing bananas
• Put your mashed bananas in a bowl (if you have a freestanding mixer, use this) and add the oil, followed by the eggs and sugar, beating all the time
• Mix the flour, bicarb and cooca together, and add this to the mix, beating gently
• Spoon into the prepared cases
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20mins. In NIgella’s words “the muffins should be dark, rounded and peking proudly out of their cases”
• Allow to cool slightly in the tin, before removing to a wire rack

I love these. They are really moist and delicious. They freeze very well, and make excellent snacks for the Smalls-you can feel virtuous that they are really quite healthy, and the Smalls will never know 🙂