Wasted milk is a sad thing, here are things you can do to make it a thing of the past.

Fed up of food waste? Today we are focussing on wasted milk and right now, more than ever, we want to get as much as we can get out of our grocery shopping. Follow our tips to make it a thing of the past.

Buy less

The first rule of reducing food waste is to buy less in the first place. Milk is one of the best things to buy less of because it is so easy to get your hands on. If you do run out it is easy to pick up from the corner shop…if you have one.

Freeze it

If you do buy too much, or take advantage of supermarket reductions at the end of the day, freeze it. Then let is defrost when you are ready to use it.

You can take this further by freezing it in ice cube trays – perfect for cups of tea and coffee and great when you have run out of milk, especially good for when you get back from holidays.

Make yogurt

This sounds so much harder than it is. Just heat the milk until it is hot but not yet reached a simmer. Let it cool until is it is no longer hot, just warm and stir in some yogurt – about a tablespoon per mug of milk. cover and leave in a warm place (airing cupboards are great for this) for eight hours. Done!!!!!

Make paneer cheese

Making paneer is even easier than making yogurt. Really! Just heat the milk with some lemon juice or vinegar until the curds separate from the whey (until the solids are suspended in a thin liquid). Drain the solids. if you have time knead otherwise leave it to drain for a couple of hours in the fridge.  Done!!! This is a great meat alternative for our curry kit.

Make a sauce

Our Mac n Cheese Magic Kit is great for using up milk as it’s based on a cheese sauce recipe. It’s super easy to make your own if you don’t have our kit, just melt some butter in a pan and stir in roughly a quarter of the amount of flour. Once you have done that slowly, very slowly, add in milk whilst stirring all the time to prevent lumps, preferably with a whisk. This is a basic white sauce which you can jazz up as you please, there are so many options. The obvious ones are seasoning (salt and pepper to you and me) and cheese, but there is no need to stop there – experiment to your heart’s content. Try adding mustard, garlic, herbs, even cayenne pepper. These sauces can be used on anything e.g. pasta, potatoes, meat, fish and veg. Why not making a pasta and vegetable bake with the cheese sauce and top with grated cheddar and breadcrumbs if you have some. Breadcrumbs are a brilliant waste free food – just leave any unused bread to completely dry out. Leave it in big chunks for croutons or crush for breadcrumbs.

Poached fish

Use it to poach fish…yum! Add herbs, maybe lemon zest, salt and pepper to add flavour. Just make sure you don’t overdo the heat, it’s just to be barely simmering otherwise the fish will be overcooked.

Rice pudding

We do a rice pudding kit but if you want to make it from scratch just put some milk and sugar in a pan and add rice. You can use any type of rice although you can get special pudding rice. Indian tradition calls for Basmati rice. You can use ether cooked or uncooked rice so if you have left over cooked plain rice you can use that. We jazz our kits up with saffron and chopped nuts. You can add whatever you like – chocolate would be nice for those times when you just need a hug! Or some good old vanilla.

Just one more thing…

Whilst we are on the topic of waste and milk, let’s take a moment to consider how milk bottles are such a large contributor to the vast amounts plastic we waste. There are companies that use glass bottles but they are few and far between. Isn’t it time we changed the way we buy milk? We could revert back to the old way of doing things and use glass bottles. We could go even further back, is there anyone who remembers buying milk by decanting it into your own container? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that again?

P.S.

Want to get into the habit of homecoming? Read this: How I Formed the Habit of Home Cooking

Want quick cook tips? Read this: 5 Quick Cook Tips to Cook Quickly During the Lockdown

Want tips to specifically help with the challenges associated with lockdown, then you won’t want to miss this: 12 Tips for Cooking through the Coronavirus Lockdown

And if you’d like some bespoke help to get into the habit of home cooking then book me up: One to One Virtual Cooking Consultancy

Happy reading, and happy cooking x