Inspired by Love Food Hate Waste, the organisation helping individuals and organisations reduce their food waste, I made a spreadsheet list of all the cupboard items that are a bit out of date (but aren’t going to kill us) and all the things that will go out of date in the next 6 months. A few things had to be composted, that even I wouldn’t  keep, but now I knew what I was dealing with.

This is where Evernote (or other cloud based electronic filing system with text recognition) comes in fantastically handy. As part of our minimalism journey we scanned our folder of collected recipes. Now we scan recipes as we see them in magazines, or clip them from the web. This means we have a searchable database for ingredients and that is easily portable on any of our devices.

I started going through the list of things that need using soonest and checking Evernote for recipes. I noted these next to the food item listed. Some of the things are going to take a couple of recipes to finish up. Each week will check Evernote for a few more things and then use these ideas to structure our weeks food. Anything not in Evernote I can go to the web for inspiration, then clip the recipie to Evernote. Once the item is used up I move it to the finished section of the spreadsheet. I have discovered such great recipes that I will be getting some of these items again!  Every 6 months my calendar reminds me to go through the cupboards / fridge again to see what else is in there, or things that can be moved to the finished section.

This week we have already used up; peanuts in a Massman Curry (two meals) and 300g of semolina flour in the form of a Semolina cake. This was perfect to partially make and take to our friends house for Sunday dinner. There I finished cooking it in her oven.

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Semolina cake, some already devoured before I remembered to photograph it.

This is a great way to make space in your cupboards, avoid food waste, and save money. It also helps you decide what to make in the week.

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