Use it up day.

During the 2nd World war there was a slogan in the UK to help people to save resources. “Use it up, wear it out, or do without,” posters were prominent. I still live by this philosophy. Today was a use it up day in our house, and here are some things that I did.

1. I had some brine in a bottle in my fridge. It was left over from making cucumber fridge pickles the other day. Whilst watering my garden I had found two small, red onions with the stalks turned over. They hadn’t grown very well. I had put them in a spot that nothing seems to grow in as it is shaded, and near a tree. They were therefore pulled up.

Once back in the kitchen Mr S sliced them for me and I covered them in the pickling brine in a recycled jar and popped them in the fridge. The vinegar goes a lovely pink colour. They will be good to eat in a couple of days and will be nice with salad or a picky tea. Poor Mr S’s eyes were streaming. Home grown onions are so much stronger than those that you buy in the shops.

2. In my cupboard we have a bag of dried coconut milk that I bought last year to use when making sweet potato and lentil  curry. It works out a lot cheaper than using cans of coconut milk. It is going out of date soon. I wanted to make some rice pudding in the slow cooker and so I made up 2 pints of coconut milk and used that. We therefore didn’t have to use any of our precious 2 pints of milk that we get a week from the milk man.

3. I made the stretched sausage and bean pie for our main meal. The recipe is in a recent blog. This was made from vegetables that were going off in the fridge, some left over mashed potato, half a tin of beans, and 1 fat, cooked sausage.

4. I preserved some dehydrated, grated potatoes from some old potatoes that were sprouting in the fridge. These  will be stored and rehydrated in the winter to make hash browns during the hunger gap when potatoes are often missing from our home. I could have also washed and used the potato skins to make crisps (chips), but they weren’t good enough.

5. I cut some herbs growing in the garden as they are starting to flower. They were dehydrated in the sunshine to use for seasoning in the winter.

6. We used up some vegetable peelings and skins that I have been saving in the freezer to make some stock. I will use it in a couple of meals this week.

7. We got some little bottles of flavoured oils for Christmas and there was just a bit left in the bottom of two of them. I used them with other ingredients to make a marinade for some beef chunks that we are making a meal for tomorrow.  The bottles I will wash and give away as a present at Christmas with sweet chilli sauce in.

8. I harvested some potatoes from a pot with a plant in that had withered and died whilst we were away visiting my eldest. The person watering my garden had missed them and it was very hot weather. These potatoes are only small, but I will use them in a potato salad, or in a summer casserole.

The earth that was in the pot with the potatoes was mixed with fresh compost and used to plant out two fresh tubs of potatoes. I don’t spend a lot on compost as I make my own with kitchen scraps, garden waste, and cardboard. We reuse all our compost by adding nutrition to it.

Very little needs to be bought, or needs to be wasted.  All we have to do is use up what we already have, and adjust what we want or need. I often substitute ingredients in a recipe rather than going to the supermarket. An example is that tomorrow I will make soda bread as we have little yeast left. Unfortunately, now a days, so much is easy to replace. We live in a throw away society but this comes at a cost to ourselves, and the environment.

I take actions like this on most days and it saves me lots of money, and lots of joy knowing that I am saving resources. It also brings out my creative side and gives me a sense of purpose. What are you using up today?