Turning over that new (years) leaf to no more food wastage comes with a big risk, when you’re me. See, I can’t stand spoiled fruit or veggies. If it has a bad patch , it goes in the bin. If it’s bruised, I can’t eat it. It turns my stomach.

So opening an organic food delivery box to flatten for return this morning, I was horrified to find a bunch of carrots inside, happily growing, well, old. The old me would have binned it with my eyes shut and holding my breath. Not that they even smell, but just in case.
Mangy Carrots

And it was a challenge to myself this morning, not to bin them. I mean, who would know? If I happened to have carrots in my hand and my hand happened to open spontaneously over the bin? But I thought I’d give the carrots a chance. I’d peel one, and see if there was any use left in them. I was somewhat disappointed to find them in perfect condition, on the inside.

chopped carrots
Recently a fellow blogger,  Tracey of Tracey’s Thrifty Tips told me about the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign.  So I decided to head over there and see if I could find a way to salvage the carrots.

Using this recipe, with a few changes, I made this delicious carrot cake!

Ingredients

I didn’t have pineapple and only had about 60g of coconut left, so I added in 100g raisins that I found in the back of the cupboard. I also didn’t have smooth cottage cheese, but chunky, so my icing came out a little different, but still super tasty.

carrot cake

At the beginning of this month I settled my heart and mind on the fact that this would be a dull, bland food month as we stuck to our £60 a week food budget, and ate our way through the kitchen stores. I can honestly say I don’t think we’ve eaten as well in all our years of together.

I challenge you to try to eat your way through your kitchen, and let me know how it turns out for you!

4 Comments

Out the Box – Waste Not Want Not Carrot Cake

  1. LOL to you finding that your carrots were actually good, and being unhappy about it! I’m so glad you conquered your disdain for un-fresh foods!

    Love that no-waste site!

  2. With a family of 7 in my house we live on a very tight food budget. The best way to make it on that budget is to cook only when no one else is around. That way I can use foods without their knowledge and they eat it! And they are eating more healthy foods, I just don’t tell them!
    Nice carrot cake… could have gone with my mushy banana muffins yesterday!

    btw- I do have some rather limp looking carrots in the bin… I think carrot cake may be in our immediate future!

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