Snack Time

Well after a three hour train journey from Leicester back to Preston today I didn't do very well with my I Spy train list.  I saw a river, bridge over the railway, some flooding, a road, graffiti, budleia and a successful traveller making a dash for an almost departing train. I only managed one church spire before darkness closed in and the dark is my excuse for missing the rest of my list. Hopefully I'll do better later in the week when I'm on another train.

When I'm on train journeys I try to make sure I take food and drink with me, mainly because of the prices on trains and at stations but also because there seems to be a serious lack of "ethical" snacks. This has mainly been an assumption up to now but today I thought I'd check out the on board shop on my Virgin train to see if I could back it up with facts.

I was  happily surprised to find that all the hots drinks were Fairtrade and according to the shop menu,

Virgin Trains is proud to use only Fairtrade Certified hot drinks, to help protect farmers and deliver you the very best quality.

 I'm quite impressed by this and I like the fact that, on these trains at least, the ethical choice is now the only choice. There aren't that many places where only Fairtrade drinks are served, although there were still fizzy drinks which were Fairtrade.

The only other Fairtrade items I found were some Fairtrade Jelly Beans (I didn't even realise they existed!). There were also some UK produced oat bars which had "fully recyclable packaging". The packaging was plastic and while it probably is recyclable somewhere I doubt it would be accepted by my council. On the recycling topic it annoys me that there is nowhere to recycle on trains, not even behind the shop counter.

In general I was pleased that there were ethical/environmental options for both food and drink, but there's still a fair way to go. It would be great if Fairtrade was the norm for all products that could be.

Thankfully I avoided the shop choices as I'd brought a snack with me. This weekend I tried making roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time. They were a lot better than I expected and very easy to make. Remove all the seeds from the pumpkin, brush a tiny bit of oil onto a hot frying pan and then put in the seeds. Wait until the seeds swell and turn brown and then remove from the heat and cover with sugar/salt/chilli powder or paprika. I think I used a bit too much chilli powder but they were great otherwise and staved off hunger until I got home to finish off the last of last weeks pork.

Leftover lunches

We haven't had a new veg box for two weeks now and we still haven't finished all the veg from the last one!
We did buy a particularly large box but I'm amazed how well the food keeps. I suppose it's because it comes straight from the fields rather than being transported for a week or so before it gets to the shops.

It's been a week of leftover meals. We cooked a joint of pork on Sunday and have been using the rest of it up over the last few days.

Tuesday was Cheesy Pork, a variation on my Mum's Cheesy Chicken which is left over roast chicken with cheesy sauce and rice. It's a family favourite and has been adapted to most left over meats including turkey and pork. We've never tried Cheesy Beef but I think that's because we're rarely left with leftover beef!

Wednesday was stir fry pork: vegetables, pork, rice and gravy. Very quick using leftover rice from Tuesday and pork from Sunday. Great for popping in a Tupperware box and taking to work when I'm working in the evenings.

Tonight will be broccoli and pork pasta. Really simple if you cook the pasta and broccoli in the microwave together. Again a great one for lunch or dinner when working late.

As well as all this evening food the pork's been in sandwiches for lunches every day! I reckon the one joint we cooked on Sunday will have done over 15 portions when we finally finish it. Brilliant value I think and it means less cooking for the rest of the week, especially if you use left over roast veg in the first few meals.

Next week I'll need to use up the cauliflower, celeriac, broccoli and half a leek that are still lingering in the fridge. I've got a baking potato somewhere too. More leftover meals (probably with lots of grated cheese) and then we'll be ready for a nice new box. I love the way you can see the food going down over the weeks. On delivery day I'm struggling to shut the fridge then two weeks later I discover things I'd completely forgotten we had! What are you favourite recipes for using up leftovers? I'd love to hear about them.