How to reduce food waste - peppers

Ingredients

This recipe serves 1 person

You will need:

• 2 or 3 eggs
• A quarter to a half a pepper - any colour
• 1 tsp of oil or butter
• a little bit of cheese
• a pinch of pepper to season

Equipment

You will need a:

• bowl
• fork
• knife
• pan
• spatula or spoon
• plate to serve

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and season, before beating with a fork.
2. Remove the seeds and chop the pepper.
3. Heat the oil or butter in pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped pepper and fry for 1-2 minutes until soft.
4. Add the eggs to the pan. Pull the spatula through the middle a few times, each time letting the egg fill the gap and start to cook.
5. Scatter the cheese over the omelette, before folding gently and serving on a plate.

Interesting fact

Did you know omelettes can be eaten as breakfast, a light lunch or dinner. You can also fill them with leftover vegetables.

Ingredients

The recipe serves 2 people.

You will need:

• 2 peppers - any colours
• 1 bag of ready cooked wholegrain rice
• 1 tbsp pesto
• a little bit of cheese
• a pinch of dried herbs

Equipment

You will need a:

• microwave
• chopping board
• knife
• microwaveable plate
• bowl

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Use a knife to cut the top off the peppers and scoop out the seeds. Cut the peppers in half from top to bottom and put them on a microwaveable plate.
2. Cook the peppers in a microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, or until softened.
3. Meanwhile, use a bowl to mix the bag of rice with the pesto, dried herbs and half the cheese. Stir well.
4. Scoop your mix into the peppers, top with the remaining cheese and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes or until hot throughout.

Top tip

If you have a few pieces of fruit that are starting to go bad, why not make a fruit salad or smoothie.

Ingredients

The recipe serves 4 people

You will need:

• 2 peppers - any colour
• houmous
• 1 to 2 black olives with no stones or an alternative to make the eyes, for example sultanas, grapes or blueberries

Equipment

You will need a:

• chopping board
• knife
• plate to serve

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Cut one pepper into long slices.
2. Cut the top off the second pepper, removing the seeds and core. This will be the octopus body.
3. Place the body open-side down onto a plate covered in houmous. Add eight pepper slices around the body as tentacles.
4. Slice olives and stick them with a little houmous to the body of the octopus as eyes.
5. Serve the octopus with the extra slices of pepper for dipping.

You will need:

• 3 bottles
• 3 balloons
• some tape
• 2 different types of fruit or vegetable scraps
• water - enough to fill all three bottles

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Individually crush each of the food scraps, squashing one type into each bottle. For example, all banana scraps go into one bottle, while potato peelings go into the other.
2. Fill each bottle, including the empty bottle, to the top with water.
3. Cover each bottle with a balloon, taping the edges of the balloon to the bottle to help prevent gas leakage.
4. Allow the bottles to sit for several days and watch what happens to the balloons.

Top tip

If you have a few pieces of fruit that are starting to go bad, why not make a fruit salad or smoothie.

You will need:

• 1 empty plastic bottle
• scissors
• string for hanging
• a hole punch or scissors
• sticks - these could be popsicle sticks
• bird feed, such as seeds or nuts

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Lay the bottle on its side and cut the bottle open like a boat.
2. Use the hole punch (or scissors) to put a hole on each corner, and feed the string through to hang your bird feeder.
3. Cut slits in the sides to poke the sticks though. These will act as perches for the birds to sit on and feed.
4. Find somewhere outside, preferably dry, to hang the bird feeder using the string. Add the bird feed.

Top tip

Did you know plastic bottles are estimated to take 450 years to fully breakdown. Do you use a reusable bottle?

You will need:

• an empty 2 litre bottle
• scissors
• organic food matter - scraps of fruit, vegetables and egg shells
• soil
• shredded paper
• water
• tape

Instructions

An adult may need to help or supervise.

1. Cut the top of the bottle off, roughly 3 inches down.
2. Add the food scraps. Then add a layer of soil and then shredded paper. You can also add a layer of fallen leaves or grass to help fill the bottle.
3. Add water and ensure it gets all the way to the bottom layer.
4. Place the top of the bottle back on and seal with tape to help make it airtight.
5. Place the bottle in a sunny well lit area and watch the waste decompose over the coming weeks to make compost for growing plants.

Top tip

Did you know recycling plastic saves twice as much energy than burning it in an incinerator.