Want Not, Waste Not.

My former housemate Emma (who left me for greener pastures – let's just call him Alphe) always had a thing for waste. And when I say she had a thing for it, I mean she absolutely hated it. I would throw out an entire jar of out-of-date pasta sauce and she would look at me like I'd just told her Masterchef was never coming back on TV. To be honest, I just got used to the rants and to seeing her have weird leftover combos for dinner "because it's perfectly good and you can't throw it out" – but I didn't really change my tune.

Then I read a story in Girlfriend magazine (because, yes, I am secretly a 15-year-old girl) that talked all about how bad food waste is for the environment. Did you know that every year in Australia we throw away $5.2 billion worth of food? Crazy, I tells you. And it all contributes to landfill, combining with other organic materials to produce that dreaded greenhouse gas – methane.

So tonight I'm cleaning out my cupboards and taking stock of what I have, because tonight's dinner is going to use the stuff I've already got. No matter how wacky it looks mixed up on the plate. Emma would be so proud.