Creating a Desk area out of an Unusable Space

A few years ago we knocked the utility room out of our relatively small kitchen and extended the kitchen out into a conservatory. Whilst we now have a pretty large kitchen/family room space there isn't a great deal of workspace. There's enough for cooking and prepping food as we also have an island, but I longed for somewhere to organise our lives. I needed a little desk area to keep the family diary, letters from school, the wheelie bin calendar, and other general bits and bobs, without taking up a much needed area of worktop.

A couple of years ago I made a memo board wall, but as it was mostly behind the kitchen door it didn't really work for me, and there still wasn't anywhere to keep the diary apart from in the hallway, and I kept forgetting to look in it!

I then came up with the genius idea to change the opening of the kitchen door. Instead of opening into the kitchen, it would open out into the hallway, freeing up that unusable kitchen wall which would no longer be hidden behind the door. We did similar in our ensuite bathroom last year, and it made a huge difference to the space, making it feel so much larger.

I found a local chippie on Checkatrade, who changed the opening and refitted a new door for £40, enabling us to fit a shelf to the kitchen wall. A few accessories were purchased, and I now have a handy shelf for all our paperwork and reminders, plus somewhere to hang school artwork.

BEFORE - UNUSABLE SPACE

AFTER CHANGING THE DOOR

A MINI DESK AREA

Copper Clock : John Lewis

Wire Memo frame : Maisons du Monde

Stacking mugs : Waitrose

Memo pad & Notebook : Sainsburys

Copper beaker : Sainsburys

Copper bulldog clips in jar : Sainsburys
Copper tealight holder - New Look

Copper vase : Tesco

Shelf & Brackets : Ikea

Half glazed door : B&Q

6 Tasty Family Meals Using Your Leftover Roasts

According to the government agency WRAP, UK households waste around £700 worth of food per family every year. I know that my family doesn't waste anywhere near this figure, so that means that there are other families out there that waste our share too - over £100 of all the food they buy each month goes in the bin. 

For me, it makes sense to meal plan.  It also makes sense to keep excess food such as bread and crumpets in the freezer. We then only take out what we need to use as and when we need it, avoiding any waste. Buying ready sliced frozen vegetables such as peppers, onions and mushrooms, also helps avoid waste, as well as being extremely convenient to use in cooking.

Before I shop (either online or in store) I make a list of 6 main meals that we'll be eating over the coming week, and then buy everything I need that I don't already have in the cupboards. I don't necessarily plan for us to eat a specific meal on a specific day as that often depends on the use by dates, as well as who will actually be at home. With two teenagers in the house, plans for family meals can quickly go out of the window when an offer of 'bowling and Nando's' comes in. This also means that we sometimes have leftovers (hence only 6 meals on the planner). Whilst some families don't like reheating foods later or the following day, this is something that I often do. Meals are plated up, covered over and reheated in the microwave later, or used as a base for another meal the following day - it's easy enough to slice a couple of cooked chicken breasts up, add them to pasta or rice, throw in some veg, and end up with a family meal for five.

I'm currently working with Iceland on a campaign to try and reduce the amount of waste that households produce. You may have seen the ad for their new 'Buy me frozen, Keep me chilled' World Famous range :

The idea is that you buy these delicious pre-cooked dishes frozen, then take them home and either pop them back into your freezer to use at a later date, or keep them in your fridge for up to 7 days, and have them ready to cook whenever you want, without the need to wait for defrosting.

With 7 dishes in the World Famous range, there is something for all tastes. For my family I chose to incorporate the Texan Down n Dirty Beef Brisket, Lamb Shanks in Mint & Rosemary Gravy, and the Mississippi Smoked Pulled Pork into our weekly meal plan in the following ways, to show that with a little imagination leftovers can form the basis of another delicious meal. Each dish served 4 people and was made using half a pack of the World Famous meats, making them an ideal way to use up any leftovers, however small they may be.

You can find photos of the finished dishes over on my Instagram feed, and the full recipe for the Lamb & Feta Pita Pizzas below.

Lamb & Feta No Bake Pitta Pizzas by Helen Jessup on Scribd

What's your favourite way to use leftovers?

What are you doing to avoid food waste?

Do you have any tips to share?

a commissioned post for Iceland Foods #PowerofFrozen