Watch Claire Turnbull's interview on TVNZ Breakfast here

As always, with TV interviews it is hard to get all your ideas across - but the main things to take from this one are:

1) PLANNING

Try and do a plan/rough outline of your meals for the week ahead to help you work out your shopping list. If you never get round to planning, set a specific day and time aside to do this so it becomes a routine – my normal routine is to plan on Thursday evenings when the kids are in bed and shop Saturday morning. Eating well isn’t just about knowing what to eat, but being able to make it happen and creating new HABITS are a huge part of that. Also, consider where you shop – some supermarkets are SO much cheaper than others!

2) USE MORE PULSES AND CHEAP VEGES

Frozen veges are just as good, if not better, than fresh sometimes (especially veg that has been stored for a while). My mince was made with 2 onions, 2 grated carrots, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 cans tomatoes, 2 cloves garlic, 1 can brown lentils (rinsed and drained), 500g mince and tsp oregano - $2.10 ish per serve (serves v’s normal mince/onion/tomato and no veg or lentils which is $3.30 - $3.50 a serve depending on the mince).

Some recipes you might want to try on Claire's blog are:

vegan burger patties
chicken corn and chickpea salad
spicy carrot and chickpea dip
edamame and chickpea salad
green pea power soup
beef and chickpea casserole

3) USE MORE OATS

½ cup is only 35c!

Here are some ideas to use them:

overnight oats
oaty energy balls

4) SNACK SMARTER

With cereal bars being around 50-60c each on average, try batch cooking/baking on a Sunday! Try these recipes which all freeze well so you can just take one muffin/cookie out at a time!

banana, coconut and blueberry muffins
healthy lunchbox cookies

5) REDUCE WASTE

The average kiwi household throws away 86kg of edible food a year worth $664.

- Don’t store onions and potatoes together, they make each other sprout
- Apples last 8 times longer in the fridge
- Store bananas away from the rest of your fruit as they will cause other fruit to ripen faster
- Check your fridge temperature is less than 5 degree C, 70% of our fridges are too warm
- Put a piece of paper towel inside your bags of baby spinach and bagged salad to absorb the moisture and stop them going so soggy and smelling bad
- Peel and freeze your overripe fruit then turn into ice-cream!

chocolate ice cream
real fruit ice cream

You can find more tips on www.lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz

If you need personalised nutrition advice, check out the team here.