I finally got round to making a huge batch of pumpkin soup at the weekend. I added curry powder and it was delicious. So lots of frugal lunches packed away in the freezer  for Autumn.

I also used some of the pumpkin flesh to make pumpkin cake. If you like carrot cake you will certainly like this. I left out the orange peel because I didn’t have any and used standard icing rather than the cream cheese variety. It has made a lovely moist cake. If I make it again I will freeze it in slices for our lunch boxes, probably without the icing though.

The recipe is here.

I have thought of some more things that you can reuse rather than throw away or recycle:

Egg boxes – save for seed trays or kids crafts. If you know someone who keeps hens they may also find them useful
Carrier bags – try not to collect them in the first place, but if you do, they are good bin liners
Envelopes – stick a label over the address and reuse. Collect together and use for writing notes and shopping lists
Banana skins – I have heard that you can use these to polish leather shoes but have yet to try it!

This is an ongoing list so feel free to add your ideas.