Meet the Aussie mum on a mission not to waste any food
An Australian mother-of-four has caused a stir after she revealed what she does in the kitchen when her children refuse to eat her cooking.
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An Australian mother-of-four has gone viral for taking her children’s “leftovers” and repurposing them into new dishes.
In the past few weeks, Aimee Connor – who posts under the handle @aims.lc – has created cereal using crusts she’s cut off her kid’s sandwiches, produced a giant jar of granola with a rejected stack of pancakes and even made a “delicious” dessert slice using stale rice bubbles.
While some have questioned the creativity in her kitchen, many have marvelled at Ms Connor’s quest to reduce waste in her home, especially given how expensive groceries are in the current economic climate.
Recent data shows food prices have risen sharply since 2021, fuelling cost of living pressures and food insecurity. Some 3.7 million Australian households experienced food insecurity in 2023 – 10 per cent more than in 2022.
Despite this, Australians waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food across the food supply chain every year, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).
But Ms Connor is determined not to throw out “perfectly good food” if she doesn’t have to, and is instead rustling up some unique dishes uses produce her children decide they no longer want to eat.
“My kids have a really low appetite but then some days they’ll just absolutely smash everything I give them. So it’s really hard for me to find that happy medium,” she told news.com.au.
“It’s not just me. I think that’s just kids in general. We’re just out here trying to work out what they want to eat when they’re not actively telling you. You just have to guess, and sometimes you get it wrong. So there’s a lot of food waste.”
In one of her videos, the nifty mum – who is a qualified nurse – showed two plates of pancakes her kids hadn’t eaten, before revealing that instead of chucking them in the bin, she was going to turn the leftovers into something she would eat.
“They’ve not touched them, they’ve not even breathed on them,” she said.
“It’s a whole lot of food, and also, my dog can’t eat it because he’s got a sensitive stomach.”
After dicing up the pancakes, Ms Connor contemplated her next move, before deciding to “experiment” by adding oats, brown sugar, flour and an egg to the bowl.
She also threw in some leftover apple from the kids brekkie that she diced up and a sprinkling of cinnamon, before throwing the mixture onto a baking tray.
The result? A crunchy tray of granola that she served for herself with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. The remainder went into an airtight container for another day.
Reaction to her video was overwhelmingly positive, with many stating Ms Connor should “write a mums left overs cookbook”.
“I know I’m not changing the world or anything but for me it’s just really hard to waste something, especially in this climate,” she told news.com.au.
“I don’t have the money to just buy NutriGrain, because they’re not feeling like Cheerios one week. Cereal is pretty expensive these days.”
Ms Connor’s isn’t wrong – the average Aussie household is on average spending $191 per week on groceries according to data released in April.
“Rising costs are putting pressure on household budgets, which are being stretched thin,”
Finder’s head of consumer research Graham Cooke said earlier this year.
“We’ve seen grocery stress more than double over the last two years, driven by these large price hikes,” Mr Cooke said.
Finder calculated the cost of a basket of 23 goods, with average prices from 2022 and 2024, using data from Woolworths and Coles.
The study found that people were now paying about $406 compared to $361 in 2022 – that’s an average increase on this basket of over 12 per cent or an extra $46 each week.
It’s not the first time Ms Connor has repurposed food that is often destined for the rubbish bin, with the mum regularly turning soggy cereal into muffins.
One video shows the clever mum turning uneaten rice bubbles, once a favourite of her four kids but now a cereal that has fallen out of their favour, into a sweet fridge slice.
On another occasion, she made a DIY version of the popular Cinnamon Crunch cereal, this time using crusts she’s cut off her kid’s sandwiches.
“You’re so damn creative with foods. Sometimes at the beginning I’m unsure but I just know you’re gonna come up with something food,” one delighted viewer wrote under one clip.
“These recipes are incredible,” another mused.
“You’re a genius,” stated someone else.
As another offered: “I really appreciate seeing someone else repurpose food. I do this sort of thing too. It’s too expensive to waste!!”
But others aren’t so kind, slamming the ingredients Ms Connor uses and claiming it’s “gross” to reuse food that has been handled by little ones.
“I usually get really negative comments with any kind of my videos … And I do get it, they don’t see everything,” she said.
“When I’m saying I’m using my kids’ scraps I’m not using ones they’ve coughed in and snotted in. I’m literally talking about cereal that I’ve put in front of them and they’ve looked at and said they don't want.
“I make my own judgement with the food I’m using.”
Originally published as Meet the Aussie mum on a mission not to waste any food
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