Use it up! Don't throw it in the bin!

fluffybunnies

stew them with a few cloves, then pick out the cloves and make into apple pie/crumble/serve as sauce with ice-cream.

The cloves will impart a lovely flavour to the apples.

annie123

Thats a good idea, love apple crumbles.
thank you

twiglet98

I HATE throwing food away, it's a really sore point in my family because the others are incredibly wasteful. DD23's partner is a qualified chef who now teaches, and being used to a commercial budget he has no concept of the immorality of binning perfectly good food. DD17 is fussy and picky, never eats more than half her plateful even if she just cooked a scrambled egg for herself, and will shovel it into the bin unless I make an issue. We have a dog, cats, chickens and ducks, and a busy birdtable. We have a compost bin and I started growing salads, veg and some fruit only last year when I was off work having treatment, so that's a fairly new idea, but there's a box in the kitchen for compostable waste. I'm attempting the brilliant MSE idea of freezing clean veg peelings with a view to making soup. It infuriates me to lift the lid of the kitchen bin and see half a slice of toast, a scraping of egg, apple core with most of the apple still uneaten, two halves of sausages, a whole portion of bought fish-and-chips because someone's eyes were bigger than their tummy, even sometimes half a bowl of porridge gets scraped into the bin, because they are just too lazy to do otherwise. Same goes for wasting electricity and heating oil, it's a kind of arrogance, or maybe retaliation, they despise all my MSE efforts, and refuse to accept that I'm actually really struggling.

p00

I was suprised to read somewhere on here about another member saving all there peelings and carrot tops etc( can you actually eat carrot tops then?). I have always cut off the spring onions and thrown the stalks for instance as I just didnt think of eating them.

What can we eat from all the veggy bits we seem to chuck away like cabbage outer leaves etc. Is there a book on this sort of thing?

I was good tonight though and used the stalks from the Aldi broc (39p) in the soup we had for tea along with left over chicken and some potatoes:o

xxp00

brighthair

attentionseeker1 wrote: »

Sorry yes- that would be helpful!

This is from an American website so I 'translated' quantities into metric- everything was in cups etc! May need further tweaking as have only made it once

American style banana pancakes

120g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
300ml milk
1 egg beaten lightly
20 g butter, melted
1 medium size banana mashed (as overripe and black as poss!)

1) Mix milk, beaten egg, mashed banana and melted butter in a bowl.
2) Add sifted flour and stir in, then sugar- do not over mix as will be lumpy from banana
3) Wipe a large non stick frying pan with a smidgen of butter, put over medium heat and then ladle some pancake mix in. NB: American pancakes are cooked in small rounds- slightly bigger than those scotch pancakes you get in packets so should fit about three separate pancakes in at a time.
4) Turn pancakes when small bubbles appear all over the surface of the pancake.


We had ours with a bit of honey or butter, but maple syrup also good for weekend breakfast, or toffee ice cream if making as a dessert.

Just made these - minus banana as I didn't have any! Great for using up some out of dates eggs and spare flour. Had them with crispy bacon and syrup, and will use the rest of the batter up tomorrow :T

newlywed

fluffybunnies wrote: »

stew them with a few cloves, then pick out the cloves and make into apple pie/crumble/serve as sauce with ice-cream.

The cloves will impart a lovely flavour to the apples.

And if you have any marshmallows lurking in the cupboard... After the pie is cooked, cover with marshmallows and put back in the oven for a short time till melted.

Makes a mess of your spoons when you eat it but is lovely!!!

sparrer

p00 wrote: »

I was suprised to read somewhere on here about aone mamber saving all there peelings and carrot tops etc( can you actually eat carrot tops then?). I have always cut off the spring onions and thrown the stalks for instance as I just didnt think of eating them.

What can we eat from all the veggy bits we seem to chuck away like cabbage outer leaves etc. Is there a book on this sort of thing?

I was good tonight though and used the stalks from the Aldi broc (39p) in the soup we had for tea along with left over chicken and some potatoes:o

xxp00

I love broccoli stalks sliced and steamed or fried. I save all the other peelings from veg, with the exception of onion skins (too messy to weed them out), keep them in the freezer if necessary til I have a decent amount then cook them all in the microwave. The pets love it mixed in with their dinners and it gives me a pint or two of lovely rich veggie stock for casseroles, gravy etc. Re eating it myself, perhaps blended into a soup, I don't see why not. As long it's cleaned first and cooked well through it wouldn't be a problem - if the pets didn't get to it first!

Nomoneymummy_2

My fave left over recipe is roast dinner soup!

I always cook too much veg firstly because I was unsure of portion sizez and on purpose now! Then the next day use it all to make soup, parsnip carrot turnip and potato & onion seems to work out best! added all to stock from whichever roast we were having boiled down, blended then add some cream or milk.

Where I work we take it in turns bringing dinners in the eve to save us buying junk from work or ordering take out etc, I made the parsnip soup with chicken stock and some leftover chicken from the roast and have been mithered for the recipe ever since,

Love reusing leftovers... not sure why, started doing it a couple of months back out of neccessity and now I get a sill sense of acheivement at creating something out of that which i would previously have binned!
Daft really!

yummyhoney

i buy all my fresh veg once a week and cut them up and freeze them,and skins go in the compost but after reading here yesterday about using the skins for soup i did that,,so i used carrot skins,,broccoli stumps added a knorr stock pot cloves of garlic an onion and som mushrooms i had left over,,it was the nicest soup ever.my kids wont eat homemade soup usualy,,but yesteray they were asking for more,,yummy with my own hm bread also!!!!

steerpike

twiglet98 wrote: »

I HATE throwing food away, it's a really sore point in my family because the others are incredibly wasteful. DD23's partner is a qualified chef who now teaches, and being used to a commercial budget he has no concept of the immorality of binning perfectly good food. DD17 is fussy and picky, never eats more than half her plateful even if she just cooked a scrambled egg for herself, and will shovel it into the bin unless I make an issue. We have a dog, cats, chickens and ducks, and a busy birdtable. We have a compost bin and I started growing salads, veg and some fruit only last year when I was off work having treatment, so that's a fairly new idea, but there's a box in the kitchen for compostable waste. I'm attempting the brilliant MSE idea of freezing clean veg peelings with a view to making soup. It infuriates me to lift the lid of the kitchen bin and see half a slice of toast, a scraping of egg, apple core with most of the apple still uneaten, two halves of sausages, a whole portion of bought fish-and-chips because someone's eyes were bigger than their tummy, even sometimes half a bowl of porridge gets scraped into the bin, because they are just too lazy to do otherwise. Same goes for wasting electricity and heating oil, it's a kind of arrogance, or maybe retaliation, they despise all my MSE efforts, and refuse to accept that I'm actually really struggling.

I suggest that you try the nice approach first and have a family meeting and explain that things cannot continue and try to get their co-operation so stop wasting food/power etc.

Have an agreed test period for things to change and if things don't improve - try a touch of "tough love".

Just a few strategies to think about:-

1. upping the amount of money that they contribute dramatically if they pay you lodge money so its their money being chucked in the bin not yours.

2. reduce pocket money and/or treats

3. reduce the amount/variety of food available - if you buy a wide variety and it is available to them - a lot of it will get wasted without a second thought.

4. Stopping an endless supply of snacks,biscuits etc being available - eating between meals kills the appetite

........ or as a last resort -

5. keep the food under lock and key! :eek:

Wasting food is not an issue for them at the moment as it has no consequences for them.

You have to think of ways to make it impact - try giving them a spartan diet of basic food without choices for every meal (ie only offer toast for breakfast - no alternative choices such as yogurt / cereals / fresh fruit etc) ....and make it clear they can eat it or leave it ..... if they are unhappy about this arrangement and demand a better choice - inform them that they are at liberty to buy it with their own money.;)

Its human nature that we tend to place a higher value on the stuff that we have to pay for ourselves more than what comes free.