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

dormouseuk

Right, well I cleaned out the fridge. Found quite a few jars of stuff lurking in the back that were full of mold, pesto clearly doesn't last for 3 years! I also had to throw out a couple of cucumbers that were squishy, two tomatoes that just fell apart when I tried to pick them up and a bag of green liquid that used to be salad.

Everything is now clean and lovely and I'm ready to keep proper control over how much stuff gets wasted.

I made green bean and ham soup for lunch yesterday with a bag of very sad looking french beans, a pot of some kind tomato and onion sauce that has been lurking in the freezer for ages and some ham that needed using up. I cooked the beans in ham stock and garlic, then blitzed it up and added the tomato sauce, ham and some herbs from the garden. It was really nice and the kids ate it all too.

Used the sad but not dead yet tomatoes to make pasta sauce with more of the herbs, green beans, courgettes and the other half of the ham. Served it for tea over pasta and grated the last of the dried up cheese over it. It was superb. Easily the best pasta sauce I've made for a while.

There were two cucumbers that were slightly limp and a nice fresh one. My Dad grows them and it was a glut year and he's been giving them to us faster than we can eat. Also a couple of aubergines and five courgettes. I chopped up the limp cucumbers, the courgettes and the aubergines and bagged them in the freezer. They can go into sauces, no one is going to be able to tell what they were when they've been blitzed up.

I've kept the nice cucumber and half a lettuce but will check regularly to avoid slimy messes.

Just need to decide what to do with the single portion of pasta that is left from yesterday.

mlz1413

Hi dormouseuk,
cucumber makes good raita with some yogurt - wonderful dip for snacks or to go with a curry dish.

Also if you get large courgettes you could treat them like a marrow and stuff it with mince (savoury or bolongese style) and bake.

No idea on the corn meal sorry, its not something I use.

cheeswright

cornmeal will go stale if left unused -like flour
BUT it will suppress seed growth - no matter how stale - sprinkle it around your garden to stop the autumn weeds getting a hold and save yourself a job in the spring

dormouseuk

Oh Cheeswright, what a fantastic tip. I shall do that with it! Not wasted at all then.

Thanks mlz. I'm about to make some more yoghurt so will give raita a go. I've got some nice mint needing picking so that will be an ideal way to use both.

I'm about to stew up some apples for the freezer and am going to try the tip about using the peel and cores to make mint jelly too.

dormouseuk

Had my first throw away. The youngest only picked the cheese off his roll at school and by the time he'd run home it had smashed to bits in his lunch box and mixed itself with a squishy greengage and the empty yoghurt pot to make a truly disgusting mess. The dogs enjoyed it.

Today we are sorting to freezer to get some idea of what is in there which should help with meal planning.

thriftmonster

Dormouse at least you're not wasting it!!! I had to pack lunches this summer for 2 foreign language students who were so picky and I could see the dogs watching me pack the lunches going "I'll have that later"......

Primrose

Don't throw those squishy tomatoes into the compost bin until you've squeezed the seeds out. Soak them in water for 24-28 hours to help get rid of the mucus which surrounds them. Then drain onto some kitchen tissue and let the seeds dry out. You'll never have to buy tomato seeds if you grow your own. And you can sow the tomato seeds in compost, still stuck onto the tissue, as the tissue will quickly decompose.

dormouseuk

Thriftmonster, it's amazing how quickly the dogs cotton on to where food comes from. The moment the kids come home from school they line up in the kitchen in the hope that there are lunchbox leftovers!

Primrose, I made my first attempt at growing tomatoes and despite my pots being too small and the dogs stealing the first ripe one, we still had quite a few. I shall have to give saving the seeds a go.


The freezer sort out was terrifying. We have a huge chest freezer and it is totally stuffed to the top. We have lots and lots of bags of french and runner beans left over from last year so will have to make a real effort to use those up rather than the new ones that have just gone in. Also found lots of bags and boxes of fruit so I forsee lots of smoothies in our future. Many, many unidentifiable pots of 'something'. Previously I would have just thrown them away but I've put them at one end of the freezer and will get them out from time to time and defrost. I shall then make a meal around whatever it is. I don't think any of them are sweet things. Mostly left over curry or tomato based sauces. The kind of thing that you think you'll add to something else and then forget all about.

I've made a list of the main meats in there. Found a haunch of venison that I'd totally forgotten about and also a whole salmon that is at least 3 years old. I've got the salmon out to defrost and see if it's gone dry or nasty. If it's OK then I'll cook it and portion it out to freeze again.

Am also defrosting a ham joint that my Mum gave us for Christmas. That should be good for sandwiches over the weekend, probably omelettes and some ham and lentil soup with the stock.

I've got some smoked haddock that looked a bit freezer burned and some frozen mushrooms out for tea. There is a lot of rice leftover from last night so will make kedgeree I think.

dormouseuk

I had another fail. My eldest son hadn't eaten all his kedgeree and instead of giving it to his Dad to finish or putting it in the fridge he put it on the floor at the side of the settee where it got missed until this morning so that went to the dogs.

However on the success side I used a couple of very elderly gammon steaks, half a box of chopped mushrooms and some herbs, all from the freezer and made two quiches and a tray of mini quiches for school lunches. Also used the very end of the pastry to make a handful of cheese straws.

The leftover kedgeree has been wrapped up in filo pastry, also from the freezer, to make samosas. We had one each straight away and the others have gone in the freezer.

The salmon turned out to be totally fine and has been baked and is cooling as I type this. The ham has been boiled and then I've immediately added garlic, onion and lentils to the stock and that's cooking away nicely.

There was a small portion of apple and plum puree left so that has been added to some of the stewed apple and put into pots. I'm going to top them with the broken bits of the filo pastry and bake for pudding.

The rest of the apple puree has been portioned up and put in the freezer and the pulp from the cores and skins is dripping into a bowl and I'm going to make apple and mint jelly later.

Finally, and this is the best bit... I opened the bag of cornmeal to go and sprinkle it on the garden while the weather was still dry and it smelled nice. Fresh and corny. So instead I made chilli cheese cornmeal muffins. They are so very, very good. I've had two already!

I've also been putting the trimmings of any veg in a pot in the freezer for making stock with.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. It is SO inspirational. I feel quite embarrassed to think of how much I used to throw away.

seasalt_2

What a lot of great tips and ideas on this thread!

I too defrosted the freezer last night and I too have got a least a dozen bundles of frozen beans! Won't list everything else - mixture of veg, fruit, meat and HM meals - but the one thing I don't know what to do with - which is why it's in there - is a lump of cod roe I was given - it's not smoked or I'd make taramasalata - any ideas?