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

Kantankrus_Mare

I bought some red and green chillies a week ago intending to make thai fish cakes for the first time but never got round to it.

Can I chop the chillies and freeze them?

Don't want to waste them if I can help it.

Hubby already moaning that I bought chillis when we have a chilli plant...........but the chillis on the plant are far too hot.

Will grow milder ones next year.

Primrose

Freeze your chillies whole in a polythene bag. They don't need chopping and will keep perfectly well like that for ages. I've grown a surplus for the last couple of summers and am still trying to use up the backlog of those grown in 2009! Incidentally if you don't like hot chillies, I recommend the variety I grow - Hungarian Wax (sometimes also known as Hungarian Hot Wax). They're a larger chunky chilli which is quite mild in comparison with some of them which can burn blisters in your mouth just by looking at them.

mlz1413

Reevsey wrote: »

I have found 2 large bags of bran that i'd completely forgotten about - any ideas what on earth I can make with it - cant think of a single thing at the mo? Thanks

muffins!
you can add most fruits like, bananas, berries or apples.

Would think it could be used to bulk out breads, cakes and pastry mixes.

Reevsey

mlz1413 - Thanks so much, muffins, brill idea, my mind had just gone blank yesterday so thats great - lots of ideas now and i've just got into bread making (only braved a plain white loaf so far) but will now add some to the mix too.:T

mrs_baggins

although I dont throw that much away I have just read through the posts in a spare half hour and have mentally highlighed a few things. Its inspired me such a lot so thanks all.

toddles*

I have in my fridge quite a bit of leftover gammon any ideas that are not sandwiches.

Also Ive got some puff pastry in the fridge, do you think the gammon would make a nice pie? what sauce would you put inside it? Im thinking a white sauce? thanks guys

patchwork_cat

If you have a decent amount of ham a ham loaf is lovely. Grandma used to call it white pudding, but I don't think it is anythin like white pudding. No amounts I'm afraid, chopped onion, bread soaked in milk, finely chopped ham, egg and porridge oats http://grandmasvintagerecipes.blogspot.com/2008/09/ham-loaf.html. is similar.

toddles*

wow thats very different to what I was thinking, thank you very much. I have all the ingredients in aswell.

pupsicola

I have two fridge freezers. Decided that I was going to clear out both before buying anything else from the supermarket. Except for milk, bread, fruit and storecupboard bits. Made an inventory of all the things I had and then made meal plans of how I would put them together.

Some meals have been obvious such as salmon with cauliflower cheese and veg, shepherds pie, cottage pie. Others have been thrown together by whatever odds and sods were in the freezer. Made a fab fish pie using all the little bits of fish that were left over from bigger cuts. Made bubble and squeak with some mash and left over veg.

Basically have not had to do a big shop for 2 weeks and saved a fortune. Now I will spend the money I saved on stocking up the empty and newly defrosted freezers with lovely stuff for Xmas.

Thought it was going to be hard work and boring emptying the freezers but its actually been fun.

Rebelle

Hello!

Very longtime lurker coming out of the closet here, and thought I'd use my first post to resurrect this amazing thread. Been reading it from the start on and off for a couple of weeks and there are so many great ideas here, it's been well worth the trawl! :beer:

Like many others have said, it's really made me think about every bit of food I waste and how to be more creative with leftovers. Used to throw away quite a bit of fruit but now it goes into baking - in the past week have made carrot cake with oranges, banana loaf cake and an apple crumble, all with fruit past its best but all absolutely scrumptious! Have even found a recipe for kiwi muffins (can't post a link as a newb - Google "kiwi cove lodge" and click recipes) for next time I have some of those to use up, never knew you could do anything with kiwi but eat them raw!

Also managed to use up a tub of mascarpone that was lurking in the fridge by putting it in macaroni cheese (recipe from Nigella Express) as a substitute for evaporated milk - wasn't sure how it would turn out, but with a splash of milk to thin it down slightly, it worked perfectly and the end result was delicious, especially with some chopped bacon added too. :drool: Think I might have done the impossible and made a Nigella recipe even more fattening, but it was lovely and such nice comfort food in this freezing weather.

Last tip - drank the last of my old bottle of Advocaat tonight (ready for opening the new one for over Xmas!) and there was still quite a bit at the bottom of the bottle that was too thick to pour out on its own, so put some lemonade into the Advocaat bottle, shook it up and then poured the resulting mix into a glass - voila, instant Snowball, no waste and a clean bottle for the recycling. :beer:
Hope this thread continues as it's been such an inspiration, and imagine we'll all need some more of that in a week's time when wading through Christmas dinner leftovers!