Don't throw food away challenge

squeaky

Two baked potatoes that I left in the oven for three days. (If they'd been in the fridge I'd have been happy to use them.) So 20p there.

I made the Takeaway Secret's chinese chicken balls last night and forgot to reduce quantities for the batter, though I remember fleetingly thinking (while whizzing round the kitchen doing nineteen things at once) that I could save any extra and use it on something else. Only to remember that I'd been dipping raw chicken into it EEK!! So that's another (estimated 30p).

Grand total so far this month now £1.06

Hmm... not good. I'm sure in my heart of hearts that I usually waste far less then this... it normally takes me a fortnight to fill my 1 ltr ice cream tub. Emptied it yesterday morning and it's half full again already. Bum. Fair enough it's all in the compost bin - but sheesh! Must do better.

hollieinbloom

would love to join in with this!
this morning i found an apple in the bottom of the fruit bowl which was turning with a huge squishy gross bit on it, so i cut it off, and cut the apple up for the birds. and...the apples were free! so no wasted money there! someone a few streets up has a orchard and was giving away lots of apples, so i took a huge bag full and made tonnes of deserts to freeze! but the left over ones where meant to be for snacking...looks like i've been slacking rather than snacking! x

rising_from_the_ashes

Have had a bit of a disaster .

While doing the freezer inventory I came across an elderly block of mince - took out and thought it'd do for the dog however this morning (now it's defrosted), it looks awful and you would not believe the smell coming off it:eek:.

Wouldn't risk even for pooch (he's ancient now and has a bit of a delicate tum!;)) ....

I've no idea how much it cost at the time but will say £2.50 as a figure (only ever buy meat when on offer and I know you can get them for 2 for £5 now).

Ohhhh dear, worried my £10 may even be hard to reach now! (and that was supposed to be an over-estimate starting point figure):(

squeaky

It's usually the blood on the meat that smells off. A good rinse can make a lot of difference. Not always, but sometimes

The thing is - you're trying, and you're aware.

Just think of all the things that you've used lately that once upon a time would have ended up in the bin. A bit hard to do a "What haven't you thrown away challenge"... but pat yourself on the back for all the good stuff

Pooky

I've not been keeping up with what's been thrown as it's been hectic here but it's nothing more than veg peelings, the scraps of DDs lunch boxes and the odd satsuma (they turn so darn quick).

I tried one of the new slow cooker packet mixes (schwartz?) for a chicken curry...had it cooking all day yesterday but by the time we came to eat it we were all sick of the smell of it.....it's gone into the fridge for tomorrow night instead (although I'll need to do something with it first as its far to salty).... Any ideas????

I even resorted to putting the unbeaten cat food out on the bird table at one point during the week......gone in seconds! :T

gallygirl

Pooky wrote: »

I tried one of the new slow cooker packet mixes (schwartz?) for a chicken curry...had it cooking all day yesterday but by the time we came to eat it we were all sick of the smell of it.....it's gone into the fridge for tomorrow night instead (although I'll need to do something with it first as its far to salty).... Any ideas????

Strain the sauce off and cook a few potaotoes in it - they absorb the salt.

Then work out what to do with the potatoes :rotfl:

BohemianCoast

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

While doing the freezer inventory I came across an elderly block of mince - took out and thought it'd do for the dog however this morning (now it's defrosted), it looks awful and you would not believe the smell coming off it:eek:.
(

I often find that the freezer is a particular risk for wasting food, together with the backs of cupboards; especially if I buy lots of stuff cheap and forget it. Out of sight out of mind.

Anyway, I've just made the mix for tomorrow's fishcakes; no end of a lot of odds and ends have gone in and it is *delicious*. And I was very OS making it too; the potato water is stored away for Friday's soup, and I've frozen the brine from the salmon to chuck in a fish stew sometime; the rest of the out of date oats should make a good crumb for the fishcakes too.

But OS no-waste experts -- what can I do with the pickling brine from the end of a jar of cornichons?

And today's waste -- half a pear that DS started and left lying around (5p), the end of the HM baba ganouche which is a shame; I kept wondering what to do with it and now it's too late. (20p I reckon).

[Deleted User]

I have a very large pot of chicken stock now cooling in pyrex jugs around my kitchen courtesy of my DDs chicken carcass.only the bones will go in the rubbish bag as I have no animals or compost that I could use them for but I am pleased with the 'free stock' which will make my soup later this week I picked up another huge bag of windfalls this afternoon so tonight I will be peeling, slicing,and stewing for the freezer.I so love 'free food' :):)

gallygirl

gallygirl wrote: »

- HM chicken soup. Even my cast iron stomach didn't fancy it . Say £1
- Whole pineapple £2 on BOGOF, reduced to £1.34, still on BOGOF, so 67p.

Well, it's now 6 days later and no more to report except a manky crust - say around 3p :j. Will be around 1 or 2p to report tomorrow as a Philly Light tub has a bit of mould - not my fault as Mr GG has stopped eating it and I'm on a diet, but will add some to a carbonara type thing which has yet to be invented :cool:

ETA - don't be so cocky! 20p on manky Clover spread and 25p on liquid cucumber (hmmmmmmm, face mask????????)

£1.15 with Philly Light to come.

ChrissieT_2

My freezer has 3 plastic milkbottles of peeled and chopped green tomatoes, and one of apple mush for when I get round to doing the green tomato chutney. I think you could carefully use the cornichon brine in stuff like cottage pie or casseroles - but probably not much at a time. But today's devastating failure is a cauliflower bought at the farm shop on friday for 75p. Was it a trick? It's not creamy white, more grey and black. How did that happen so quickly? And the bargain pears will have to be eaten quicker than we can manage. I threw one away at lunch time (15p-ish). So the £10 target that seemed so very easy is in jeopardy.:eek: