Don't throw food away challenge

daisiegg

Please please forgive me if I post it in small chunks, because that seems to be all I'm allowed to do!

Basically - to totally sum up my longer post - have ended up with a bag of satsumas and a bag of oranges that we won't eat. Any ideas what I could do with them rather than chucking them? thanks!

fuddle

I'm in

I would like to think I am pretty good at not throwing food out. Shopping weekly helps with this and I do like to throw icky veggies/peelings into the bowl for broth stock. Also the dog helps to reduce the waste... what waste?

I'm going to pledge that I don't want to waste any more than £5 for November. I hope I'm not going to get a shock at just how much I do throw away :eek:

Hawthorn

oooh interesting thread

I have very little waste - there are six of us, two of those teenage boys, and we have a dog hoover too. We're the opposite of creating waste....we're always running short of stuff :rotfl:

I am interested though...Squeaky, my veg peelings usually go in the compost bin since we grow our own stuff too. What kinds of stuff do you make stock with? I use ends of carrots/celery/parsnips. Do you use potato peelings too? We generate a LOT of these.

When they have been used for stock, do you bin them or compost them? I always thought it was raw peelings only that went in the compost?

This thread has spurred me on. In a change to the meal plan, we are now having curry for dinner. I have a piece of root ginger that is going past it's best so could do with using up.

Hmmm, and add to that the bottle of bubble bath (69p) that just literally went down the drain thanks to my 8 year old. There's maybe 10p worth left in it.

squeaky

Veg peelings and various odds and ends....

I hardly ever peel potatoes these days - even for mash. I call it rustic mash

Anything and everything that gets cut of veg and salad things when preparing them goes into a one litre ice cream tub that lives in the veggies drawer of my freezer.

I seldom make a pure vegetable stock - but you know those recipe books that say that you should add to your chicken bits a carrot, an onion, maybe a celery stick...?

Bah humbug! What a WASTE of good veg!

So I use about half a container's worth of odds and ends - whatever takes my fancy.

Nothing wrong with a bit of fruit peel either - though not too much.

Fruit peelings can be used for a fruity "stock" ideal for when making jellies or fruit sauces / glazes.

You'll find all sorts of ideas in this list:- using threads here on Old Style MoneySaving

trolleyrun

I have lists on my fridge, freezer and the dry stores cupboards. Everything I buy gets put on the list, and scored out once used. It makes it easier to know exactly what I have in, and avoids me buying any more because I'd forgotten what I had (this used to happen a lot). It makes it easier in finding meals in the freezer too, instead of keeping it open, searching through every drawer and letting the cool air out, wasting electrickery Oh, and I don't really pay much attention to use by dates, I use the big hooter sniff method

I do make some weird concoctions when things need using up. Mushroom and parsnip soup, anyone? :rotfl: Carrot and ham omelette was an interesting one... Sometimes I pass foods to a friend nearby if I'm going away and the food will expire whilst I'm gone. My friend loves it, as her food budget is much more restricted than mine.

A question (or several): How long do you guys keep the veg peelings before making stock? Will it keep for a few days? Is there anything that can't go into stock? I must get my behind in gear to make my own stock. Advice much appreciated.

In November I pledge to not throw any food out, unless I burn it and it's inedible

squeaky

daisiegg wrote: »

Please please forgive me if I post it in small chunks, because that seems to be all I'm allowed to do!

Basically - to totally sum up my longer post - have ended up with a bag of satsumas and a bag of oranges that we won't eat. Any ideas what I could do with them rather than chucking them? thanks!

Jam...?

Marmalade...?

Orange curd...?

Or.... peel and chop a few of them. Use the zest from all of them and the juice from a few others, add a bit of sugar and reduce the liquid to a syrup to pour over the bits. Serve with a dollop of ice cream or a glug of custard.

TrixieB

Fab idea for a thread I rarely throw food away - if I do it's only cause we didn't like something - leftovers get portioned up and frozen so it's really just odds and sods of things, like today for instance I've just used up the scrapings round the side of a jar of pesto mixed with the dregs from a tube of tomato puree to make a pizza sauce base

mouseymousey99

# 22
daisiegg Hello, juice them? roll them around the worktop first & you get more juice out. I've just got an old glass squeezer thing but it works well. If they won't drink it, for whatever reason use it to top up orange squash (means you get some vitamins in them).



My new branch of Morrisons (whooee) has a naughty step in the fruit & veg dept. Its brill, potatoes 49p, bags of apples 19p, I have been cooking solidly since I went in there.



I cant bear to throw anything away food wise either, so I'll keep an eye on this thread.

sistercas

this is a fantastic challenge thanks squeaky , i need to make food stretch further and havent really taken into account any wastage . just yesterday i threw a portion of mash potato away which had been lurking in the fridge for a few days ( dont know how much to cost for that though) a few soggy grapes ? 30ps worth and some mouldy bread ? 50p

i am going to aim to waste less than £5 during november

motherkitty

Dasiegg - i think Nigella lawson has a recipe for a clementine cake which involves boiling them for ages and then whizzing them up in the blender. Maybe you could use your satsumas for that.
As already suggested you could juice the oranges for juice to drink or make boodles orange fool from the dairy cookbook. You could also zest the oranges before or after juicing and freeze it. I have done this before and just taken out a spoonful or two when needed to add to fruit cakes etc. Have made a nice sultana and orange cake this way.