Don't throw food away challenge

vintage43

Managed to use up some onion and 2 rashers of bacon from the fridge in a beef casserole, enough for two nights worth, saved the peelings to make posh crisps tomorrow night. Still havent got around to going through the fridge, but have spotted open sausages for tomorrow and will use the lovely stock I made on sunday to make 'Sausage surprise'!

Pentagon

hello everyone, I love this thread!

I feel so guilty everytime I throw anything away that I will go to any lengths not to.

Some tips of mine - mainly using the freezer

Most fruit (and some veggies) can be frozen to go into a smoothie. Bananas (peeled and cut into chunks), grapes, stone fruit, kiwi, pineapple are all good. As is cucumber, lettuce and spinach.

Egg whites freeze. So do yolks, but you need to add salt or sugar to them (then label to use in frittata or custard - do not mix the sweet and savoury up)

I skim off and freeze fat when roasting meat, it is great for roasting veggies in and gives extra flavour.

Cut cirtus fruit into slices and free freeze. Great for popping into a glass of water.

Decant half tins of beans, pulses, tomatos into tupperware and freeze.

I even put the half full milk jug in the freezerr before going away on holidays!!!!

Pentagon

ChrissieT wrote: »

I think you could carefully use the cornichon brine in stuff like cottage pie or casseroles - but probably not much at a time.

A little goes great in coleslaw. And by watering down the mayo it is less fattening!

kittywight

i need to start writing down what im wasting think ill put it in my siggy then i will feel guilty when i come on here will stop me throwing stuff away

in the bin today is

choc donuts 15p
french stick 10p
quite a lot of rottiserie chicken ... £1.50ish??
half pot of sauce 25p


months total ... £2.30 ??? !!!!!!

BohemianCoast

Eek had a fruit bowl disaster. Lost a banana, *three pears* and *four* clementines. Also had to scrub the bowl. I am going to count all this as a further 70p. I wonder if I could keep fruit in the fridge? Especially while there's nothing else in the fridge due to eating out of cupboards.

On the other hand, everyone loved the hotpot (mince, onions, potatoes, passata, carrots, mushrooms, pearl barley, with LO red cabbage) and it was huge; the leftovers will feed us all again. We're also a day ahead of the meal plan because we had Leftover Roulette for lunch on Sunday. I used all the potatoes in the hotpot apart from one I'm saving for soup, so kicked DH out of bed this morning to put a loaf of bread on so we'll have one to go with the frittata. I've just looked at the meal plan and we could continue to eat out of freezer/fridge/cupboards for most of next week as well. I'd need another fruit/veg/bits and bobs top up, but this is just astonishing. We're not compromising on nutrition either; I think this is healthier than the way we normally eat.

his_missus

his_missus wrote: »

This month my aims are
a) to make and freeze breadcrumbs from the crusts of bread neither of us eat and
b)I'm going to plan meals more carefully as I usually buy a huge bag of spuds but then throw half away because I then make pasta or rice dishes and the spuds get forgotten about and start sprouting
c) not be lazy and make fruit salads instead of leaving a huge melon or pineapple or a pack of kiwis in thr fridge because I can't be bothered to prepare them.

Good luck to everyone xxx

Ok, 2 out of 3 ain't bad (as Mr Meatloaf once sang) I did indeed finally make and freeze breadcrumbs and have made yet more mash and roasties to freeze. Unfortunately, I forgot about the melon lurking in the fridge and when we got back from our break away, it was ready to walk and jump in the fridge itself - a whopping £1.50 wasted:( Also found 4 soggy potatoes (they actually bounced a bit when they rolled out onto the floor, no idea how long they've been hiding in there or even why they were in the fridge ( I suspect DH had something to do with this) so I reckon that's prob about 25p bouncing its way out of my pocket too.

Keep up the good work people! :j

PixieDust

slight disaster here.....I was trying to make a roux for the first time on my own from written instructions and failed somewhat with the first attempt. Got it sorted for the second go, though So...2oz butter and 2oz flour in the bin.....but, really, I'm not stressing about it, it was a learning curve!

squeaky

I think I need to put a thread motto into the first post...

Don't tell yourself off for what you lost - pat yourself on the back for what you've saved.

thrifty-gal26

I have managed to not throw anything away for nearly a week makes me feel better about all the food I had to throw out last week.

WelshWoofer

Well, after all of my recent good work on the wastage front I have finally succumbed! A pack of leeks from A*di at 69p (gone all slimy and minging) and possibly about a third of a bag of lettuce (40p ish) if I can't salvage any for a sandwich tomorrow.

Other than that though its been good for November so far - shopping day on Saturday and I need to do a meal plan for next week and a list to use up what I have in before buying replacements!