Don't throw food away challenge

gallygirl

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Is such a thing possible?? I think a billion Indians will disagree with you there, so plse don't ditch what you've got!

Stored in airtight containers in a dark environment, spices will last forever. Maybe not perfect, but still quite safe to eat. Can't believe the statement about the curry powder, it's not particularly hot anyway; the answer is to add whole dried red chillies.

In my opinion if it's from this century then it's in date :cool:.

I buy my dried chillis in the local supermarket in Spain, around £1 for a soup can sized jar, and bring them back with me. No ethnic stores round me

PixieDust

That's one helluva bus journey for dried chillies....I'm sure there must be somewhere closer :P

I've just rescued what I could from the windfall apples, chopped up the good bits and am beginning to warm them through now...so the only waste was the manky bits. Whoopsied meat is re-packed, labelled and in the freezer. "sick" son has wobbled down, scoffed a leftover cold sausage from the fridge and sprinted back up when he thought I wasn't listening. Hmmmm......

squeaky

I can't believe what a disaster this month has been!

I bought a big block of mature cheddar and it crept into the back of the fridge and hid. TBH Fridge and Freezer are both full and I've had too many things in the fridge that have to be used NOW... so since cheese keeps well I rather ignored it. Then I wondered what that stuff wrapped in "blue plastic" was...

..it was my cheese! <sob>

I've cut all the blue stuff off - but that's £2.20 worth of cheese gone. And I must now use up the remainder fast before it turns blue again.

Then there's half a biscuit mix. I made them too thick and didn't realise that I'd under cooked them. Didn't manage to get them all eaten before they starting tasting "musty". So that's another 55p


£5.31


And there I'd been when we started this month thinking that I was going to be way under a fiver! <sigh>

Right. Block your ears 'cos I'm about to give myself a good talking to!!


As in "get organised". And "NEVER have the freezer too full to accept date sensitive foods from the fridge". And "NEVER have the fridge full of date sensitive grub" - I just don't eat enough to be able to eat a fridge's worth in a week.

OK, so the biscuits were just a silly mistake on the cooking front - but I also learned that I need to halve that recipe because I can't eat the biccies fast enough. Well, not when I don't have room in the freezer for the overflow.

Cheese is best part of £6 per kilo :eek:

That's more expensive than a good piece of beef!

So really I should have taken a 75p pack of mince out of the freezer and stuck the cheese in there! At least it would have been a cheaper loss - and possibly no loss at all since I'd have been much more aware of the limited storage time of mince in the fridge.

I can't believe that after all these years I can still make food related mistakes that end up costing me some real money. But, obviously, I can. So time to get back to paying attention rather than doing things on autopilot.

gallygirl

Crikey squeaky, I hope I never do anything to upset you

Linda32

Hello all,

Just checked back, and my previous total was £1.30

I need to add half a tub of coleslaw and half a celery. Guessing 30p on the coleslaw and 40p on the celery.

So going for £2.00 new total.


The problem with the coleslaw (its not the first time this month I've thrown it away), is that I've been buying it to accompany cheap jacket spud dinners. Then not using the rest of the tub. We would use it during the summer.

I only use celery in casseroles for added flavour, so would I have been able to freeze this? I know I can actually freeze it, but would I still have the flavour after, because of the high water content? Mind you I do the same with leeks and they are fine, so I guess celery would be.

BohemianCoast

I only use celery in casseroles for added flavour, so would I have been able to freeze this? I know I can actually freeze it, but would I still have the flavour after, because of the high water content? Mind you I do the same with leeks and they are fine, so I guess celery would be.

When I have the time I chop excess onions/celery/carrots and fry to make stew base. Freeze in casserole-sized portions and use at will. Onion/mushroom mix works well too.

PixieDust

I made another quiche today to use up the leftover pastry from the other night (just onion, ham and cheese this time), and there was still a little pastry left, so I rolled it out, cut some circles and made icke teeny mince "pasties" with mincemeat. They look very cute Looked....very cute

Luckyred

This is the first day of my challenge so here goes....
I normally pop in the supermarket midweek and spend more than I need to.... not today though.
I had a look in the freezer to see what I could use instead and found a pkt of minced lamb and 2 large chicken breasts that I had forgotten about.
Also found a bag of spuds, 4 carrots, 1 onion, a red pepper, a tin of Homepride red wine sauce and some mushrooms all of which would have gone in the bin when I bought fresh supplies except for the tin of sauce.
Today we are having the chicken in red wine sauce to which I have added the pepper, mushrooms and some extra red wine from an already opened bottle. We are having some of the spuds roasted and garden peas.
Tomorrow I an making a shepherds pie with the lamb, potatoes, onion and carrots. (I wont eat this as I dont like mince so I will rustle up something else for me.) There will be enough for two good servings so I will make two and freeze one.

VfM4meplse

I honestly can't remember the last time I threw something away because it had gone off! It stays in my fridge until it gets eaten or I die .

squeaky

gallygirl wrote: »

Crikey squeaky, I hope I never do anything to upset you

I get mad at myself a whole lot more than I get mad at other people.

I mean - a fiver!

A genuine error or some sort of accident - fairy nuff.

But bad planning and organisation and not paying attention... and it's not as if I don't know all this stuff... blimey I could write a book!

Anyway... I told you to block yer ears!! Harumph!