Don't throw food away challenge

catch_me_if_you_can

We're very careful with our food. We freeze the brine from tuna, tinned salmon, Sweetcorn for use in chinese food or a fish stew.

Stale (if it gets that far!) bread gets breadcrumbed to either use in cooking or as fish bait. Not me, OH likes to fish, I hate seeing them panic :eek:

Crumbs from cereal boxes go into a jar to use in crumble toppings.

Veg peelings go for the compost. Meat bones we keep to make stock/soup. We have used the drippings from roasting beef to make stock. Then used that in a casserole. Then used that in a soup.

We regularly make salads for lunches with past it veg, is ok with some rice/pasta, you barely notice it's limp.

So how can we open a pack of philadelphia-style cheese and then have to throw it away 2 weeks later as it's furry?

Oh and anyone know a use for frozen beef fat? It's in the freezer but for the life of me I can't think why. Unless it's going to be a cold winter :rotfl::rotfl:

SpikyHedgehog

I didn't think we wasted too much food, then I remembered DS2 ate hardly anything for dinner (too many scones & babybels filched from the package earlier) & though I ate his left over sweetcorn fritters , we threw away the cabbage. I also threw away the last bit of a celery head the other day - about 2 sticks - as it had been in the fridge for about a month...

I'll set myself the goal of not throwing away more than £4, by reducing how much I give DS2 (& storing the babybel in the freezer...) & encouraging him to eat his veg before potatoes...

The cabbage was from Sains. & the price today is 80p, I'd served half the other day & I gave DS2 about 1/5 of what I cooked tonight so wastage so far is 8 pence.

fuddle

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

My £10 is seeming increasingly big - I picked that after working out last week's £2+ and thinking it would be a good starting point.

Maybe I should aim for a big improvement and try for £5?

I think I have underestimated with my £5 - I think you should keep it at £10 and revel in your success at the end of the month, while I dwell on my failiure

I have thrown about 1/4 of an onion out tonight - cooked, were in the onion gravy, left overs from picky kids. I'm estimating 5p wasted.

Also just had 2 oranges. Skin left so off to find out what I can do with them. I think this may become a bit of an obsession! Makes you think

Flat_Eric

Earlier in the week I threw away two fruit platter trays (grapes, melon pieces, pineapple, apple) (£1.99 each but 2 for £3.00) then there were the pears, the kiwis, a lettuce. I'm sure now when I think about it that none of it was on its last legs and could have been eaten.

I also made soup to use up lots of veg that well needed using up but it was a waste of time because two portions have gone in the bin today and the three that are sitting in the freezer, well they will probably end up in the bin too ? Next time I'm going to make the soup properly and not just make mush. I've also thrown away lots of yogurts this week. I can take or leave yogurts and I always make the mistake of buying lots when I *like them* but then go off them again and they go out of date and end up in the bin !!

I don't think there was anything else but I'm sure there was !

To my shame, I must confess that I have in the past bought food only to find i have no room in the freezer for it and to make room.. have binned stuff. NEVER AGAIN! (the perils of being disorganised and not labeling stuff properly)

This thread is fab. I am joining the challenge ! I don't know how much to allow ? I want to set zero ? but feel thats being too ambitious......

I know I have quark in my fridge with a use by date of 20th October. I don't want that to be the first item on my list to cost me money. Will it be ok to use ?

dizzypink

Hi folks, would like to join in.

We are a family of 6 plus one mental cocker spaniel. We waste so much food, things that could be turned into another meal with a little time and imagination. I really need this challenge to give me the proverbial kick in the right direction.

I challenge us to £10 for the month.

Read an interesting article in the Tightwad Gazette where they would take food scrapings from the plate and put this in the freezer to use in a pot luck soup/stew.........I would normally put this in our food waste bin collected by the council. Food for thought;)

Diflower

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

& encouraging him to eat his veg before potatoes...

I don't know how old your son is, but a few tricks had to be used with OH's sons. One would always eat all the potato first, whether mash, chips, whatever, so we gradually reduced the amount of potato, so that he couldn't be too full of potato to eat the rest of the meal.
A lot of young children do tend to eat foods one at a time, and have to learn to eat the meal as a whole.

Obviously make sure he still has enough food altogether, but maybe keep some potato back and offer a little more if he's eaten nearly everything:)

SpikyHedgehog

Diflower wrote: »

I don't know how old your son is, but a few tricks had to be used with OH's sons. One would always eat all the potato first, whether mash, chips, whatever, so we gradually reduced the amount of potato, so that he couldn't be too full of potato to eat the rest of the meal.
A lot of young children do tend to eat foods one at a time, and have to learn to eat the meal as a whole.

Obviously make sure he still has enough food altogether, but maybe keep some potato back and offer a little more if he's eaten nearly everything:)

Thank you, Diflower, I'd forgotten I had to do that with DS1 when he was little. DS2 is 8, but can seem younger... He does love his carbohydrates!

Picklepud

Oh my goodness I so need this challenge!!! I am a lurker on this site and read lots of brilliant Ideas I was getting worried when first reading the thread that I am the only one that wastes food .. I am trying to get better but sometimes i literally throw whole shopping bags of food out!!! I too have forgotten in fridge syndrome. There are 4 (sometimes 5) of us me DH, DS2 (17) DD (16) and DD1 (19) at Uni plus dog, cat, turtles and fish. If the food is cooked and on the plate then nothing gets wasted and too struggle to keep the teenagers full but I tend to leave things too long in the fridge ... but I am trying to get better and have joined the November grocery challenge and lurk every day in living out of freezer storecupboard. I have not wasted anything this week (yet) i made a turkey/sweet potato/mushroom/carrot/onion curry on Monday and everyone loved it and said it was gorgeous and could I make it again and it was all either frozen or normally in the bin.. So I am a beginner and may need lots of help but please can I join in ?:o

squeaky

fuddle wrote: »

Also just had 2 oranges. Skin left so off to find out what I can do with them. I think this may become a bit of an obsession! Makes you think

I'm not quite sure where it is but I remember recently seeing a post about making candied peel. It looked straight forward enough.

Otherwise you could save the zest from the skins (in ice cube portions in the freezer) to use in all sorts of ways...

In any pud type thing that uses zest - you could add a dot more for extra flavour, or sprinkle some on for decoration.

Deliberatley use it to make an orange sauce or glaze. I often use up odds and ends of fruit in a mixed fruit cocktail and make a thin syrup from the juice of an orange or two (with added zest if I have it) so that I effectively get something that's not a lot different to tinned stuff.

You can use oranges in exactly the same way as lemons to make a curd - and some extra zest gives it a lot more zing.

I'm sure there are other things too.

For those of you with no garden, if you have house plants there's still a use for compost if you have potted plants in the house...yes? Or friends/family/neighbours who would appreciate it? Or mixing your home made stuff with shop bought and make up potted plants as gifts...?

Oh!!! AND.... imagine olive oil flavoured with orange zest for a salad dressing. I've got a lemon one which is LUVVERLY... must try orange some time.

Flat_Eric

Have already started to meal plan and trying to base meals around what is in fridge. Bought purple carrots yesterday - thinking of roasting tomorrow in oven then adding to pan with stock with corriander (2 and a half packs need using up ....) before blitzing to make purple soup !

question ! have steak I took out last night to defrost in fridge - not sure I will be able to use it tonight - thinking of cooking it tomorrow morning in chilli ? will the steak be ok to use tomorrow morning ? I know I can't stick back in freezer because it will be all but defrosted now.