Don't throw food away challenge

Hawthorn

Uh oh. I cleaned the fridge out.

Wasted - teeny bit of cucumber that got frozen to the back of the fridge. With the best will in the world I don't think there's anything that I can use that for - 8p.

piece of a lemon that looked a wee bit suspect (dried out with green bits. bleauch) hiding under the garlic - 10p.

Half a pear. It had gone very soft..teenager ate the other half with the last dregs of a pot of natural yoghurt :T 10p. I was almost tempted to give the squishy part to the dog but thought better of it. It's new home is the compost heap

I have half of an iceberg lettuce that is going limp. I'm going to pop it in some iced water to perk it up and we'll have that with dinner, somehow. Time to get inventive!

rachbc

not a great start for me - I left out a packet of ham that the cats ate then OH managed to burn a pan of basmati rice!

WelshWoofer

My first throw out since I decided to join in - 2 crusts of stale bread.
I know many of you would have turned them into breadcrumbs but I'm afraid I'm a rubbish cook and just wouldn't use them - I did put a little bit of it out for the birds but I'm sure I heard somewhere that this isn't good for them so didn't want to put it all out.

Edited to add the following from the RSPB just in case anyone was interested....

All types of bread are acceptable to birds, but ideally it should only be just one component in a varied diet. Bread does not contain the necessary protein and fat birds need from their diet, and so it can act as an empty filler. Although bread isn't harmful to birds, try not to offer it in large quantities, since its nutritional value is relatively low. A bird that is on a diet of predominantly, or only bread, can suffer from serious vitamin deficiencies, or starve.
Only put out an amount of bread that birds will eat in a day. Food left on the ground overnight can attract rats. Soaked bread is more easily ingested than stale dry bread, and brown bread is better than white. Crumbled bread is suitable in small quantities, but moisten if it is very dry. During the breeding season, crumble the bread into tiny pieces so that it is only eaten by the adult birds. Dry chunks of bread will choke baby birds, and a chick on a diet of bread may not develop into a healthy fledgling.

his_missus

Ooh what a fab idea for a thread, thanks! I tend to throw away more unfresh fruit and veg than anything else. I'm quite good at keeping an eye on use by dates on tins etc. 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

[Deleted User]

I too never throw aught out,too ingrained in me I think.If I am not going to use it I will freeze it My freezer is my best friend and holds lots of odds and ends which come in really useful when i want to 'economise' Tonight for dinner I am having a 'freezer roulette dinner which means its almost whatever I pull from the drawer.I have a list which I update every month of stuff in there so I can stock rotate .Fo some reason I seem to end up with a lot of 'wraps or pitta breads sometimes which is handy for lunches or with the pitta breads I use when I have some HM soup.
I am far too frugal to throw food that I have bought and paid for out,comes with age I think :) Tonight I will have a marathon 'apple windfall peeling session' whilst watching t.v.:):)

kittywight

thank you to fuddle and trolleyrun

sorry i cant figure out how to multiquote still ... i think itll be one of those things ill never learn

trolleyrun i dont normally let freezer burn bother me, but this seemed to have changed colour completely .... it looked like the bread had warts! lol


ok so i have a few potatoes that need to be used, and half a pack of ham ... will use them up tommorow

going on holidays monday, so wanna use the fridge stuff up, not that theres much in there, and most of it lasts until after i get back, so ill use it next weekend when im broke after my hols and desperate for anything

Wesker

WelshWoofer wrote: »

Edited to add the following from the RSPB just in case anyone was interested....

All types of bread are acceptable to birds, but ideally it should only be just one component in a varied diet. Bread does not contain the necessary protein and fat birds need from their diet, and so it can act as an empty filler. Although bread isn't harmful to birds, try not to offer it in large quantities, since its nutritional value is relatively low. A bird that is on a diet of predominantly, or only bread, can suffer from serious vitamin deficiencies, or starve.
Only put out an amount of bread that birds will eat in a day. Food left on the ground overnight can attract rats. Soaked bread is more easily ingested than stale dry bread, and brown bread is better than white. Crumbled bread is suitable in small quantities, but moisten if it is very dry. During the breeding season, crumble the bread into tiny pieces so that it is only eaten by the adult birds. Dry chunks of bread will choke baby birds, and a chick on a diet of bread may not develop into a healthy fledgling.

Fussy little beggers arent they lol :rotfl:
I always put crusts and stale bread in the freezer and every so often make a bread and butter or savoury bread and butter pudding

Pooky

I really need to crack down on what we're throwing out...it is mostly veg peelings but I do need to start a stock box in the freezer for these. Potato peelings throughout the week get popped into a sealed box in the fridge (water changed every couple of days) and then dried out and roasted with plenty of black pepper/chilli flakes/herbs to go with a snacky style weekend tea....teamed with some crudit!s and dips they're very tasty.

SpikyHedgehog

Did better with dinner last night, though I threw a potato in the compost as it was totally green - out of the big bag so estimated cost 4p. I'd put the scabby scrapings off the other potatoes in with the onion & carrot trimmings before I remembered about keeping them for stock, so decided not to but they all went in the compost bin. (Not for my garden though, goes in the brown bin for the council to take. Must get my composter back from mummy & daddy & squash it into the garden ;-) )

Found a pack of tofu lurking in the back of the fridge I'd bought on offer & used the other packet & use by yesterday, so I broke it into the food processor with the dregs of a pack of icing sugar (about 5 tablespoons), a tablespoon of cocoa, dash of vanilla extract (from mummy) & a splash of milk. Blitzed it all up & carefully scooped into glass bowls so it looked pretty & chilled while dinner was cooking. Gave DS2 a small portion of shepherdess pie & the bribe to 'eat all your dinner if you want pudding' and he decided he would try it and that it was 'ok I suppose'. Given that his initial reaction was 'Don't like it, not eating it', I was pleased! He did leave a tiny bit of potato skin from the edges of the potato slices, and that went in the compost bin. DS1 decided he didn't like the choc mousse as the texture was 'too grainy' but I made the sacrifice of eating it myself so it wouldn't be wasted.

Kitchenbunny

Well, my challenge will start 1st November, but I'm already making a list of everything in the fridge and looking through old cookbooks to try and find ways to use things up. Looking forward to tomorrow's baking day so I can use up the bananas in the fruit bowl

Pooky - great idea with the peelings. We're not able to have a compost bin so I need a different way of using up peelings. I'll be using that, thanks.

KB xx