Don't Throw Food Away Challenge 2012

ScarletRaven

Thank you squeaky and debbiedeejay - it's a very stressful time at the moment, and things only got worse today as I've been told I'm not entitled to even a single penny in JSA Had a wander around Lidl as I'm going to start doing a lot of the shopping there, and the big stock-take and clean up of the cupboards & freezer takes place tomorrow, I'm rearing to go! The link to the grocery challenge is great squeaky, thanks - definitely wanting to work out (and stick to!) a grocery budget lower than our current one. Also I hope you feel better soon debbiedeejay

To bring this back on topic - used up the last bit of a red pepper and a couple of mushrooms today before they went off, threw them in to some fajitas. One fajita left over so will be having that for lunch tomorrow

Got most of a 1kg bag of carrots left in the fridge from the 30p Morrisons special offer (amazing!) so going to chop them tomorrow and freeze them in portions for later use Do I need to blanche them or prepare them in any way first? I've never frozen raw veggies before so not 100% sure on how to go about it, but I don't want to fully cook them first as I'd like them to keep their crunch

sprozza

I too have been lurking and would love to join this challenge. I cleaned out my fridge and cupboards last night and was shocked at the amount of food I needed to throw away
I have a big shop coming later and I am determined to not waste food so I am setting myself a limit of £5 for March. I am really sad am have done a spreadsheet with all of our food on it, 2 days before the use-by date of the food is up it will highlight red. I just need to remember to look at the spreadsheet daily now :j

Kylieminoag

:cool:Wow! Sprozza I love the idea of the fridge spreadsheet.... How do you get it to change colour automatically?

I have all my freezer contents on a spreadsheet printed and stuck to the freezer so when I'm tempted to have a takeaway because I cant be bothered to cook I look there and there are a host of ready made meals that need no thought:j

I cleared out the fridge this morning and need to declare a quarter pot of hairy home made hummus and half a cabbage timbale where I really dont trust the rice to be reheated again. I salvaged the cabbage from it though and that will go in the chicken stew for tonight. I guess 20p for the hummus and 40p for the timbale.

Am dead chuffed with the way the family have taken on the dont throw food away challenge... they are eating what I put in front of them and thinking of ideas for what to do with leftovers. We have a revolution in the house.... thanks everyone for all your support and ideas.:T

mon1o

I'd love to join this please! Ill give us a budget of £5 per month if that's ok? Well not ok, you know what I mean I'm just starting out budgeting properly have got loads of meat (beef joint, full chicken, chicken breast, lamb chops and beef mince) lurking in the bottom of the freezer and loads of jar sauces in the cupboard not to mention a myriad of different veg in the fridge and freezer to use! Normally I'd throw the veg and buy fresh but given the circumstances I'm determined to use the lot!

DundeeDoll

I have a 5 pints style dried milk to declare. Unopened, use before apr 2008. Hate the stuff, used to take on work trips abroad along with travel kettle, adapter and teabags but have now discovered little tubes of uht which are much better. Also 1/3 mr t strwberry food replacement, use by aug 2010 and rock solid. On the plus, 1) made soup on thur from couple of sprouting spuds, a broccoli stalk, 3 small red onions and HM beef stock. 2) after OH had cooked kedgeree mound split into 4 portions, putting left over portion straight in freezer 3) took left over buns home after seminar (i was last in room and they would have been thrown away) 4) took remainder of milk to uni library cafe after seminar as again would have been chucked

Bikingbint

Adela31 wrote: »

Hello lovely people, I have a quetion if I may, a) do some freezers "burn" worse than others? (I just got a new freezer and I swear I am getting more freezer burned food) and b) is it still ok to eat it in like, stews or slow cooked

I will be very upset if I cant stock up on a couple of packets and mince and chicken in this freezer if its going to burn them all ((

I have found that using my vacuum sealer has stopped all sight of freezer burn. I thought it a sound investment.

sprozza

Kylieminoag I use the conditional formatting and highlight cells with a date less than in 2 days time, I think? Pretty new to spreadsheets so just trying things out at the min.

I have to declare a total fail today, had some natural yogurt that I needed to use up was making a nice omlette for lunch and thought why dont i mix the yogurt with the eggs instead of a dash of milk. Well it was a total disaster as it curdeled and I have to throw the whole lot away. Luckily we have our own chickens so free eggs but I had put a load of cheese and tomato in too
So thats about 55p in the bin!

Firemunchkin

Have to declare one portion of squash & bacon risotto. Cost per portion about 70p. It's a week old now so really don't feel comfortable eating it.

I saved the water from when I blanched carrots & celery for the freezer, I'm now using it to make soups (also using veg before they go soft) - an extra depth of flavour.

I've boiled a gammon joint today, but can't bring myself to chuck the water I boiled it in. It's had peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme and the gammon in it, and smells amazing. Had anybody ever used that water again for anything?

Mags_cat

Firemunchkin wrote: »

I've boiled a gammon joint today, but can't bring myself to chuck the water I boiled it in. It's had peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme and the gammon in it, and smells amazing. Had anybody ever used that water again for anything?

Yes! Soup!

Sorry about the exclamation marks but gammon stock is my all time favourite for making soup with - even veggie soup (although don't offer it to any veggie people, obviously ).

cat_smith

Have to declare 2 slices of HM Bread. How does anyone manage to pour coffee over their lunch? (DH!) As I have been unwell this week I have a whole week of menu re-planning to do to use up bits and pieces.