Don't Throw Food Away Challenge

Karb

Don't need to throw anything out today, so I'm declaring my January total at 25p.

princesskitty29

Karb wrote: »

Don't need to throw anything out today, so I'm declaring my January total at 25p.

Well done, that's really low! Good luck for February. :beer:
Unfortunately I had to thow a 1/3 of a tub of my natural yogurt out last night, it was 4 days past it's use by date and had been opened a long time so was looking a bit funny! That was frustrating as I usually always finish my yogurt. Oh well fresh start for February! So I worked that out to be 50p, which brings my total to £1.20 for January.

I'm going to set February as £5.

princesskitty29

Can anyone help? I've found a couple of cereal boxes in the cupboard that have a bit of cereal left in each one: Kellogs Multi-Grain Start cereal and Kellogs All-Bran. They have both been open ages and have been hidden at the back of the cupboard, so if I had them as normal cereal now they would be stale and chewy - not pleasant! They are still in date though. Can anyone suggest any uses for them?

Also, I made spaghetti carbonara last night and chopped up bacon to put in it. I cut the white fat off and I was wondering if there were any uses for it other than crisping it up and eating it? Thanks.

Firemunchkin

princesskitty29 wrote: »

Can anyone help? I've found a couple of cereal boxes in the cupboard that have a bit of cereal left in each one: Kellogs Multi-Grain Start cereal and Kellogs All-Bran. They have both been open ages and have been hidden at the back of the cupboard, so if I had them as normal cereal now they would be stale and chewy - not pleasant! They are still in date though. Can anyone suggest any uses for them?

Also, I made spaghetti carbonara last night and chopped up bacon to put in it. I cut the white fat off and I was wondering if there were any uses for it other than crisping it up and eating it? Thanks.

I've heard of people baking with LO cereal before, but I've never done it myself. A quick 'G' search reveals some suggestions online.

Bacon fat, if fried, makes a tasty (if not particularly healthy) alternative to other oils. If you're making a dish which could go with an extra depth of flavour then you could try that, e.g. frying the onions in the bacon fat instead of olive oil, - and still eat the bacon bits afterwards!

This week we're using mainly what we have in the fridge and freezer - I love weeks like this. I'm making February my ultra-frugal month - I'm aiming to spend as little as possible - so ideally I'd like to get through the rest of this month this way:

homemade BBQ sauce - we made loads of it for a party and instead leaving it out until the next day we portioned it up and froze it the same day, so now this week we're having BBQ chicken with corn & spicy potatoes - YUM!

tomato & basil chicken with veg - when vine tomatoes are in season, we get a big box of them from our local Turkish shop. They're gorgeous and much nicer than the ones you get in the supermarket. Usually £5 for a huge box of large tomatoes. We make them into a sauce and soup and freeze them in batches. Makes a great addition to spag bol or for baking chicken breasts in for a delicious and hassle free meal.

I've brought home the extra soy, wasabi and chili sauce that comes with my Itsu lunch. Normally I'd just throw these away, but I'm sure OH will eat them and they're fine in the fridge for a few weeks. I don't eat out at work very often so it isn't a huge stash of them. Waste not want not!

Lilyplonk

Due to having a bug/virus for the past 10days or so, even more stuff has escaped me - had to throw out some couscous and some houmous which breaks my heart as I love both.

We've had a week of soups (some home-made and some tinned for convenience) - so couscous/salad and houmous/carrot sticks/crispbreads were well and truly 'off the menu'.

Have bought some Tahini this week with the intention of making my own houmous with blitzed chickpeas and whatever flavours I fancy.

Also bought some packets of couscous - should be better if I can 'prep it as/when required' instead of buying small containers from the deli counter and having them 'escape me'.

Good luck everybody for February - maybe I'll start pricing what gets thrown out, just to see how I go on. Probably get a bit of a shock :eek:.

princesskitty29

Firemunchkin wrote: »

I've heard of people baking with LO cereal before, but I've never done it myself. A quick 'G' search reveals some suggestions online.

Bacon fat, if fried, makes a tasty (if not particularly healthy) alternative to other oils. If you're making a dish which could go with an extra depth of flavour then you could try that, e.g. frying the onions in the bacon fat instead of olive oil, - and still eat the bacon bits afterwards!

Thank you Firemunchkin, what a great idea! I actually googled it last night and Kellogs themselves have loads of great recipes! I'm eyeing up some apple and bran muffins, yum! Much better than stale cereal with milk! Your meals for this week sound yum too.

We did a big shop on Saturday, we'd run everything down so needed to stock up so now i'm going to have to keep an eye on everything so nothing goes to waste! We had a roast beef dinner yesterday, I didn't eat all of my beef so my OH is going to chop it up and have it in some lentil dhal I made tonight. I'm also going to chuck in a red pepper that's looking a bit sorry for itself.

Lilyplonk sorry to hear you've been ill, I hope you're feeling better! I always have a big bag of couscous in the cupboard, it's so easy to prepare and tasty too when made with a stock cube or similar. Home made houmous sounds good! Good luck with February! :beer:

Firemunchkin

Grrr - have to report first wastage of Feb.

OH made too much food and promised he'd eat the LOs, but didn't! A week later and they're still in the fridge and well manky.

So, that's: cabbage & lentils; cauli cheese and brocolli all gone. Estimated roughly £1 for it all.

I am VERY annoyed.

:mad:

Frogletina

Threw out 20p worth of tonic water which had been standing around and was flat. Following that was a little homemade bread, two thinnish slice - unable to quantify cost but it had been made with out of date flour. Still have bread in the fridge from 2 weeks ago. Will be glad when I've finished it. Still have a bag of flour to go as well.

frogletina

sprozza

Hi I need to join this challenge! I have just come home from shopping and was ashamed at the amount of food I had to throw away, especially as I don't have much money for food this month . Well I have now drawn a line under it and am on a mission not to waste anything if possible. Can I put myself down for £5 (hopefully a lot less) until end of Feb.

mrsdee

Am liking this thread! Am normally very careful with not wasting anything. Ends of bread I put in my blender/mini chopper and blitz to make breadcrumbs and then add to bag in freezer. I take out the odd handful when needed when making meatballs or to coat fishcakes etc. Had some left over mash last week which I froze and then used at the weekend to make into potato farls to have with eggs for Sunday brunch. No waste so far this week as far as I am aware although slightly concerned about the 3 pears in my fruitbowl that look like they may go straight from hard to mush! My husband made me freeze a tiny piece of roast pork that was left over from our Sunday evening roast at the weekend (I usually cook a piece of meat that is enough for at least two dinners, so that our second dinner is quick to get ready on Monday night straight from work) and it was enough for a lovely sandwich with some picallili!! Loving the ideas and suggestions on here (and on the lovefoodhatewaste website).