Don't Throw Food Away Challenge

Mrs_T_M

I would like to join as well. I try to use everything up by making broths (I'm a new veggie, so this will be interesting) and then straining out the solid bits for our compost pile. Any green scraps (broccoli stem peelings mostly) go to the bunnies, then out on the compost pile after they're finished with them.

The only thing I've had to throw out this year so far has been a batch of slow cooker vegetarian curry. I didn't add enough water due to using dry lentils instead of pre-cooked and it burned quite badly. It probably costed 65p for the entire thing though. Essentially two tins of chopped tomatoes and some leftover veg that was going bendy in the fridge.

Anyway, I'd like to put myself down for £0 for the rest of the month. Now I need to get creative. DH doesn't like beans all that much, so he still gets rice and meat. I've cut down the amount of beans I cook at one time to keep from having to throw them out!

mrsdee

Miroslav wrote: »

I like those ideas.

Already put fruit in porridge, but the smoothie is a new idea to me.

Thanks

or you can just freeze and put in smoothie/mix with yoghurt/add to fruit pie or crumble another time.

Billie-jo

Have been fairly good, some left over mash I froze, some left over home made curry and rice last night I mixed up with 1/2 tin of tomato soup that was left added a few extra curry spices in and had for lunch - very tasty it was. However did throw away a bit less than a 1/4 of a nan bread so 10p maximum

Don't throw food away Feb challenge: £0.10/£5.00

princesskitty29

One of the things I love about doing this challenge is the new meals that come about because of leftovers. I usually have carrot and celery sticks with houmous and a snack during the week, however I never get through the whole pot and always used to throw the leftover away. I had some left at the end of last week and obviously I'm not throwing food away now so ended up making a mini mezze platter for myself and my OH. We had houmous, flatbreads , carrot sticks, halloumi cheese, salad and couscous. It was delicious and we would never have had it usually!

Thanks mrsdee for mentioning the lovefoodhatewaste website, I totally forgot about that! Going to have a nosey now... :T

Firemunchkin

princesskitty29 wrote: »

One of the things I love about doing this challenge is the new meals that come about because of leftovers. I usually have carrot and celery sticks with houmous and a snack during the week, however I never get through the whole pot and always used to throw the leftover away. I had some left at the end of last week and obviously I'm not throwing food away now so ended up making a mini mezze platter for myself and my OH. We had houmous, flatbreads , carrot sticks, halloumi cheese, salad and couscous. It was delicious and we would never have had it usually!

Thanks mrsdee for mentioning the lovefoodhatewaste website, I totally forgot about that! Going to have a nosey now... :T

You can also blanch and freeze the carrots & celery sticks, use them for stews/stocks/sauces later.

Also thanks to mrsdee for the lovefoodhatewaste website - a new one to me, and really helpful. Wish I'd known about it earlier as I had to chuck a big bunch of coriander this morning. OH PROMISED he'd do something with it, oh we'll buy a larger bunch, it's better value, la la la. Hmmm. It had gone all mushy, despite many pleas from me to do something with it. It was 50p for a huge bunch, we'd used 1/4 of it so 30p added to my total for the month. I'm mostly annoyed because I know we could have made some really yummy curry pastes with it - if only we'd planned a bit better.

The same goes for the blue cheese - OH promised he'd do something with it, but didn't, now it's really gone past anything either of us will eat. Bought as part of a pack so estimated at 50p waste.

I mixed up two eggs and a bit of milk on Saturday for eggy bread breakfast, but didn't use it all up (despite having three slices all to myself!) I put the LO in a sealed pot and hoped OH would use it in an omelette but he hasn't, so I've had to chuck it (how long would it keep for safely?) - estimated 10p waste.

Added to my previous £1 waste - that's now £1.90 for the month so far.

It doesn't help when you're away at weekends, which we pretty much were last weekend and will be this weekend. It makes using up little bits a lot harder. When we plan next week's menu I might leave one dinner and one lunch option empty, and see what we've got that needs using up and make that the focus of the ingredients. The risk is that we don't have anything else to go with it and have to go out and buy more stuff! Hopefully though the lovefoodhatewaste website will help there! :T

Firemunchkin

mrsdee wrote: »

or you can just freeze and put in smoothie/mix with yoghurt/add to fruit pie or crumble another time.

This is a great idea - I've chopped up and frozen some strawberries which were going a bit soft. I'll add to the pot in the freezer over the next few weeks (I buy strawberries every week to go in my homemade muesli) and will try a strawberry milkshake soon!

On the subject of keeping veg peelings for a veg stock - OH and I tried this throughout last year. It just doesn't seem to work for us. Adding cabbage trimmings made it stink the kitchen out, and was not a nice addition of flavour to cooking. Anything like beetroot or red cabbage had a simply awful colouring and made anything cooked with it look much less appetising.

I've stopped keeping the veg peelings for now, purely because just veg peelings for stock lacks depth of taste. I've thrown away the stuff we had in the freezer, no cost really so I'm not adding it to the monthly total.

Unless anyone has some advanced tips on which peelings are best to keep or perhaps what to add to make it nicer - then I shan't be trying it again!

Billie-jo

Had to throw an onion out today that had gone off in the bag. Not sure how much to cost it at really as it was from a 5kg bag costing £1.99 and I didnt weight it, lets say another 10p as it was only a small one. Even so its just doubled my total waste cost so far this month.

Have half a tin of beans in the fridge so must remember to either use them tomorrow or freeze them.

Dont throw food away challenge Feb - £0.20/£5.00

princesskitty29

I was doing well this month until last night, when I picked the last two plums out of the fruit bowl to put in my lunch bag and one of them had gone mouldy and rotten! So frustrating as I bought a punnet for the week and I was always intending to eat them, just one of them went rotten before I had the chance. So i've worked that out to be around 17p. Nevermind, still got the rest of the month to go! I'm going to have to have a think tonight as we've got food in the fridge that needs eating up but we're out for a lot of this weekend, will have to get creative!

meg72

Billie-jo wrote: »

Had to throw an onion out today that had gone off in the bag. Not sure how much to cost it at really as it was from a 5kg bag costing £1.99 and I didnt weight it, lets say another 10p as it was only a small one. Even so its just doubled my total waste cost so far this month.

Have half a tin of beans in the fridge so must remember to either use them tomorrow or freeze them.

Dont throw food away challenge Feb - £0.20/£5.00

I bought a 5kg bag of onions yesterday from morries. I have just costed them, there were 53 onions in the bag works out just under 4p each. So there you didnt waste quite so much afterall.

Frogletina

I bought runner beans at the weekend dated 15th February, took them out of the fridge on Wedneday and they were past their best. I would normally have thrown them away, but I decided to go to Sainsbury's yesterday and complain. The woman at customer services said that I should have taken them out of the wrapper before I put them in the fridge but she did give me my money back. I went to get some more and there were still ones there dated 15th February looking as bad as mine were. I bought some dated 20th February. It's not good.

What is happening with the quality in Sainsbury's? I'm not finding it that good at the moment.


I also threw away some bread, it was the remaining bit of my homemade bread and had been in the fridge for ages and I thought I'd rather bake some fresh next week. I'm going away until Monday so would not get eaten over the weekend. In future I will try to remember to slice it before freezing it.