Don't Throw Food Away Challenge

shammyjack

Sitting here eating a bowl of " Leftover Soup ", well more like a stew really.

The base is home made Duck stock with loads of finely chopped leftover veg and bits of various meats stiffened with a can of chick peas , pearl barley and lentils . 2 thick slices of home made granary sourdough to soak it up . LUSH !

DawnW

freedom2011 wrote: »

Hi All, hoping this is he right place to post my question.

We had frozen turkey for Christmas. I boxed up some left over bits on Christmas day and froze it. I took this out Tues night & left to thaw in fridge and forgot about it :mad:. So that is 36hrs ish ago. Do you think it would be ok to pop this in a pot to make up some stock & soup or do you think I have missed my window and pushing it?

Thanks.

P.S. Glad I have come across this thread :Tit has brought to mind something that I think I need to address.

If you froze it promptly (ie not too long after cooking and not allowed to hang around at room temp), and it has been in the fridge since you took it out of the freezer, I would use it. After all, it was probably still frozen for a considerable number of those 36 hours. Remember, it is best brought to piping hot before you eat it (though of course you can eat it cold after that if you want to).

WelshWoofer

Another good day here
Had fake bacon, a dried up cooked quorn sausage sliced into half a tin of beans from the fridge, plum tomatoes and an egg for tea! Breakfast at 6pm! Used up lots of bits and pieces that normally would live in the fridge for a day or two more and then emigrate to the bin. :T

Solstice_3

suec wrote: »

Don't know if you already knew this but you can freeze fritters and just reheat them in the oven.

Yes but thanks, I have frozen the spare fritters but it only used 1/3 of the can Thinking of making savoury muffins but my freezer is full and need to make some space first - can I just freeze the creamed corn do you think?

Bluegreen143 wrote: »

Thanks, but it had already been frozen I froze it when on its last legs already and as it looked a bit unappetising once defrosted I used what I needed then chucked the rest. Serves me right for being so disorganised when I first opened it!

Proud of myself today as I made lentil and veg soup and after putting the carrots, onions and leek in the pot to soften, I was dismayed to find some VERY bendy celery in the fridge I'd meant to pop in the soup but forgotten about. But I chopped it up super fast and chucked it in, it would have definitely had to be chucked otherwise.

DH came home with a tip last night, apparently if you chop off the top and bottom of celery (freeze it for stock) and wrap it in tinfoil it will last longer (weeks). Not sure if it's true but am going to test it out as my celery always goes floppy!

laurel7172 wrote: »

Lurking fruit and veg now: a net of lemons, a bag of peppers, some new potatoes, a mixing bowl full of small, home grown butternut squash...and rather a lot of ageing potatoes and onions under the sink.

I chop up leftover lemons, limes and oranges into small slices and freeze them to freshen up drinks of water, and the odd G&T, it's an ice cube and a slice in one

Using up leftover cheese, salad and wraps tomorrow sending DH off to work with two wraps and having some myself for lunch. Might freeze the rest of the wraps as they tend to go moldy really quickly!

Bluegreen143

Solstice_3 wrote: »

...DH came home with a tip last night, apparently if you chop off the top and bottom of celery (freeze it for stock) and wrap it in tinfoil it will last longer (weeks). Not sure if it's true but am going to test it out as my celery always goes floppy!...

Oooh great tip! Hope it works as my celery also goes floppy, I detest it raw/in salads and only use a small amount in soups/stews/stocks so it takes me forever to use up a whole celery if I happen to buy it.

No waste today, OH had steak (leftover from Christmas and frozen), whisky cream sauce - hope he used all the cream! - and veg & chips from freezer. I had roasted veg pasta (sauce leftover and from freezer) with salad. Hopefully should escape with little waste this week as it occurred to me I only did my shopping on Wed this week and do extra cooking/baking on Sundays, so not much time for stuff to fall through the gaps this week

jenagain

Hello!

I would love to join in please, used to be brilliant at using up everything but have definitely been slacking over the past year.

I cleared out my fridge yesterday and threw so much away, can't believe how much was wasted by not being home much over Christmas. There are 5 of us: Me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), and DS (20 months). The youngest 2 are very fussy eaters, although improving slightly over the past couple of weeks.

Right now I have 3 VERY sad bananas in the fruit bowl which I will use for muffins tomorrow. I love baking and try and bake something most days, even if just rolls for DH's lunch the next day. I have a drawer in the freezer for packed lunch things (cookies/muffins/pitta bread/rolls etc) and need to top that up next week when they are back at school and I have some peace and quiet. I made 2 Weetabix cakes yesterday so one of them needs to go in the freezer today. Got the ends of a couple of loaves of bread to make into breadcrumbs too tomorrow.

I bought a bag of clementines on Christmas Eve, I don't like them and no one else has eaten them (despite DH asking me to buy them!) so does anyone have any suggestions for those?

All the bits and pieces of veg in the fridge were too far gone to use (hairy!) but normally I just make 'sad vegetable soup' or chop them up and put them in the freezer for when I have more time. There are lots of onions in the cupboard that I should chop up for the freezer tomorrow as the one i got out for dinner tonight was going mouldy on the outside.

Excited about doing this! I think £5 is my goal for this month :T

Jen x

laurel7172

Also had 400ml of cream to use up...made a slow cooker of rice pudding. That's quite a lot of rice pudding, and apparently it doesn't freeze well...I know what we're having for breakfast!

I have completely blown my "budget"...I whizzed up some curry paste and used half, plus some chunks of frozen spinach to make a curry with the garlic mushrooms I cooked yesterday. The smell....(and the taste was worse) They were on the turn when I cooked them, I think. So the whole panful went into the bin. And I finally accepted I'm never going to use the pounds of Value jam I bagged and dropped into the bottom of the freezer because I couldn't bear to waste it even though I only wanted the jars...nearly two years ago.

On the plus side, I cooked up the rest of the paste with a panful of potato chunks, a few handfuls of peas and the remains of the spinach. I even used the cooking liquid from my root veg mash. Yum...and enough frozen for two family meals. I roasted the peppers...to be added to more soup tomorrow. I intended just to freeze them for later soupmaking, but bought some whoopsied fresh basil...

I reduced some leftover cooked sausage to crumbs, mixed some of it with cheese and served it to the offspring toasted on use-me-now crumpets for lunch. There's enough crumbled sausage left to liven up a potato and onion soup tomorrow, and potatoes and onions are what we still have most of!

chinagirl

I cooked a large Sirloin roast beef on New Year's Day, and we had a lot left over. I have kept it in the fridge, used some today to make a Beef Plate pie. What can I do with the rest, or can I freeze it. If so, what do I do with it, slice it and freeze, or leave it whole and freeze, also how do I defrost it etc. Sorry for sounding a bit dim,

skader

Solstice_3 wrote: »

Yes but thanks, I have frozen the spare fritters but it only used 1/3 of the can Thinking of making savoury muffins but my freezer is full and need to make some space first - can I just freeze the creamed corn do you think?

I have done this before and it was fine
I ended up making Chinese style chicken and sweetcorn soup using hm chicken stock from a roast (stock was frozen to use another time) and then adding the frozen creamed corn and seasoning with salt, pepper, cornflower, vinegar
It's yummy, and due to using hm chicken stock you get a nice chicken flavour without actually adding in any chicken
Of course if you had some leftover cooked chicken you can add it

Just another way to use it up possibly
Good luck, the fritters sound lovely!

jenagain

Just looking through the fridge again and now need ideas for what I can do with a half empty bottle of Tesco Finest raspberry dessert sauce? And 7 Clementines in the fruit bowl?!

Also found half a packet of sundried tomatoes which I will put in some bread later