Food and living alone

[Deleted User]

I chuck cauliflower florets into a bag after giving them a good was and freeze them like that I never blanch them at all.Eggs will be fine If you think they are not right put into a bowl of water if the float they aren't very good if the sink they are fine I have never yet throw out an egg unless when I have cracked it it smells off.I grew up without BBF dates and I'm still here .Use your common sense and if it smells off then it probably is But I too have scraped mould off bread and cheese and the top of jam and survived.Jam usually goes like that because some one has used a buttery knife before hand and its the butter thats gone off.Hence the reason you always use a spoon or seperate knife to get the jam from the jar .My old Mum instilled thit maxim into our heads as kids NEVER EVER use a mucky knife in jam or marmalade on pain of death almost:):):) When I was a child any food ,or in fact any thing that was remotely edible was eaten.No fussy eaters in those days you had a choice,take it or leave it and go hungry.Chances were it would appear on the table at the next meal anyway as nothing was ever binned in our house If it didn't go in the kids it went in the dog.(didn't have fancy tins of dog food either ):):):)

paulineb_2

Ive never had a freezer until recently and Ive still to use it but I will when my kitchen is sorted, repairs need done.

Ive always managed ok with just an ordinary fridge to be honest but a freezer will be handy for me. I got one from a charity shop, cost about £100 I think.

I used to waste far more food when I ate microwaved stuff, I tend to cook as much as I can from scratch. Sometimes that means eating the same dinner two nights in a row but thats fair enough

Also, best before dates, depending on what it is, you can eat food a year or so after its best before date and it would be fine, Ive got a cupboard full of approved food stuff that Im still working my way through and Ive never had any problems eating stuff from packets thats well past its best before date

I draw the line at blue pitta bread though, its the smell when it goes blue thats off putting, Id be giving that to the local crows.

When it comes to bread Ive started to eat more tortilla wraps rather than a loaf, theres less waste.

Coopdivi

brightonman123 wrote: »

brians faggots are not the highest quality meat product.. maybe cheaper overall to get some mince or beef and make your own..

also, check local butchers- offten do 2for1 on meat, works out cheaper than supermarkets -

be sure to split into portions, before freezing.

Brians faggots?

Faggots were originally made with pork offal because it was cheap so ideal for poor people. They're not made with beef.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_%28food%29

Nada666

PasturesNew wrote: »

Those of you who are using freezers aren't really being helpful. We know that if we had a freezer we could do wonderful things with portions etc. Fact is, many people live without a freezer for a variety of reasons.

Today I have to eat a lot of eggs and I have six pittas to eat by the 16th - so I'd better open a tin of tuna, boil some of those eggs, then eat a tuna/egg/mayo pitta twice a day for the next three days.

What on earth are you havering about? Eggs usually come in packs of six, pittas usually come in packs of six or eight. One egg a day is six days. Two eggs a day is three days (and two eggs is hardly an unreasonable portion). Eggs can be cooked so to have a very wide variation in texture. A single slice of pitta with a meal twice a day is hardly excessive.

There are problems with single living - multi-buy discrimination in pricing and so on. But eggs and pitta bread are pretty low down on the scale of problem foods.

Kirri

You can get eggs with (or I do from the org delivery co's at least, supermarkets do seem shorter dates..) about 3 weeks bb date still or maybe longer from a farm shop if can buy fresh as think they have a 28 day bb date from lay. Unless Lidl have a very short date they should be ok to use over a period of time so no need to eat daily - or just don't buy 10 packs from Lidl and just get 6 eggs from another shop. A farm shop near me sells individual eggs even but that is an exception!

I also live in a studio flat albeit bigger and with a separate kitchen - have a small box type freezer section on top of the fridge which can store quite a bit of food despite its small size, so that is an option unless your fridge is an under counter one/or provided by a landlord, I specifically looked for one that wasn't too deep/wide due to lack of space. I don't buy tins/jars hardly at all, don't buy pre-packaged supermarket items and have mostly dried grains and pulses so can just use per portion. I do however rely on a freezer but mostly it's full of allotment stuff. Bread can be made at home in small amounts, probably easier to store a packet of flour to make multiple loaves from than loaves of large supermarket bread when short of storage space - though the preservatives in shop bread seem to make it last exceptionally long... On the rare occasion I have bought a pack of pitta I'd just use one for lunch each day and have a different dinner at night. I just make small 1lb loaves. Veg is fairly easily eaten, even caulis etc, it doesn't go off that quick if kept in the fridge or M&S sell really tiny prepped packs of veg.

I do have to eat the same thing in multiple meals/multiple days but more so in the way of say cheese but even that doesn't go off that quick. Items like pots of cream for eg are a bit of an issue, just needs a bit of forward planning though not to waste anything and I rarely get things like that unless for a specific recipe.

I find things like toilet roll/kitchen towel cost more when buying just a couple due to not having space to store large packs, which is annoying - but it's all a choice, either I put up with the higher cost of a small pack or I put up with tripping over a large pack..

Nada666

I do not for a minute suggest that variety and best price is not a massive problem for single people. But eggs and pitta bread are a very silly and invalid example.

MysteryMe

The co op used to sell 4 egg sized packs.

Kirri

MysteryMe wrote: »

The co op used to sell 4 egg sized packs.

Waitrose do too, forgot them.

geordie_joe

Nada666 wrote: »

I do not for a minute suggest that variety and best price is not a massive problem for single people. But eggs and pitta bread are a very silly and invalid example.

I don't think they are a very silly and invalid example. They illustrate a big problem for people living alone. The fact that if they want just one or two of something and have to buy a pack of six or ten then they have to use up the rest rather than want to use them.

You may think it's nothing, but it can't be much fun eating food because you have to eat it, rather than eating it because it's what you want to eat at that time.

geordie_joe

Kirri wrote: »

Waitrose do too, forgot them.

Then price comes into it, 4 eggs are 36p each, but buy a pack of nine and they are only 22p each.

Smaller packs cost more.

Then there is Iceland, they do six packs of fr eggs for £1, so what do you do, buy 4 eggs from waitrose at £1.49 or 9 for £1.99 or go to Iceland and get 6 for £1.

Either way, if you only wanted/needed 1 or 2 eggs you will be stuck with some you don't want/need and have to use them just to prevent waste.