Throwing food away

Cazzdevil

skyepark wrote: »

im 26 but i hardly ever throw food away

Before I type this - be advised I'm not being rude or cheeky, and am asking the forum as a whole, not you individually

Do you think age makes a difference to your attitude towards waste? I mean I'm 27, is that supposed to make me from a generation of kids brought up on chicken nuggets and chips? Cos I must confess, I was brought up on copious amounts of veg, good homemade hearty meals, and a sweet treat for my brother and I was either something home baked or a slice of bread with jam on (a "piece n jam" as my Scottish mother calls it).

Despite my upbringing, I don't think it has much to do with my attitude towards waste. I don't waste food cos I can't afford to. I make sure that anything I cook gets eaten or saved and I curse if anything has to be thrown away.

That said, my mother instilled the virtues of using:

stale bread for bread and butter pudding
past-it's-sell-by-date cream for quiches
mouldy cheese for cheese sauce (just cut the mould off, it won't kill you!)
and last but not least... Soured milk for scones.

Proper penny pincher my mum

Justamum

We don't have much food thrown in the bin. I keep food and use it in something else, or freeze it for another day. When I do roast potatoes though I usually cook loads so that the fridge can eat the spares! (well they go into the fridge, but the dish is always empty next day!) Sometimes I will eat what's left on my children's plates, but only if I haven't eaten much myself. My 8 year old has a portion the same size as my 2 year old's (so not big - he's a very faddy eater) and my 11 year old eats well so there's never anything left on her plate.

TurnaroundSue

Food eaten the next day sometimes tastes better as it has had time to ferment (not sure if that is the right word? ). Spag bol always tastes better second time round. And what about bubble and squeak - got to come of people's plates and all the leftovers and fried in a frying pan with sausages - now that IS delicious - yum! yum!

curlywurlygirly

I'm getting better and better with not throwing things in the bin....

It's a bit of a compromise between not wanting to throw things away, and wanting to have fresh lovely ingredients at home....

Tip:

Get in all the fruit and veg you want, and at the end o the week, anything that's left - put it all on the draining board, and make veg soup, casseroles, fruit puree etc to freeze

buxtonrabbitgreen

I have to admit I threw away 3/4 of a cooked cauliflower after sunday lunch this week. I was going to put it in the fridge, but even in a plastic container it makes the fridge stink. Does anyone keep cooked cauli? Can I freeze uncooked cauliflower or will it, as I suspect go brown/mushiy when cooked?

recovering_spendaholic

buxtonrabbitgreen wrote: »

I have to admit I threw away 3/4 of a cooked cauliflower after sunday lunch this week. I was going to put it in the fridge, but even in a plastic container it makes the fridge stink. Does anyone keep cooked cauli? Can I freeze uncooked cauliflower or will it, as I suspect go brown/mushiy when cooked?

I nearly always make leftover cooked cauliflower into cauliflower cheese. I just put the cauli in a pyrex dish in the fridge overnight and the next day throw a cheese sauce over it. It never smells at all in the fridge, but then I only cook it until it is JUST tender - it is really quite crispy because that's the way I like it.

I grew up in a house where nothing was ever thrown away - we had roast on Sunday, fry up and fried egg on Monday, Shepherds Pie on Tuesday etc.

I must admit that I do throw food away, but it is mostly yoghurts, which I don't like but keep buying in the hope that I will get to like them - the kids never eat them but I always seem to buy them in the weekly shop ( I tried making my own but that was not that nice either). I also sometimes throw out salad stuff as it goes off really quickly and I am the only one who will eat it so quite often it gets past its best before I can eat it all.

My Auntie Betty was the best - she died in 1995 and was still using dried egg from the war ( and when I was pregnant with DD1 in 1990 and I had piles she offered to lend me her miracle cream for piles which she bought while cycling through France in 1938:eek: ). She would never waste any food and used to pick off the meat from the chicken carcass with tweezers, and she used to get bags of fish heads and poach them and then tweezer the fish out of them to make fish cakes. She did get a couple of dodgy tummies but she reckoned that a dose of slippery elm always righted them and she died well down her seventies of a non-digestive related illness.

Debt_Free_Chick

I can see it now ..... a new daily thread .......


"In my fridge" ......


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

franr43

I convert leftovers (that can't be eaten later, with or without freezer's help) into eggs using my very helpful resident chickens, who love it - and fruit peelings, and brasica outer leaves, and old bread......I've just a small garden, but they its takes only the space of a rabbit hutch and run, which many people have anyway in city gardens, and chickens are as cuddly as rabbits!

faye1978

Hi

I try all I can to use leftovers. My partner is VERY fussy and won't eat any veg (except the usual salad - nothing exciting), very little carbohydrate and only meat really. SO I find that buying fruit and veg (cos I like it), is a waste of money as they have usually gone off within a couple of days and I end up throwing 2/3 bag into the compost heap. I have tried buyingfrom the local market but it is difficult as they are only open on a week day and I work. Tesco is my local Greengrocer.........

I would love to turn stale bread into bread and butter pud etc....but OH just won't eat it.....I waste SO much money. I spend £60-85 per week on the 2 of us for shopping and I would say most of it goes in the bin.

I would appreciate any ideas.....

Thanks

susank

What I love at xmas is lots of left over veg and bread sauce etc and make a wonderful cheese souffle and put in chopped up veg and roasties and it is just a great lighter meal after all the huge meals we have just eaten.