Throwing food away

savvy

daisyroots wrote: »

which makes me third general frugal,

And may we salute you Third General Frugal 'mam! What a brilliant title ;);)

I admit to throwing food that has been on a guests plate, but sometimes use food that's been on our own plate and was perhaps too much to eat, but that's rare in our house with 2 strapping lads to feed :rolleyes:

Anything that is left over in the pans etc is always used, sometimes surplus has been made for my lunch, and it's usually me that ends up having the other leftovers for lunch

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

What!!!! you leave thing on your plate :eek: ..... its unheard of here:D

I have finally got the hang of "proper" portions ..... both me and hubby naturally eat what is on our plate, and after 5 years of marriage i have recently mastered ....not cooking for 4 to feed 2 ... i still cook 4 portions and when it comes to serving up i have 2 plates...hubbies microwavable lunch box and a pot for the freezer and i serve up all 4.... this stops either of us picking...as we know "little pickers wear big knickers":rotfl: ... and as we both need to lose some weight - an awful lot in my case...this helps..

I wouldnt have a problem eating from hubbies plate or vice versa.... as long as it hadnt been mawled.... i guess i am a bit funny...same as i cant stand people reaching over and taking food off my plate - have been known to stab sis in the hand with my fork for this ...well she was warned

On the other hand my SIL is sooo wastefull i have dickie fits.... i have been there when its suposed to be lasagne for tea...3 out of the 4 of them didnt want it, so she had hers and gave the rest to the dogs:eek: ... i guess they do have 3 hungry hounds...but blimey

Newgirl_2

piglet6 wrote: »

we have watched the end of packets of cold meats/half tubs of coleslaw or potato salad go straight in the bin because "there's only a couple of slices of ham left - not enough for a meal tomorrow"!! :eek:

:eek: :eek: :eek: is right! what a waste!!! Send their leftovers to me! :rotfl:

I pretty much always make more than we need so I can freeze it for busy days when we can't be bothered to cook. But even when I do this, we only serve up enough that we know we can finish and can always go back for seconds if we want more. So I wouldn't normally take things back from the plate as there wouldn't be any.

Each to their own I think but, forgetting old style for a minute, it is good from a wastage point of view not to throw things away unless you have to. Very little foodstuff goes in our bin at all, so we don't have a problem with fortnightly collections

Newgirl

ceridwen

Obviously - I do feel okay about using up leftovers that have been on a plate (but then its my own leftovers). If I have anyone round for a meal - then food is put in casserole dishes anyway for people to help themselves to the quantity they want and I find that most people will just take a smallish amount anyway in the first place and then go back for seconds when they have finished that (as they feel free to, as I deliberately make very generous quantities if I have guests - as I would be ashamed if they went away hungry).

I am trying to train myself not to automatically eat everything on my plate just because its there - so as to save on eating too many calories.

If I was more flush for money - then I probably wouldnt reheat food (in order to maximise the goodness from my food) - as I am conscious that even organic food probably doesnt have as much goodness in it as food used to have (because of the quality of the soil its grown in these days).
Since money is still in short supply - then I do reheat food.

Bogof_Babe

I often put my own leftovers in a pyrex dish for tomorrow's lunch. I do tend to get leftovers, as I always serve the same size portion out for myself and OH, which is daft really as he is 50% bigger and heavier than me.

The only things I draw the line at is anything with cold congealed gravy on it, or chips that have been contaminated with salad cream.

In principle though I abhor wastage of anything, considering the lengths I go to to economise and eke things out.

tiamai_d

I'm of the view that keep whats left in the pots (after a chance of seconds), OH and I rarely leave leftovers (I know how hungry I am and he is 'never leave a scrap on the plate' type person. I won't scrape the kids plates though, I have seen the way they eat, messy little so and so's, plus they usually have gravy or sauce so it goes in the bin.

I do make extra of anything that will freeze and get upset if it is all gone with nothing to go in the freezer!

dolly_day_dream

I have just saved what was left from Sunday dinner - we serve it up in serving dishes cos the rule is - if you take it you eat it - that way I don't end up with contaminated (gravy etc) veg. The mash will be put onto a shepherds pie. The beans, carrots and parsnips are going into a veggie curry.

I really hate throwing anything away and try to plan my cooking and shopping accordingly but of course on the other hand I would be mortified if anyone left my house hungry - you can guess that by the size of me:o so sometimes I have leftovers but no way are they binned.

Incidently I got into this habit when I was working as a nanny to a very wealthy property developer. We ate the best of food and drank very good wine but food was always put into serving dishes and leftovers were saved again to be used for the next meal. Back then microwaves hadn't been invented (yes there was a time) and I had to put the veg with some butter into a saucepan and gently reheat. The food was also saved in large glass jars that could be reused and not thrown away. If it was good enough for people who had as much money as them I certainly don't see it as a status thing.

The thing is we don't just pay the price in money for our food. Unless you grown your own it has been transported at a cost to the environment, the fertilisers add their own costs, if it has been imported there are additional costs both to the environment and the producers. I try to grow my own but am not really successfull at it but I will keep trying. I am not able to afford to buy organically and so I take the responsibility to use everything that comes into my kitchen as fully as I can.

Hapless_2

Think about it, on average 1/3rd of food bought in the UK is thrown away each day.
If you spend £50 a week on food then that is the equivalent of £16.67 a week, or £866.67 a year:eek: !


Now that is shocking!

mrsmortenharket

I don't keep stuff that is actually been on someones dinner plate.

But I save leftovers from the pans.

Any veg in the fridge looking past its best is souped!

Lisa

catznine

Great thread!:T

I plan to use all our leftovers in one way or another. Leftover veg and potatoes and gravy from the serving dishes go into a "freezer fairy" a tupperware jug kept in the freezer and when it is full I make surprise veg soup - surprise as it is always just a little bit different from last time.

Todays leftover roast pork is now in the fridge half of which is cut up ready to make nasi goreng tomorrow (fried rice meal) alongside a small pot of leftover peas - just need to add rice, onions, prawns and spices. The rest of the pork (2 very thick slices which are more like 2 steaks) are also wrapped up in the fridge to be added to a curry. Thats 2 meals this week taken care of!

When I blanch the runner beans for freezing I save the water to make up a soup as it full of goodness. A bit of leftover custard and some fruit would go towards a small trifle - I even freeze slightly stale fairy cakes and muffins in order to add to these trifles.

We don't have to do this but I see leftovers as a bonus, a bit of treasure and a challenge as to how they can be used. Far too much food is wasted these days which I feel is criminal especialy when as another poster has said you factor in the costs to the environment.