The All New Bang on Trend Cookbook Challenge 2018

Nelski

2 freezers as well not quite as organised as Pollycat and Floss but I do an inventory every few months and can safely say there is nothing 7 years old in there :eek: I do however keep things well over a month and am still here to tell the tale

Floss I never go into warrington town centre at all cant stand the place ...i think they were renovating the market but no idea if its finished. I do find Morrisons to be the best of a bad bunch for fish

Hi misty :wave: Im not starting proper till next week so now its the fun bit deciding what to do cant wait to here everyones choices

PasturesNew

My freezer has 2½ drawers.
The two big drawers are 35cm square and 18cm deep.
The small drawer is 35cm x 18cm - and 18cm deep. I keep bread/crumpets/similar in this one.

I keep the food in one drawer.
The other drawer should "remain empty" - it can contain items that would technically fit into the full drawer, but are more handy/convenient in the empty drawer. The empty drawer is there if there's a sudden bunch of unexpected food brought into the house ... or a special event (e.g. Xmas) ... but once food's in the empty drawer no more food must enter the freezer, I need to focus on eating up what's there and getting it back down to one drawer. Mentally, if out, I'll always know that "I have one empty drawer if I need it".

This method focusses the mind on what is going in - and ensuring it all gets eaten.

PasturesNew

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

It’s not too hard to be selective about the recipes you do, then halve the quantities and eat 1 portion on the day and either refrigerate or freeze the other for a quick meal a few days later.

It's not that simple though. A "serves 4" halved doesn't solve the real problem. That would be the easy bit.

It's the cartload of ingredients behind you that also need to be used up.

e.g. at Xmas I made a simple nut roast. I halved it. I've now eaten it 3x and finally froze the final two portions. It's "just a nut roast" so takes up little room. It didn't actually use many "new ingredients" at all, everything quite "manageable".
Easily sorted then! Hey ho .... so what's next?

Er... hang on .... but you bought an entire "potted plant" of parsley just to use 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley. And what about the other half a lemon you bought/used. And the 20 grams of nuts leftover .... and the three bottles of spices bought "just for this", which will take 3 years to get through because .... I won't be making that nut roast again, even though it was nice.

I also used parsnip, but I was using parsnip anyway as it was Xmas, but I still have another whole parsnip left in the bag .... as I only needed 50g for the recipe and the bag contained 500 grams.

All of those things could be used up in the next week or so, and/or frozen ... but if you do that every time you "cook something new" it becomes a pain, a chore, something to dread.... the vast array of raw leftovers that never got into the mixing bowl as all you needed with a tiny piece of the ingredients.

In the next 2-3 days I've got to make a potato salad I don't particularly want ... to serve with the 4th portion of leftover turkey ... because it gets rid of some of the 3.5Kg of potatoes I still have leftover from Xmas. But don't focus too much on the spuds because there's still 400 grams of carrots loitering.... so I'd better also grate one of those to sit on a plate beside the cold turkey and the potato salad. Luckily I can toss some grated cheese and a boiled egg in their direction and call that a turkey salad... an odd combination (again), but it uses things up.

Life becomes odd meals as you're perpetually "using up" things already in the house, opened, needing to be used up.

Nelski

Im thinking of some of these to start this off sprout bahjis


I love cooking so have most of the stuff in and if not i will buy it in ...I will find it useful i know. PN it sounds like you have talked yourself out of doing this which I get as I lurk on the cooking for one thread occasionally and get the impression you dont do chef books Me... i love them

Looking forward to hearing what everyone else is cooking

Floss

That's where I am lucky with our local shops as would choose loose nuts & veg and a bag of parsley rather than a plant (although a plant would get potted in the back yard) from Lidl, and spices from the market or an asian shop for better prices.

Floss

We just got back home after 4 days of other peoples cooking and had to pick up some fresh bits on the way in...cue a ys pack of fresh halibut, to be served in black butter (! la Rick) with steamed baby leeks & tenderstem broccoli (to balance the lack of green stuff!). I can't wait!

Nelski

Floss wrote: »

We just got back home after 4 days of other peoples cooking and had to pick up some fresh bits on the way in...cue a ys pack of fresh halibut, to be served in black butter (! la Rick) with steamed baby leeks & tenderstem broccoli (to balance the lack of green stuff!). I can't wait!

:T:T that sounds gorgeous can i come i'm not that far away x

Floss

Best hurry, its 50 miles from my old stamping ground of Hood Manor!

Need2bthrifty

Yesterday I made this
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sunday-brunch/articles/all/nadiya-hussains-nut-roast-with-roasted-tomato-sauce/5562

My first ever experience of not only cooking but eating Nut Roast (I've led a sheltered life ) very easy recipe to follow but I don't know what kind of lentils she uses that cook in 10mins, I soaked mine for about and hour and cooked the mixture for at least 30mins before I felt they were going soft.

Instead of the roasted tomato sauce I had some of Rick's Red pepper paste (Venice to Istanbul) in the fridge - it went great with it.

Six portions now in the freezer, so if I make again I would do half for a 1lb loaf size.

Nelski

Need2bthrifty wrote: »

Yesterday I made this
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sunday-brunch/articles/all/nadiya-hussains-nut-roast-with-roasted-tomato-sauce/5562

My first ever experience of not only cooking but eating Nut Roast (I've led a sheltered life ) very easy recipe to follow but I don't know what kind of lentils she uses that cook in 10mins, I soaked mine for about and hour and cooked the mixture for at least 30mins before I felt they were going soft.

Instead of the roasted tomato sauce I had some of Rick's Red pepper paste (Venice to Istanbul) in the fridge - it went great with it.

Six portions now in the freezer, so if I make again I would do half for a 1lb loaf size.

i remember seeing that one on the programme and mentally storing it for making later thanks for the reminder it sounds gorgeous

today I am cruising the books again specifically for a new to me recipe using left over turkey. i could make a pie with leeks and probably will but also want something radical :D