Love food hate Waste Part two for 2018 :)

[Deleted User]

Rice pudding ,Custard, semolina pudding or frozen in ice cube trays and then bagged up


JackieO x

THIRZAH

Or make pancakes -you can freeze them.

trailingspouse

takingcontrolatlast wrote: »

I am finding I can spend a lot of time meal planning on a Saturday morning before shopping.... I do think I need to try and speed up the process.... any tips?

I can actually spend over an hour looking for ideas for the week on a Saturday morning and my weekends fly by as it is!

As a previous poster has said, you need to have a few basics that just happen every week, so you don't need to think about it. But that said, you can still ring the changes. For example, I always cook a roast chicken on a Sunday night, and use some of the leftover chicken for the meal on Monday night. But that 'leftover' meal might be a curry, or pasta, or a chicken pie - same leftovers, different meal. Ditto on a Wednesday I make soup using stock made from the chicken bones - but it could be veggie soup, or lentil soup, or (more often than not) back-of-the-fridge soup. One night a week I cook mince - but it could be burgers, or spag bol, or chilli, or savoury mince etc etc. I make the final decision on the day, depending on how busy I am, how hungry I am, and what else is in the fridge or if there's stuff that needs using up.



You don't need to dream up something new 7 days a week - that way madness lies!! And besides, if you hit on a meal that's a family favourite, they'll look forward to having it every week.

takingcontrolatlast

trailingspouse wrote: »

As a previous poster has said, you need to have a few basics that just happen every week, so you don't need to think about it. But that said, you can still ring the changes. For example, I always cook a roast chicken on a Sunday night, and use some of the leftover chicken for the meal on Monday night. But that 'leftover' meal might be a curry, or pasta, or a chicken pie - same leftovers, different meal. Ditto on a Wednesday I make soup using stock made from the chicken bones - but it could be veggie soup, or lentil soup, or (more often than not) back-of-the-fridge soup. One night a week I cook mince - but it could be burgers, or spag bol, or chilli, or savoury mince etc etc. I make the final decision on the day, depending on how busy I am, how hungry I am, and what else is in the fridge or if there's stuff that needs using up.

You don't need to dream up something new 7 days a week - that way madness lies!! And besides, if you hit on a meal that's a family favourite, they'll look forward to having it every week.

Thanks for the advice trailingspouse:) I do the same with a chicken - use leftovers for chicken sandwiches for lunch for a chicken pasta/curry.

I do tend to work like yourself but I want to try and cut back from cooking every night and have a staple in the freezer I can just "pull out" - and at the same time using up/reducing waste food ... that's my goal ... I do seem to be saving money.. that said... no savings this week on the food shop due to some expensive items in trolley but I did get some reduced items to even things out

I also don't want to be spending an hour or so dreaming up new meals ... gonna limit it to maybe one a week (with items I already have left over) and keep to the staple meals.. ie chilli, pasta bol, etc

I need to improve my health - I'm diabetic with high cholesterol so I'm really struggling on healthy options in keeping the food bill down and staying out of the kitchen a few times a week.

I made a "green" soup with leftover cabbage, brocolli, celery, onion, garlic, cumin ... it was awful :rotfl:

Anyway - i'll be making my chilli for the freezer today... have left over chicken, potatoes and veg which DH is having for his tea.. DD2 is having left over pizza and I'll probably have some concoction with eggs

Enjoy the sunshine! x

ailz95

I make up meals for my mother-in-law and husband for when I'm not up to cooking. I cook up veg which I then freeze on trays so that we can just add whatever they fancy. I also slow cook in the oven very cheap meats and put them into plastic boxes. Hubby is a vegetarian so curries are a good stand-by. I also make pie mixes - cheese, onion & potato, meat and potato, leek celeriac & thyme etc. - these can then be eaten either with a crust or in a yorkshire pudding. I try to cook one day a week, but don't always manage it - I'm disabled - but I don't like buying ready meals as they're full of 'stuff' :eek: that you wouldn't usually use.

takingcontrolatlast

Those pies sound nice Aliz95

I did manage to freeze a large chilli. With the remaining chilli I layered a base of broken tortillas, chilli, sour cream and repeated and topped with cheese. This looked really nice and didnt make the freezer... just the fridge and warmed it up in the oven for tea tonight with garilic bread..... however .... i forgot to cook rice which resulted in DH saying I couldnt be bothered :eek: so he got an earful :rotfl:

The toritillas disintegrated and sour cream sort of melted and basically it all looked like a dogs dinner :rotfl: I wont be repeating this meal !! It was from you t*be...

Although I'm trying.. I'm not having much success (the green soup, this meal and my breakfast muffins)

I think the frozen chilli should be ok as its a basic staple ... just need to remember to cook rice

Smoosh

Making an effort to waste less - especially veg as we sometimes find ourselves buying a certain veg for one meal and the rest sits in the fridge looking sad for a while until it goes in the bin.

I've just rescued a sweet pepper, half a punnet of tomatoes, some fresh basil, an odd clove of garlic and some goats cheese that needed using up and made myself a lovely soup for lunch for work tomorrow! One of my first tries at soup (and first ever not following a recipe) and I think it turned out great!

[Deleted User]

Smoosh your soup sounds delicious, and a great way to use up odds and ends. Soup making I think is a very forgiving way to use up things like this.I love finding bits and pieces of leftover or forgotten things in the fridge. I have as a stand by in a basket on the side in my kitchen a range of purees in tubes I have garlic,chilli and ginger that I have bought mainly from poundland type shops that just add a bit of zizz to almost anything .It does help that I like spicy, and things with a bit of a kick
I also have a large jar filled with a bag lentils that I bought ages ago for around 50p. I add a handful of these to soups to help thicken them up, or a couple of diced potatoes when cooking soup. When the soup has been blended and portioned into my containers ,either for freezing or storing in the fridge to use for lunches they are nice and thick so when I reheat I add a bit more water to thin down slightly and sometimes add broken bits of pasta from my pasta lock'n'lock box .

This is a box where any broken or crushed bits of dried pasta is stored and added when I am reheating soup gently,this also helps to bulk out soups and make them more filling .I have bits of leftover broken spaghetti and lasagne in this box so very little ever gets wasted in my house ,even the broken bits

I save broken bits of biscuits in another box to use in bases for cheese cakes etc.It may sound a bit extreme, but I think that if I can use up as much as I can rather than binning it then my purse will stay fuller for longer .

I cut off and freeze broccoli stalks to use in soups and stews, why bin it as it is still part of the food you have bought , mushroom stalks get trimmed and frozen in a bag as well .

I am interested to see if others use small savings to make larger ones with left over bits ?

My DD will save and give to me when I need it the end crusts of a loaf which I stick into my little electric mincer and use as breadcrumbs as I don't actually have or eat bread at all.
I beat the birds to it
when cooking bacon any fat drained goes into a small bowl in my fridge for reuse when frying omelettes etc, small savings but better than chucking away

JackieO xx

Working_Mum

takingcontrolatlast wrote: »

Great advice. Silly question but this really is new to me... when you make the chicken fajittas - do you put the cooked meat, peppers, sauce in the wrap and when cool freeze them? I could actually do these individually

Some many good ideas x

Hi takingcontrol,
I only ever freeze the meat part of the dish - in portions - so I can defrost them and add the fresh stuff like guacamole, salsa, sour cream etc at the time of eating - I re-heat the chicken fajitas in a frying pan and warm the tortillas in another frying pan and it takes a few minutes to sort out and the meal tastes freshly made.

The "top tip" would be to slight under cook the peppers so they are prefect after being reheated!

I also make my fajita spice mix and it is so easy!! Found a recipe online and keep it in a jar - saves me 90p or so for the sachets bought at supermarkets!

Are you enjoying this batch cooking project so far??

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

My first epic fail with a soup Lots of odds & ends so the first bowl was absolutely fine but then I made the Apparently ‘rookie mistake’ of adding leftover sweetcorn :eek: The soup doubled in size so had to transfer some to a 2nd pan. All was not lost (or so I thought ) because we decided to make it into a bread type thing for the birdies by adding flour & seeds. 2 large roasting trays filled & cooked. Put out half a baking tray of our concoction, waited for the hordes to descend & we are still waiting even the pigeons have turned their beaks up at my creation :rotfl: :eek: So I have admitted defeat & just binned the rest

Oh well live & learn but such a waste

There is a silver lining - because of the Easter holiday the bin men aren’t coming until tomorrow - so the evidence of my epic fail will not hang around for a week taunting me :rotfl:

MrsSD