Love food hate Waste Part two for 2018 :)

Cappella

Frugalweirdo83 - I do fortnightly meal plans but I’m very flexible and don’t stick rigidly to them as this would often mean throwing food away, like the veggies my neighbour gave me last week. I just adjust or change the days plan if I need too.
For example morning I checked and I have have about five mushrooms, two red peppers and two tomatoes in the fridge, would have composted the toms and mushrooms before I started to read here as the the freezer is very full indeed.
I’d planned fish pie for tea tonight, already bought the fish but now I’m thinking ‘stuffed peppers and baked spiced fish instead ‘ - that will use more of the couscous as well as the odds and ends of veggies.
This is a great thread for helping me think creatively as well as using every scrap of food we have:)

Ilona

FrugalWeirdo83 wrote: »

Does anyone not meal plan? I don't sit down each week and write out what I'm having, I have tried and it just doesn't work for me. I do however batch cook so i have some quick meals to grab after work and check my cupboards before shopping planning meals based on what I have in
I suppose it's still meal planning in a fashion!

I DO NOT meal plan, only me to think about so I just open the fridge door and see what's inside. I like a surprise. I cook up a big pan of veggie stew when I have bought a lot of yellow stickers, and freeze it in margarine tubs, but I wouldn't call that planning. They are there to use as and when I have been busy and can't be bothered to cook.

Ilona

andygb

tara747 wrote: »

Why was the old thread deleted? It was one of my favourites

Just what I was wondering.
We are still cooking 90% of our meals from scratch, and as I am working from home today, I am going to convert a homemade hot chili con carne to a spicy cottage pie.
I always put finely chopped spring onions and lots of white pepper in the mash.

[Deleted User]

Mrs LW you did brilliantly using up odds and sods like that i enjoy doing that as well and the idea of binning stuff was ingrained in me by my late Mum that I was 'feeding the devil ':):):)

So everything thats in the slightest bit edible is used if at all possible I found a bag of y/s leek and potato diced up in the back of my freezer last night I bought it last year as it was only 20p and had forgotten all about it That will do to make me a big pot of soup this morning which will be used up over the coming 3-4 days at least, maybe more if I throw some odds and ends of veg in it as well.
More than enough to make a very large pot I think. I have some odd bits of frozen veg that were left over and frozen so I will dig those out and sling them in as well.

I do meal plan ,but then I always have, but I am flexible in as much as if I know, for example this Saturday night I am out to dinner, then what I had planned for then will just be replotted for Monday nights dinner.
Sometimes I come home from DDs on a Sunday night with some left over bits for Monday night, so I move Mondays planned dinner to Wednesday

But I am really pleased how the idea of LFHW has taken off and is spreading. Even my eldest DD who is not the greatest planner when it comes to food shopping (her OH is a sort of 'lets go out for a meal or get a take-away' sort of chap has become more inclined to think and use up stuff in the fridge more now.

My two DDs are so different The youngest is more like me, and is a good cook and plans her meals well, whereas my eldest is more of an impulse buyer. I think a lot is down to finance, as the youngest has a large family, so has to be more careful, whereas the eldest, her family are grown and one has flown the nest, and the other one is not often in so its just her and her OH to cook for, and as I said he is very much 'I need instant food'

I even persuaded her to try Aldi's as our new one had opened and she phone me up singing its praises before Christmas and saying how little she had paid for the stuff she had bought :):) Its only taken her 30 plus years for her light bulb moment
So its baby steps for a lot of people and its great to see how many good ideas are popping up on here

Well done everyone

JackieO xxx

I think as the price of food increases I am hoping more people will think twice before throwing good food away,apart from the waste I just wonder and care about our landfill sites being full of discarded grub :)

savingpennies

Great thread. I'm trying really hard not to throw any food away.
I find that shopping when I need something is the best way. We go to the gym 3/4 times a week and there is a Lidl and a Farm foods next door, so it is easy to nip in and pick something up. I rarely do a big shop these days.
Like others on here, I don't plan meals much in advance; I look in the fridge/cupboard and see what needs using up. So yesterday, I discovered some prunes which will go in the breakfast porridge until I've used them up.
Last night's tea was salmon, baked in sundried tomato paste and then grilled with goat's cheese on top, with new pots and veg. The salmon was YS, the goats cheese and pots were lurking in the fridge and is used up what was left in the tomato paste jar.

Ginmonster

I don't meal plan either but I roughly plan which ingredients need using up first and that governs what I'll cook on each day. I also batch cook and freeze for work lunches and CBA evenings. Although last night I treated myself to boursin on toast for my tea and a glass of wine as there was one glass left in a bottle my mum and I had shared last Friday night and I didn't want to be wasteful. :-)

Pollycat

tara747 wrote: »

Why was the old thread deleted? It was one of my favourites

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

Tara747,

One of the great mysteries of the modern world - disappearing threads

Not such a mystery really.

There's a thread at the top of the OS board about 'disappearing threads'.
The post below was taken from that thread:

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Firstly a huge thanks to zippychick for flagging the disappearing threads up to us

Secondly, don't worry, there isn't a technical reason for these long running threads being removed.

Simply put, the "spam button" was clicked on them enough times that they were automatically deleted.

In the two instances we're aware of we believe this was just down to forum members accidentally clicking the button. These things do happen sadly.

As zippychick explained, we very sadly can't reinstate the threads but it's best to look on the bright side - often a shiny brand new thread can give us a fresh start and help our motivation.

Thanks for your patience with this everyone, it really is appreciated.

Andrea

So - if you catch the :spam: button as you're scrolling up and down, be sure to go back and mark it as 'not :spam:.

I've done this before, it's really very easy to do so MSE should really be looking at moving the :spam: button.

I do find it astonishing that auto-deleted threads can't be reinstated once it's made clear that they've been wrongly reported but - Hey! What do I know?

X_Duvessa_X

I need help ladies i have the last of a turkey(still some decent meat left before it goes for stock) red cabbage carrots peppers and cooking bacon all that need using up. I have no idea what to make with that lot!!!!

bouicca21

Turkey, carrots and peppers - curry
Red cabbage and bacon - stir fry

crazytree

X Duvessa x Turkey pilaf?
I'd probably buy some stewing steak and make a stew with the rest of it!

I love meal planning, not the actual planning bit, but knowing "that's what we're having". It makes life that little bit easier.
I had to throw away some leftover pastry today. I made a pie on Monday and saved the rest of the puff pastry to make cinnamon whirls but it had gone a bit grey and sweaty so I chucked it! I think I need to use it a bit quicker next time.
I've frozen loads of spinach so it doesn't go slimy, and I've used up unhappy veg in a stew. Generally pleased with myself!
Tx