Love Food Hate Waste 2020

Pyxis

ailz95 said:

I collect all my vegetable peel - and bottoms of cauliflower, cabbage and tough stalks from kale - and put them in a drawer in the freezer.  Once I have a slow cooker full I put them in it with water, hers and seasoning and leave it on all night.  In the morning I sieve it and I have stock.  Then the veg goes out for the local wildlife.

Poor, deprived compost heap! 😂😂😂

nursemaggie

No compost heap, no garden, I have not wasted anything this week.  No room in freezers for anything else. I have found out how to refuse substitutes so there will be none tomorrow. I gave away 5 of my scones I got instead of hot cross buns. They were gladly received. I probably could have given away 40. There is bread in my freezer to be used one slice at a time. I have home cooked ready meals in the freezer, probably enough for two week. I also have plenty of frozen veg. 

candygirl

NM  n JD , my problem recently,  has been a full freezer, so no room for bread or rolls I need to get it sorted asap 😊

Have just made a spicy lentil n tomato soup,  using the sad looking toms out of the fridge.😋One more  thing rescued, instead of binned 

candygirl

Just checking in to update my food wastage costs this week .It's approx £9, which I need to cut drastically has anyone else totted theirs up this week? 🤔

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

I have been fortunate - more by luck than judgement 😉 - nothing binned 🙂 I did have an unopened pot of creme fraiche which was a week past it’s use by date - however did the sniff & taste test & it was perfectly fine. I used it over 2 nights to make mashed potatoes. 

3 sets of neighbours have now received some of my hg lettuce which is growing like weeds 😆😉 + DH has taken to having a few leaves in his sandwiches. 

Candygirl - you have a start point. Perhaps you can try to get under £5 for the coming week & WHEN you are successful - put the £4 ‘saved‘ into a pot & then either save or treat yourself. Is there anything in particular that is being binned? Do you menu plan or just decide on the day? Could you perhaps batch cook & freeze? 
You have taken the first step 👍 & we are here to help - there is a wealth of wisdom here (really do miss JackieO 😭 ) -  if you list on here what is being binned we can perhaps offer suggestions/ideas. 

I do understand that you are ‘upset’ with yourself but my mum hat is on so you can knock that on the head insert ‘wagging finger emoji‘ here 😉 A brand new week, a brand new start 🙂 - YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL & YOU WILL BE A ‘LOVE FOOD, HATE WASTE’ convert 👍

see you later

MrsSD

nursemaggie

Candygirl - try not buying anything for a week and eat out of your freezer and cupboards and you may have some room in your freezer. I have cut down how many veg I am buying every week, that helps. My odd substitutes were causing waste and I guess giving the scones away was  a waste of my money £1, but at least they did not go in the bin. Yogurt lasts well beyond it's sell by date but it needs to be live yogurt, the commercial ones don't keep so well.  I find lots of things keep longer than the use by date. Are you shopping for someone who is no longer there? I shopped for my two older kids then they left home and I still find myself buying for the youngest and he left home two years ago. Now I can't see him regularly I can't give him them.

Pyxis

Could you tell me, what do you count as waste? 
I’m thinking of things like the very thick stalk end you cut off broccoli, and the ends of courgettes and carrots which would go in the compost bin.

If I’m low on veg, I would use most of the broccoli stalk chopped up, but it all depends.

(I never peel anything, so there’s no peel to go in the compost).

And again, if you find a mouldy tomato or satsuma that went mouldy when you weren’t looking and it goes into the compost bin, does that count as waste? 

I tend not to think of the compost bin as waste, unless I’ve been really reckless, or too unwell to cook.

For example, I had a small bag of flour, (the very small size), that went well past its use by date.....four months past, and with things like flour or rice I don’t risk eating them in case of hidden moulds if they are more than a month over, so it went into the compost.

nursemaggie

I find that difficult, I was not counting peelings until I realised it was 30% to 40% of my rubbish because I recycle everything I can. There is an occasional scrapings from my plate because I cooked too much which is a waste.  I do need to try to cook a little less. I still have problems because prepacked vegetables are nearly all aimed at families,  I just cannot eat my way through a bag of any veg intended for 4 before it is unfit to eat. I actually managed to keep last weeks spinach going for 10 days so less is wasted . I don't really count that as loss in money terms because I don't think I can do anything about it. I'm just back to where I was with before I started shopping at M&S because so much had gone back to being loose. It could be months before I am allowed to go out again.

Corona virus has put me right back to where it was. I'm shielding and can't do my own shopping.  Some smaller pkt would be very welcome. I have managed to cut down on bread waste as I bought a bigger freezer. That was not really worth £450 but I am happier that I can cook once and eat twice.

I do eat a lot of veg, I end up with lots of waste because of that. I am trying to buy less veg but what do you do with a supermarket who will keep sending me extra spinach. I started counting the peelings etc after I found out the industry counts it as our food waste. I probably try to make my veg last longer because if I was buying it all loose I would buy more variety less  in quantity. You used to be able to buy a quarter of a cabbage now I have to buy a whole one.

If you are composting it isn't waste. I live in a flat so it is not possible and there is not enough flat ground for us to have green waste bins. We have a bit of lawn here but the front lawn is nearly a cliff. As for making stock with the peelings I don't use stock that often.

Pyxis

I must admit, the compost bin is great. When my garden was a jungle and I couldn’t get to it, I always had one bag of food waste...veg trimmings etc., but after the garden was cleared and I could use the compost bin again, the food waste bin became virtually redundant.......it was only cheese rind that went into it, and some weeks I don’t put the bin out at all. (I don’t eat meat or fish so no waste from that).

Would it be possible for you to have a wormery? I believe you can have them indoors, or do you have a balcony? That might be an option, and you can put meat scraps into them,  I believe, if you eat meat.

candygirl

Thanks for your advice Girls it's mainly bread that has been wasted, and rolls, egg custards etc .The latter went down greedy pooches hatch though, so technically not wasted 😂😂
I'm making the bottom  of my freezer the bread space, so shouldn't be as bad going forward  .
NM I'm only getting a bit of shopping this week, as have loads of stuff in .Will make celery soup later with the sad one in the fridge. 
I'm only really shopping and cooking for me n Bonnie dog , but sharing the delivery slot with Mum, to keep her going She ordered gin last week , n pretended it was for a present  
Mrs SD , it'd better be less than £9 This week!! 😯😯😯