Love Food Hate Waste 2020

newlywed

bouicca21 wrote: »

Ideas, please. I have half a pot of Lidl’s fake caviar and half or more of a tub of cream cheese left over from making canapes Not going to have an occasion for canapes in the near future. What should I be making with them?

https://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/7-ways-eat-caviar-everything

princesskitty29

bouicca21 wrote: »

Ideas, please. I have half a pot of Lidl’s fake caviar and half or more of a tub of cream cheese left over from making canapes Not going to have an occasion for canapes in the near future. What should I be making with them?

I quite often make a quick and easy dinner of smoked salmon pasta with cream cheese - it is literally spaghetti/pasta, smoked salmon, cream cheese and a splash of lemon juice. I quite often chop up spinach and add it too so that my youngest actually eats some veg! Tastes lovely with black pepper over it.

nursemaggie

About a year ago I decided to buy some mesh bags for putting vegetables in. Shortly after they arrived all the supermarkets started putting all of there veg in plastic so now I find it very difficult to get loose fruit & veg.



I find they sweat in the plastic bags and go moldy. I live alone and I now end up with large packets of veg most of which are designed for 4 people. I've now added lots more plastic rubbish and food waste to my bin and have to empty it every day adding another large plastic bag every day.


I live in sheltered housing. We have three large commercial bins for 40 people. About half of us cook from scratch and the others use delivered frozen meals. I have been using a lot of ready meals lately as Since mid November I have had three bad colds and flu which too a month to get over.



I don't normally use ready meals as I find myself still cooking a meal round them as they lack vegetables and and enough protein. Unless you pay a lot they are are not very healthy at all.



I eat a lot of fruit & veg at least 7 a day so there is a lot of peelings from them all. I eat a lot of vegan food that tends to need a big variety of different ingredients.



I rather think the rest of the tenants are having the same problems with the rubbish. They are only emptied every two weeks. They seem to be filling up earlier and earlier. They will be emptied on Tuesday but were already overflowing on Friday night.



I'm left with three problems, too much plastic when I was trying to eliminate as much single use plastic as possible. Too many veg I have to throw out, there is a limit to how much you can eat in one week and the problem of us having the overflowing bins with no where to put it all.



I'd like to join you and see if I can find some solution to all of this. I have been shut out of MSE for the past year so this is my first post for a year. They seem to have sorted it with the move.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

nursemaggie wrote: »

About a year ago I decided to buy some mesh bags for putting vegetables in. Shortly after they arrived all the supermarkets started putting all of there veg in plastic so now I find it very difficult to get loose fruit & veg.



I find they sweat in the plastic bags and go moldy. I live alone and I now end up with large packets of veg most of which are designed for 4 people. I've now added lots more plastic rubbish and food waste to my bin and have to empty it every day adding another large plastic bag every day.


I live in sheltered housing. We have three large commercial bins for 40 people. About half of us cook from scratch and the others use delivered frozen meals. I have been using a lot of ready meals lately as Since mid November I have had three bad colds and flu which too a month to get over.



I don't normally use ready meals as I find myself still cooking a meal round them as they lack vegetables and and enough protein. Unless you pay a lot they are are not very healthy at all.



I eat a lot of fruit & veg at least 7 a day so there is a lot of peelings from them all. I eat a lot of vegan food that tends to need a big variety of different ingredients.



I rather think the rest of the tenants are having the same problems with the rubbish. They are only emptied every two weeks. They seem to be filling up earlier and earlier. They will be emptied on Tuesday but were already overflowing on Friday night.



I'm left with three problems, too much plastic when I was trying to eliminate as much single use plastic as possible. Too many veg I have to throw out, there is a limit to how much you can eat in one week and the problem of us having the overflowing bins with no where to put it all.



I'd like to join you and see if I can find some solution to all of this. I have been shut out of MSE for the past year so this is my first post for a year. They seem to have sorted it with the move.

Is there anyway you could all club together to buy your fruit and vegetables? If for example 3 of you want potatoes and carrots for the week, you could split the cost between you, portion out the produce between you and that way you are reducing your costs, plastic and food waste.

nursemaggie

I don't actually think that would work. It might work among some of those who eat traditional meals but I don't have them. I buy a bag of potatoes about 4 times a year and then it is only a small pack. I do eat a lot of more modern vegetables. I could try a notice on the notice board but about half of the tenants I have never met.

We have had a lot of deaths and people moving into nursing homes lately so it may work if I we get more tenants my age (73) as the ones that have died or moved were all in there 90s. We may get more adventurous cooks. I have been using a lot more tinned stuff, tinned fruit keeps longer, and tins are easily recycled. I also buy a lot of pules in tins as they are more handy. It is a lot cheaper to use dried ones but with tins I can change my mind about what I am having for dinner.

I think I could ask around because we could have our own market in the lounge. I do know there are a lot that share appliances, newspapers, and other things. I take all my magazine down to the lounge for others to read. I pick up two of free magazines.

I don't have the freezer space for cooking for two and freezing one. We have very tiny kitchens, I actually like it in some ways but there is only one space for a fridge, no other appliances. I have an under the counter fridge there, no room for a fridge/freezer and a small freezer in a cupboard. It's always full of YS stuff and frozen veg as we are a bus ride to the shops.

ancientmum

Nursemaggie, I think that Jack Munro advocates the use of tinned foodstuffs if you have limited freezer space. It is just as nutritious, lasts ages and you don't have to spend money on electricity to store it. I recently found one of her books on offer at WHS.

Following some of the people on here using vegetable peelings for soup, I made a batch with celery and with leftover cauliflower stalks and leaves, which I would have otherwise thrown away. It was yummy, I'll be certainly be doing it again.

CapricornLass

I'm not quite sure what a modern vegetable is, but is it worth trying Jackie's technique of wrapping individually in foil and keeping in the bottom of the fridge? My mum used to do that with carrots, (though I think she wrapped them individually in kitchen roll) and that worked for her.



Foil will be more re-usable, though!

candygirl

ANCIENTMUM, I'll deffo be trying that soup, sounds right up my street

VfM4meplse

ancientmum wrote: »

Nursemaggie, I think that Jack Munro advocates the use of tinned foodstuffs if you have limited freezer space. It is just as nutritious, lasts ages and you don't have to spend money on electricity to store it.

Whilst tins can be ideal at times, isn't recycling space a problem for nursemaggie and her co-residents? Tin cans are voluminous, and I would rather vulnerable people didn't risk nasty lacerations trying to squish them down.

nursemaggie

As soon as I put veg in the mesh bags they are fine. If I can't get loose ones the large bags fill my veg draws. I have two small draws. 8 large carrots, which seems to be the average fills one draw. I can't eat a whole carrot when they are 23cm and really big. I only need half so that means even if I eat carrots every day the will last for 16 days. They start going moldy in that time. I don't think fridges are the best places for keeping veg. Old fashioned pantries are the best. My mum kept veg in the wash house and carrots kept for months.

As for recycling I just put them in a carrier bag and take them down to the bin room.

I have been thinking about how some get their groceries. Most either get them brought by a son or daughter, mostly daughters or get taken shopping. A few have deliveries now and again. I have about 4 a year for all the heavy stuff. They visit relatives a lot so less meals at home.

My son remarked the last time he visited that he thought people here live on pie and mash. There are nearly as many pie shops as there are people.

I tried the foil for my veg before I got the mesh bags (they come in different sizes and go in the wash). I found stuff went bad in even less time. Kale is one I can't keep. Comes in great big bags, I end up throwing 90% away. I've stopped buying it now.

As for tins I have a very good stock soups, fruit, some veg, pulses some I did not know existed, salmon, tuna, and a little meat.