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Online Ordering incident!

Happy_Sloth
Posts: 316 Forumite

So i ordered a joint of meat for Christmas dinner from a nice little online shop.
While I was on the website i noticed they did veg boxes as well. We used to get a veg box delivered but we stopped getting it when we started trying to get our finances in order but I do miss having veg arriving bi-weekly.
So while i knew it was too early for christmas veg i figured i'd buy one to see what it was like... after all we use veg daily. The veg box was £7 more expensive than the one we used to get so i thought it might be a little bigger but goodness!!
Normally i complain that i don't get my money's worth ... but this time 2 massive boxes arrived, one full of veg one full of fruit.
Please help! there is no way i can use all this before it goes bad! Any storage tips or things i can do with it and perhaps freeze. I would hate to waste any! Even better if they are things i can prepare for Christmas dinner to make life easier on the day!
It's not so much that we won't eat it, we just can't eat it before it all goes bad!
While I was on the website i noticed they did veg boxes as well. We used to get a veg box delivered but we stopped getting it when we started trying to get our finances in order but I do miss having veg arriving bi-weekly.
So while i knew it was too early for christmas veg i figured i'd buy one to see what it was like... after all we use veg daily. The veg box was £7 more expensive than the one we used to get so i thought it might be a little bigger but goodness!!
Normally i complain that i don't get my money's worth ... but this time 2 massive boxes arrived, one full of veg one full of fruit.
Please help! there is no way i can use all this before it goes bad! Any storage tips or things i can do with it and perhaps freeze. I would hate to waste any! Even better if they are things i can prepare for Christmas dinner to make life easier on the day!
- 2 hands of Bananas
- 3 punnets of Blueberries.
- 25 satsumas
- 10 oranges
- 5 limes
- 3 lemons
- 15 apples
- 2 punnets of grapes
- 2 5kg bags of Potato's
- 1 Swede
- 1 red cabbage
- 2 cauliflower
- 1 savoy cabbage
- 7 stalks of broccoli
- 3kg sprouts
- 17 parsnips (yes really!)
- 10 large onions
- 2 bulbs of garlic
- 5kg of Carrots
It's not so much that we won't eat it, we just can't eat it before it all goes bad!
- May 2021 Grocery Challenge : £198.72 spent / £300 Budget
- June 2021 Grocery challenge : £354.19 spent / £300 Budget
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Comments
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I store carrots, swede, onions, potatoes, sprouts, cabbage, 'snips, outside in the barn for several weeks after Christmas. (Usually buy lots very cheap christmas eve), so try these in the basement. Broccoli will keep upto a week in the fridge, cauli also, or blanch and freeze. Garlic, I peel, crush and put in a jar covered with white vinegar. Store in the fridge, keeps for months. If you still have garlic cloves left over, push into the ground, next year you'll have even more.
Fruit, don't have any advice, it gets eaten too fast here by the grandchildren. HTH, mumtoomany.Frugal Living Challenge 2025.
Grocery challenge, £1300 food plus £200 cleaning materials etc, for the year.1 -
Bananas - they will freeze but will defrost a horrible colour but make a cake with them, keep the juice that comes out when defrosting and add that too.Bleberries, freeze or make muffins and freezePotatoes, keep them in the dark and cool, under the stairs maybe? and they'll be fine.Lemons and limes, if you're not using them immediately but drink things,slice up and freeze, then use them instead of ice cubesOr juice and freeze the juice, same for the zest...Parsnips,you could slice and dry or make veggie crisps out of them, have you got a dehydrator?The cabbages will like the cool and the damp shouldn't affect them too much.Apples, make sauce or stew and jar it up, then water bath them.You could make cauli cheese ready and freeze that.Oranges/satsumas, eat, or juice and boil the rinds for marmalade. I made a tangerine and orange one early this year, it's really lovely.can;t help with sprouts, I'd readily eat those....Non me fac calcitrare tuum culi2
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Braised red cabbage will use red cabbage, apples and onions and it will freeze beautifully ahead of time for Christmas1
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Hi,boil up a lash of the root vegetables, swede, carrots, parsnip, potatoes in same pot, drain and mash, portion and freeze.1
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Frozen bananas can also be used to make smoothies or quick ice cream - frozen banana blitzed with equal quantity of yoghurt makes a instance ice cream
Apples should last a good couple of weeks or more either in the fridge on in the basement just make sure to eat any bruised ones first
Blueberries and grapes will both freeze, although I tend to eat the grapes from frozen rather than defrosting them .
Parsnips, carrots, swede, broccoli and cauliflower all make great soups and will freeze for lunches. If the apples aren't too sweet you could make Parsnip and apple.
As others have said the root veg will last a while in a cool dark place if no room in the fridge. To keep cabbage and cauliflower longer in the fridge I use containers with a old tea towel in the bottom to soak up any water and they keep quite a while, alterative add a old tea towel to the bottom of the salad drawer which will do similar
Chopped onions can be frozen and you can also freeze sprouts, you may need to blanche them first. I make a mash from root veg (with or without potato) and freeze it in portions, i use a ice cream scoop to portion it out, open freeze then pop it into a bag, just don't make it too wet
I've kept red cabbage for over a month in the fridge but if you have room cooked red cabbage also freezes wellLife shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage - Anais Nin2 -
With the satsumas and oranges, they can be bottled if you have the time and energy - just peel and remove the stringy pith from the clementines, peel and section the oranges and bottle them with sugar syrup and spices.
Makes nice presents as well.2024 Fashion on the Ration - 10/66 coupons used
Crafting 2024 - 1/9 items finished1 -
If your basement is a bit damp pop the root veg, spuds and onions in pillowcases or cloth bags and hang them from a laundry rack that should help keep the air round about them. Ditto the satsumas, oranges and apples. If you wrap the satsumas and oranges in a bit of kitchen roll if one goes mouldy it won't spread as quickly.
Finely diced veg takes up much less freezer space than whole so chop and freeze for future soups/stews. That will take up less room than the finished dishes.
The lemons and limes can be chopped or sliced and frozen. The slices make a nice ice cube for a festive tipple and wedges fine for squeezing after defrosting. If you mainly use these for juice, then juice and freeze in ice cube trays then once frozen decant into a box or bag.
Cabbage keeps for a long time in the fridge if you peel the leaves off rather than chop into it.
Parsnips and potatoes can be boiled and part roasted then frozen ready to cook over the festive period. Cook from frozen for best results. Mashed root veg freezes really well.
Sounds like a marvellous selection.2 -
That's great value for £7!
Most of those things can be frozen in some form, the rest can be preserved as already mentioned.
If freezer space is an issue, try looking on Facebook marketplace, freegle/Freecycle etc for a cheap or free chest freezer, assuming you have a space where you could put one. A shed or garage is fine as long as there is power.
Or maybe offer a neighbour some spare produce in exchange for a bit of freezer space - obviously use those things up first to avoid it becoming a nuisance for them!
Sometimes, if things are starting to go a bit past their best, cooking can kind of reset the clock, at least to some extent. For example, you could make a soup with floppy veg which is a day from the bin. The soup will last several days in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer.
Another use for frozen bananas is a recipe my partner and I developed, for a mild curry.
Banana curry.
(All measurements are very approximate, feel free to adjust as desired.)
Per person, you need:
1-2 frozen bananas or very soft fresh onesA large chicken breast /2 chicken thighs or equivalent protein of your choice, chopped into bite sized pieces.
A small to medium onion, chopped fairly small (optional)
Curry powder to taste, I use about 2tsp of medium Madras curry powder for a mild curry with a slight bite.Cream as needed, approx half to one cup. Non dairy alternatives should also work.
A little oil or other cooking fat for browning.
A little bacon added with the meat is also nice in this, but is totally optional.
If using onion, start by softening it in oil and browning is slightly, then remove from pan and keep aside. Brown your chopped chicken in the same pan with a little more oil if needed. Sprinkle over the curry powder and add back the onion. Stir it all together over a medium heat for a minute or so before adding in the flesh of your banana. If using from frozen, you may need to warm the skins a bit in order to peel them. A hot tap or jug of hot water works for this.
Smush up the banana as it cooks, then when it's starting to look a little dry, add in just enough cream to make a thick but pourable sauce.
Simmer gently for at least 5 mins, stirring occasionally until your chicken or other protein is fully cooked through. You can add a little more cream or milk if it gets too dry.
I serve this on broccoli to reduce the carbs, but a more normal side for this would be rice, perhaps cooked with turmeric and/or raisins.
You can also use leftover or pre-cooked meat for this, such as turkey or rotisserie chicken.Trust me - I'm NOT a doctor!1 -
glennevis said:babyshoes said:That's great value for £7!
I thought this forum was supposed to be friendly?
I spent a lot of my limited energy today typing out a delicious recipe that I'm excited about, and the only response is a rude demand to re-read the OP, because I made a small mistake?
Not that it should matter, but I have a health issue which (amongst other symptoms) affects my cognitive function. Despite having a degree in English, these days I often seem to misread small details, or misspeak/mistype, or forget words. You can imagine, those types of things don't do much for my self esteem. A dismissive, rude comment like that makes it even worse. On a bad day, it could even have triggered suicidal thoughts.
Not cool.Trust me - I'm NOT a doctor!8
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