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Love food hate Waste Part two for 2018 :)

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  • thriftwizard
    thriftwizard Posts: 4,652
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    I'd also like to join in, please! I think I did post on the old thread, back at the beginning, but lost the track during one of Mum's sojourns in hospital & never caught up again.

    I was quite proud of myself on Monday; we'd over-bought cream over the festive period, and I still had a big tub about to go out of date, so I did Pommes Dauphinoise, having spotted the recipe over on the January Grocery Challenge thread. For us omnivores, I was roasting a small chicken from the freezer in order to make a bone broth to take to my Mum (which seems to settle her obstreperous insides) as well as making a chicken curry on Tuesday. And for my 2 veggie/pescatarian girls, I invented "Yorkshire Surpise" - we'd had several Yorkshire puds left over on Sunday, so I butterflied them and stuffed them with leftover roasted veg (sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, shallots & chickpeas roasted with garlic, salt & pepper) poured on a little of the garlicky cream to keep it moist, then topped it with grated (slightly out of date!) cheese and breadcrumbs from the bread-board. Went down very well - I gather I'm allowed to repeat that idea.
    Angie - GC March 24 24 £486.13/£500: 2024 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 10/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)
  • YorksLass
    YorksLass Posts: 1,691
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    edited 13 January 2018 at 7:09PM
    JackieO: Thanks for starting us off again. :A Looking forward to new ideas and posters, both new and old.
    The LFHW thread, is a great way of keeping the brain active trying to come up with ways to use LOs & invent recipes to use up all those half opened jars bought for specific recipes!MrsSD:)

    It is indeed and I've found most of the "invented" recipes are fab. Trouble is, unless I write down what I've done, I can't remember what I've used when it comes to second-time around! :D

    thriftwizard: We're omnivores too but that Yorkshire Surprise sounds yummy.
    purplevamp wrote: »
    Perhaps the spam button was clicked too much because people were using it up

    :rotfl::rotfl:

    Yesterday's shopping trip increased (rather than decreased) my store cupboard. Jars of mincemeat with a date of Nov 2020 on them were reduced to 10p each. Guess the sm needed the storage space more than I did. ;)

    Next week's soup will be celery & bacon, using up some bacon bits from the freezer. I've not made this one before so might just do a small batch to make sure we like it.

    Xmas leftovers all used up or frozen now, so it feels like a new start to the year. That said, there are things that haven't been opened yet (biscuits, chocolates, after dinner mints, savoury crackers) so they'll not make it onto the shopping list for a while! :D
    Be kind to others and to yourself too.
  • freyasmum
    freyasmum Posts: 20,597
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    Oh, how could I forget?

    I had some puff pastry, reduced (asda extra special red leicester) cheese (20p for the block!) and some ham from Christmas. Today, I made some ham and cheese parcels - DD and DH LOVED them! Around a pound for 8.

    The corned beef hash was delicious. We all really enjoyed it.
  • JIL
    JIL Posts: 8,661
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    Great to see a new thread and thanks to Jackie O.

    I'm still working through my cupboards and freezers. Still on plan with the monthly meal plan. Tonight I had a sachet of rice, an uncle Ben's type that is cooked and vacuum packed. It was chilli and pinto bean. I used it to stuff some peppers, topped it with some leftover smoked cheddar and baked it. I had that while others had fajitas.
  • Aril
    Aril Posts: 1,877
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    The last two Christmas potatoes went into a big pan of curried carrot and onion soup. We've both been unwell and this has fed us for lunches for the last three days.
    Arilx
    Aiming for a life of elegant frugality wearing a new-to-me silk shirt rather than one of hair!
  • suki1964
    suki1964 Posts: 14,313
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    I brought new life into a bendy French stick bought yesterday and not all used by running it under the cold tap and sticking it into a hot oven for a few minutes. Think it actually tasted fresher today :)
  • Cappella
    Cappella Posts: 748
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    I’m glad that you’ve opened a new thread JackieO, though sad that the old one has vanished. No waste here this week, made spiced pumpkin soup yesterday with one of our three remaining stored pumpkins (we have an allotment and MrC is a brilliant gardener - I am just a weeder and general labourer). Today, instead of our usual Sunday roast, I’m making a Moroccan vegetable stew as we have the north west’s chick pea mountain here and my aim this year is to eat what we have or have growing before buying anything else. I have audited everything, pantry, freezer, herbs and spices, front bedroom - four pumpkins and several squashes, they keep well there - made a week’s men plans for the first time for weeks and am determined at this will be “No Waste Year”. :) Fingers crossed, I’m sure with this thread to prompt me I will succeed.
  • I have some cooking bacon to use up and some shortcrust (YS) pastry in the freezer so I will combine them with some sausage meat, stuffing mix, onion and apple, some fresh sage from the garden (all of which I already have) and make us a wartime sausage pie to have cold for a few days lunches this week. I shall also make a big batch of red cabbage with apple as I have all the fixings for that and it re-heats really well and some red cabbage coleslaw to go with our pie. Tasty fare and no outlay, what's not to like???
  • I would like to join please. I hate food waste. On a side note Jackie, I was reading through another thread and saw a comment that you spend £60 a month on your food, I'm in awe. Fancy sharing your secret?

    Ok here goes :) I have five dinners minimum to eat /make during a seven day period, sometimes less. Just done my menu for next week.

    On Sundays: breakfast is bran flakes and coffee or a boiled egg/scrambled with crackers (I stopped eating bread about 2-3 years ago) I usually have soup for lunch HM from the vat I make on a Saturday afternoon.Sunday dinner in the evening is at my DDs I make and take the pudding with me ,sometimes a pie or rice pud depending on the weather;)

    Often DD gives me a plated up meal of left over veg and meat for Monday nights meal which is then put in the fridge to m'wave with gravy the next day.

    Monday breakfast is again cereal or porridge with coffee ot tea.mid morning I may have coffee and a couple of biscuits Lunch will normally be either soup or a small salad with fruit
    Monday night is either left over Sunday dinner or something from the freezer.I batch cook lasagne,currie,chilli etc and portion up for the freezer in reused take away boxes that DD has given me Or I may have a jacket spud with a small salad and grated cheese or a jacket on its own with cheese and beans

    Tuesday again cereal/porridge for breakfast,Lunch will be probably soup or crackers and cheese with fruit. Tuesday night I run a pub quiz team and get a meal thrown in for the same price of £2.00 entrance

    Wednesday breakfast can be eggs and crackers for breakfast or chopped up fresh fruit with plain yogurt Wednesday dinner I get from the freezer next week it will be a curry that I made from the left over carcass that DD gave me after Christmas I made three curries from the left over meat and used the carcass to make stock for the soups.

    Thursday nights meal next week will be a large salad made from diced lettuce,tomatoes, beetroot, (from the freezer)cucumber grated cheese and a tin of tuna and sweetcorn mixed together with some mayo I will use some of it for the salad and the rest will be used on crackers for lunch on Friday

    Fridays breakfast will be probably porridge with some cinnamon and a diced up apple. I make the porridge with water and use the milk as an addition once its in the bowl (its the way my old scots mum always made it ) Friday nights dinner will be fish from the freezer (I live about 30 minutes from Whitstable and every now and again will go there to stock up on fish so fresh its almost jumping off the plate )This will be with green veg normally steamed carrots and some sweetheart cabbage with chopped fruit for pudding

    Saturday probably eggs or cereal for breakfast, definitely soup for lunch with crackers and cheese and Saturday night maybe some chicken from the freezer I have found a tray of chicken thighs (around 6 ) will easily do me three meals as two chunky thighs cooked in my remoska with veg is quite filling.So far this month I haven't actually been shopping at all and I now have a list which I will use tomorrow when I buy my first shop of 2018.

    Mainly it consists of fresh veg carrots,sweetheart cabbage (my favourite) potatoes,Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, probably some oranges, maybe a swede if its a reasonable price and any Y/s veg I can find as I always use that for soups.I make as a rule my own soups,biscuits cake etc and try to use up what I have indoors before I buy anything else.

    My freezer is just starting to have some wriggle room as I have been using stuff up since christmas as I want to defrost it I rarely if ever bin food as I would rather eat it or freeze it for another day

    I know I have around 2-3 large packs of mince in there that will be brought out and batch cooked into meals over the next few weeks.I only use cash to buy food and that way it concentrates your mind on to using stuff up properly

    I never impulse buy unless its something that is excellent value and will freeze. The freezer is your friend if you want to save cash.

    Before christmas I was lucky enough to get some Y/S bargains one night at Asda's and got a stollen cake slab for 9p which I sliced into 6 and froze and have just used the last slice last night defrosted warmed slightly through in the microwave and it was delicious.

    Its possible to eat well, and reasonably healthy by thinking first 'What can I make, and can it streetch out to another meal with a bit of extra veg' etc

    I am lucky that I love veg and salads as almost anything will go with a salad, and veg will extend any meal

    When I buy a packet of celery or a cabbage I will always wrap it in foil and put in the bottom of the freezer as it will keep very well like that

    If I am steaming some veg I will make enough for two nights meals and put a portion once cold in the fridge for the next night

    Its about using up left overs with perhaps a new meal a bit like Allegra's 'building blocks' that were shown on TV a couple of years ago.I only buy butter to use to make shortbread as not eating bread I use soft cream cheese instead as a spread on crackers topped with tomato ,sliced cucumber, you really don't need butter as well :)

    I do indulge in decent coffee though as I do enjoy my ground coffee.I live alone, so can please myself what I eat.

    Often I am happy with just some chopped up fruit for a light meal. I also won't buy cheap sausages as I would rather have one or two decent ones with mashed potatoes that the rather nasty fatty cheap ones .

    Meat is portioned as it was when I was a little girl during rationing I think thats why I eat so many vegetables as its how we ate in the late 1940s because meat was rationed and used carefully.

    A pound of mince with some porridge oats to pad it out a bit made up to a good potful with bisto gravy (I use the powder )and diced carrots and a diced onion will make at least for me a good 6 portions for the freezer topped with mashed spuds or in a lasagne or with added chilli powder.

    You can get a good few meals from it Any small left over bits are frozen in a smaller pot to top a jacket spud

    In stock still I have 4 onions,4 apples,half a cucumber, two oranges and a couple of leeks.

    I use UHT milk as it lasts longer and because I am out and about quite a bit during the week I found that I was wasting fresh milk. I do eat and enjoy cheese and there is always a box full grated up in my fridge (it goes further grated )

    Cleaning materials are soda crystals ,vinegar and the detergent I use is the stuff from Aldis that I get a bottle of when its on special offer I only use half the measure and a handful of washing soda and my clothes are fine so the bottle lasts twice as long:)

    I could spend more than I do, but then I wouldn't be able to run my car, or have a couple of holidays a year

    In the spring I have a week away with my friend, and in August I go with my family to the I o W and I pay for the house rental and my DD buys the food and entertainment

    Although I do have a little stash of surplus cash that I save at the end of ever month from left over food budget to use for treats with my grandchildren on holiday.Sometimes its only a pound or two and other times its more but we always have some 'ice cream cash':) to use for things when we are on the beach

    There are 7 of us go every year and we are like a military operation DD and I are quite used to packing up a picnic for ourselves and her four sons and OH when we go to the beach for the day :) we have been doing it for the past 20 odd years :)

    I run my accounts as I used to run my business and nothing is wasted and every penny is used to its best advantage hopefully. I enjoy finding out different recipes and will always look for new ways to make the cash go further . A tin of corned beef will make me several meals as when I open one up I will cut it in half and freeze half and the left over remainder will make me a large salad and a few slices left for lunch the following day or with some batter as fritters with scalloped potatoes and peas for a nice comfort meal on a cold day.Almost any food can be extended and streetched to make another meal

    Hope this has helped and given you a few ideas.obviously those of you with families would not be able to cut down as children are always permanently hungry.
    I make my DGS cakes and biscuits during the week which helps DD as they don't have dinner in the evening until later because she doesn't get home until nearly seven and as I look after the boys after school they are always keen to have a snack of some sort after school

    I don't eat take-aways as I can make them better and cheaper myself I don't smoke and rarely drink, the occasional G&T or glass of wine but as I drive most days I really don't do that very often

    Jackie O xxx
  • Pollycat
    Pollycat Posts: 34,582
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    For those people with a sensitive digestion or those who are governed by 'use by' dates, I suggest you look away now. :eek:

    I found an unopened tub of set plain Skyr yogurt in the fridge.
    It has a 'use by' date of 15th December 2017.

    I opened it and it looked OK, a tad grainy at the top but I stirred it round and tasted it.
    It was fine.

    So - I have 2 chicken breasts marinating in yogurt & tandoori mix and will make a raita with some of the rest.

    I have hidden the lid with the date on carefully in the middle of the bin as, although my OH is fine with out-of-date food, he might just baulk at this. ;)

    If there's any left, I'll have it for breakfast tomorrow with a banana that's a bit ripe. After conducting the 'nose and tongue' test first, of course. :D
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