To buy is human, to use up divine....anyone want to join me in a 'use up ALL my leftovers, sad fridge leavings' campaign?

[dandycandyjellybean]

Was horrified by a statistic about how much food we throw away, and thought perhaps we could swap ideas on how not to?

So far:
My neighbour gave me masses of new potatoes from her allotment, and some eggs from her neighbours chickens ~

*cooked all the potatoes had them as straight new pots that night

*instead of just making a sandwich when a friend turned up unexpectedly for lunch next day, sauteed cooked new pots and fried the lovely eggs - not terribly 'weight watchers' but blummin lovely!!!!

*mashed the rest of the pots and used as a topping for cottage pie and used up the last of the cabbage she had given me the week before (lovely neighbour - really helping in the credit crunch!!!)

*used up 4 sad bendy carrots, 2 similar celery hearts, similar 1/3 white cabbage, new pots I'd bought on offer at aldi and not used, some sweet potato, a few Quorn fillets and some frozen green beans and peas with lots of Pataks vindaloo curry paste and some pineapple chutney I'd made a couple of weeks ago and needed using, chucked it all in a massive pot ~ tada loads of curry for the freezer (dh favourite standby meal). It tasted surprisingly nice actually, didn't tell him about all the slightly 'sad' ingredients!

*last 1/2 of a french stick I bought on a whim for lunch on Tuesday and haven't finished - breadcrumbs for freezer.

[dandycandyjellybean]

anyone?

[dandycandyjellybean]

how many?

if 3 or 4 you could roast over gas flame then put in poly bag to cool then peel off manky skin. then ready to use in a rice/pasta salad, pasta sauce, pizza topping or almost anything that would include peppers.

I have also peeled them with one of those wishbone shaped peelers, and then chopped them into chunks and roasted in oven for similar effect, if you already have oven on for something else..

[TeaMonster]

Riven I would chopp them really small and cook them, then you can add to bolegnease or soups. They really sweeten the sauce and that way you dont need to skin them.

I am up for this. I menu plan and try not to have a lot of wastage.

Although things are going to be harder over the summer as shopping with a 3 and 4 year old is tourture.

I will shop online, but also maily shop at Aldi

[RupertTheBear]

You could chop the peppers up and sling them in the freezer ready to go in a spag bol or similar at a later date.

[dandycandyjellybean]

In that case I would just saute with a bit of garlic and olive oil and then puree/sieve and freeze to add to a pasta sauce for yourself.

I too mainly shop online and at Aldi, but did shop at lidl yesterday as a lot of their fruit and veg is half price!

Okay here's a real teaser:
Got some grapes from Aldi Super 6 but they are really sour, and have about 5 pears that have gone a bit woolly, any suggestions?

[OmicronPersei8]

Grape and pear chutney?

[dandycandyjellybean]

mmmm, I'm not a chutney chick per se, although I did download a recipe for pickled pears which sounded quite nice, but that still leaves me the grapes unless you've got a recipe for the grape and pear chutney? I could always make it and then give it away if i'm not keen!!!

[moondog]

It would never occur to me not to use up everything in my fridge or cupboard.

I'd stirfry those peppers.

[dandycandyjellybean]

not saying to use everything in the fridge / cupboard, just to try and use up the odds and ends that I might usually automatically ditch without really thinking about how I could use them iyswim.

[mrsruffallo]

Some good ideas here

[StirlingTheStrong]

Oh mrsruffallo - I was about to link to that - I work for the Scottish equivilant - Here.

I am getting into the habit of looking in the fridge and making a meal that includes as many of the items lurking in there as possible - I impress myself sometimes - the dc are harder to impress

[sameagain]

Riven - why do you have 3 peppers if the rest of the family hate them?

I am very that I never buy mushrooms any more. I love them, but no-one else will eat them and as I refuse to cook separate meals for everyone, I go without.

[moondog]

I'd never ditch anything ever though.

[dandycandyjellybean]

Sorry misread your post moondog thought you said it would never occur to you 'TO' use everything.....wow you're very good. I'm not a massive chucker away tbh, prob better than a lot of my rl friends, but am just making an extra effort.

Today, had 6 extra people for lunch post swim, mostly littlies, and instead of going to Aldi and buying a bag of skinny fries i made my own to go with pizza i'd had knocking about in the freezer for a bit, and the blokes had my 'leftover' curry from the other day. All got yumm'd up with smiles so was pleased.

[twoluvlykids]

I've got the best - DH's work had a buffet lunch yesterday for the staff, he txtd me to say he was bringing home 40+ sandwiches!

I was a bit at the thought of curled up edges and dry bread, but they were all presented on a covered platter and bloomin' lovely too!

Had some for breakfast, lunch and eating now for a mid pm snack.....

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[dandycandyjellybean]

Wow, 2lk, you did well! love the idea of toastin' em christiana, and the recipe looks really good, a kind of savoury bread and butter pudding, will deffo try next time I have left over sarnies.

Re left over pears - made a massive batch of sponge today to use up eggs (10 egg sponge mix - mammoth). Made 4 (large individual) size pear and cinammon syrup sponge puddings for the freezer - dh loves school puds and thought this would be a more likely to be eaten way of using them up. Then used some more of the sponge to use up 2 mega ripe v, v, brown bananas, then made a mint choc sponge for ds, and a plain sponge with lots of lovely vanilla ess for me !

Am really getting into this, and getting a real sense of satisfaction from it too. The only thing I'm a bit stalled on is the grapes, they are so sour I'm worried that whatever I make with them will be a waste of ingredients. All else fails, I'll give 'em to my lovely mil, who hosts a positive scrum fest for masses of different and some quite rare birds in her cottage garden.

How's everyone else doing?

[giantkatestacks]

Sadly like moondog - I like using everything up - though I dont really ever buy anything extra on the off chance I might fancy it iyswim.

I have shed loads of carrots that need using up before we go on holiday on Tuesday though - theres a Sophie Grigson stir fried sweet carrots recipe but theres too much even for that - ahh I need a good carrot cake recipe maybe but does that actually contain a lot fo carrots - I vaguely remember making carrot bread once which was only a cup of grated carrot.

[dandycandyjellybean]

www.carrotrecipes.net/carrot-and-coriander-soup.html

[dandycandyjellybean]

don't know if there's other stuff there that might help as well as the soup recipe....where you off on your hols?

[StirlingTheStrong]

giantkate This is a good recipe for carrot cake although it only uses 140g carrot but it is freezeable so you could make a couple.

or

This carrot and lentil soup needs 600g carrots and is also freezeable.

[dandycandyjellybean]

So the grapes are going to the mil for the birds with some cake trimmings. I did have to throw away some cooked pasta shapes that I found at the back of the fridge, but I'm all sorted now, nothing lurking that I don't know about!

Am desperately saving for our first holiday abroad in our whole marriage (20 yrs this year) so have limited myself to £10 per week for grocery shopping (normally £40) - am just doing a menu to use up everything in my fridge/pantry for the next few weeks....will keep you posted.

Anyone else got any ideas of stuff to do with some red pots I've got left over? Got to be peeled coz they're starting to chit a bit.....?