Food thread! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas.

[Ninkanink]

Thought I’d start a thread for everyone to post their tips and ideas on how best to use foodstuffs. Hoping it could be an easy guide as well for those who maybe aren’t so used to home cooking or using leftover foods, or understanding how best to utilise everything you have, expiry dates etc.

We have always been very conscious of food waste so we plan very carefully to use every scrap of food, it’s not hard, it’s just a skill one develops.

I’ll post some of my favourite leftover/using up bits meals and menus here and if anyone else wants to as well, please do!

Graphista if the bun tin frittatas are like my crustless quiche (quite likely), then I defrost mine either overnight in the fridge, or during the morning in my lunch bag, and microwave for a couple of minutes, or until piping hot (my portion might be bigger than a single bun tin size).

OK, just saw the bit about no microwave. Perhaps you can reheat in a low oven until piping hot?

www.albertbartlett.co.uk/recipe/scottish-macaroon/

Scottish Macaroon, not the French macarons

That’s a revelation weeds!

We are going to be such inventive cooks by the end of this PurpleDaisies

@PurpleDaisies not macarons the meringue like cake but macaroon which is a Scots chocolate bar type confection the mashed potato is the sweet filling (mixed with icing sugar)

In the end I made a chicken chow mein last night as I had quite a lot of cabbage both DC gobbled it down so I was pleased. Also the apple and yoghurt cake came it really nicely (too nicely as there is not a lot left and I am going to be the size of a house when this is all over). Tonight is mixed bean chilli as I managed to buy some tortillas and have a little plain yoghurt left over to use up. I'll probably do guacamole to go with it as I have a manky avocado.

I've ordered meat and veg boxes for Tuesday - not sure what will be in them so might be interesting....

@Ninkanink I appreciate the thought but no even a crate wouldn't work, anything remotely near outside floor no good to me, I barely cope with stuff inside the flat placed on floor in the totes the supermarkets use! When they went bag free it sent me into a tailspin for several days

@MulticolourMophead I'm happy to eat them cold once defrosted if that's safe

@Weedsnseeds1 you're the safety expert what do you say?

Graphista yes, safe to eat cold

👍 great stuff that's put my mind at ease. Perhaps make some later.

Once I start doing all this freezing I'm going to have to be bloody organised in remembering to remove stuff night before to defrost.

Ahhh @Graphista no worries, just figured it might be workable but I also understand - I don’t exactly suffer with OCD but I do have periods of severe intrusive thoughts/anxiety/panic so I have some experience with the restrictive elements of the games our minds play.

Graphista I think if properly cooked before freezing, and thoroughly defrosted, they should be okay to eat cold. I just took advantage of the microwave at work.

@Chewbecca I just roasted a chicken yesterday and today made a chicken, leek and bacon pie using this recipe: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/creamy_chicken_ham_and_03877

I only had lardons, not ham, so I threw them in with the leeks at the start, and we all like peas so I threw in a couple of handfuls of frozen peas as well. I had a pack of ready roll puff pastry for the top, but when I opened it it was so sour and smelled bad I could tell it was no good (still in date, so don't know what happened to it...) So I made half the amount of pastry called for in that recipe and just did a pastry lid.

Now cooking the chicken bones and leek greens up for stock for tomorrow, but after so much cooking already today (ricotta pancakes for breakfast as well...including stiff whipped egg whites!) I'm DONE for the day. So fish fingers, sweet potato wedges and crudites for the kids, and hopefully a takeaway for us though I'm not sure which restaurants in our town are still open.

Next week:
Risotto with that chicken stock
Lamb mince to use in a hotpot with lentils and squash
Something with pork steaks...

I seem to have quite a bit in the freezer thank goodness - 4 spicy cooking chorizo sausages, some lardons, a pound of minced beef, a very small beef joint all could be used...

Would all need cooking though and I am getting so tired of it.

Thanks - that pie looks great, wish I had some cream. Perhaps a white sauce as suggested upthread would work. However, I had a little gravy leftover from the dinner so wonder if I can eke that out (it was a good gravy).

I have a plan now for if the pastry is off, I blitzed a bunch of stale bread into crumbs and froze it recently, that might make a good topping if needed.

The beginnings of a venison stew. Will make two meals.

I used the pan complete with the bacon fat in it from bacon rashers this morning, for extra flavour. Added a small amount of dried porcini mushrooms (half of what we had left) to hopefully add a hint of woody mushroom essence as we don’t have any fresh mushrooms, and one big clove of black garlic to add some sweet richness. Used some floppy celery, including the leaves, a carrot and a parsnip that had seen better days. Lamb stock and fat from roasting the other day has been put to good use so that’s another thing down that I don’t have to remember. Now to let it stew away...

I used this recipe as a guide:

andhereweare.net/woodland-venison-stew/

@Xiaoxiong I know what you mean - I’m suddenly sick of cooking and I’ve not been nearly as industrious as you and others, nor do I have as many mouths to feed. I’m also aware that I’m saying this from a position of privilege but I must say I’m so looking forward to fish burgers today for something just that little bit different from the very rich and filling foods we’ve had lately. I am so grateful that we do have lots of good food in.

Urgh forgot photo.

I made veg drawer lentil soup for lunch. The DC claim they don’t like cooked celery or carrots so I blitzed an onion, two carrots and some celery with a drop of water in the smoothie maker and used that as the base for the soup. I then chucked in anything that looked a bit tired from the veg drawer in the fridge, some lentils, stock and a tin of tomatoes.

They ate it without noticing the blitzed veg.

Sueelleker the egg one is gala pie. Used to be popular in the 70s and 80s
No, gala pie is just a pork pie with egg; the recipe I mean is made with sausage-meat.

You are all amazing, just catching up with thread now. Mystery pie was actually really nice, DH wants it again but I can’t remember exactly what I put in it

Lasagna got abandoned, have a chef living next door but 2, and he was offering takeaways. The lure of beef ribs overcame me, and we still have leftovers tonight.

However, mince needed using, so did a basic mince and onions, to cook it up. Will add more gravy today and attempt dumplings. Sort of. Poor DH. —he’s currently banned from the kitchen as he’d use up all the ingredients in one meal—

My goodness the fish burgers were good! Just week-old brioche buns and frozen battered fish with a little bit of tartare sauce, lemon juice and parsley, but it was exactly what I wanted today. Very satisfying.

And I feel happy because I’ve cleared the buns and that’s one less thing to think about.

Sometimes a basic meal can really hit the spot. I very rarely have baked beans on toast now but I'll occasionally crave it (usually if I've had a few bad nights and energy low) I fancy mine up by adding various things depending on what I fancy:

Marmite on the toast as well as butter

Splash of Henderson's relish in the beans

Knob of butter to enrich beans

My much used garlic grinder (seriously if this runs out I'm gonna be in tears!) a few twists into the beans

Black pepper over the beans

Pesto sauce, salad cream or tomato purée on the toast instead of butter

BUT white toast is best for this dish I feel.

Anyway...

I chickened out of using the creme fraiche in the casserole I just wasn't sure it wouldn't curdle or something and it would waste the other ingredients.

So...it's in the oven now but it's a much simpler dish than planned just stock, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes (all past their best and needing used though), a few herbs. I'm going to add the quorn chicken just for the last 20 mins as it's very soft and I don't want it to be mush!

I managed to secure a delivery with Sainsburys for today (this has been a whole saga! They're my usual supermarket but I've been unable to get a slot for weeks!)

I didn't need food so much but there were other things I was really struggling to get so I was hoping they'd manage that for me and it was actually relatively successful so I now have decent sized food bags and a liner for my loaf tin which I am planning to use for a savoury veggie loaf of some description. Thinking to use bread and eggs to give it some "body"

I'm sure I have cake mix somewhere but for the life of me can't think where I've put it! Shall have to have a hunt.

Evening, I've read most but not all of the thread, so apologies if this has appeared before.
My DD baked no yeast bread today and said it was really nice with soup. She doesn't live with us so have not tasted it, but her pics look good, I'm going to give it a go
fussfreeflavours.com/emergency-bread/

Sometimes you just can’t beat a freezer tea! (Quorn) fish finger sarnies with cheapo white bread and plastic cheese slices are a guilty pleasure of mine.