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!

I really love this thread! It's very inspiring.

Dh is out braving Aldi as I type so we'll have full cupboards and fridge again soon.

It's been over a week since our last shop and we still have a few things left which will which will be first in rotation in the next few days. We ran out of bread and milk and rather than do two shops - local small one and then Aldi over the weekend we decided it was better to just do one today.

We have a ham in the fridge which gets roasted in it's foil dish with a honey and mustard glaze and we'll have that with baked potatoes (take out the flesh and mash with loads of butter and cheese and put back in to crisp up ) and kale. Left over ham will be tomorrow's lunch!

@Ninkanink silly question, love that tuna melts recipe but what is a ‘broiler’? Could I replicate the effect somehow?

It's American for a grill onceuponamodnightbeery

@Weedsnseeds well I never! 🤦🏻‍♀️ 39 years old and that’s a new one on me, always thought it was... well, I don’t know exactly what I thought it was!!! Some special kind of cooking system I guess 🤣😂🤣

I’ll go boil or broil my head now!

And will be namechanging shortly

Don't worry beery - I, too, was today years old when I found that out!

I spent 5 days snowed in at a hotel in Arkansas once, I watched an awful lot of Food Network TV!

I’ve been lurking on this thread just reading since the beginning and just wanted to say thank you to everyone contributing, it’s given me lots of ideas!

Tonight is a dominos pizza for our anniversary but yesterday we had a lovely vegetarian tagine using up the baby potatoes and carrots that were getting a bit old. Served with a packet couscous and halloumi. If unopened halloumi lasts a year in the fridge so it’s a handy thing to have in there as it can so easily be turned into a meal! We’re rationing our meat as our freezer is tiny and eating mostly veggie - would love to try a few different veggie meals if anyone has ideas.

I've been able to have a lazy day cooking wise as had a quiche needed using and remainder of sliced peppers from yesterday's omelette. So I've added some sliced mushrooms and I'm having quiche and a "salad" of just peppers and mushrooms tonight. I need to stop eating so late!

All your pics look AMAZING!

@Nfblues I've been veggie over 30 years and while my confidence for actual cooking needs a boost I have many years of recipes and ideas in my head.

Hit me with what you've got in and what kinda dishes you like? And I'll try to help

I had a lazy day too - was going to make something a bit more elaborate (only slightly more, mind) but in the end I decided to do the bare minimum. It tasted good, though!

Glad someone else was able to answer the question on broiling. Such a funny word!

Just realised I’ve never actually done that recipe with the egg in it.

I’m craving so many things I can’t get atm...very grateful for the food we do have, though.

@Nfblues that tagine looks fantastic.

@sockittome123 oh thank gods for that (crawls back out of the shame hole) every day IS a school day on MN

@Weedsnseeds1 you lucky thing, I love being snowed in! Ashamed to admit I’ve watched a lot of Food Network, but somehow the dots never joined 🤦🏻‍♀️ (A common situation to me, tbf...)

Tonight’s meal was leftover mince and onions, with leftover takeaway bbq sauce mixed in, more debatable dumplings and cheesy onion garlic mash to use up some past their best potatoes, some needed to use cream, and some of the massive stash of garlic.

Again, not fit for public viewing, but tasted nice

Apocalypse sushi rols - tempura soft shell crab, carrot, avocado and spring onions

Rolls...

Does anyone know if you can make hummous nice without tahini? I love hummous but every time DH has been our on a very limited shop (once a fortnight) there hasn't been any available.

I've got plenty of tinned chickpeas, olive oil, lemons, garlic and chilli.

What delights on this thread this morning! Homemade sushi! Arancini! It makes for lovely reading and viewing.
@Ninkanink Thank you for the tuna melt recipes, the pioneer woman is my 4pm comfort blanket currently through this storm, I find everything about her entirely anxiety soothing. I will be trying it.
@Nfblues The tagine looks delicious and happy anniversary!

We had another good evening of using stuff up yesterday.
I upcycled the remainder of Wednesday’s beans stew into a fish stew by throwing in some frozen small prawns, a fillet of while fish from the freezer and a few olives (that was an idea from @Ninkanink upthread!)

Remaining polenta was upcycled into polenta chips which started to rather disintegrate whilst frying so I ended up bunging them in the oven. My theory is that the cheese to polenta ratio might have been too high in favour of cheese in my mix .

Finally I made a parsnip and pearl barley risotto to finish a bag of out of date pearl barley and use up some tired parsnips. It was a very positive surprise, really tasty. My toddler declared it his favourite food and then also yucky and a bit mushy, so some success with him! Recipe is here www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pearl-barley-parsnip-sage-risotto

Our fridge is starting to look quite empty which is weirdly satisfying. I’m thinking veggie chilli from the freezer tonight to finish the last of the feta as a topping. I’ve got some giant cooking apples and three frozen bananas begging for baking if my new scales arrive today.

@Nfblues I've been veggie for a year and have quite the collection of veggie/vegan recipe books.

As pp said tell us what you have in and we can suggest some recipes :)

I don't want to live here anymore. I want to live at OP's house.
And visit weekly anyone else who has posted delicious photos.

If I win the lottery, will you be my personal chef?

Cricketmum do you have any sesame oil? Or any other nut butters? Even smooth peanut butter. I've had it made with sunflower seed butter once at a kids party where the birthday boy had a sesame allergy and i remember being surprised how well it worked.

Peanut butter is a good shout for hummus.

I would just go with what you’ve got. I make it a fair bit without tahini and I like the taste. It might just need a bit of extra lemon or garlic to bring it to life.

Ah I'll give it a go with what I've got. I don't have sesame oil or nut butters as I absolutely hate nuts. The smell of peanut butter makes me gag! Just remembered I have dried coriander that should be nice with the lemon and chilli too.

I’m with you on the peanut butter. I used to love it then was really ill after eating it once (probably totally unrelated) but ever since I’ve not been able to eat it.

My fridge is bursting after two veg boxes arrived (long story!). Thinking about what to cook for the next few days. Trying to keep Friday and Saturday evenings as treat type meals, have a special brunch on Saturday mornings and a tradition Sunday type lunch.

So far I have...
Friday - ???????
Saturday brunch - grilled asparagus on sourdough toast with a poached egg for dh.
Saturday evening - ??????
Sunday lunch - pie minister pies from the freezer and mashed potatoes.

I am very excited about the asparagus.

@PurpleDaisies your Saturday brunch sounds gorgeous! I might do something similar but with mushrooms, spinach and cherry tomatoes as no asparagus.