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!

The mackerel pate is delish 😍😍😍

Mackerel pâté is one of my favourite things! We make a quick cucumber pickle to go with it, and eat on Swedish crackerbread. Sooo yummy!

I think I have a tin of mackerel fillets somewhere - another idea on the list!

Mini maple, pecan and date bread and butter puddings, to use up the custard from French toast this morning!

Just wondering if I should make some mince pies, ready for the Queen's speech later?!

I made mince pie muffins this week and they were very tasty.

They look good!

@Ninkanink I've got some unopened olive melba toasts from Christmas so will have some of those, a few pickles and some veg sticks with it. The horseradish definitely adds a lot to the pate. Feeling rather proud of myself lol.

@Ninkanink How do you do you quick pickle with cucumber?

Looks like we’ve all had a very productive cooking day the photos all look beautiful.

Toad in the hole with pankake mix?

Yep. It's just a batter mix from what the poster said no sugar in it I don't think.

Toad in the hole is just sausages baked in a batter.

I'm feeling very hot and very stuffed!

Thanks to you lot my kitchen is a DISASTER all my pans, oven dishes and almost all my cutlery has been used and is currently soaking.

The crumble looks ok I think, the jam seems weirdly still quite liquid even though I cooked longer than recipes and I'm not sure that pan will ever recover (it's soaking in fairy and hot water now), the casserole I've just polished off with garlic mash.

Pardon the mess/magazine in the pics was using mag as a tray as couldn't get to my Normal tray!

Ohhhhh @cricketmum84 Melba toast is perfect too! I’m very pleased that it turned out so well, and I love that satisfaction that comes from making something delicious with what seems like not all that much...

@Furble we use this recipe, for the pâté and the pickle:

www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/mackerel-pate-recipe

The crumble looks delicious, graphista!
Jam often looks to runny whilst it is still warm - it’ll thicken as it cools. As I use less sugar than traditional, my jams are always soft-set, French-style, which is much nicer than bouncy jam.
If it doesn’t set at all, then call it a fresh compote 😃

I am using up more odds and ends of veg and old-ish cashew nuts, stir fried with a lime/soy/ginger/chilli/garlic sauce concocted out of various pantry bottles. Dcs had it with grilled salmon from freezer and noodles. Dh had end of a packet of turkey and noodles. I’m having it with brown rice and a crispy fried egg, and extra courgettes as everyone else hates them.

Still eating the brownies 😃🍒

Mmmmmm everyone’s soups/dinners/puddings/crumbles/muffins/etc look fantastic!

I’ve got my eye on those cheesy scones, going to make them in a few days when we’ve run out of bread.

Also planning a crumble or other pudding one of these days.

Bits and piece for dinner here tonight. I’ve had more of the parsnip and pearl barley risotto. DH and DS1 had some rather old crackers with soft cheese and the last of some out of date smoked salmon. DS2 had some of the leek tart I made yesterday.

I’m back to browsing cauli recipes for tomorrow’s dinner

You are doing a sterling job with all that fruit Graphista!

Just for everyone’s info, smoked salmon freezes very well.

Tonight’s dinner:

I decided against using the seabass as I really want to make something light and fragrant with that later on in the week, so instead I added a tin of tuna to the leftover puttanesca sauce, heated it through gently, and served with pasta in a warm olive oil dressing with lemon, garlic, chilli, and parsley. One crusty roll each to pad it out a little.

Aww thanks guys

I can't face eating it yet!

Anyone else feel like that after a cooking marathon that the effort of cooking and proximity to all the food puts you right off?

Usually it's Christmas dinner does that to me, but to use a local phrase I'm fair puggled (totally knackered)

Before all this and certainly before this thread that fruit would have just been thrown out I MAYBE would have had some on cereal the first day

So thanks for giving me not only ideas but the confidence to even attempt to use it. (I've not tasted it yet! So don't get too excited)

So many nice things on the thread. I cooked all the sprouting potatoes and turned them into mash. Ate some with pieminister vegan pies from the freezer which where fantastic. The rest got frozen.

Oooh Ninkanink, pasta, I remember that!

I seem to have a vague recollection of it coming in long thin shapes as well...but I can’t be sure...

It was all the rage in 2019, if I remember correctly

Speaking of vague recollections...I really miss having salads. We have got half a cucumber but no lettuce/tomatoes/peppers/radishes/etc. We have carrots and cabbage now, no other fresh veg, but we’re still trying not to go to the shops unless we actually have to, so will see if we can make it another week at least. Tbh I’d probably go if it was just me, but my DH is determined that it’s not worth it yet and I do agree with him that we shouldn’t go until it’s essential, since we do have a choice in the matter. And we do have plenty of veg in the freezer, I’m just used to having much more variety.

Have a delivery booked for the 18th, and a basic box coming on the 8th.

We had a cooked breakfast (of sorts) today - chipolatas, bacon, mushrooms from the freezer, baked beans, a fried egg each, and toast. So now we are down to 1 egg. Which I think I will save to make a peach cake early next week. Or maybe something almondy. I’ve got a pancake mix as well which I might use at the weekend, just for a change.

Thank you for all the pork suggestions- much appreciated.

In the end they ate like a pack of starving gannets so there isn't heaps of pork left. DH and DD2 are happy to try a char sui fried rice kind of thing with what is left. Dd1 is not happy but having it anyway

@Graphista I know what you mean with the cooking marathon and not really being able to face eating. I’m glad we’ve got some easy dinners coming up so that I don’t have to make any effort.

Dinner tomorrow: leftover biryani, with naan and a side dish from a packet.

Dinner on Tuesday: leftover lasagne with jacket potatoes, coleslaw and garlic bread.