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!

A breakfast one:

100g 0% greek yoghurt
1tbsp cream
1tbsp jam
1tbsp honey
1tbsp seed mix

300 cals, and the cream/jam/yogurt element is a dead dupe for muller corner yogurt.

Another breakfast one: if you have granola that’s gone a bit stale and is no longer crunchy, don’t throw it out! Mix into yoghurt or milk (either on its own or you could add berries/seeds/nuts/fruit) and leave in the fridge overnight.

Mmm keema curry here too. My family love it although I do mine with veggie mince.

I have half a pack of mince to use. Made a cottage pie with the other half (is it ridiculous that it was first time making a cottage pie ). Anyway, keema curry sounds nice.

How do you make yours?

We’re down to six eggs now, 1 pack of oranges for fresh fruit, and we’ve opened our last fresh milk, which should last the week. We do have a carton of UHT milk but we’re loath to use that until we absolutely have to. We have yoghurt for this week and next, and granola, for my DH’s breakfast (I don’t usually eat breakfast). Still looking feasible to wait two weeks before another shopping trip; we’ll see how it’s going by Mon/tues next week.

Another breakfast one: if you have granola that’s gone a bit stale and is no longer crunchy, don’t throw it out! Mix into yoghurt or milk (either on its own or you could add berries/seeds/nuts/fruit) and leave in the fridge overnight. When I had a breadmaker, one of my recipe books had a recipe for muesli bread; just adding muesli to an ordinary bread recipe. It was lovely.

Oh that’s a great one too!

What a great thread! I'd like to share my recipe for quesadillas - almost all the ingredients are long life and/ or freezeable. We used to have these once a week anyway, even in less interesting times.

Easy Quesadillas
1 tin beans in water (kidney, borlotti, mixed etc.)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1tsp smoked paprika/ Cajun spice mix/ Mexican seasoning mix/ chipotle paste
75g grated cheese
Pack of tortillas
Vegetable oil for frying

1. Mash the beans in a large bowl. Add the onion, garlic, seasoning and cheese and mix together.
2. Cut tortillas in half (for small ones) or quarters (large ones). Put about a tablespoon of the mixture onto half of each piece of tortilla and spread out to cover that half. Then fold the other half over the top to make a little flat triangular parcel. The filling should be about 70mm/ ¼ inch thick - too thick and the onion doesn’t cook and the filling leaks out.
3. Shallow fry in a little oil for about 5 mins on each side until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and eat while hot.

Add half a finely chopped pepper and/ or a bit of fresh coriander to the mixture of you like. They also reheat easily the next day, or can be frozen.

Mmmmmm I love tex mex.

I’ve got a great recipe for black beans - I made it in advance the other day and used it to make re-fried beans for our tacos. I’m going to try it next with a tin of mixed beans, and after that with red kidney beans.

belleofthekitchen.com/mexican-black-beans-recipe/

Ooh excellent! I have 2 tins of black beans that I haven't worked out what to do with!

Refried beans are one of the most underrated foods on the planet!

supercee I use the basic recipe here when I’m feeling a bit lazy. I’m veggie so I use soya mince. The pies are really good though.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-parsnip-shepherds-pies%3famp

This is the tastiest black bean recipe ever. I use veg stock instead of chicken (veggies) and dried chilli flakes instead of jalapeño, but my god it's delicious. Serve over a baked sweet potato or as part of a burrito bowl.

Thanks for all the suggestions :) my mum used to make a weight watchers keema curry that I do not have fond memories of, but perhaps a non-diet version will be tastier. I'll have a look at some recipes :)

I don’t believe in diet versions of anything!

Earlier in the week I had a roast rib of beef, had cold the following day with bubble & squeak and salad. The remainder I sliced and froze portions in gravy.

When I get a new loaf of bread, I freeze half of it in 2 slice packs. If there's any left, I may make a bread and butter pudding and/or put in the oven to dry out and then blitz to make breadcrumbs for escalopes etc.

If a banana goes black before I eat it, I put in freezer and eventually make banana bread.

I read on here that you can freeze jacket potatoes and then microwave for 9 minutes. I have put half a dozen in the freezer but not tried reheating yet.

If I buy ready rolled puff pastry for making sausage rolls, I will stew a cooking apple and some blackberries to make fruit parcels to use up the pastry.

If bulk cooking shin of beef/ox kidney for steak and kidney, I cut lids from ready made pastry to fit the pie dish and freeze them. Will also make dumplings and freeze before cooking.

@supercee my keema is very simple. I gently warm my spices in a dry pan first and set aside (garam masala, curry powder, cumin, turmeric, chilli). Then I fry chopped onion, ginger and garlic (use dried if you don't have fresh) until softened, add the mice and fry until browned. Add a tin of tomatoes and then the spices you warmed earlier and simmer for about 20 mins. Add coriander at the end if you have any. You can also bulk it out with lentils. Spinach, mushrooms, pepper. Basically any veg you fancy.

If using quorn mince skip the mince cooking part and go straight to adding tomatoes then add the quorn mince into the sauce.

😂 the mince not the mice. I don't think we have quite got to that point yet 😂

Mmmmmmm I’m hungry! Luckily I get to cook a curry today so I will be able to enjoy all those lovely aromas too (won’t get to eat it today 😭 as there is a steak waiting to be used 😋 ).

Haha haha @cricketmum84

...fast forward to week 56 of lockdown...

Thanks @PurpleDaisies and @cricketmum84 they both sound right up my street.

RubySlippers77 for quick delish flatbread., if you want another chapati type recipe, combine equal parts yoghurt with SR flour ( I use the yoghurt pot to measure) and mix to a soft dough add flavouring (onion seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, caraway, poppy, blah blah). Roll or stretch to rounds and fry in a hot-ish dry pan. You can brush with butter before serving if you have the luxury of any!

@joesev that flatbread recipe is one of my kids absolute favourites :) I had yoghurt that desperately needed using earlier this week so made a batch and froze them!

Delish aren't they! In these strange times my at home 14year old son has taken to having them for breakfast. He makes them himself (adds chilli or smoked paprika) and has them with scrambled eggs or marmite. Trying to keep up with his appetite at home and a little bored is a monumental task so something he can make for himself that is versatile and filling is a godsend.! Xx

Coincidentally, I made similar flatbreads last night after a quick google. They were really nice. Next time I'd add chopped garlic and herbs to them.