Frugal Foodies, thread 2! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas.

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Hey everyone!

1st thread is here

Hope that link worked! I’ve never done it that way before...

💐 and 🍰 and ☕️ to all!

annoyed today to realise the chicken thighs i bought were past their date on the 19th and the meatballs were yesterday! The meatballs I’m sure will be fine but the chicken is debatable, chicken goes off so bloody quickly. Think it was because I went in the shop for the first time since lockdown and I was paranoid about touching stuff and not buying it so didn’t think to check the dates. Tbh I would have thought the meatballs would be fine for at least another day but my mum saw the date so I’ll need to cook it all up today, if the chicken is still ok.

How very mildly irritating.

Well the thing about chicken is that when it's off, you really, REALLY know, so if they smell ok I'd just cook them thoroughly. Same for the meatballs!

Chicken might still be fine - if it smells okay I’d use it. If it’s rotten you will definitely know.

Meatballs will definitely be okay.

But yes, I’d cook them both up today. If you don’t know what you want to do with them I’d just poach the chicken and roast the meatballs, then you can decide what to do with them later.

Oh also 😆 at the fancy fish fingers - we don’t have them often but once in a while we have fish finger sandwiches as it’s one of my DH’s comfort foods. It just so happened that this time I had jumbo ones from the farm shop and some brioche rolls that needed using!

Yeah I was confident the meatballs would be fine, just wasn’t sure about the chicken as I’ve had so many times of just missing the date and it’s gone off! But both were fine, I’m doing a curry with the meatballs as that’s what I was hoping to do today anyway (just would have left it till tomorrow if mum hadn’t seen the date!) and I didn’t have anything planned for the chicken so I’ve just covered it in Nando’s sauce and stuck it in the oven and it’ll do for lunch tomorrow. We don’t buy ahead normally, just get stuff on the day so I’m not used to having stuff in the fridge to keep an eye on!

Oh yummy both of those sound tasty!

Curry was lovely (not a very good picture but I promise you it was nice) but spicier than I meant it to be, as usual. I always get a bit carried away. Haven’t tried the chicken but it smells nice! There’s a portion of curry left so I’ll have that for tea tomorrow, probably with chips, and me and mum will have the chicken for lunch.

How long does cooking food extend it for past its raw best by date, anyone know?

@angelcakebananabrain you got room in your freezer? If so you should be fine to cook the meat and freeze the results I'd think?

I was discussing all this with someone yesterday about how it's strange having to deal with fresh food being easier to get but obviously goes off quicker so we're having to be much more organised and it's particularly hard for those of us not feeding loads of people.

I've also noticed it's harder getting smaller options eg I keep ordering small packs of mushrooms and just one or 2 peppers but subs mean I'm getting larger packs. I understand why it's just tricky.

My freezer is now full so I can't cook up dishes and freeze stuff so I'm feeling a bit "argh what do I do?"

You guys have helped a great deal.

Just done a check of inventory and updated nest egg app.

Needs using in next few days:

Quorn spinach and red pepper deli slices

Quorn bacon

Peppers

Mushrooms

Also grapes and yogurt but they fall under "dessert" so will get used.

I bought the deli slices before all this when I wasn't really cooking but having more snack type meals so originally they would easily have been finished by now from use in sandwiches for my dinner but I'm eating better and more at the moment and I've had other stuff to use so they've been forgotten.

They're dated yesterday and as they don't get cooked I'm feeling cautious about using them. Any ideas or guidance I'd be grateful for.

I also bought in a load of herbs and spices now I'm cooking again but kept forgetting to note what I had so when I was looking at recipes I wasn't sure what I had in so I've listed those too.

I have:

Garlic salt grinder (always have one in they're great for quickly adding flavour to loads of things)

Garlic granules

Fresh garlic - clearly I love garlic

Herbs

Basil
Oregano
Sage
Thyme
Coriander leaf

Spices

Smoked paprika
Normal paprika
Ground ginger
Ground sweet cinnamon
Ground cumin
Cajun mix - not tried before

Hot cayenne pepper - a substitute item I really don't do hot so guidance on using this much appreciated.

Here are tomatoes waiting to go in warmed oven.

Just quartered them, placed on tray, drizzled over olive oil, then sprinkled with garlic grinder, basil and oregano and a bit more olive oil (which is running low must order more)

Just waiting on dinner being ready to come out oven and will pop them in on a lower heat for a few hours.

Will try and remember to do an after pic too.

@angelcakebananabrain I generally go by up to 5 days once cooked. In your case I’d prioritise the chicken and eat that in the next couple of days (because it’s poultry and was overdue), and I’d happily leave the meatballs 3 or 4 days.

Cool, thanks. My mum never eats cooked food past the next day so I’m never sure how long I can leave it for although I do always eat stuff for more than one day.

@Graphista tomatoes look lovely already!

(The obvious exceptions being fish and seafood.)

@angelcakebananabrain thanks I think so too, here's hoping they taste good too.

Tonight I've absolute 80's on the radio and I'm having a meal I haven't had since the 80's!

Fish cake (veggie quorn version but tastes ok), chips and beans!

No wonder I get a shock when I look in the mirror and see not my 15 year old inner self but a greying old lady!

I love roasted tomatoes.
Chicken and meatballs, if they are in a rigid tray with a heat sealed film on top, they havd been gas used, so you have an extra 2 or 3 days.
If cling film type wrap over a tray, I would cook both now, to be honest.
Deli slices, no reason you couldn't chop them up, and use in a hot dish if you wanted?

Pasta tonight- basically made cacio e pepe pasta and then tossed through scallops and asparagus (from last thursday's veg box and starting to go over) sautéed in butter, lemon and white vermouth. Absolutely lush and the kids loved it!

Mussels for lunch tomorrow as they literally take minutes to cook and we only have a 40 min break in the online school timetable!

Yum, Scallops look delicious.
Lazy meal of fish, chips and beans here!

Just went to sort tomatoes, as I left bedroom the smell hit me, gorgeous.

They're very dark but I did a taste test (note to self: just because that's a "low" heat for the oven doesn't mean they aren't very bloody hot!!) and they have a slightly smoky flavour. Fantastic "umami" hit, if they last 2 days it'll be a miracle!

@TolstoyAteMyHamster if you are Clapahm way then Moxtons by Clapahm South does fish as does the deli on The Pavement.

Veg box arrived today so we had butternut and cavolo nero risotto tonight made with pearl barley rather than rice - it was really nice but needed an awful lot of Parmesan to give it some flavour. There were a couple of courgettes and an aubergine so I'm thinking of roasting them with a red onion or two and blitzing to make a tomato sauce as DC won't eat ratatouille.

Ive quite a lot of cabbage and carrot plus mange tout so when my meat box arraives I was thinking of a stir fry assuming there is some chicken. DC are really excited as the last box had the most amazing sausages if there aren't any this time I imagine there will be a lot of sulking...

Found some polenta at the back of teh cupboard, and a recipe fro garlic tomato polenta cakes. They were OK but a bit stodgy. I think I'll go teh sweet route for teh rest of it, maybe an orange cake.

Tonight will be pesto and mushroom pasta.

angel I don't think use by dates matter once something is cooked, I just allow 3 days after cooking (or 4 if I forget to use by day 3..). Or freeze for an indefinite amount of time. I've never made anyone ill yet!

The tomatoes in my veg box are lovely and fresh and smell beautiful so I'm going to make a Bulgarian style shopska salad for lunch with some feta that needs using up (I ate so many shopska salads on holiday last year!) then using another couple for dinner tonight with scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tofurky maple fake bacon. Looking forward to it already!

Morning everyone! ☕️ and 🍩 and 🌻

I over catered yesterday...

Pulled pork with spicy tex mex peppers and red onion, wrapped in romaine lettuce; spicy potato wedges (making room in the freezer), bbq sauce and smoky chipotle dip; chilli from the freezer (making room!) with crisped up tortilla wraps that needed using. It was yummy but goodness, it was a little too much for the two of us.

@Xiaoxiong 😍😍

@Graphista they look tasty and sound delicious!

@cricketmum84 both sound great.