Obsession with efficient fridge management!

[boobashka]

Detest food waste and I am slightly obsessed with ensuring I use my fresh stuff out the fridge prior to my new load of weekly shopping arriving.
The teenagers hate it as often the shelves are quite bare but I get a ridiculous sense of satisfaction and smugness when I have cooked up leftover bits and bobs to ensure clear shelves.
Favourite dishes for using up leftover food at the end of the week include:

-quiche (great for polishing off the end of pots of cream, odd lumps of cheese, bits of cold meat, spare egg whites/yolks)

-soups (bits of old veg, the leaves round a cauliflower, broccoli stalks)

-stewed fruit (old apples and other fruit languishing at the bottom of the bowl...)

Anyone else like this and care to add to my list of useful 'using up' dishes...?

Fried rice, with leftover vegetables and bits of cold meat. ’Pytt i panna’ if we have leftover cold potatoes and cold meat, served with fried egg.

www.swedishfood.com/swedish-food-recipes-main-courses/194-pyttipanna

Thanks for the recipe suggestion @smoshbambi - worth making extra boiled potatoes for the leftovers
Fried rice is another good one!

I once saw a TV cook suggesting a veggie curry on a Monday night was a good way to clear out the vegetable drawer and quite often do this, especially in winter.

If I’m in a real hurry and have no leftover rice, I sometimes buy those ready bags of rice to keep in the cupboard. I use up lots of vegetables this way. Sometimes I add lentils.

@boobashka we always boil extra potatoes for this. 🙂

Yum - a curry is a great one @NoYOUbekind.

Those spicy flavours mask all the ancient veg contained within!

I've started buying in a tin of chick peas most weeks as they bulk out a veggie curry really well!

@boobashka

Yum - a curry is a great one *@NoYOUbekind*.

Those spicy flavours mask all the ancient veg contained within!

I've started buying in a tin of chick peas most weeks as they bulk out a veggie curry really well!

If you like a coconut sauce, you need to know that coconut milk freezes really well too! We only use half a can for one curry, put the other half in the freezer for next week.

My go to dishes for using up leftovers are risotto, fried rice and bean stew.

Good tip re freezing the coconut milk @NoYOUbekind- I have always used the creamed coconut but it's quite pricey!

I've not ever made risotto before @Pikamoo. What do you chuck into yours...?

Nasi goreng - leftover cooked rice, small handfuls of lots of bits of veg, leftover chicken, tin of tuna (in oil best as can use that oil to fry everything), 2 tablespoons of mild curry powder and half a small tin of sweetcorn.

(So yes, it creates some waste in needing only a half tin of sweetcorn - but that always gets used some other way).

Roast potatoes sliced and fried...perfect lunch with a fried (still runny) egg

Various other stir fries with rice or noodles to use bits of veg and meat.

Risotto for leftover roast chicken or mushrooms needing some love (I usually also add some dried mushrooms that I've rehydrated, and use the rehydrating water as part of the stock after draining out any gritty bits). And throw the rind of the parmesan block in to the rice while cooking for extra flavour too.

Mac'n'cheese - in our house, it includes either bacon lardons fried up or leftover diced ham/bacon from a joint. As well as lots of bits of veg (mushrooms, peppers, courgette, onion, garlic, petits pois (frozen) etc) - any leftovers in the large pot are frozen to serve as pasta bake another time with a good scattering of grated cheese on top.

Spanish omlette

Ratatouille or roasted meditternanean veggies - which can also be frozen if there are leftovers, to use as a pasta sauce another time.

Stews for more wintery veggies - roots, beans etc.
Or a veggie chilli or veggie curry.

Flammkuchen :

Pizza dough base rolled out very thin
sour cream/yogurt/creme fraiche spread on top
whatever bits and pieces you have leftover as toppings

From the traditional onion, bacon/ham, cheese to things like mushrooms, spinach, leeks, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, chicken, salmon....it's great as you only need very little of anything scattered on top.

Ideas here: www.google.com/search?q=flammkuchen&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiK6t6-4LDzAhUHMRoKHQpgDasQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=flammkuchen&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgAEENQlA9Y8xhgjRtoAHAAeACAAWSIAYkEkgEDNi4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=GPNaYYr-GofiaIrAtdgK&bih=610&biw=1240&client=opera&hs=O95

Those spicy flavours mask all the ancient veg contained within!

Not a recipe but a food waste/storage tip. Things like lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, spring onions etc will all keep fresh longer if you cut the end of stem and stand them in a few cm of water in the fridge - just like flowers in a vase. You can also perk up them up, as well as things like carrots, parsnips, peppers, by putting them in water in the fridge for a few hours if they start to get wrinkly. Although it's probably best to freeze anything you aren't going to use before they get to that stage to preserve vitamins. Then instead of having half a pepper, a few wrinkly carrots and parsnips, and some broccoli stalks, you soon have a bag full of each vegetable, which opens up more possibilities for different recipes.

It takes a bit of planning to make sure you have "complementary" leftovers but we often have tapas/mezze style dinners to use up small amounts of leftovers eg roast cauliflower with tahini, cucumber in orange blossom water, batata harra (spicy potatoes with pepper and onion), feta and spinach pastries or halloumi, honey roast tomatoes, butter beans with bacon, spanish omelette, croquetas, meatballs etc

LOVE this thread.

Someone on Mumsnet once described an odds-and-ends soup as a “Lost Soup”. I loved this phrased and ha adopted it for my ‘lost omelettes’ ‘lost risottos’ and ‘lost pizzas’ (with a tomato base and cheese to cover, it is very forgiving of anything else you put on it!).

Fried rice is a great idea, and I will steal that - thank you.

My problem is, I have a bit of a routine of washing, house cleaning, (including fridge clean out), and then food shopping on Saturday morning, meaning that hopefully I then have the rest of the weekend to relax or do non-chore related stuff. However, I find it’s during the Saturday morning fridge/freezer clean I discover what I have left to use. I then usually do a bit of a rough meal plan/shopping list incorporating that stuff, but I would love to finish it all before I go…..how do you guys do it?!?

Also stealing the quiche idea - such a good one for a weekend lunch

I bought a small dehydrator when lockdown started, and dry lots of vegetable bits that might otherwise end up on the compost heap. They end up in soups and sauces instead, and I can store them for months.

Thanks so much everyone - some fab ideas here!!

@FollowYourOwnNorthStar
What is even easier than a quiche is a crustless quiche, then you don't even need to bother making the pastry. I've got a couple of silicon quiche dishes which mean you can whip up the egg mix (with assorted dribbles of milk, cream, yogurt, etc mixed in) then plonk on top of whatever bits of cheese, ham, veg etc straight into the quiche dish. Whack in the oven at 180 for half an hour or so - delicious warm or cold for lunches/ packed lunches.

@FollowYourOwnNorthStar

Could you do your fridge assessment on a Friday evening (I know - living the dream!!) and make your shopping list based on what you need to top it up...?

@boobashka - I should….in fact ideally I’d do the fridge cull Thursday night, Friday lunch and dinner could be a lost quiche followed by a lost soup or pizza, leaving everything clear for a Saturday grocery shop.

I suppose this does have the advantage of making Friday/end of week meals very easy, although it rules out a cheeky dinner out or takeaway when the week has been very long.

@boobashka I put pretty much anything in risotto, I can't think of anything I'd buy that wouldn't go in tbh! Potato might be a bit weird I guess. If we have leftover gravy from a roast that goes in, bits of cheese and cream, nuts, veg, meat, fish, that last bit of pesto that isn't quite enough for a meal (any pasta sauce could probably stir in!). Its so easy to make, just fry some onion/garlic, add the rice, add some wine then keep stirring and adding stock until it's done is the basic and you can add whatever you like at the appropriate time.

Crepes is also nice, to fill with mushrooms, prawns or ham and some cheese on top. Easy to make with different fillings from what you have left in the fridge.

This storecupboard risotto is SO easy to make, you bake it in the oven. Comes out perfect every time, and you can basically put what you want in it.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/oven-baked-risotto

I do tuna pasta in a tomato sauce on the day before the shopping arrives and blitz all leftover vegetables from the week into the sauce. Doesn't matter if they're a bit past their best because they all get obliterated into mush anyway!

Mmmm you've really inspired me to try a risotto and I have some dregs of white wine which will go in nicely!
That last bit of pesto that isn't quite enough for a meal - reminds me, one of my top tips is to rinse out jars of jam, chutney etc with a swill of boiling water and pop into bolognaise, casseroles. Really adds to the flavour...

I'm a bit like this but I don't attempt to actually empty the fridge. As much as I loathe waste, I would hate the fridge to be actually empty, so the new shopping arrives while there's still a few bits and bobs that need finishing up which all go onto one shelf and then get incorporated into the next few meals cooked.

Someone already mentioned crepes but although all sorts of little bits of leftovers can be used as a crepe filling, you can also blitz all sorts of leftovers into the crepe batter to make the crepes themselves take on various flavours and colours. Rocket is great here if you have a bag of it that's getting a bit wilty to be enjoyed as salad.

@SinoohXaenaHide I have to try that! Spinage might be nice.