making food last longer/cutting waste

[HelloMist]

Please point me in the right direction if there is a thread like this already. (there may be some pre-Covid threads about being frugal or reducing waste too).

Can we collect some tips for making food/household products last longer? And maybe meal ideas with what random items/cupboard basics we have left if we can't buy what we normally do. I'm worried seeing the supermarkets and online deliveries struggle with stock but would like to think about what I can do in a positive way and stay calm about it.

Hoping to keep this thread free of stockpiling debates or negative news. Thank you! :)

I'll start:

• use ends of bread?
• I like coffee but am starting to use a cheaper jar when I have a 3rd or 4th cup in the day, to save my favourite for first morning cup
• varying what we eat for breakfast as we might run out of favourites (peanut butter, milk)
• before all this I already tried to freeze surplus meat etc and write a clear list with dates so hopefully I can end up using it for other meals rather than throwing away. I'm freezing things like passata when I open it too.

This is a great thread! This may be a silly question but, does anyone know if it's ok to freeze lemons?

Meal plan! As has been said, include 'bulking' foods that you wouldn't normally, so instead of a whole pack of mince in spag bol, use half a pack and bulk with pulses; then you can get 2 meals from the mince. Don't eat all of the 'nice' food first, spread it out so that the other food actually gets eaten and isn't all that is left and seems unapealling.

Packet of supernoodles, spaghetti sauce and all left over fridge bottom veg, plus a few chopped up sausages or fish fingers. Layer and bake well.

My mother used to bulk up soups and casseroles by throwing a can of baked beans in. She also used to use a small amount of chopped fried bacon, tin of tomatoes, tin of baked beans and finely chopped whatever left over veg there was and casserole it, lovely with bread or salad.

Left over stale bread can be used for breadcrumbs or croutons and used to add bulk or to make stuffing as a side dish with seasoning and onion.

Lemons freeze fine. I keep a bag of sliced ones.

Another tip a mother with a big family used to share was when chopping an onion or peppers, chop the whole vegetable and put it in the fridge. She threw away lots of a third of left over pepper or half an onion, but if she had a lidded box in the fridge she'd drop a handful of onion or pepper or leek in lots of things. Less waste.

When I buy veg stuff is often wet when you take it out of the packet, so I leave on the worktop to dry before putting in the fridge. I use ice cream tubs, lined with paper towel, for potatoes, carrots etc, and stack them up in the veg/salad drawer. They last for ages, as they can go manky if you put them away wet.

Stretch pesto using olive oil.

I put a metal skewer through baking potatoes and it seems to cut the time it takes to bake them. Then I cool, wrap in clingy and then in foil and freeze them. If you have any of those nut roast mixes, they make great veggie burgers. Just add the required amount of water, two eggs and shape into patties.

I also use a metal skewer in my jacket potatoes but never thought of cooking several and freezing. Do you have to defrost before re-heating and do you do it in the oven or microwave? I'm partial to a crunchy skin and wonder if that's not possible once they have been frozen.

Thanks Silvery

Spring onions...if yours have got little stubby root nodules, put them in a vase/jar with water, on a sunny windowsill. After a few days the roots will develop and the green tips start growing.

You will have a perpetual supply of spring onion that you can snip onto salads, omelettes, cous-cous, soups etc etc.

That bloody mumsnet shop bot needs to fuck off. Bad bot.

If something is about to turn, cook it. You can most likely freeze the cooked product if you're not likely to be able to use it, immediately. Round up veg past its best and make soup (I made curried leek, lentil and potato soup, today - used up some of a pot of lactose free yoghurt and the end of a bag of coriander to garnish it - there's some left for tomorow's lunch - I made it concentrated so it tok up les fridge space, so need to add a bit of water when i reheat it). Fry off mince that looks about to go brown, or is on its use by date. If you can't use it that day, freeze it and use it later.

anyone know if it's ok to freeze lemons?

They don't stay as perky but you can freeze slices for drinks or ice cubes of the juice to add to food.

Thanks Pick.

Agree with another poster that you can re-grow veg from the base part you'd usually cut off when you eat the tops. Either sit in water or just plant and within days, little roots appear. I've done this with spring onions, bok choy, celery, chinese cabbage, basil stems and fennel.

Never ending veg!

pre-make your honey and lemon; keeps in the fridge for over a year. Put sliced lemons and fresh ginger slices in a clean jar, pour honey over to cover and store in fridge. Of add to half a jar of honey and mix. Ada You then use a tbsp or two in hot water and add a slice of each every time. When you feel ill it speeds the process up too

Delicious storecuoboard puttanesca (and I imagine the ingredients will still be on the shelves!); heat pan, add a tin of anchovies (oil included), add garlic and heat until anchovies dissolve. Add capers and olives and a tin of toms. Cook 4-5 mins, serve with pasta

Blitz oats into oat flour and use to make pancakes (add a bit of baking powder). Use Jamie’s method of 1 cup (flour/milk/1egg) and mash a ripe banana in or grate a dodgy apple/pear to use it up. Make extra and freeze as a no milk-left brekkie

Top and tail carrots and store in a Tupperware in fridge

Buy long-life cheeses like feta and halloumi. Grate and freeze cheddar

Freeze milk. Lasts about a month in freezer. Freeze pints/2 pints ideally as takes 12 hours+ to defrost

Bake a load of jackets, scoop out middle into a bowl and mix cheese/butter/salt and any other flavouring you like. Fill the skins back and freeze when cool. Take out to defrost and bake in oven until skins crisps up again. Add a tin of beans or tuna to increase protein

Delicious storecuoboard puttanesca (and I imagine the ingredients will still be on the shelves!); heat pan, add a tin of anchovies (oil included), add garlic and heat until anchovies dissolve. Add capers and olives and a tin of toms. Cook 4-5 mins, serve with pasta

This sounds delicious - I’m going to give it a try!

It’s lush!

Another good one; eat oil in a pan (3-4 tbsp), add garlic, cook 1 min, add Tom purée, mix and add a few tbsp pasta water. Makes an awesome tomato sauce for pasta (look up nadia sawalha doing it on YouTube). My kids love it (but adults do too)

Freeze milk in ice cube bags if you have them. Then you can just defrost a couple of cubes
Freeze any old and dry bits of cheese and then throw them into stews/soups/ragu for extra flavour.

Irish soda bread doesn't require yeast, or any proving time. The recipe includes buttermilk, but you can use normal milk and add some vinegar. Don't quote me on the details here, all easy to find on-line though.

Perky lemons made me smile

It had never occurred to me to grate and freeze either hallucinations or feta. I'm so doing that.

Halloumi rather

Are halluncinations caused by halloumi?

hallucinations rather.
I should have stuck to feta.

Most food wills last beyond its use by date especially if unopened.
You can freeze things like hummus.

We have a very old tin of marvel dried milk lurking in the cupboard that is BBE of this month. Just read that if we freeze the powder in a plastic bag and scoop it out as we need it, it will keep for another year.

Only if actually mixed with feta, bloody frightening they are too

If any posters have tried subbing the juice from canned chick peas for eggs, and had success, please tell! This could be a game changer for what I'd otherwise pour down the sink,