No, none at all. We pretty much never do, as we plan very carefully to ensure we don’t waste food (and money). We always make meals with leftovers and freeze everything that we don’t use.
Tonight we’re having chilli nachos (tortilla chips layered with chilli and cheese, topped with sliced jalapeños, crushed avocado, sour cream and pico de gallo), using up the last portion of chilli I made with 500g of mince at the beginning of the week. Two portions have already gone into the freezer to make two more meals at a later date. We had chilli and rice with avocado when it was first made, then a couple of days later chilli and wedges with chipotle ranch dressing dip, and now, the nachos. So that one lot of chilli has done us for five meals.
There is a pot of yoghurt in the fridge which needs using up. We used some of it to make a raita a week or two ago, and the rest of it is going to be used tomorrow to make tandoori chicken.
The other day when I was cooking peri peri chicken and med veg I noticed that one of the aubergines in the fridge was looking worse for wear. So I sliced it up and popped it into the oven to roast with the rest of the food, and later, froze it. That will be used with a portion of beef/pork mince in garlic and tomato sauce which I froze last week; I’ll layer it up with pasta and make a lasagne.
We each had a joint from the peri peri chicken, and saved one leg and one breast. The breast and the leftover juices from the pan will be used to make a pasta dish tomorrow, with a courgette that’s waiting in the fridge for that purpose. Now that there’s room in the freezer since I’ve used some of the leeks and mushrooms, I’ll freeze the chicken leg which will be used for a chicken and chorizo paella-style dish. I’ll use one third of the chorizo sausage, and make two more meals with the rest over the next couple of weeks.
Last week I made braised red cabbage to use up what was left of a red cabbage from over a month ago (they last a long time!). I also used an apple that was past its best and half a jar of cranberry sauce leftover from Christmas. There was a small amount of that left, so on Saturday I am going to make a meal of turkey steaks rolled around Christmas stuffing (a packet that we picked up at Sainsbury’s for 20p a couple of weeks ago) and wrapped in bacon - we have four of those in the freezer, which will make two meals. I’ll use some Brussels sprouts from the freezer and a few potatoes left in a bag from last week will make enough roasties for the two of us.
We’ve just had a potato hash for lunch as there were some baby potatoes which needed using ASAP - I brought them home when I last visited my daughters as they weren’t going to use them and I didn’t want them to go to waste. They were sprouting a fair bit so I boiled them up yesterday while I was cooking dinner. Today I sautéed them in butter with some bacon, mushrooms and leeks from the freezer, and two eggs mixed in at the end. It made a very delicious lunch. After I had opened the packet of bacon I realised that another already opened one was hiding under a pile of meat, so to ensure that the previously opened bacon doesn’t go to waste I’ll do us a cooked breakfast tomorrow and find another use for the last few rashers - probably add them to the aforementioned Brussels sprouts. I’ll portion out the newly opened bacon into separate bags and freeze.
I’ve got two ends of a loaf drying out now which I will blitz into breadcrumbs in a couple of days time. That will be used to make pork schnitzel with slices of pork loin from the freezer.
If we ever do have a rare week or two where we lose track of what’s in the fridge or just end up having takeaway a few times or whatever the case may be, we will make up a big batch of minestrone with anything that’s past its best so none of the vegetables/greens/salads go to waste.
Open packets of herbs that aren’t going to be used up within a few days are frozen so that we’ve got a wide range available when needed.
And so on and so forth.