What random stuff are you doing to avoid wasting food?

[MangosteenSoda]

Today I am braising a lettuce. An out of date romaine lettuce.

Make me feel better about this!

That's a good point actually. It would probably work well for cookies. Thank you.

Pancakes would work with it, and here are some more ideas!

www.thekitchn.com/17-ways-to-use-up-a-carton-of-buttermilk-230444

SnugglySnerd

You're welcome

Hope it works.

Fab, very versatile recipe.

Scotch pancakes

100g flour (any type)
1 TSP sugar (any type)
Pinch of salt.
(Optional 50g of any soft dried fruit)

Mix together and add enough water to make a double cream consistency. Leave thicker for a puffy pancake, thinner for a flatter one.

Fry in a little oil/butter.

These made a great brunch yesterday. Plain ones with bacon and maple syrup, or fruit ones with syrup and tinned pineapple!

Saving all veg scraps & things about to turn. Cleaning, chopping, blanching & freezing it altogether & using it fir things like minestrone soup, veg curry etc

Love all of ideas and shared stories here - Thanks All!

I have realised that I live on the nicest street in the world. I don't actually know many of my neighbours yet because I'm the new neighbour. However, last week one of the neighbours left a huge box of fresh veg on every doorstep - it was the difficulty of using all of that fresh veg that started this thread.

I just used the last of it today, and then... I opened my door to another full fresh veg box. I've done a drive-by drop off to other family members and now I'm going to re-read this thread and figure out what to do with the rest of the veg without wasting a scrap.

Highlights of the box for me - a watermelon and a daikon. I'm sharing those bad boys with no one

Awww that’s lovely!

Eating more.

I eat whatever runs out of date, even though I fancy something else. I also cook lots of passata with everything that’s left in the fridge, i.e. aubergine, courgette, red pepper that isn’t too fresh etc. I had some millet groats left in the fridge, so I boiled a bit more with plant milk and sweetener, added some topping and we had nice desserts in these little gu jars:) Soups are great if you have lot of veggies left.

I made some soup with left over veggies and gravy from sunday dinner and put in a small amount of ham that we had in the freezer since xmas. Berated hubby for using "nice" bread to make croutons!!

We don't really have lots of random leftovers as I meal plan and incorporate the other half of any ingredient into the next meal. I think also the fact that we haven't had any supermarket shortages where we are has helped massively with eating as we usually do.

We have only been shopping once a week also which has mostly worked out fine. Dh needs to get diesel in the garage later this evening and so he'll grab milk and bread (and perhaps some chocolate!) while her's there and that will save going to the supermarket until at least Friday, maybe Saturday - which would make it 9 / 10 days since the last trip.

We got a takeaway and the salad that comes with it has several fresh tomatoes (I hate raw tomatoes). I kept them to use in a casserole. I’ve also kept all the lemon wedges that come with takeaways for DD (5) as a diversion to “Make lemonade” ie squeeze them in water. I then told her she must eat what was left of them “for vitamin C” which she did. 😂

Just made an apple pie (my first ever). Teenage DD who kept asking whether it had failed yet came back for seconds. Making clementine cake tomorrow.

I made my first ever stuffing (usually use paxo) the other day so I could use up some stale bread and the last few sausages, I fried an apple and onion with some sage, added the breadcrumbs and the meat from inside the sausages.
I couldn't believe how good it was.

I have a jar of red peppers sitting neglected in the fridge - any suggestions for what to use these for? My original plan was a red pepper Houmous but I'm reluctant to use a tin of precious chickpeas.

I have a dedicated fridge Sharpie, for labelling leftovers with what they are and date. I've been encouraging eating things in date order for lunch.

I use them in pasta dressings/sauces, bruschetta toppings, in antipasti salads to accompany pasta, or in couscous. I also use them in steak or pork sandwiches.

I used red pepper in bolegnase

I fed the family rice noodles for lunch that were 4 months past their best before date.

No-one is dead yet, and DS said the soup was really nice. It also included 2 day-old leftover veg!

I have loads of mushrooms to use up, and was hoping to make flat mushrooms with garlic butter and goats cheese, but I'm still suffering with a cold and can't smell/ taste anything - seems a shame to waste the ingredients if I won't appreciate them! Made lemon cake today with the DC and couldn't even smell the lemon. What a pity!

Wow op what a lovely neighbour you have!

I blitz up jarred peppers with cooked garlic, tomato puree and cream to make a pasta sauce. If you can't get cream then cream cheese or milk would work too.

I made a lovely pasta sauce last night by frying garlic and sliced courgette in butter, adding a little pasta water to make an emulsion and then stirring in cream cheese. I added diced, cooked bacon for the carnivores and I had a couple of chopped up sun dried tomatoes in mine. Had it stirred through spaghetti and we ate the whole lot! Have saved the last bit of cream cheese for the dcs to have for lunch on some bagels in the freezer.
Not sure what dh and I will have yet but I need to go and buy milk and fruit/veg so will get some wraps or something hopefully. Also hoping to get yoghurt and more flour. I might be expecting a lot of our little convenience store! This will be my first trip to a shop in 2 weeks. I normally go about 3 times a week for extra fresh stuff.

Our milk man bought the wrong order yesterday so we don't have enough milk (we have 3 dcs) but we did get 6 eggs! I'd forgotten they do eggs and things so I looked on their website and have managed to add a weekly box of essentials: eggs, butter, cheese and bread. I am beyond excited! We used to take food for granted so much.

Well the soup I made for lunch yesterday from the chicken carcass stock and bits was a huge hit. It was just carrot and red lentil and needed...something. a quick rummage through the fridge yielded some hit dogs so chopped those up and my DC thought hotdog soup was brilliant! It was really nice I'd definitely do that again.

Chicken and red pepper omelettes for tea last night.

Last bit of chicken tonight is going in a pasta bake with some philly style cream cheese that needs finishing today. Not quite the famous mn chicken but 3 mains and one lunch for 3 people each time isn't bad going 😄

Yesterday I had a pack of 10 smoked bacon rashers just going out of date, two limp spring onions and a punnet of wrinkly mushrooms. I also have a tub of pasta that I brought with me from my old house 3 years ago. I fried the onions with the bacon "tails" (and froze the medallions for later meals); chopped and added the mushrooms with garlic granules and some dried oregano; cooked half the pasta; made a white sauce with milk and flour; combined the lot and had enough to freeze 4 good portions plus one for lunch. It was delicious.

Used nettle tops to make soup yesterday.

Breadcrumbs often feature amongst "leftovers" but as well as using them for savoury toppings, they are an essential ingredient in the humble but delicious Treacle Tart, which actually uses golden syrup in most recipes.