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 An out of date romaine lettuce.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!

For those asking about potatoes there was a poster a while back on a different thread who spent an hour or two cooking an entire sack of potatoes and freezing them, so doing a load of mash (with butter and milk), par boiling and half roasting some, wedges which you just par boil and bake for 15 minutes then freeze. You have to cook them first otherwise they go black once frozen.

I like to freeze chop bananas and then whiz them up with some milk and vanilla, it's the most amazing ice cream.
Also I've been chopping up the entire bell pepper even if the recipe only needs a little bit and freezing it to add to pasta dishes etc. Also do the same with grated carrot and courgette.

You can also make an amazing pasta sauce with cauliflower ( I used frozen) boiled and whizzes up with garlic and milk

Cut off bacon rinds - smoked bacon works best but times are hard - and use them to flavour soups and sauces.
Meanwhile, you've got the rest of the bacon for other dishes.

Aquafaba!

when DS was little he had a really bad egg allergy and if we wanted to bake stuff he could eat we would have to find an egg substitute.
One of the best we found was aquafaba, the liquid that canned chickpeas (and fava beans, cannellini beans etc come in) Its the same protein/liquid ratio as a beaten egg so it works in a similar way 1 tablespoon aquafaba equals one egg

Clearly its not helpful for omelettes but in cakes cookies, pancakes its good enough, doesnt taste quite the same but is a reasonable alternative and saves actual eggs for other things, while giving me a chance to bake with the DCs. So ive started saving and using it again since lockdown, because it seems such a waste to throw it out.

What a brilliant thread, thanks all.

Theres lots of vegan websites that have ideas for using it

@Carrie7469 Google Roman gnocchi. It's lush.

I'm definitely going to Google Roman gnocchi and semolina polenta. Thanks

Some great suggestions, thanks everyone for contributing.

Just as an aside - is anyone else losing weight now we're all cooking and eating more conservatively? I am. I thought it'd be the opposite but now I am eating more sensibly, having smaller portions and not boredom snacking and it's noticeable already.

I don't have a microwave ... could I do that banana pot thing in the oven? Looks lovely

When I was at Brownies we would slice bananas in half, fill with chocolate, wrap in foil and barbeque. I'm sure that would work equally well in the oven.

I wonder if the knitting and cooking pancakes on an empty tin can with a candle for fuel will also come in handy?

OMG chocolate cooked in banana ... I also did that at brownie camp! Ahhh those were the days.

We made baked beans yesterday. We'd had a few over-ripe tomatoes, which I over-roasted with olive oil and garlic (came out so sweet). I blitzed them and added a few bits of chorizo and the remains of a tin of black beans.

Further up thread, somebody asked about lemons. We often slice and freeze them (on greaseproof paper). Great for drinks.

We ended up with lots of parsnips and not much meat now, so we are having a "parsnip mostly" roast today. I'll definitely give the roasted peel recipe a try.

Keep the recipes coming.

I would like to think we are throwing a lot less food away now.

@carrie7469 use the semolina to coat potatoes for roasting

Ooh or dip a hm pizza crust into it before baking it

I wonder if the knitting and cooking pancakes on an empty tin can with a candle for fuel will also come in handy?
I remember doing the pancakes! Though I think we did it in Guides rather than Brownies.

Thanks for starting this thread. So many good ideas. Looking forward to experimenting and feeling a little more positive.

@Bowerbird5

Debating about using some yeast DD left here last year. BB was Nov19 will it be any good?

Sorry - it's probably a bit late to suggest this, but try putting a teaspoon of it in some warm water with a pinch of sugar and leaving it for 30 mins or so.
If you get some bubbles/froth forming, it's still working.

We used yeast that went out of date Oct 19 yesterday to make bread and it was absolutely fine, bread was just a little more dense just the way I like it but edible.

Eating weird collections of things I have found in cupboards. Adding chutneys and sauces I have found at the back of the fridge to those weird collections. Waiting to see if all those out of date things I have eaten will disagree with me. Using the three tons of out of date Diet Coke in the garage to clean toilets. Fun times.

I was delighted to come across an old bag of plain flour that student DS had left in his room from before he went on placement a few months ago. I've been making flatbread, and adding grated cheese, curry powder and other flavourings to the top. No yeast required, just baking powder.

metro.co.uk/2020/03/23/cant-find-bread-local-stores-cheap-flatbread-recipe-needs-three-essential-ingredients-12443217/

@Carrie7469 coat slices of halloumi in semolina before frying for a crispy coating. Dunk the cheese slices in beaten egg or milk (or maybe yoghurt) first so the semolina grains adhere. Fry gently and serve with a drizzle of honey.
I think this would work for lots of fried things, fish or chicken for instance.

@MangosteenSoda I have linked to this thread on mine, to share the great hints and tips! Hope that’s okay.

AdaColeman that is a good idea - we’ve got lots of polenta flour and a packet of halloumi.
Tonight, we’re going to freestyle with a packet of tofu and some tamarind sauce I found in the cupboard. We all hate tofu so I’ve no idea why we have it but we will give it a go.

Does anyone have a reliable recipe for a 100% wholemeal loaf? I normally add just a little to the mix but we’ve run out of other flour completely. Plenty of yeast, though, which I would like to use. I’ve made it before and it was like a brick so any ideas to avoid that would be great. Longer term, I’m contemplating buying a sack of bread flour from the veg wholesaler and sharing it with the neighbours, I think.

We had potato cakes for lunch thanks to this thread, my mum used to make them all the time when I was little, I hadn't had them for ages.
I have potato skins left over from baked potatoes, what can I do with them (veggie)?

You could use oats in place of some of the flour quantity which would lighten it. Just mill it a bit with a blitz in the blender or processor. But I’m not a super experience baker, so others might have better suggestions.