Food waste avoidance tips to help with the cost of living

[Lemonthyme]

A thread for capturing all of your food waste avoidance tips.

It got me thinking one of the AIBU threads around food banks that we can all do with tips to reduce food waste.

My top one is "use your freezer".

Things I freeze:

• Small pieces of cheese. I then use them later in things like cauliflower cheese or on top of lasagne.
• Pieces of chorizo or bacon from a part opened pack. If I open the pack, I immediately freeze the rest as otherwise I find it tends to get to that "how long has that been there" stage and I throw it out rather than risk it.
• Chopped up peppers. No good for salads but fine in chillis and veggie pasta dishes.
• Pre frozen cheesecake (not defrosted) stay with me here. I get one of the cheap ones from Aldi or Lidl (sadly the latter used to do one for under a quid but no more). You can cut it up while it's still frozen. Cut into sixths and put in individual plastic tubs, immediately back in the freezer. Grab one as "pudding" for your kid (or your) packed lunch, it will defrost by lunchtime. Even if the cheesecake is £2 total, each portion feels treaty but is 33p a portion and often less.
• Slightly soft tomatoes, chop them up and freeze to use instead of a can.

Any more ideas for your freezer or any other ways to avoid wasted food?

Thanks for tip about tomatoes

I think another point about freezing is that you avoid excessive portion sizes - eg my partner would use a whole pack of something (eg chicken) just because it’s open, whereas I’d maybe freeze the extra even if it’s not a full portion to add to a other dish

meal planning is mine - but leave 1 night less planned to avoid waste (use up items/freezer meal/pasta night or whatever)
and a spot in the fridge for things that need eating up

‘use it up’ meals - pasta/frittata/soups etc - even lunch for 1-2 if not a main meal

more veggie meals& scratch cooking - nothing new but it works

if I really want to save: meal plan around leftovers/cupboard items to avoid going shopping/stretch out deliveries

For me, a big shop once a month or so for non perishables like pasta, peanut butter etc saves money

Then a delivery every week or so (stretching it out if not needed) - if I go in person I make impulse purchases so the delivery cost is offset by that for me

Good point on the chicken. Last week I made a dish and was using chicken drumstick fillets. I realised we probably needed 3 fewer than were in the pack so I immediately cooked the other three for about 3 hours in my slow cooker with some stock and dried mushrooms then made a sauce with the stock, assembled it with some fried mushrooms and pasta and boom, pasta bake for the next day that everyone raved about. (Topped with the cheese bits from the freezer).

We make a 'veg drawer' soup sometimes when we've got a lot of stuff going to waste.

Definitely meal plan around what we have and batch cooking. I make four lasagnes and freeze three of them. Same with fish cakes and burgers - eat some and freeze some.

I grate blocks of cheddar to keep in fridge - we don't eat meat, so we use more than most. I make bread and always keep some back to go stale for breadcrumbs. Whizz up and mix half and half with grated cheese. Freeze in Ikea bags.

Stale bread cubed, tossed in oil and herbs are croutons after less than two mins in air fryer.

Make batches of tomato sauce and freeze small jars for pizzas and larger bags for pasta bakes.

Make veg stock and freeze in ice cube trays. Same with pesto when we have grown loads of basil.

Too much milk - make yogurt, ice cream, rice pudding, real custard. Too many eggs - ice cream, meringues, home made pasta. Too much veg - stir fry, soup or make some stock. Too much wine - don't be silly!

I like to make a big batch of 'savoury' mince eg: for Bolognase, including using loads of onions, grated carrots, celery etc plus lentils to bulk it out. Then add tins of kidney or borlotti etc beans for a chilli. What is left then gets mixed with pasta for a bake. Really ekes everything out and uses stuff up in fridge and cheap ingredients. Also sometimes use it to top jackets, wedges or nachos.

This sounds awful but my kids love it. Before they go to their dad's house every other weekend the Thursday night I get all the left over bits from the freezer and have random dinner night. This could be anything from fish fingers a pizza and whatever else is left. They LOVE the random dinner night then as it's the last time they eat here for 2 night my freezer is clear for a restock.
Not quite freezing tips but I buy fruit fresh once a week and eat in date order ie worries first then banana then apples this saves wasting things going off. I then have tinned or frozen fruit for rest of week and use fresh juice to supplement five a day.
The co op near me reduces everything bakery at 6 pm. 10p cookie packs and brownie packs, 10p pastries and 10p good quality bread. Once a week I buy about 5-10 items for the freezer. That's our bread bits done for the week. Like with your cheesecake idea things like cookies can be removed one a day for lunch boxes. But as i have four children generally the whole pack comes out.
I only spend 60 to 70 per week and there is me and four children. So no I'm pleased with that as includes all groceries and cleaning bits hygiene bits etc

You can keep lots of things in the freezer that you usually keep in the cupboard which will prolong their life. I keep my nuts, dried fruit and flour in the freezer. Especially chickpea flour which hasn't got a long shelf life.

I now freeze loads of the odds and ends that make meals taste nicer, and any half used things that will go off in the fridge! Current examples are:
Pesto (stops those furry half jars)
Some sun dried tomatoes
Lentils
Anchovies (in their oil)
Chillies
Garlic
Butter beans (half a tin)
Tasty cooked lentils in the pouch.

Pretty much anything that I don't want to waste and will need again!

dried beans, chick peas, lentils: soak a giant batch and cook in pressure cooker or slow cooker. Freeze for use in cooking chillis etc, in salads, soups. Watch out though: some dried packs aren't cheap enough to make this worth while.
Also don't forget to eat the leaves on celery, the stalk on broccoli, brussel sprout and beetroot leaves (if you grow your own).
As often as possible, use carrots, potatoes etc with peels on.
Rather than chucking unused salads or lettuces, throw them in soup or a chilli

I now freeze loads of the odds and ends that make meals taste nicer
Same here. The bottom mini-drawer of the freezer currently has celery, kabanos, bacon bits, orange peel, various herbs, chopped mushroom, chilli ...
I also have homemade stock (chicken and veg) for soups and stews frozen in ice cubes.

Leftover lettuce lasts weeks if you pull it apart and put kitchen towel between each "leaf" in a ziplock.

I really want an alternative to ziplocks for the freezer, preferably not bulky tupperware. Any ideas, folks?

Also, the pineapples with no leafs on the top are 75p cheaper than those with, and seem to be exactly the same size.

I will do a top up shop so i can use up whats in the fridge. Apparantly this is reverse meal planning. I dont mind eating the same meal twice, saves time and fuel.

I freeze odds and ends definitely bacon i use streaky or pancetta but always freeze an open packet, I use tin foil to wrap things up i write what it is, @Lemonthyme if you are looking for value cheesecake Tesco have them for 80 odd p

Ooh thanks for that. I never go into Tesco.

It's just their basic frozen but does the job, Asda also do one but im not keen.

I now freeze my odds and ends. I also freeze chopped celery, onion cauliflower stalks/broccoli in a bag. Starts any sauce or soup. Even pasta sauce.
Love the cheesecake idea, I’m stealing that! Brilliant tip.

I also now freeze any salad like lettuce rocket etc after the two days open. Goes in any green soup or smoothie .

Buy for 7 days but don't do another food shop until day 8 or 9. If you are an okay cook it can be quite fun to make up a recipe with any straggling leftovers or storecupboard ingredients. It also means that you do 45 weekly shops in a year vs 52 - that would save my family £700!

ChatGPT is pretty good if you have a random selection of leftovers, to suggest how to combine to a good meal. It is also good for meal planning if you specifically ask to focus on using up all leftovers.

We always have leftover gravy from a Sunday lunch, I freeze it in ice cube trays the pop them in a ziplock bag. Handy if the kids are having sausage and mash and want dad's delicious homemade gravy instead of mum's instant gravy that is always lumpy no matter how well stirred 😁

I do a lot of the things mentioned here (particularly like the random dinner night) I make 'smug soup' out of things that need using up too.
Only thing is that some saving waste tips you read about require buying more ingredients to make that happen.

If you’re freezing leftover bacon, roll each rasher up into a little tube and flash freeze then store together in a bag, you can take them out one at a time and use scissors to chop them straight into the frying pan from frozen for omelettes and carbonara etc