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Food/recipes

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Can we have a chat about what food/s you most frequently throw out from your fridge and how they could actually be used up?

335 replies

Mintyy · 07/05/2014 21:23

I'll start:

Creme fraiche - I buy this to go in a chicken paprika casserole thing I do, but then can't think of another way to use the other half pot within a week.

Sweetcorn - the dc like tuna sweetcorn (ick!!) in wraps and sandwiches but again I only need half a tin. So the other half festers in the back of the fridge until it grows blue mould someone realises and chucks it.

Coleslaw - never eat the whole tub

Olives - ditto

Grapes - similar

Apples - quite often the apples end up going wrinkly

Potatoes - omg, I have thrown away so many potatoes and now we have full blown potato plants growing out of our compost bin

OP posts:
purplemeggie · 12/05/2014 15:46

Well, it won't have much in the way of vitaminage left in it, so there's not much benefit in eating it, other than so as not to waste it.

TitusFlavius · 12/05/2014 16:57

I use courgettes I've had for a while (nothing wrong with them if they aren't manky) chopped up small in soffrito.

ShakkaKhan · 12/05/2014 17:17

Is there a guide to number of potatoes per person? For mash? I never ever know, guess and normally overestimate, resulting in a good two or three portions extra. Which I gobble down if I'm feeling greedy or put in the fridge "to use another time" which never happens. If I knew how much to cook in the first place I wouldn't have leftovers...any ideas? I tend to get maris piper ones but they're all different sizes - is there a weight per person to allow?

CorusKate · 12/05/2014 17:29

Shakka, why not weigh them next time, divide the weight by the number of portions it does your family, and then you know what weight to allow each for your family? Cause families are very different in portion size norms, especially for mash. My mum, though slim and moderate in all other things, cooks enough for a Close Encounters style mountain each, and it all gets eaten. MIL, you're lucky if you get two ice cream scoops' worth.

CorusKate · 12/05/2014 17:35

The courgette has been binned. While I wasn't looking. To spare my feelings.

goodasitgets · 12/05/2014 17:46

Juicers are great for using stuff up (must take own advice)
Baby spinach, celery, carrots, cucumber, apples, pears, ginger, mint, limes, lemon....

Baby spinach is the thing I throw away most, live alone and never finish a bag, but have started juicing it

TitusFlavius · 12/05/2014 17:53

Ooooh, goodasitgets, my favourite thing to do with the juicer is, when I get a big ginger root, is put the lot through the juicer. (Otherwise I just use a bit and the rest turns wrinkly.) The resultant tiny bit of juice is the colour and approximate strength of nuclear waste. I put it in an ice-cube tray, then when frozen decant into a bit of tupperware and keep in the freezer. Anytime I then want a bit of fresh ginger for cooking, I then dump a ginger icecube in!

I'm baffled as how you get leftover spinach - with me, when I cook it, a HUGE bag melts down to a little bit in the bottom of the pot! I like it steamed and mixed with a big tablespoon of peanut butter (really, it's great).

laineylou · 12/05/2014 19:07

I bow to the fabulousness of Mumsnet.

Inspired by this thread yesterday I chopped 1 elderly leek (at least 3 weeks) 2 onions nearly sprouting, limp celery -again 4 weeks old, half a bag of carrot batons which I bought on Friday due to idleness,2 courgettes 2 weeks old, a bag of parsley for the stock I didn't make 2 weeks ago, couple of cloves of garlic. Sweated with butter for 10 mins, added half a punnet of cherry toms which were getting on a bit, some mixed herbs , wine and passata. Simmered for an hour....then today it's a big pan of tomato sauce base.

Blitzed some for the kids and had ours lumpy with ancient olives lurking in the cupboard on pan fried chicken. Everyone declares it delicious and there's got to be another 2 meals worth left over. Grin

ShakkaKhan · 12/05/2014 19:23

Thanks CorusKate that's a good idea

skinmysunshine · 12/05/2014 21:58

Titusflavius freeze ginger root and grate it into things straight from freezer. No need to peel and it lasts for ages

goodasitgets · 12/05/2014 22:07

It's because it's only me that it gets left over Grin
I like it as salad but the bags are huge! Same with cucumber, I buy a whole one because it works out cheaper, and same with peppers etc
Multi pack deals are always better value :/

BiddyPop · 12/05/2014 22:32

That half tin of sweet corn is something we meet here. I sometimes heat it as a veg with dinner, with a bit of butter, tasty and dd will eat it. Or use it in ANSI goreng, using up another tin if tuna, leftover rice and bits of veg, handful of frozen prawns and some curry powder. Nasi, not ANSI.

Creme fraiche gets stirred into chilli (DH makes it spicier than I love), added to fajitas, spooned into chorizo potatoes (baby opt atones,,half a chorizo chopped, pack of lardons and a jar of tomato and chilli sauce all mixed together and roasted for an hour til spuds cooked).

I use ends of veg, like courgettes, mushrooms and peppers, by chopping into small dice along with onions and a few garlic cloves, seasoning with oregano, salt and pepper, dash balsamic vinegar and some olive oil, roasting for about 25 mins and using as a side veg,, mixed into couscous or pasta and tomato sauce, and can be frozen also.

I end up throwing out cooked meats not used, sometimes I can use them cooked but not always.

Bananas. Although I have recently learned to mush and freeze them for banana bread later.

I sometimes get a chance to crumb leftover bread and freeze it for stuffings etc.

If I misjudge milk buying, I cannot do anything with it normally,wraps make rice pudding or cheese sauce for pasta or cauliflower, I'll freeze some but not a lot (sauce not whole milk).

Leeks can get forgotten, but ten ill do a big batch of buttered leeks and freeze what I don't use, for making cheesy leeks pasta whe DH is away.

Sorry about typos, iPad doesn't like my spellings and chooses weird replacements. And can't keep up with my speed either.

BiddyPop · 12/05/2014 22:34

I buy baby spinach too, and forget it. I just Blanche it fast by opening it into, a colander, pouring over a full kettle of boiling water and the it's perfectly cooked, just squish out a bit of the excess water.

BiddyPop · 13/05/2014 09:34

A friend suggested a while back to grate the ends of cheese and pop them in the freezer. Hard cheeses. I haven't tried that, but I did end up making 4 cheese sauce for cauli cheese at the weekend, as someone had used ALL the cheddar (3 blocks!), a mix of the tail end of jarlsberg, some Dubliner, the starting to harden up end of Staffordshire blue, and a small bit of Parmesan. Worked surprisingly well.

kentishgirl · 13/05/2014 17:22

I misjudged the potatoes last night so got two boiled ones sitting in fridge. I'll cut them up a bit and add to tonight's goulash just before it's finished. I think the secret is not to worry too much about following recipes Smile

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 13/05/2014 17:28

Another good use for leftover boiled potatoes is to chop them into chunks and put them in a Spanish omelette or fry them to make 'home fries' to serve with fried breakfast or whatever.

Passthecake30 · 13/05/2014 17:39

I put my green peppers in with my bananas and they turned crinkly...not ripe. Did I expect too much?

I have 3/4 pot of natural yog, used the rest to make tandoori chicken. What can I do with the rest? I only like full fat fancy yogurt (yeo valley, Rachels)...can I turn it more palatable?

CorusKate · 13/05/2014 18:13

Fool!

CorusKate · 13/05/2014 18:59

Rhubarb fool with vanilla. Raspberry fool with crumbled shortbread. Peach fool with amaretti biscuits. Apricot fool with toasted almonds. Mandarin orange fool with chocolate curls.

Or there's lots of other Indian dishes you can make - I always use leftover yoghurt from tandooriing to make raita.

Passthecake30 · 13/05/2014 19:52

Thanks. ..never eaten fool but off to Google!

TitusFlavius · 14/05/2014 10:51

Inspired by this thread, I've been putting a bit more effort into being creative with using stuff up. (I usually do, but can get a bit lax. Plus, we are trying to save money at the mo.)

We had roti and dhal two nights ago - bought chapattis as I'm rubbish making them, but I made the dhal and incorporated a finely-chopped elderly courgette when I fried off the chopped onion with the spices. Then, last night, we had dhal left, and half a Krakow sausage (a large cooked Polish sausage) in the fridge, so I diced and sauteed the Krakow sausage, and added it to the leftover dhal, and it was DELICIOUS!

StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2014 11:46

Green peppers are lovely in omelette
am I the only one that eats loads of salad? Get through almost 2 lrttuces a week or 3 of the small ones
and thats usually just me

kentishgirl · 14/05/2014 17:59

I made kentish's creamy chicken the other night and oh god it was fantastic! We were making those Organics shampoo noises

Leftover roast chicken broken up into bits
two squidgy carrots
some mushrooms
dodgy end of tub of soft cheese (own brand but like Philli)
splash of milk
bit of flour
mustard, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce.

fried the mushrooms and carrots (cut into matchsticks), added the cooked chicken, bunged a splash of worcestershire sauce and a splash of soy sauce to flavour the chicken a bit, shoved it all to one end of the frying pan and made little bit of flour roux at other to thicken sauce, splash of milk into flour and stirred through, then remains of tub of soft cheese went in with a dollop of mustard. Let it all bubble for a minute and mixed well till all cheese melted.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Halsall · 14/05/2014 19:32

Yogurt.....you can make ice-cream. I've got most of a pot of fruit coulis and I plan to convert it into frozen yogurt tomorrow with the remains of a pot of Rachel's.

At the weekend I triumphed over the creme fraiche glut by making a deconstructed cheesecake (with apols to the Masterchef thread for using that much-abused term). Basically you layer crushed digestives with fruit (hence the pot of coulis) and a mixture of creme fraiche/cream/cream cheese. Recipe here

It was bloody amazing, if I do say so myself!

BornToFolk · 18/05/2014 20:06

Anyone got any ideas what to do with half a tub (125g) of mascapone? I use it in a spinach pasta dish but it only takes half a tub and then I'm stuck with the rest. I usually find some ways of using it up bit by bit, whacking it into sauces and stuff but I'm sure I could do something nicer with it!