waste prevention tips and recipes

[Frugal_Princess]

So I have noticed as of lately we are getting quite wasteful, I menu plan and can only shop once a week or other times once every 2 weeks.
So I am wondering if anyone has any advice to curb this behaviour or if there are any good recipes/casseroles people tend to use when they are cleaning out the fridge?

Any tips or tricks will help big time, I hate seeing money go into the compost and/or garbage

[walkonby]

are you a fan of soups, or stews? If so that is a very easy way to use up what looks like is softening in the veggie drawer! These all add such flavour to the soup/or stew! Often if there is leftover chili I toss that into the pot too ( but ONLY if it is NOT on the verge of being bad, that could be dangerous )

Curious as to what sorts of things you are wasting? Is it leftovers from each meal that ends up sitting in the fridge or is it real ingredients ( veggies ) that have not been turned into anything yet? We all struggle with making sure we don't waste but it can happen despite our best efforts. Good luck!

[Frugal_Princess]

We all love soup and stews, I should maybe think about making the day I clean the fridge a soup day as well.

I get so frustrated wasting things :/

[saundyl]

We make a point of using leftovers in school lunches or eating them at noon every couple days if we don't make a soup.

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[MortgageQueen]

You can mix just about anything with bacon and cheese and it will taste great! Lol!

[Frugal_Princess]

You can mix just about anything with bacon and cheese and it will taste great! Lol!

Ain't that the truth lol

[harbie]

I will take almost any leftover and add it to fresh diced potatoes and make a hash out of it with a poached egg on top. I also add a lot of various leftovers into shredded hash brown waffles. Take any veggies and meat and put it on naan bread to make a pizza.

[Purdee]

we don't eat our veggies fast enough and they are quite expensive these days.

Recently i've discovered that i can freeze ripe banana and i was afraid that they would brown from exposing to the air but they did not. Cut them in about 1/2 to 3/4" thick, lay them out on a tray with parchment or wax paper, immediately put them in the freezer about about 1-2 hours, then remove them into a ziploc bag. They make great smoothie - frozen banana makes smoothie nice and thick vs. fresh banana. Of course you can use them in banana bread.
I like to buy garlic in bulk like 1kg mesh bag when it goes on sale. Share with my mom then i pulse the rest in a food processor to a fine dice consistency then spread it out on a plate or tray then into the freezer. Once it's frozen, put it in a tightly sealed container and back into the freezer. When you need just a small amount of garlic you can get it out of the freezer.

[Frugal_Princess]

we don't eat our veggies fast enough and they are quite expensive these days.

Recently i've discovered that i can freeze ripe banana and i was afraid that they would brown from exposing to the air but they did not. Cut them in about 1/2 to 3/4" thick, lay them out on a tray with parchment or wax paper, immediately put them in the freezer about about 1-2 hours, then remove them into a ziploc bag. They make great smoothie - frozen banana makes smoothie nice and thick vs. fresh banana. Of course you can use them in banana bread.
I like to buy garlic in bulk like 1kg mesh bag when it goes on sale. Share with my mom then i pulse the rest in a food processor to a fine dice consistency then spread it out on a plate or tray then into the freezer. Once it's frozen, put it in a tightly sealed container and back into the freezer. When you need just a small amount of garlic you can get it out of the freezer.

That garlic idea is wonderful, we use a ton of garlic, I am going to do this for sure, thank you so much for the great tip

[SnowFlakey]

Some easy peasy recipes: Make your own garlic butter/margarine: Put your garlic through a garlic press (you can find some at any dollar store) into a small air-tight container, add butter or margarine to taste and mix together. Will keep for months in your fridge. Use as needed.

Left-over mashed potatoes: Make potato patties. You can add some salt, pepper and minced onion to your mashed potataoes; mix it all up and form into small patties. Add a bit of oïl to your frying pan and fry them up until crispy. Taste great with bacon and eggs for breakfast. We got this idea from having breakfast at a local restaurant which offered this option. Nice and tastey.

Left-over baguette bread (or any other type bread): Depending on how many pièces you have, break several eggs into a bowl, add a bit of cinnamon and mix. Dip the baguette bread (or any other type bread), turning over and then fry on a hot griddle or frying pan. Makes some great French Toast. Great with real maple syrup!

[SnowFlakey]

One more thingy. Bread. Both of us dont like eating the ends of a loaf of bread so what i do is dry them on low heat in the oven until dry (or you can put them in the microwave) and them put them through a blender. And voila you have great bread crumbs!

[SnowFlakey]

another little tip. when you make your own potatoe wedgies using olive oïl and spices, you always have some olive oïl left in the bowl after tossing the potato wedgies. Make your salad in the same bowl and just add a bit more olive oïl and whatever else you want and then toss the salad to coat. Olive oïl is expensive and this stretches it a bit.

[janetta]

I freeze large, to be leftover meals (mostly on purpose) to eat on another day, when I'm feeling lazy. lol
Last night it was Swedish meatballs, gravy and mashed potatoes. Made a huge batch and I had enough left over for three meals.
I put them in freezer bags, lay them flat and once frozen, stack them side by side to organize.
I defrost in the fridge in the morning or in a warm water bath and heat to eat, salad on the side.

Fried rice is another dish I like to make to clean out the fridge. Anything from hot dogs, to grilled meat, tofu to leftover veg.
Everything gets chopped up and sauteed with leftover rice! Crack a few eggs in it for more protein. Add beans if you have them.

Super ripe fruit always gets cut up and put into the freezer for shakes and smoothies.

I hate wasting food, so between soups, stews, chili, fried rice and pasta...everything always gets used up!

[SnowFlakey]

Great ideas!

[bluerose]

the last saving tip I did was freezing the rest of the red wine that did not get drunk and used it in a beef stew afterwards.