Hi Guys it’s Friday…time for No Waste Tastes Great 
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my actual No Waste Tastes Great routine. In fact it was over 12 months ago in this post , so I thought I’d do a refresher, particularly as it’s changed a little over the last year.
(If you’d rather skip the routine explanation feel free to scroll down – about halfway the usual NWTG kicks in!)
My No Waste Tastes Great routine was born out of the original inspiring Food Waste Friday by The Frugal Girl. The objective with NWTG is to clear the fridge and perishables each Friday, using up anything that could potentially become unusable to reduce and ultimately eliminate wasted food.
My simple routine step by step
1. Friday morning I empty my fridge, placing all items on the counter top
2. With a cloth and bicarb of soda mixed with a little water I clean the fridge
3. The items on the counter are returned to the fridge identifying anything that needs to be thrown away or used up as part of No Waste Tastes Great
4. Because I’m a little strange 
I photograph my re-stocked fridge
5. Whilst re-stocking the fridge I jot down on my ceramic notepad any items that need replenishing. These items are added to the list I have been compiling throughout the week as storecupboard and other items diminish
6. Because I’m very strange I then write a blog post about my fridge, shelf by shelf accounting for what I will be doing with all the items
7. This post then allows me to identify what waste I have (hopefully none as that is the ultimate aim). It also gives me opportunity to establish what needs using up to reduce potential waste, if there are items to use up immediately then that is my No Waste Tastes Great Challenge. A meal or 2 has to be devised to be eaten that day. If there is no immediate need to use the items then the ‘olds’ (hubby and I) have been partaking in a takeaway and the Kids something easy like pizza. This is one area where things have recently changed. Since conducting my cooking from scratch experiment I now prefer to slow-cook a curry for Date Night at Chez Wright. It costs approx. 50% less and I can opt for free-range chicken. I’ve been able to do this by changing my grocery shopping day from Saturday to Friday as I can now grab ingredients should I need any.
8. It’s then time to meal plan! I’m a major advocate of meal planning. Taking an inventory of the fridge, freezer (which is hardly stocked) and storecupboards I then devise a 6-day meal plan for Sat-Thurs
9. I write the dinner meal-plan on my menu board for the family to see
10. Sticking to a budget of £50 a week I then do my grocery shop (on Friday) for the coming week.
My No Waste Tastes Great routine in practise – 6 January 2012
I emptied and cleaned the fridge returning all items apart from this suspect!
I’m not proud of this…this is bad! Cream! Oh my! In my defense I didn’t buy it (if that’s any sort of defense?). New Year’s Eve I encouraged guests at our open house to bring along any items that needed using up. I hadn’t paid much attention to this pot at the back of my fridge, let alone check the use by date. It’s 5 days past it’s best and as it is cream I’m reluctant to use it.
The rest of the items were returned to the fridge
Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge
And just in case this post isn’t long enough already there’s a second photo in honour of my new camera! (have I lost any readers yet?)
Top Shelf – Spreads, cheese, garlic and 4 in-date yogurts
Top Middle Shelf – Almost a head of broccoli, a pack of green beans, puff-pastry (well in-date and about to be popped in the freezer) and brie (also in-date)
Bottom Middle Shelf – Brandy Sauce (not mine arrived with a friend at New Year), grapes, 2 x half bottles of white wine
Bottom Shelf – Half a large jar each of home-made pickled beetroot and chutney
Door – 5 x eggs (in date), Milk and OJ
The No Waste Tastes Great Plan (because there always is a plan!)
The only items that need using up today are the brandy sauce and wine – these are leftovers from New Year. I’m going to make a large mince pie later today (I have a jar of mincemeat left over) and have it with the sauce today and over the weekend. The wine will of course be consumed this evening as part of Date Night.
The broccoli and beans will last until Sunday and I’ll use them up as part of a Sunday Roast. The brie and grapes will get used up next week as the Hubby and I tend to have cheese and crackers late evening (the Kids will eat the grapes also over the weekend) – the chutney will accompany this snack! The beetroot is good for a couple of weeks yet and will be seen topping many a sandwich and salad at lunchtime next week.
For dinner this evening the Kids will have pancakes as a treat (first week back at school!), and a slow-cooked curry is planned for Date Night. I’m visiting the local Aldi for my groceries today.
I’ve just menu planned for the next 6 days and written my shopping list, taking into account the items that I jotted down on my ceramic notepad that need replenishing
Breakfasts will consist of cereal, toast, bran loaf and maybe pancakes.
Lunches will be sandwiches, soup, salad and leftovers!
Next week’s dinner menu is:
(Please excuse the spelling of Spaghetti Bolognese – the ‘e’ went over the ‘s’ as I proceeded to run out of space!)
That’s pretty much it apart from actually going and getting my groceries!
It’ll be all back to normal next Friday with the usual No Waste Tastes Great post – why not give it a go yourself? Don’t forget to check out Food Waste Friday for true inspiration!
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I’m now posting daily on Facebook!
Ooh, the pictures look great! Definitely clearer, I actually thought it was your fridge was cleaner at first then remembered the new cam, lol. I would have tossed the cream as well, it turns way too quickly. But next time, make butter out of it!
Our fridge is looking pretty bare. Discounting the in-date stuff that I just store in the fridge, think the only perishables to use up are a meal’s worth of new potatoes, half a cucumber, a handful of tomatoes and a handful of grapes. All will be used in meals and snacks over the weekend. There’s a lot of yoghurts from the recent B1G2F offer at Tesco, but they’re being get through in good enough time that I’m not worried. The last of the Christmas satsumas are looking a bit sad, but will try serving them as snacks tomorrow.
Oh, and bringing the conversation back from MM, I don’t often mention that I’m Australian. Been living here (on and off, mostly on) for nearly 8 years, forget that I am not British most of the time.
Are you saying my fridge doesn’t always look this sparkly and clean
Boy – gutted about the cream…. I’d have never thought of butter!
Sounds like you have it all sorted as usual! Good on ya!
Hope us Brits are treating you well over here?
You get a double bonus, butter and buttermilk. I hardly use cream, but always look for it on clearance because I want to try making my own butter!
And yes, you are! My husband is British.
I knew there had to be a good reason to leave all that sunshine behind!
So that’s why your refrigerator always looks so clean. It’s just not that it doesn’t have much in it, you take everything out and clean it entirely every week. I should do the same thing.
Because there isn’t much in it it makes cleaning easy – a two minute job! I certainly wouldn’t do it every week if it took much longer…
It helps knowing I have to photograph it also! Keeps me on my toes!
Can I be a party-pooper and ask why, if you’re particular about free-range chicken, you would buy other groceries at Aldi? And to say that Lasagne is spelled with the g before the n to make a “nye” sound… Sorry! Please don’t be offended. I do like visiting your site!!
Please don’t apologise! You’re not a party-pooper. One of the main reasons I blog is to learn. If I am missing something about Aldi then I would love to know more as to why I shouldn’t buy other groceries there. Free-range chicken is a preference and if I get the choice then that’s what I buy (there’s no judgement on anyone who purchases non-free-range, that’s their preference – and I do eat non-free-range because that’s what’s served at the majority of places where I eat out). I don’t think I’m being hypocritical in anyway, but if I am missing something about the other products I’d really like to know.
to see who was paying attention…but I can’t! I must be having one of those days – in fact I’ve looked at it a few times and thought there’s something not right! Thanks for that you’ve put me out of my misery!
As for the spelling mistake I’d like to say it was deliberate
I’ve just re-read my post and it’s the bit in brackets that doesn’t work after my reasoning for cooking the curry at home – it sounds a bit preachy (which wasn’t the intention) now I’ve looked at it again. It actually could be seen to be potentially hypocritical as other products I consume aren’t free-range. I’m going to remove that bit!
Thanks for being non-judgemental!
I just wondered. Aldi has a reputation (in Europe, anyway) as providing mass-produced, cheap and mainly processed foods, although I will happily agree that they also have a good choice of fresh vegetables. There do seem to be some doubts about quality and provenance, but then we live in a country where the average consumer is very critical of bringing in goods with a heavy ecological footprint/out of season etc. and has quite a tradition of it (since way back in the 70s and 80s, long before much of the rest of the world caught on!).
For the Swiss market, Aldi has been forced to source local meats and breads, though the other (packaged) products appear to come from the German mother company, albeit made all over the place, usually in countries where products and labour are particularly cheap… which brings me to the main criticism, as far as I am aware, of both Lidl and Aldi (and similar stores), which are their employment policies. Switzerland is not particularly restrictive (though obviously, it’s all relative!), but we do have clear laws for employers and employees and those working for these companies are known to have a pretty bad deal, in some cases critical.
So while I also don’t only buy organic, free-range or whatever, and it’s not always possible to avoid the “made in Turkey, China, Korea…” etc., we do try to use stores that sell more locally and fairly produced goods, be they foods or non-food…
What you’ve said has got me thinking (and definitely needs further investigation on my part)…but I’d like to share the thought process about how I came to start shopping at Aldi as hopefully it will demonstrate I have deliberated and considered whether I feel their values fit with my own.
My presumption of Aldi (UK) previously was low cost imported unrecognisable brands. I had been in once or twice to buy running apparel as it is a great price compared to specialist shops. I’d looked around and did not see any product at quick glance I recognised. Also being a ‘low cost’ retailer I had a suspicion the quality may not be up to much – which now I look back was completely unfounded. Then I discovered friends whom I trusted and respected shopped there, and readers started mentioning the quality of the UK products. The icing on the cake was when I read The Frugal Girl’s post about how she had been invited to visit a testing kitchen for Aldi in the US. I follow Kristen’s blog and know her to be honest and objective. I was impressed with what I read. So eventually I did a shop at Aldi, and my experience was very different to what I’d anticipated. I’ve heard from others that they are seen as holding a lot of processed and junk food, but actually when I compare Aldi to what I have seen in other supermarkets, there actually seems to be less packaged ready meals and other items. Their range IMO is pretty basic, with hardly any choice of brands – which suits me as I hate having to deliberate over the finer points of a purchase! This brings me onto brands, they don’t really stock any manufacturers product it’s seems to be 95% own-branded – not that you can tell because they don’t use a generic brand look. My thoughts here were would Aldi put their name to a substandard product if that’s all they sell and their sales depend upon it? Not sure…however what I have found is that the products seem to be of good (even high in some cases) quality. Much of the fresh produce and meats are stamped “100% British”. I cannot verify this and it could be just hearsay but I have a suspicion that a lot of retailers may use the same manufacturers for their own brand. This suspicion was further heightened when on New Years Eve a friend bought a box of crackers from one of the ‘Big 4′ UK grocers that was branded as one of their ‘Best’ products and it was almost identical inside to the Aldi one’s I’d purchased. I showed everyone like a mad-woman!!
I can’t say for sure if I’ve got it right… issues over cheap labour etc are a concern to me, however I do not think that Aldi would be considered any worse that any other retailer in the UK, unless I am missing something. Historically even premium brands and retailers have been called into question over this issue, so the positioning of the brand for me doesn’t necessarily indicate how ethical a company is. But I am going to think about it!
Switzerland has always seemed a idilyc lovely place, I have only ever popped across the Italian border (on my honeymoon in the Alps) to where you are! But on my bucket list is to spend a Christmas in Saas-Fee recreating the Wham Last Christmas Video!
Thank you for the food for thought (keep it coming! I love questioning what I’m doing! It stops complacency!) and sorry for the long reply!
I can second that the quality from Aldi is fantastic. Our cabbage today was from lancashire our potatoes the same. I would also like to say that they have an excellent reputation paying far more than the minimum wage here in the U.K. I have a friend of a friend who says she actually likes working for the company. To be honest i don’t expect them to have any better ethics than the other supermarkets and in an ideal world everything we eat would be free range, locally sourced, organic, with no air miles. However we do not live in an ideal world and given the current economic climate, cost is far great an issue. On wich i think Aldi scores quite well.
I was watching a programme over christmas about christmas puddings, it was filming in the Matthew Walker factory, where i spied Asda and tesco along with Holly Lane
Sharron x
Brilliant blog and gave me some great idea’s. Love the menu planner on display, might see if hubbs can knock me a blackboard up. We’re just finishing our christmas food (bought to much as per usual) then i intend to set a 2wk menu rota in the hope to make cooking and shopping easier and less of a chore.
Hi Kimmy…. I recognise the clock tower in your photo’s from New Year’s Day!
)
The blackboard is a good idea – it keeps everyone focused, they know what to expect so no ‘Aw Mom I don’t want that for tea!’ (from first-born – second-born can’t read yet!)…
The 2 week rota sounds a great idea, it will certainly reduce the amount of time planning.
As for a blackboard, you could just paint a section of a wall with blackboard paint, this could be done in an unusual design, or you could put a border around it with a different coloured paint. It doesn’t need to be something you hang. My board was a gift from my Mom and Big Sis when I got my first home. It has the added benefit of being a place to hang our keys. I’ve a feeling you may be British so if the Hubbs hasn’t time, TK Maxx tends to have some nice unique blackboards (but home-made would be nicer
What you have alcohol left?! Menu plan looks good, i made lasagne without beef the other day and it went down a treat (mainly because i couldn’t be bothered to go to the shops) Feeling really uninspired lately. I need to shift some weight and i’m all in a flummox as to what our menu plan should include.
I have thrown away more than i would like to have lately, so i wouldn’t worry about the cream, it’s nice to know your human
Sharron x
Oh Sharron I’m definitely human! In fact I couldn’t wait for the Hubby to get home and started Date Night on my own – just the one small glass of wine though!
Intrigued what did you use instead of beef? Did you make vegetable lasagne? I actually prefer that.
I have quite a few suggestions regarding meals when trying to shift a few pounds… however my main advice (and I know you know this! everyone knows this!) is to cut out snacks. Replace snacks with a few nuts and protein shakes if you like them. Fruit also, but not loads and loads.
Good luck with it all and if you need any suggestions you know where I am!
We used spinach in our lasagne, popeye would have been proud
Mainly because it needed using up, but it was lovely
Cutting out snacks was the first thing i did, having a good day today and weigh day tomorrow, so we shall see! I think i deserve 3lbs lol
Sharron x
Chicken and spinach works well as a lasagne! Good luck tom (are you doing WW? being as you have a weigh day?) – let me know how it goes please?
No, not ww just i weigh myself on a Monday at the gym, 3lbs gone this week!! Hubby’s birthday today so having my tea ‘off’…..
Sharron x
You clean your fridge weekly!?! You are my hero. Again I am in awe of your neat fridge. The pics look great. Love the idea of a ceramic re-usable notepad. I used to keep a notepad on my fridge and update it when needed. Then I realized that more times than not I left the notepad on the fridge when going to shop.
So now I use my cell phone.
Seriously if it takes 5 minutes to clean – tops! It is a pretty small fridge and by Friday there’s very little in it!
Good idea to use your phone, because who ever leaves home without it? In fact the Hubby suggested I do the same thing just yesterday.
You have to check out my blog today!! lol! I totally cleaned OUT my fridge & thought of you the whole time!!! Hahaha!! My BFF asked if I’d be filling it back up again and I said NO.
Seeing as this is my no-spend month, I should be able to make a really good dent in my freezer & pantry inventory then can start fresh!
Hey Carla – great challenge and your fridge looks fab! I’ve been meaning to subscribe, so will head on over and get it done – Have a fab weekend!
Your fridge looks great, as always!
I am still able to report No Waste Tastes Great, albeit, with MUCH attention throughout the week! Am working on cleaning out my fridge every Friday, too, (thanks to your pics!) but forgot this last Friday…new habit, you know? You really inspire me! 
Your new pictures are very clear and light! I’ll bet you’re happy with that! Happy New Year to you! Cheeryshirley
Hey cheeryshirley – I’m so pleased your waste has reduced, and yes it does need attention to achieve it, but it does become an ingrained habit, so not quite so thought/time consuming (However I still missed that cream!).
Happy New Year to you too! Have a great Sunday!
I have to jump in re Aldi/LIDL. As far as I see, the reason why they can keep their prices low is because:
-they spend minimal amount of money on marketing
-they do not allow credit card payments and do not have loyalty cards and therefore make savings on these
-they do not have ‘office’ staff, local branches do not even have their own contact telephone numbers, all the staff is either packing shelves or is on the till. (and the staff do not chat or laze around but actually seem to work)
-of what I read there is a competition amongst suppliers to get into Aldi/LIDL
In the Aldi I have been going to for years there is a very low turnover of staff, which makes me think it must not be a bad place to work for.
OK, must go back to studying… see you in Feb.!
Hi Laura – hope the studying is going well – see you in Feb!
Coming back to this post to say I made butter! Double cream was yellow stickered to 10p each in M&S, bought 6 small (170ml) pots. From this, got around 600g butter and 300ml buttermilk – would cost around £3.20 to buy. I’m actually lactose intolerant, but couldn’t resist trying a tiny bit on a bit of bread. It was delicious! Going to use it to make scones, will have some happy boys (husband and flatmate) in our house this weekend.
What a saving! Boy impressive!
I was watching ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’ a couple of nights ago (on 4?) and they made butter, it really is easy – I was very surprised. I may have to give it a go should I ever had cream to use up. I always wondered why you would buy brandy butter and I suppose it’s just a variation on brandy sauce?
I also watched ‘Cook with Heston’. Now that’s impressive, and also slightly out of my league! However with your food knowledge I bet you’d be able to give him a run for his money
I need to watch Heston, it’s been on my to do list for days. We don’t have an aerial (only a cable connection, and I don’t want to pay for it!) so have to make a proper effort to watch things on catch up. Thanks for the reminder.
I found it really funny that I picked up a tray of the cream and when I got to the checkout, saw a guy that had been behind me had the exact same thing in his basket. Copy cat!
It’s on 4OD also, so you could watch at the PC? I love watching Heston, but I could never cook like him. For me he’s a scientist, and I’m a rough and ready cook (so the Nigella or Jamie way of cooking, hands in, give or take a few grams, chuck it in the oven style works better for me – although that’s probably doing them a disservice!). True food theatre though, the stuff always looks amazing.
You obviously look like you know what your doing in M&S!
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