It’s Friday Guys – Actually it’s Friday the 13th so prepare yourself for a horror story!
Brace yourself for the terrible tale of what happens when you take your eye off the ball.
You get………Dum Dum Dum……………………FOOD WASTE! Arrrgggghhhhhhh!
Okay so here goes a good bout of ‘excusitis‘;
I’ve had a lot on my plate (pardon the pun) since New Year, which I won’t go into. I haven’t had my mind on the blog, and over the last two weeks I haven’t been keeping on top of potential food waste. Last Friday is the first Friday since starting the blog that a No Waste Tastes Great post was not planned.
The consequences of not following my usual routine last week means that this morning sitting on my counter as ‘potential food waste’ I had (wait for it)
- 6 x Peppers
- 2 x Carrots plus a 1kg (2lb) bag of carrots
- 1 x Punnet of Mushrooms
- 1 x Punnet of grapes
- 1 x Broccoli head
- 2 x Chicken Breasts (Free Range)
- 1/2 tin of Baked Beans
- 1/2 bag of Italian Salad
- 4 x Potatoes
- 1 x Pyrex container of home-made Tomato and Lentil Soup
Standing there looking at my dismal performance I didn’t know where to start. The chaos and lack of organisation of my Fridge was a true metaphor for how I had been leading my life over the last two weeks.
So accepting failure the first thing to do was to dispose of the true food waste – which was:
- The Tomato and Lentil Soup. I had slow cooked this last Wednesday and was now 9 days old. It had got hidden in the chaotic and small fridge and left! No life left in it – so disposed of, it was.
Then it was time to get the thinking culinary hat on…
- Chopped peppers and bagged them in portion size freezing them for use in curries – done
- Baked beans will accompany the 4 Potatoes which I will mash for the kids later – they were put to one side for later today
- 1kg of bagged carrots has been left out next to ‘Brenda’ my Veggie slow cooker for cooking overnight – my favourite soup saves the day once more
- The grapes will be eaten over today/tomorrow by us all as a snack
The items that are remaining, Chicken, Broccoli, Carrots and Mushrooms will be added to Lil’ Bill my standard slow cooker and made into a Chicken and Vegetable lasagne with a can of tomatoes, a can of condensed mushroom soup and some pasta sheets.
This is now (11am) already loaded in Bill and on high to be eaten tonight with the Italian salad and a glass of crisp white wine.
If the recipe tastes great then I will post it here…
How’s your fridge looking, is your fridge a metaphor of your life or is it just me? Any fantastic food using up ideas out there this week…
It sounds like the lasagne wil be delicious Jo! I feel the same way about my fridge. When it’s clear, things are in control. When it’s stuffed full of rotting food, my life is out of control. I never really thought of it like that, but now that you mention it… 🙂
So true! I love looking at an organised fridge, it makes me feel in control!!
It sounds like the lasagne wil be delicious Jo! I feel the same way about my fridge. When it’s clear, things are in control. When it’s stuffed full of rotting food, my life is out of control. I never really thought of it like that, but now that you mention it… 🙂
So true! I love looking at an organised fridge, it makes me feel in control!!
It sounds like the lasagne wil be delicious Jo! I feel the same way about my fridge. When it’s clear, things are in control. When it’s stuffed full of rotting food, my life is out of control. I never really thought of it like that, but now that you mention it… 🙂
So true! I love looking at an organised fridge, it makes me feel in control!!
I’ve been struggling with the shared fridge aspect. Patrick and I are trying to learn heavy duty minimalist cooking because all we have is (eek) one fridge shelf, one produce drawer, plus a little space in the side door. Cora uses up all the rest of the space.
The cool thing about being so limited (the pantry is even more limited) is that we’ve changed our shopping habits a lot. Now we go to the produce stand about 3 times a week. There’s a lot less waste and it’s so much easier to keep our parts of the fridge nicely organized. Although there was that ruined asparagus tragedy this week….
Gosh Tanja – that is limited! I don’t have much space either for a family of 4 – but it works. The less storage you have the less you can store – simple. I’m not a believer in storing food anyway, it just encourages waste. The way you do it sounds fantastic in terms of buying fresh produce. So sorry to hear about the asparagus! Oh dear! We had asparagus soup this week, I had forgotten have truly lovely it is.
I’ve been struggling with the shared fridge aspect. Patrick and I are trying to learn heavy duty minimalist cooking because all we have is (eek) one fridge shelf, one produce drawer, plus a little space in the side door. Cora uses up all the rest of the space.
The cool thing about being so limited (the pantry is even more limited) is that we’ve changed our shopping habits a lot. Now we go to the produce stand about 3 times a week. There’s a lot less waste and it’s so much easier to keep our parts of the fridge nicely organized. Although there was that ruined asparagus tragedy this week….
Gosh Tanja – that is limited! I don’t have much space either for a family of 4 – but it works. The less storage you have the less you can store – simple. I’m not a believer in storing food anyway, it just encourages waste. The way you do it sounds fantastic in terms of buying fresh produce. So sorry to hear about the asparagus! Oh dear! We had asparagus soup this week, I had forgotten have truly lovely it is.
I’ve been struggling with the shared fridge aspect. Patrick and I are trying to learn heavy duty minimalist cooking because all we have is (eek) one fridge shelf, one produce drawer, plus a little space in the side door. Cora uses up all the rest of the space.
The cool thing about being so limited (the pantry is even more limited) is that we’ve changed our shopping habits a lot. Now we go to the produce stand about 3 times a week. There’s a lot less waste and it’s so much easier to keep our parts of the fridge nicely organized. Although there was that ruined asparagus tragedy this week….
Gosh Tanja – that is limited! I don’t have much space either for a family of 4 – but it works. The less storage you have the less you can store – simple. I’m not a believer in storing food anyway, it just encourages waste. The way you do it sounds fantastic in terms of buying fresh produce. So sorry to hear about the asparagus! Oh dear! We had asparagus soup this week, I had forgotten have truly lovely it is.