It’s Friday Guys – time for No Waste Tastes Great
Click here to find out more about my Friday routine
Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge
Top Shelf – Spreads, cheese and garlic – all in date
Top Middle Shelf – Pack of tortellini fresh pasta and half a jar of pasta sauce
Bottom Middle Shelf – Grapes
Bottom Shelf – 6 sausages (that have been thawed out overnight in the fridge)
Door – Milk and OJ – in date
We returned from EuroDisney late Sunday night. It’s been a busy week due to family circumstances. I decided not to do a full grocery shop and rather spent £25 on some easy to rustle up stuff (aka pasta) and essentials. There hasn’t been a menu plan this week. I’ve been using up store-cupboard supplies and making do.
Regardless Friday is still No Waste Tastes Great.
The No Waste Tastes Great plan today
I always keep an eye on my fridge throughout the week and knew there wasn’t enough ingredients to feed 5 today (a school-friend is coming to play after school). With this in mind I decided to thaw out the 6 sausages residing in my freezer. Apart from some frozen soup, that’s pretty much all that was in the freezer.
For dinner this evening the Kids will be having pasta in sauce with chopped up sausage. The grapes will be to follow (with the remaining being used up over the weekend).
As well as thawing out sausage I soaked some dried beans overnight.
Since removing meat from my diet (see why here) vegetarian chilli has become one of my favourite meals. Packed full of protein and taste, this one’s a keeper! And it’s what the Hubby and I will be having for dinner tonight.
Add a few store-cupboard ingredients to the beans and voila! (the french hasn’t worn off yet from our few days away)
The sundried tomatoes make all the difference. I’ll also be adding some chopped sausage to the Hubby’s meal. Chilli flavoured beans, tomato and sausage are great together. I’m building up a repertoire (french again eh?) of vegetarian recipes that can quickly and easily be converted for meat-eaters.
Tonight I am planning on serving this up with home-made tortilla flat-breads and a glass (or 2) of red wine. We are then going to hit the sofa and watch Breaking Dawn Part 1 on DVD. Some down time is needed.
I’ll be posting the Simple Slow-Cooked Three Bean Chilli and Sundried Tomato Recipe next week for those who’d like to give it a go. A sneak peek of the finished dish will appear on Facebook later today.
How’s your Fridge looking this Friday? Anything to declare? Or is it nice and bare? Please share…
No Waste Tastes Great is bought to you (as always) with thanks to The Frugal Girl for the original inspiration.
Well my fridge looks ok (ish) but I am really trying to go with the Friday clean up; I think I am suffering form teenagers – open juice, drink some the open another……
The chilli looks good, meat or no meat its a great meal. Lets ditch Master Chef and have a Frugal Chef competition 🙂
What a great idea! Can I expect an invite in my e-mail box?
(let me know how the Friday clean up goes please?)
Well my fridge looks ok (ish) but I am really trying to go with the Friday clean up; I think I am suffering form teenagers – open juice, drink some the open another……
The chilli looks good, meat or no meat its a great meal. Lets ditch Master Chef and have a Frugal Chef competition 🙂
What a great idea! Can I expect an invite in my e-mail box?
(let me know how the Friday clean up goes please?)
I love vegetarian chilli, I think it’s actually nicer than the meat variety. Looking forward to the recipe! But what’s on the plate on the top shelf as you’ve only declared the usual things? Could just be more of the same, but you don’t often have plates on that shelf so it caught my eye. And I’m nosy. 😉
My fridge is looking very bare (apart from in date spreads/condiments and drinks – but even these shelves have less than usual) today, so I’m happy. One shelf has the ingredients for fish pie tonight, made the mash last night which is sitting in its saucepan (less washing up!) and all of the fish is defrosting in the dish I’ll bake it in. Then there’s the last of this week’s veg to serve with it. Other than that, all that’s in there is a bowl of fruit (mostly apples) which I’ll turn into pie or crumble if they don’t get eaten over the weekend.
Hope the family situation is improving!
Decided to start leaving an item to see whether it passes the ‘Lauren fridge inspection’ 😉 only joking! It’s Stilton!
The fish pie sounds fab. I’m newly reaquainted with fish, now that meat’s a no-no. In fact a very kind friend sent a haddock pasta bake around for us as she knew time was scarce this week.
(glad to see no mention of flatmate waste – are they getting in the groove at long last?:-))
It’s the Jamie recipe from Ministry of Food (my favourite cookbook) and it’s fab! I usually pick up the pre-packed mix when it’s on offer, so my version always has cod in it. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/fish-pie
Flatmate is definitely improving, I think the hints are starting to sink in.
I love vegetarian chilli, I think it’s actually nicer than the meat variety. Looking forward to the recipe! But what’s on the plate on the top shelf as you’ve only declared the usual things? Could just be more of the same, but you don’t often have plates on that shelf so it caught my eye. And I’m nosy. 😉
My fridge is looking very bare (apart from in date spreads/condiments and drinks – but even these shelves have less than usual) today, so I’m happy. One shelf has the ingredients for fish pie tonight, made the mash last night which is sitting in its saucepan (less washing up!) and all of the fish is defrosting in the dish I’ll bake it in. Then there’s the last of this week’s veg to serve with it. Other than that, all that’s in there is a bowl of fruit (mostly apples) which I’ll turn into pie or crumble if they don’t get eaten over the weekend.
Hope the family situation is improving!
Decided to start leaving an item to see whether it passes the ‘Lauren fridge inspection’ 😉 only joking! It’s Stilton!
The fish pie sounds fab. I’m newly reaquainted with fish, now that meat’s a no-no. In fact a very kind friend sent a haddock pasta bake around for us as she knew time was scarce this week.
(glad to see no mention of flatmate waste – are they getting in the groove at long last?:-))
It’s the Jamie recipe from Ministry of Food (my favourite cookbook) and it’s fab! I usually pick up the pre-packed mix when it’s on offer, so my version always has cod in it. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/fish-pie
Flatmate is definitely improving, I think the hints are starting to sink in.
Never thought of adding sun dried tomatoes to chili. I’ll have to give it a try.
You’ll never look back!
Never thought of adding sun dried tomatoes to chili. I’ll have to give it a try.
You’ll never look back!
The chili sounds delicious. Am curious – where do you store all your condiments? Or do you have condiments that need to be refrigerated? Do you take those out of the fridge before you take your Friday picture for less visual clutter? I’m thinking of the ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, jar of capers, jellies (jams), etc. that are always in my fridge.
Hi Susan, they are in there. This photo just doesn’t show them, usually they can be seen. I don’t use my veg/salad drawer at the bottom as I like to be able to see my produce clearly. I put ketchup, curry paste, jam and any other items in there. Let me know if you give the chilli a try after I post the recipe next week please?
Yes, looking forward to trying the recipe & will let you know how it turns out. Thank you.
The chili sounds delicious. Am curious – where do you store all your condiments? Or do you have condiments that need to be refrigerated? Do you take those out of the fridge before you take your Friday picture for less visual clutter? I’m thinking of the ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce, jar of capers, jellies (jams), etc. that are always in my fridge.
Hi Susan, they are in there. This photo just doesn’t show them, usually they can be seen. I don’t use my veg/salad drawer at the bottom as I like to be able to see my produce clearly. I put ketchup, curry paste, jam and any other items in there. Let me know if you give the chilli a try after I post the recipe next week please?
Yes, looking forward to trying the recipe & will let you know how it turns out. Thank you.
I haven’t tried adding sun-dried tomatos to chili either. But after your simmering tomato lentil soup with sun-dried tomatos, I know how much flavor they add!
My fridge is looking pretty empty. And clean! I swear I’ve been wiping down my fridge 3x more often ever since I virtually met you. 😉
So glad you’re still enjoying the soup. It is pretty tasty. Sundried toms are a great addition to a lot of tomato based dishes – as you say a great flavour booster!
I haven’t tried adding sun-dried tomatos to chili either. But after your simmering tomato lentil soup with sun-dried tomatos, I know how much flavor they add!
My fridge is looking pretty empty. And clean! I swear I’ve been wiping down my fridge 3x more often ever since I virtually met you. 😉
So glad you’re still enjoying the soup. It is pretty tasty. Sundried toms are a great addition to a lot of tomato based dishes – as you say a great flavour booster!
What I love about your blog is that you are changing how I look at food. I am much more comfortable with having a small amount of food in my frig compared to how I used to shop in the past. If I run out of something, no big deal. Just make do and buy it next week. Pure genius you are Joanne!
Tina – thank you for your comment, I am chuffed that the posts are helping. It’s amazing (and fun) what you can create with seemingly disjointed ingredients. Also ingredients can be eliminated, without any major taste deficit!
Not sure about the genius bit, but I’ll savour it and let it go to my head for a minute or two, before crashing back down to earth 😉
What I love about your blog is that you are changing how I look at food. I am much more comfortable with having a small amount of food in my frig compared to how I used to shop in the past. If I run out of something, no big deal. Just make do and buy it next week. Pure genius you are Joanne!
Tina – thank you for your comment, I am chuffed that the posts are helping. It’s amazing (and fun) what you can create with seemingly disjointed ingredients. Also ingredients can be eliminated, without any major taste deficit!
Not sure about the genius bit, but I’ll savour it and let it go to my head for a minute or two, before crashing back down to earth 😉
The sun dried tomatoes look delicious, will have to try adding them to chilli. I had two wastes today. Not too bad.
Not too bad at all on the waste front – good going! Try the toms, they are mighty fine!
The sun dried tomatoes look delicious, will have to try adding them to chilli. I had two wastes today. Not too bad.
Not too bad at all on the waste front – good going! Try the toms, they are mighty fine!
That is a deliciously tidy fridge! I like the idea of taking a picture of your fridge to post – although I think I’ll clean mine first! 😉
Mine does get a clean also before it’s photo shoot! Knowing that it’s going to be captured on camera keeps my eye on the prize.
That is a deliciously tidy fridge! I like the idea of taking a picture of your fridge to post – although I think I’ll clean mine first! 😉
Mine does get a clean also before it’s photo shoot! Knowing that it’s going to be captured on camera keeps my eye on the prize.
There, Tina (above) has put into words what I’ve been trying to express – I am more comfortable with less food in the fridge! And we’re not going hungry, far from it. When I can see what’s there, I can come up with a way to use it. When there is too much, it overwhelms me.
I did have some waste even with less food around. I cooked a head of broccoli and used half in a recipe. It was not very tasty, so I procrastinated on using the rest, until such time as I could declare it unfit to eat, and composted it 🙁 I also composted a small container of carrots and celery because I forgot they were there (in a produce drawer – which reminds me why you don’t keep your produce in the drawer – great idea). And lastly, I cooked a big batch of pasta the week before, and we used most – but not all – and it was getting old, so out to the compost as well.
But compared with what I used to discard, this is an improvement. And going public will help me get even better, I hope.
There’s a reality type programme in the UK called ‘The Fixer’ (very good!). recently Alex the host went into a declining retail store and removed the clutter so the customers could see the merchandise and sales increased. Similar thing with the fridge – the aim is to utilise more and reduce waste long-term. This simplifying stuff works doesn’t it? So glad you are now participating and going public – I anticipate a reduced waste future for you!
How interesting! I can really see how that would help. This is another angle for me to ponder.
There, Tina (above) has put into words what I’ve been trying to express – I am more comfortable with less food in the fridge! And we’re not going hungry, far from it. When I can see what’s there, I can come up with a way to use it. When there is too much, it overwhelms me.
I did have some waste even with less food around. I cooked a head of broccoli and used half in a recipe. It was not very tasty, so I procrastinated on using the rest, until such time as I could declare it unfit to eat, and composted it 🙁 I also composted a small container of carrots and celery because I forgot they were there (in a produce drawer – which reminds me why you don’t keep your produce in the drawer – great idea). And lastly, I cooked a big batch of pasta the week before, and we used most – but not all – and it was getting old, so out to the compost as well.
But compared with what I used to discard, this is an improvement. And going public will help me get even better, I hope.
There’s a reality type programme in the UK called ‘The Fixer’ (very good!). recently Alex the host went into a declining retail store and removed the clutter so the customers could see the merchandise and sales increased. Similar thing with the fridge – the aim is to utilise more and reduce waste long-term. This simplifying stuff works doesn’t it? So glad you are now participating and going public – I anticipate a reduced waste future for you!
How interesting! I can really see how that would help. This is another angle for me to ponder.
I think sun dried tomatoes make any dish taste better!! I’m not a chili fan (or any soup-like meal for that matter), but you’re making me curious 🙂
This chilli isn’t very soup like really. The ingredients aren’t swimming in fluid, so you may like it – why not give it a try?
I think sun dried tomatoes make any dish taste better!! I’m not a chili fan (or any soup-like meal for that matter), but you’re making me curious 🙂
This chilli isn’t very soup like really. The ingredients aren’t swimming in fluid, so you may like it – why not give it a try?