Leftovers

My 3 granddaughters (who live in Manila but come home every summer) stayed with us last week and, as usual, ate mountains of soft fruit. But I'm left with 4 now rather ripe bananas. Anyone got a foolproof recipe for banana bread?

Banana bread:
2 and a half cups plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Half teasp bicarbonate of soda
Three quarters of a cup sugar (white)
Sift into a large bowl then combine the ingredients below and add all at once:
2 beaten eggs
One and a half cups mashed ripe bananas
Half cup melted butter
1 tsp each vanilla and lemon juice
Stir well, don't beat
Bake in 9 x 5 inch loaf tin @ gas 4 for about an hour (or till done!) Cool on wire rack
Wrap in foil and store in cool place for a few hours before slicing.
Enjoy!
Sorry for old style ingredients, recipe discovered 1971 and loved ever since,grandchildren love to bake it and then, to eat it!

Thank you, Gran5up! Sounds good. Will give it a go.

Well I'm afraid I'm one of the wasters - head hung in shame! I have two freezers both full of food - bread, meat, frozen veg as well as other convenience foods - not necessarily ready meals as they're so unhealthy. My problem is that I am useless at planning so will get to the end of the day before deciding what we're having which results in not having time to cook from scratch due to work. I buy veg but end up not using it so it eventually goes off - having no sense of smell I can't tell if something has gone off other than looking at it or going by the sell by date. I often throw yogurts away for this reason although if they were my husbands (he doesn't like the ones I eat) he would and does eat his. I admire people who are so organised they can bulk cook and plan ahead so never throw anything away - we watch those programmes too and try to follow the guidelines but then end up going shopping and buying more. I do try to only prepare enough food for that particular meal so there's not very often leftovers to use.

I'm convinced these programmes (Eat well for less, et al) must target people who haven't a clue. That way they can easily show huge savings. They don't feature 'normal' spenders, imo.

I try not to waste food but in hot weather fruit goes off quickly. I bought strawberries and even in fridge they only lasted three days. Sadly I do throw away food sometimes or I often ending up eating something I don't really want just to avoid throwing it out.

Please do not feed your dog on leftovers. Dogs should not have human food at all. There is too much fat sugar and salt for a dogs digestion. If you have excess food cooked freeze it or maybe give it to someone who is not able to cook for themselves. I have several elderly neighbours who enjoy having something they can pop in the microwave.

Might be the wrong thread, but are other people infuriated by multi buy offers? I've just been doing an online order, and two things I wanted were both advertised as 'any two for £3', but they were in different groups!
My bargain hunting gene made it impossible for me to buy these items, which is probably cutting off my nose to spite my face.
I have written so many letters of complaint to various supermarkets about the waste this causes, all ignored.
I feel that if one supermarket just reduced its prices and let us buy just what we want, they would increase their sales, but suppose I must be wŕong, or someone would have done it.

I can,t believe that people who appear on programmes such as Eat Well for Less and Save Money: Good Food , are for real. Surely they don,t need to appear on a TV programme to be given advice/lessons on how to save money on groceries and cook healthy food inexpensively.The amount of money they spend on food shopping is astronomical. How do they justify it all. I was a post war baby, we did,nt have much money, food was still rationed and learnt how to make inventive meals inexpensively.At school we were taught Domestic Science and learnt more from that. Some people have more money than sense and will never learn.They just want to be on TV.

Leftovers. I usually put them in a nice Tupperware container, then leave them in the fridge so long that they go off, and throw them, and sometimes the containers away.

When cooking for the two of us, we almost always increase quantities to 4 or 6 then freeze a meal or two ready for future weeks. If you're using the energy for cooking one meal, makes sense to make extra. We have a list stuck to the side of the freezer where anything going into the freezer gets added on and when taken out for using gets crossed off. Always know what's in there (well nearly almost always) ?. It's lovely when we plan our weekly menu and use meals from the freezer, saving on shopping and cooking!

I put left overs in the freezer, and food which is coming near its use by date like sandwich meat.

Got macaroni cheese for two in the freezer, a portion of spag bol, and a portion of beef casserole.

If its left over I try to freeze it and use again. There is too much wastage in this world to throw useable food away

i love it when there's a few cooked vegetables left over. I pop them in a container in the fridge and enjoy them in an omelette, or home made soup the next day.

Lidl don't do BOGOFs. I try and shop there but they don't deliver and it is more economical to buy from Tesco and have it delivered due to mileage. Tesco delivery saver means it costs about a £1 per delivery and I pay using my Tesco points. Wish Tesco would just reduce prices. Do you notice how most of the special offers are on non-healthy foods?

Happy memories of my Mum's leftovers after the Sunday roast when I was a child. Her cottage pie, minced leftover joint of meat + whatever leftover veg was my absolute favourite. I have tried to replicate it, but it is just not the same.

Eating up leftovers? What else are husbands for?

What can't be frozen or tipped into the dog's ever open mouth goes into the compost heap.

Bubble and squeak is lovely!

I find that the more different recycling bins we get (we have 9 different collections each fortnight as well as 2 compost heaps) the less I have to put in them. We often miss a collection because there's not enough to make it worthwhile putting that particular bin out this week.
I have gradually reduced the amounts I cook so there is less waste. I tend to ignore use-by dates as most things can go at least 3 days over with no ill effects. Taking note of appearance and smell works just as well. I don't batch bake or cook multi meals any more - they just sat in the freezer. If there is some left over, I do freeze it but mainly cos I think I ought to. If it goes in the fridge it probably gets thrown away at the end of the week. The worst thing I find is bread, my food bin is usually 3/4 full of bread that's gone dry (yes I do toast for a ,couple of days) and the remainder is chicken skin and bones. Too much veg? - on the compost heap.
I must admit I do object when I see supermarkets throwing away good food. Sainsbury is particularly bad at slicing its bread at 8pm (even when open till 10) prior to bagging it to throw away. I know some supermarkets do give to homeless shelters etc but it should be a legal requirement.

Has anyone found a supermarket that sells 2 person pack sizes - or even for one person? Surely the cost of the extra packaging needed for smaller sizes is not that much. Everything seems to be getting bigger these days - including waistlines.

There are only 2 in our household and when I have to buy packs of food too big for immediate use, I freeze the surplus; crumpets, cakes, bread and bread rolls, tinned food, where I only needed half the tin, cold meat, smoked salmon, sausages, even meat and pork pies. I buy vegetables loose and have no qualms in turning up at the till with one small carrot, although fresh veg can always be chopped and frozen.

It is annoying that packs are so large but the surplus can be stored or frozen in most cases.

Over ripe bananas - freeze for future banana loaf.
Bread - keep in freezer, defrosts in a minute or toast.
Frozen bulk -cooked meals - microwave from frozen. I never defrost.
I give the dog leftovers, no salt or sugar in them anyway.
What I don't freeze - cauliflower or raw eggs. Neither is edible when cooked.

I have few leftovers, apart from bread. Cooking for one, plus grandchild once a week and holidays, means I'm careful what I buy and freeze. DGS will eat chicken in whatever guise, some fish and a little 'sheepmeat' as he calls it. I'll eat most things if I remember to defrost (except pork), but I do like bacon and ham (!) But I don't always fancy what's in the freezer. I often end up making soup of vegetables that are almost 'past it'. My main problem is I can't be bothered to eat - all that faffing about for breakfast or lunch - I'd rather have a wholesome meal in the evening and lots of water or decaf coffee through the day!

A good food chain works, what we don't eat the dogs do, what they won't eat the hens will, and what they won't have the compost absorbs-simples!

We waste far too much. The freezer is full my husband has a habit of buying meat joints on special offer which fill the freezer and we often forget to use in 3 months sobthey get frost bitten and thrown / great special offer!! It also contains frozen food such as peas and ice creams do we have little room to freeze left overs. I try to buy and cook only what we need but our adult son often passes on our meals and orders take away or opens food unplanned thereby generating waste. My job is to try and eat what he doesn't for lunch next day - to save waste, but I find increasingly and especially in this heat I don't want leftovers for lunch - just a light salad or something. So to the bin goes half a packet of sausages or a couple of chops regularly. Every week I chuck out gone soft tomatoes, fruit and gone yellow broccoli, 2 half loaves - I only eat brown bred the men only eat white and neither of us eat more than a few slices of bread a week. No room to freeze it any of it, and no desire to repeat menus too frequently - no use for soups etc made a loaf last year from left overs - froze it and then chucked it after we'd paid to freeze it for a year!! We don't eat soup much - about once a year, so why I thought it would be better than chucking the ingredients at the start I have no idea!!