Love food hate waste

Quite frankly, although I hate waste, I wouldn't think twice about chucking away a tin of something I'd found at the back of a cupboard that was a couple of years out of date.

It's not exactly going to break the bank.

I have a friend who eats road kill pheasants so even dead bodies aren't wasted where he lives.

I don't buy what I can't eat, so nothing much hangs around for more than about 2-3 months. All I can find that's over a year is salt, pepper, oxo and flour.

I don't use salt at all, so I think that what I have may the leftovers from the stockpile my father had when he was using it as a mouthwash. He died in 1988. The rest of it probably went on the garden path.

My food waste is very much a 'work in progress'. I hate waste, but I am rather dithery and forgetful, and tend to find the odd pack of yellow herbs stuck to the back of the fridge or a soggy quarter of cucumber in the salad drawer I'm trying to address all this - leftover bits of cheese rind or apple etc go out for the birds, and we compost our own peelings and raw veg/fruit cores/peel. Now we have a new kitchen it's much easier to see what's what; I cleared out far too much vintage dried food (some of which looked as if it'd been munched by insects so I couldn't use it). Very ashamed, but trying hard now not to allow this to happen again!
I've just learned a new recipe for pastry offcuts, too, so I won't be baking the bits to leave out for the squirrels and parakeets any more....;)

Like you rowantree ai am a work in progress. I am trying very hard and getting better but the odd chunk of cucumber does get found in a disgusting state occasionally. Bread frequently gets mouldy, but the birds get it so I dont see that as wasted food.

Rosequartz - what a good idea. Can you recommend a vitamin tablet for post menopausal women. I believe we're not supposed to take too much iron. Also do you have a good recipe for veg soup. I haven't got a blender.

Don't need a recipe Falconbird. Mine is very much a fridge clearing device; sauté chopped onion, leeks, garlic first. Then add chopped carrots, potatoes etc. I use Marigold veggie stock which doesn't have an aftertaste to cover plus a couple of cm. Simmer until soft enough. You can stir in a tin of baked beans and or red beans, broken up spaghetti or soup pasta and I like to put in 4 cubes of chopped frozen spinach from Sainsbury. Simmer again until all cooked. All takes about 20 minutes and is a sort of minestrone. You can vary veg as required!

I can see we on GN are doing our bit to not waste food.
Rowantreementioned pastry , i sometimes make jam tarts with left over pastry . Also keep a bag in the freezer for pastry offcuts then when there is enough you can make something .
I also freeze fresh herbs then you can just break off a bit to add to recipes.
anyone got an idea to use up limp lettuce, I can't get excited about lettuce soup !

Falconbird I make stock from the remains of the chicken. If you are vegetarian I suppose you could boil up clean peelings, or you could just use good stock cubes.
Then chuck the veg in, cook and blend or mash
(Ps are you winding me up , everyone knows how to make soup)
We had leek and potato yesterday with some leftover broccoli thrown in and it was very nice (mashed, not blended).
Some Gnetters have soup makers.

We take or Vitabiotics Wellwoman and Wellman who do them for women (and men) over 50 and another for over 70s.
We take them if and when we remember!!

Limp lettuce goes on the compost heap!

Have just looked on the packet of vitamins but it is the ordinary one, not over 50s (which is cheaper), and each tablet has 12mg of iron.
Not sure about the over 50 or over 70 tablets then.
Usana are excellent but expensive, but you have to order online.

Honestly - I'm in in my late sixties and I've never made a successful soup. It's always more like a stew.

I've been thinking of buying a blender or juicer. I used to make it and put the veggies etc., through a sieve but it was a lot of mess and time for little result.

PS I have been known to put lettuce in a casserole. It disappears but adds to the overall food content,

Falconbird - I have one of those stick blenders (mine was from Lidl) which I use in the pan of soup if I want it blended. Much easier to wash up than a traditional blender and takes up less room in the drawer.

I think I am on my third stick blender and wouldn't be without it.

Paid £4 for a small gammon at the weekend and had it with salad on Saturday. Chopped up most of what was left and put it into cauliflower cheese yesterday (DH doesn't do vegetarian for Sunday dinner)! He's had a ham sandwich today and I've made soup out of the reserved stock and used up all the old vegetables which were about to become unusable. Tastes OK now it's blended. Not bad for £4 plus a few veggies? Blame it on a mother and mother in law who lived through the WW2!

I will confess that the leek and potato soup we had at the weekend (from the freezer) with 'broccoli thrown in' actually had leftover broccoli in cheese sauce thrown in. I didn't know if it would be OK but we and the DGDs loved it - it was tasty and creamy!

DH likes his soup blended and I like it a bit chunky so I blend it a little bit with a stick blender which I have had for years, take mine out then whiz it a lot more for him.

I also have a proper blender but usually use the stick one (less washing up)

Falconbird many years ago I attempted soup using a sieve and I agree with you - such a lot of mess for so little return. A few years ago I bought a soup recipe book, The Soup Bible and, using a blender, I now make soup regularly. I have a large stock pot, which I fill almost to the brim, and then freeze the blended soup in portions (I use those plastic takeaway containers - about £11 from Amazon for 50).
So do get yourself a blender, you won't regret it - there is simply nothing like home made soup