Ready steady cook

Lovely batch of food.

Redhead56

Batch cook for days when you are too busy soups stews gorgeous!

Too busy and too poor!

That's what I've been doing. Trouble is I could do with a bigger freezer. I'm not intending to buy any food this week except dairy stuff and eggs.

Batch cook for days when you are too busy soups stews gorgeous!

Wow! A bumper hoard today from the food surplus place! I don't think I'm going to starve this week, although I'm going to be busy preparing it all.

I've volunteered to help out in future, so I feel I'm giving something back. I'm so grateful for this initiative by local organisations. It's saving me £££.

We love Italian and German food.

Bratkartofflen or Patate al forno are easy and use up thin skin potatoes quite well. That's my choice with potatoes pictured.

growstuff, this looks amazing!

growstuff

Joseanne

Your soughdough bread might not keep fresh beyond today. You probably know this, but you can bring it back to life by sprinkling some water over it and popping it in the oven before eating. If those are mushrooms in that bag (?) I might fry them with garlic to have on the sourdough as a weekend brunch.
Or just freeze it.

Good idea!

I was thinking I had a surfeit of bread and was wondering what I could do. My freezer is nearly full with all the soup I made last week.

You could also thick slice and chop into small squares any left over bread and bake/dry it hard - store for later Italian croutons.

Joseanne

Your soughdough bread might not keep fresh beyond today. You probably know this, but you can bring it back to life by sprinkling some water over it and popping it in the oven before eating. If those are mushrooms in that bag (?) I might fry them with garlic to have on the sourdough as a weekend brunch.
Or just freeze it.

Good idea!

I was thinking I had a surfeit of bread and was wondering what I could do. My freezer is nearly full with all the soup I made last week.

Doodledog

I swear by Pru Leith's Vegetarian Bible. She lists the recipes by vegetable family, and within that the veg themselves, so you can go straight to ideas for the things you want to use up, or have found a glut of in a market.

With that lot, I think I'd do chicken and mushroom pies, parsnip soup and twice-baked jacket potatoes, freezing some of each, as there will be more than you'd need for two. What's in the bag above the chicken pieces?

The three bags on the right have half a small roast chicken (cooked), bacon bits (from a local farmer according to the label) and mushrooms.

I'll look out for Pru Leith's book. I'm not veggie, although I'm happy to go out without meat and don't eat much.

The constraint I have is that I'm diabetic and have a low carb diet. Apart from avoiding sweet things, I very rarely eat potatoes, bread, pasta, rice or pastry, but my partner does.

I think I'm turning into my grandmother. As children, we used to squirm when she went into shops at the end of the day and more or less begged for anything which was going spare.

If you get a celariac, try this recipe

thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/yotam-ottolenghis-celeriac-steaks-with-cafe-de-paris-sauce/

The sauce does split, which is what the recipe calls for, but if that's disconcerting (Mr Dog looked a bit askance when I did it for the first time, and tentatively poured a tiny spoonful on his steak 😂) you could do a peppercorn sauce instead. I like the recipe's sauce, but I enjoy rich food. I now do the celeriac in the air fryer on bake/roast for an hour or so instead of the oven, which saves on time and fuel.

The bread would make lovely savory veg bread pudding.

Your soughdough bread might not keep fresh beyond today. You probably know this, but you can bring it back to life by sprinkling some water over it and popping it in the oven before eating. If those are mushrooms in that bag (?) I might fry them with garlic to have on the sourdough as a weekend brunch.
Or just freeze it.

Beautiful food, I could use most in nice dinner dishes. Well done.

I swear by Pru Leith's Vegetarian Bible. She lists the recipes by vegetable family, and within that the veg themselves, so you can go straight to ideas for the things you want to use up, or have found a glut of in a market.

With that lot, I think I'd do chicken and mushroom pies, parsnip soup and twice-baked jacket potatoes, freezing some of each, as there will be more than you'd need for two. What's in the bag above the chicken pieces?

There are two bags. One has unsmoked bacon bits, which I'll use for frittata, soups and other things. The other bag has a cooked half chicken. It's from Nando's, who freeze all excess at the end of the day. I had one last week - the cats had it, but I might eat it myself this week. I was thinking of doing some kind of salad too.

I'm with my partner this weekend and he'll probably get bread and butter pudding again - he said he liked the one I made last week. Shame that I can only have a miniscule portion.

Another good haul.
Is that chicken chunks in the bag? If so, I might do a salad with lettuce leaves, crunchy peppers, chicken, topped with mandarin slices, with a balsamic dressing, (a bit River Cottage or Jamie type). If you would prefer a hot meal there must be some Asian dishes with chicken, mushrooms and an orangey stir fry sauce to include the rind. But I am not at home at the moment to consult my cookery books. I like mandarin slices in dishes to add vibrant colour and flavour.
On the other hand, my DH would just eat the mandarins as snacks.

I'm getting hooked on this! This was this week's haul.

I hardly bought any food last week (thus saving many pennies!) and I've still got stuff in the freezer.

I'm also feeling virtuous because this lot would have gone to landfill.

This is the plan:

This evening:

Curried parsnip soup
Sausage casserole (already prepared) and savoy cabbage
Raspberries and yoghurt (already in fridge)

Tomorrow lunch:

Mushroom omelette, salad and garlic bread
Fresh fruit (already in bowl)

Tomorrow evening:

Beetroot soup
Chicken Cacciatore (already in freezer), kale with almonds and cauliflower "couscous"
Panettone bread and butter pudding and creme fraiche (already in fridge)

Sunday:

No idea!

I've prepared everything I can and the excess is in the freezer. Thank you everybody!

It certainly is * MissAdventure*

You can use Butternut Squash to make chips instead of using potato.
I also like Kale “crisps” basically put on oven tray sprinkle with herbs or chilli powder, squirt with spray oil cook for about 15 mins.
Some good ideas here.

I'm no cook, but that is a very impressive haul! 🙂

Risotto. Roasted butternut, saute mushroom slices, finely torn steamed kale - folded in before serving. Really most anything in risotto

We adapt a delicious recipe for butternut squash pudding. We omit the eggs, cheese, light cream, using vegan alternatives.

Recipe is of an American cooking site, easy to fix.

Butternut Squash Bread Pudding
2 pounds peeled seeded butternut squash, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 6 cups)
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt plus additional for sprinkling
7 large eggs
2 1/4 cups half and half
6 tablespoons dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 day-old baguette (do not remove crust), torn into 1-inch pieces (about 10 cups)
1 cup chopped shallots (about 4 large)
2 bunches Tuscan kale (about 1 pound), ribs removed, kale coarsely chopped
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss squash with 1 tablespoon oil on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt; bake until squash is tender, turning with spatula occasionally, 20 to 25 minutes.

Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add half and half, wine, mustard, and 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt; whisk to blend. Add baguette pieces; fold gently into egg mixture. Let soak 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté until soft, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add kale; cover and cook 2 minutes. Uncover and stir until kale is wilted but still bright green, about 5 minutes (kale will be a bit crunchy).

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Generously butter 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Using slotted spoon, transfer half of bread from egg mixture to prepared baking dish, arranging to cover most of dish. Spoon half of kale over bread. Spoon half of squash over bread and kale; sprinkle with half of cheese. Repeat with remaining bread, kale, squash, and cheese. Pour remaining egg mixture over bread pudding.

Cover bread pudding with foil. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil; bake uncovered until custard is set and bread feels springy to touch, about 20 minutes longer.

Preheat broiler; broil pudding until cheese browns slightly, about 2 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and serve.

Bon Appétit
November 2009

I like finely chopped kale in a curry. It's more robust than spinach.

My daughter uses FareShare too growstuff it saves so much from being wasted, this is one of her recent ‘boxes’.

Thanks! That sounds a bit more exciting than plain kale. I'll give it a go.

There's some panettone, so I'm going to make some bread and butter pudding for my partner (I might have a teeny weeny bit ).

I have some protein main dishes in the freezer from previous batch cooking, so I think I've got our weekend food sorted. I'm dead chuffed because this food would have gone into landfill and I got it for free (apart from the few bits I already had in the fridge/freezer/store cupboard).