leftovers

Me too MissAdventure and Sodapop. I'm not going to worry about waste. Leftover potatoes meat etc doesnt bother me.I do my best to use everything.

I just wish we could buy smaller portions. I regularly dump cottage cheese, olives, coleslaw, hummus, parmesan, buttermilk, to name a few. And I refuse to eat something three days in a row to use it up.

Portion control is all very well, but some days you or the family feel like eating more than on other days.

I had a good clear-out of a freezer recently and did throw out some 'leftovers' which could have come in useful but never did.

I find refrigerating it and then using it up within a couple of days is best, rather than freezing it then discarding in the future.

Throw it to the foxes...they or the ducks that invade the large green in front of our row of houses will eat anything!

I have a chest freezer filled with freezer baskets, each basket has one kind of product: beef, lamb, fish, vegetables etc, The baskets at the top have ready meals, bacon & sausage, and dairy products, so it is very easy to keep track of everything. Food in the freezer last forever.

Supplies taken by Scott to the Antartic were found a century later and found to be fresh and palatable, so never worry how long anything has been in the freezer, it will still be safe and useable. Unless it has been inadequately wrapped and has freezer burn.

I use a biro and write on masking tape and use that instead of labels. If I am not using leftovers the next day I will freeze same day. Leftover frozen veg can be thawed and added to home made soup or into casseroles or stews or added to corned beef hash. Small amounts of bolognese sauce or chilli can be used as a topper on jacket potatoes. If I am stuck for ideas I consult google and usually find loads of recipes for leftovers.

Use for soup, smoothies or pie fillings.

Saggi, don't the foxes eat the ducks instead?

I frequently have left over veg. In to the fridge it goes and next day I pour over a pasta or curry sauce and serve with pasta/rice/jacket potato or whatever I fancy. There are never any leftovers from that.

Very impressed with your organisational skills M0nica! I do start off separating meat, fish, veg etc but those wretched freezer fairies seem to disagree with that system and stuff ends up all all the show!

I use a freezer pen from Lakeland. It writes on freezer bags easily. I still find the odd thing I have forgotten to label so sometimes we have " mystery casserole day". I wonder how we are going to store cooked food in the freezer when the bags are not sold anymore.

Monica a lot of bought frozen food gives a limited freezer time often only three months.
I would have then assumed stuff I freeze myself would be the same?

The food may lose some of its taste with long storage, but bacteria don't multiply below a certain temperature. It will have the same number as it had when it was frozen, so if youtrust the manufacturer to produce it in hygienic condidtions, it will stay hygienic. If there were no bad bacteria in it to start with and it has been sealed up properly, how can any new ones have crept in while it was in the freezer?

The bought freezer food has a use-by or a best-by date on it so as to cover the manufacturers' backs. Store it as soon as it is bought, well wrapped, and it will be edible for longer than the magic three months (though the taste and texture may have deteriorated).

I write food, number of portions and date on a slip of paper with a thick nib felt pen, slip it in the plastic bag and seal it with a clippet. When I am feeling really virtuous, having sorted out the freezer, I make lists of what is in each drawer and stick these lists to door with a magnet, aiming to cross out / add foods as I go along. Needless to say this doesn't always work.....

Freezer food use by dates are advisory only. The food will be perfectly safe to eat, no matter how long you leave it in the freezer, although eat quality may deteriorate, although I find that rarely happens. The purpose of the use by dates is to say how long the manufacturer guarantees quality, not safety.

Some years ago I accidentally planted chilli peppers rather than sweet peppers. I chopped and froze the chili peppers, but as I do not much like chili, it took me nearly 5 years to finally consume all these chopped peppers. I am about to eat stewed apple and blackberry that has been in the freezer a year and as the vegetable harvest takesoff, I expect some of that to be in the freezer for at least nine months.

I have been doing this for over 45 years, with no ill effects.

Thanks ladies. The amount of frozen food that I've binned!!

Of course, it suits the manufacturers for us to throw it out and buy a new batch!

When they stop producing plastic freezer bags we will use Tupperware or the like. I do already!

I do too - perhaps not Tupperware but the equivalent.

My Hoover is a Shark too

"When they stop producing plastic freezer bags".
That's a point, Kitty, never thought of that.
But there's an ecofriendly alternative to plastic bags which they introduced in France about 3 years ago. For loose veg in the supermarkets.
Some shops there also offered paper bags, but that wouldn't work in a freezer.

www.amazon.co.uk/FREEZER-GRADE-Adhesive-Stickers-Contents/dp/B00S9RJ2XW?tag=gransnetforum-21
I use these in the freezer to label stuff as I forget what’s there sometimes-but I do find that you need to peel them off before you wash the plastic tub! On occasions I have reused them too !

I chuck them out, unless I have a very clear idea what to do with them.

Otherwise they just have a long half-life in fridge or freezer before being chucked out anyway!

Nannarose: "patatas bravas" I like that idea. Will investigate

I put leftovers on a nice clean plate and cover carefully with cling film or foil.
After three or four days, when it looks a bit dry and maybe a little mouldy, I bin the lot with a clear conscience!