Frugal basics: Using up leftovers so you don't waste food! 

Hi Jane another tip. When carrots go soft and bendy. Don’t throw them away. Put them in a container of cold water and leave overnight. They become hard and crunchy again then use as normal. It’s wow 🤩

I made applesauce, and peeled the apples. I couldn’t bring myself to throw away all that food. Put them through blender and chopped up very fine, put them into small containers. I then removed them from containers, put into ziplock and use one or two when making muffins.

Hi Jane here’s a little tip that I use. To stop bananas ripening so fast. Separate bananas and wrap stock end with a small piece of tinfoil. I’ve been doing this for long time it’s amazing

For leftover Basmati rice I'd usually saute it in a little oil along with chopped red/green peppers and some sweetcorn and then add a couple of teaspoons of mango chutney or curry sauce. Very tasty light lunch. The parsley growing in pots in the supermarket is really about a hundred or more actual parsley plants and I just separate them as much as possible and plant them in the garden or a large plant pot, it grows really well all year. I can snip just what I want and at the end of the season when it gets cold and the parsley begins to go off I begin chopping little bouquets and freezing them so I never have any parsley waste. My hubby loves parsley sauce. For leftover mashed potato I usually make potato salad by simply adding chopped onion, a little salt and salad cream, I don't use mayonnaise in it as we rather prefer Heinz salad cream. For whole cooked potato I slice them and fry them in butter for the next meal. I believe that leftovers just means extra meals. 😀Thanks for all your tips.

With my over ripe bananas, I peel them before I freeze them in a slim takeaway plastic box. I can then portion them for a particular recipe, or, break a bit or two off and pop it in a smoothie instead of ice.😋

I love experimenting and just throwing things together and seeing what happens. Exploring with taste is fun. Too many people are afraid to experiment in the kitchen or even know how to cook and that's a sad thought.

Yes! Whatever soup (aka leftover soup). I do this too. All veggies, noodles, rice, meat or gravy go in mine until container is full. Never the same twice. Thank you for all the ideas.

Really enjoyed your video today !

Hi, thank you for your tips, I no longer peel my potatoes just wash really well and cook as if they were peeled, even mash is fine just have bits of skin in them but then that is just more fibre. You should never store potatoes( unless cooked ) in the fridge as they produce more starch. Please take care and stay safe.

There's a novel called "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" in which the poor Irish immigrant mother does ingenious things with scraps from all the vendors, especially with stale bread.

I can't meal plan but I can plan meals with what I have. It can be anything and I can easily create a meal out of it. I feel like sometimes this is the way to go? Like if there is a super special at the store I feel like it's worth getting that and planning meals with it instead of planning meals and looking for ingredients? It works for me.

Your accent is so nice to listen to❤

I to try to be mindful of food waste, the other day I made a vegetable soup I had my soup all week for lunch. I in the end had one last bowl of our left over soup. I had 3 potatoes left. I ended up making mash potatoes, with the vegetable soup I took the left over soup I combined the 2 and made a Shepherd's pie. The shepherds pie was so good.

I bought a dehydrator, new, but I have to say I love it, look out for a second hand one! You seem to be able to dehydrate most things!

Save potato peels for soup stock. Potato peels are good seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper and roasted in the oven until tender.

Panzanella Italian tomato bread soup is good for stale bread, mix the potato mash with leftover cooked veggies, mix an egg and flour in and bake potato patty/ cakes Rice a freeze for in a soep, or make rice porridge with it with cinnamon and milk Fruit pieces frozen for porridge or milkshake

Slow cook apples with peel and sugar can be Brown nutmeg cinnamon and water just to cover. Have this in the morning drizzled with oatmeal uncooked, pepitas walnuts flax seeds and any type of protein milk. Can be chickpea milk cashew milk or regular milk. Add a sweetener if you have a sweet tooth. Yum and really good in the morning with the coffee and vitamins. If no baked apples substitute with Frozen berries. I never cook my oatmeal I just drizzle it on whatever I'm eating and it works out wonderfully. I usually slow cook 6 plus chopped in quarters or halves apples this way and it lasts for the week.Thank you for your suggestions they resonate. All the best!!

There are just the two of us as our children are grown. I use ice cube trays to save things for future use. Just pop one or two into a dish.

A few years ago I lived in Hong Kong snd I had a maid to help with 3 little girls and no family near. She said back in her own home she could keep some pigs on what we threw out, I was so embarrassed. I stopped wasting food

Whether you're starting from scratch or some other unknown point - or - have been refining your complete use practices, I recommend taking a week or two to note what you're sending down the drain, putting through the garbage disposal, setting out for composting, or putting on the landfill garbage. List individually, group by category, or count by cause such as rotated and lost in the back of the fridge. Once you know what, you can start to seek alternatives.

With bananas, I make oat pancakes for breakfast: 50g oats, 1 medium banana, 1 medium egg, pinch of bicarbonate of soda or baking powder. Whizz them all together with a stick blender and cook them like drop scones. Bit of syrup or caramel sauce, plain yogurt, berries.

Helpful. Thanks.

We use loads of bananas in our house and never have any excess. I get strange looks in the supermarket when I buy 18 at a time! Suggestions I have for leftover banana are banana porridge, banana bread, banana pancakes and banana oat biscuits.

Hi Jane, if you roughly chop and peel the bananas they will not be so gross when you defrost them for your recipes. They can either be frozen on plate or tray in the freezer, in a freezer bag or in some foil. Please take care a d stay safe.

Hi Jane thanks for all the good ideas. I have found it best to peel bananas before I freeze them. You avoid all that muckiness when you thaw them out. I just peel, break into smaller chunks and put into a container suitable for freezers

Such a greatideo Jane, full of thrifty suggestions and ideas. I love the sound of your banana bread with the citrus peel. When I freeze my over ripe bananas I peel them first and put them in a sealed container and freeze. They never go brown. With my bread pudding I use less bread and more milk than you did as we love our puddings with a baked custard underneath the bread. Also add vanilla and sprinkle the top with nutmeg before baking. Yum...🐾🥰

Add apples or pineapple to a cabbage coleslaw. Chuck leftover green leaf salad into a soup. Gravy on a hot meat sandwich. Rice, cream and sugar for dessert, add leftover fruit.

Hi Jane, another great vlog full of great advise on food waste! Never have I seen a banana that should be thrown away... the riper the better and agreed apples can be used in many recipes that don't have to be cooking apples. I love your cranks bread pudding from a few months back too!

Just watching today's video potato peelings and carrot peeling you can put in a soup now thats very frugal. I made your cranks bread pudding a few weeks ago and it amazing 👏

My fridge is where bagged salad comes to die. I never have that problem with the Lindt 🧐

fish cakes with rice in it.

Cut up the leftover cake and bread thinly, spread with butter, bake on low oven make biscotti.

For me, a semi-organized fridge is critical to preventing food waste. I like to group condiments, dairy, meat, fruit, and veggies. But I also reserve a section or area for leftovers, cooked ingredients such as say rice which I cooked in abundance to be used, veggie scraps, etc.. I also like to pre-prep veggies and tney have a space. For 3xample if im dicing onions for one dish, I will dice enough onions at the same time for multiple dishes to come. The same for sweet peppers with some left in slices and others in dices, ce,ery, carrots, and the list goes on. Over time, ive pretty much switched over to glass food storage fir other reasons but it is handy for seeing what is in containers; much of mine will stack to a degree. I also use both canning jars and drinking glasses. I began with containers food items came in from the grocery store. I save even that Tablespoon or less from the hottommof the pot. Veggies get added here and there or become a soup/ stew/ stock/ part of a crockpot concoction. Gravies, sauces, and defatted meat juices get the same treatment. As needed due to refrigerator space, left overs are combined and then used quickly after in some sort of a soup concoction. Small amounts of left overs and prepared veggies can even be tossed in canned soup then heated with the soup.

Hi Jane, grear video as always. My mum used to make a curried rice salad with peppers and canned peaches. She used the leftover curry sauce from her Coronation chicken recipe. It was so good. Sending warm wishes. 🌻

I see brown bananas as liquid gold - it helps when peeling them! LOL. Great video. Thank you for your demonstrations.

Jane great vlog. I use all leftovers as you do and bananas are great and versatile and sweeter 😋 when brown Anna.

The ends of a loaf of bread make the best toast

Great tips thanks Jane 👍I'm definitely going to try the bread pudding recipe 😋

I used to do this ...I used to say to my kids when they were little it's called modified food...🤭 Tastes good when you really cook it in a very property way.

Potato skins and parsnip peelings can be fried in oven or actifry as crisps. Broccoli covered in cheese sauce is nice.Sage and breadcrumbs make stuffing . Must freeze bits of veg for making soup. I always batch cook or bake lots in one go as fuel is so expensive

Loved your vlog Jane but didn't get a notification again! 😪 The browner/black the banana the sweeter, and you can usually use less sugar. I don't really care for bananas and just buy them for banana bread because they're so cheap! 😁

Hello Jane, Annette Seiler, private chef here from Colorado. Great suggestion on how to use up stale bread! I am wondering if you should let the bread dry out (on afterheat in the oven after you are done baking something else) and put it in the food processor when its dry. Then I think the amount of milk the recipe calls for would be appropriate, and the finished product would be lighter and more even in its consistency. Maybe I’m wrong, but I might give that a try next time I’ve collected enough crusts. I’m going to subscribe to your channel.

Salad is one thing that if not planned for goes to waste. Another thing is milk. What I have been starting doing with milk, is to make pancake or waffel mixes, to use up the milk, pouring them into ziplock bags, or other containers if you have room in the freezer, and freeze it for use later. I started freezing milk, but it ended up in the garbage after a while, so I found that this was much more useful. The kids like waffels, and its easy to defrost and serve with a cup of coffee, if you get a visitor. I always slice the bread in the store, or at home and freeze them. I only eat wholegrain bread from the bakery (Norway). Good bread is expensive, and I love sourdough bread, like you, I toast them every morning, and make a sandwich for lunch with the frozen slices. I have just discovered the indian dish daal, a lentil soup or stew, its vegetarian, but we are not, leftover meat of every sort, especially chicken is so good mixed in. If we dont have nan bread, I will take some bread out of the freezer, have some garlic, tomatoes, avocado, peppers, onion, whatever you have got, and drizzle with olive oil, and bake them in the oven for a few minutes. 💕

Blend leftover salad with olive oil, garlic and whatever other herbs are going over and freeze - use as pesto and/or other seasoning

Thank you 😊 great video

Cool

Nice!!

Leftover rice can be made into rice pudding.

Appelsauce can be frozen

You need a silicone spatula so you cane scrape your bowl more completely.