Crazy Days Challenge - Day Fourteen - It's Almost a Duty

I've always been good with not wasting food, making the most out of what I buy, grow or forage.  In these crazy days I have upgraded that to it's almost a duty not to waste food,  a duty I for one take very seriously.

With this in mind I am at the moment working through the contents of the fridge very methodically.  

You'll have seen from the top photo that some of the foods that are in there at the moment are out of date, but they are the ones that are the least out of date  out of all the things I tipped out of the salad and vegetable drawers yesterday.

I went through everything very carefully, from the lettuce you saw me prepare for storage on yesterdays post to the very old spring onions that I had totally forgotten all about.  All the things in the best condition, the things in the top photo, were laid out flat in the bottom of the drawer so that I don't miss them in the next few days, and so that they are easy to see at a glance if I pull out the drawer.

The not so good and oldest, in this case half a white cabbage, two spring onions and couple of slightly bendy carrots were earmarked to be used up straight away and I planned our tea around them

Just a nice simple homemade Coleslaw.  

Using around half of the cabbage, both the spring onions, which revived nicely after a soak in some cold water, the carrots grated up and an added sliced red onion.  I added a big dollop of vegan mayo and some seasoning just before serving it up.

Both portions were sprinkled with a smattering of salted mixed nuts for some added flavour and crunch.  Alan had his coleslaw with a couple of small chicken breasts and I had some Fishless Goujons from the Linda McCartney range.  

The bottom drawer of the fridge one that usually contains onions, apples and any large things like cabbages or melons was sorted through next.

I had totally forgotten that I had put some tomatoes, celery and beetroot in there too.

I had two packs each of red and white onions, one of each brought back from the Van with me, so I tipped them all out and checked each onion carefully, rubbing off loose skin and checking for firmness.  The best were put back into two bags one for each colour and the rest kept ready for use the next day.  One of my packs of celery was fine, and one was looking very sad, but both packs of vacuum packed beetroot were fine and went straight back in.

Now with the drawer washed out and refilled carefully in a single layer,  I can see exactly what I have to use over the next week or so.

The things that needed using first from the bottom drawer.

The only bits that went into the little compost bucket on the windowsill were these trimmings from the celery.  Usually even these would have been added to the 'soup bag' in the freezer, but these were too far gone for even that ... and chickens don't like celery!!

The slightly bendy celery had a nice long soak in some ice cold water and most of it perked up nicely.  

The still wilt-y bits and the leaves then went into my freezer soup bag and the rest was sliced in half, wrapped in some kitchen paper and then put into a Stayfresh bag and back into the top fridge drawer ready for use over the next couple of days.

I now have the satisfaction of knowing that all of the vegetables and fruit in my two fridge drawers is checked and ready for use and nothing will be wasted.

Sue xx