Ask Lemmy

I don't know if this is the type of thing you were asking, but it's one I've been using about once a week lately.

I was listening to How I Built This with Guy Raz, and he had on a lady that wanted to eliminate food waste. She started the app Too Good To Go.

Partner businesses will pack up about $15 of food at the end of the shift, and instead of tossing it, they put it in a to go box for you for $5.

Tonight we had jerk chicken and sides from a Caribbean place, another time we got 4 big pizza slices overloaded with toppings, and our favorite is the Manhattan Bagels gives us 15-17 bagels. We've also tried a vegan bakery, which is way too expensive for us, but for my girlfriend's nephew with a severe egg allergy was a great surprise.

These are all places we wouldn't normally go, but they've all been really tasty, helped eliminate some waste, and let us try some new restaurants for a fiver. We're kinda in the country, so there aren't too many options, but I looked in the nearby city and there are a lot, and the app started in Europe, so you non-US people don't have to miss out.

So maybe not the super cheap lentil curry recipe I have, but this was an intriguing things I recently learned about and have been looking to share awareness about.

Even if you don't have much cash, it still feels nice to be able to get restaurant food sometimes too, and this is a cheap and mutually beneficial way to do that.

Meal planning carefully to take advantage of sales, buy in bulk when possible, and eliminate food waste. I have my meals planned out through the end of January and I do this every month. The money I spend on groceries has halved since I started using this approach.

When you order pizza, ask for extra sauce, not cheese. They typically don't charge for that but often include extra toppings to make the pizza look "normal"

Instant pot. Throw your leftovers or whatever into it and press the button. Cook beans from dry to tender in less than an hour. Dump bag of Trader Joe frozen kung pao chicken (all the little inner bags of ingredients) and cook for 4 minutes, etc. Better than a microwave, really. You can actually cook stuff in it.

Easy (relatively) chowder with random veg, protein and cheese

The only specific ingredients are onions, garlic, spices, heavy cream and at least some cheddar.

Before starting salt all of your veg. This is so they are INTERNALLY seasoned, otherwise you'll have salty soup and bland veg.

Saute your onions (with any other hardy vegetables) and butter can be used if feeling indulgent. Salt as you saute

Once slightly tender add and cook a couple tablespoons of flour (depends on quantity of soup and desired thickness)

Add whatever stock or bullion on hand (I use home made with bones and veg scraps). You could also use plain water if really starving and desperate though.

Once the soup is boiling add a ton of (salted) minced garlic, FRESH CRACKED black pepper, rosemary, thyme, smoked paprika and a couple pinches of mustard powder. These can be fresh or dry, but I do like fresh garlic and fresh cracked pepper (many of the flavors and compounds are highly volatile and will literally float away if stored post cracking). Also be generous with your spices, makes it way tastier.

Add your veg. It can really be anything from broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, corn, peas, carrots, mushrooms zucchini, celery, cabbage (not too much), bell peppers, etc. experiment and go nuts.

When pot is hot again add your protein, nothing specific. I've used ham, pork, ground beef, ground turkey, deli meat that was gonna go bad, breakfast sausages, Italian sausages, chicken breast and thighs and even tilapia. Make sure to salt them for 15 mins before adding.

When your proteins are not raw and almost cooked add heavy cream (if you don't have much you can also add some milk, you can also freeze milk, let it melt and drip into a container, when halfway melted remove the frozen milk and whatever is collected is highly concentrated because all of the fats in the milk melt much faster than water)

When soup is reduced to desired amount turn off the heat and let it cool to a light simmer. Add your cheese and stir thoroughly. If soup is too hot your cheese will cook and clump up in nasty globs and will not thicken your soup either.