A wee look inside my fridge and freezers and what's in them with Luna 'helping' me! This video is unedited because ClipChamp isn't letting me upload for free any more
Thank you for the tour. Our chihuahua would help, too, by standing around under foot until we acknowledged her and gave her a treat! We should all be so curious, i guess. I’m visiting a son where one store sells mostly fruit and veg. Every day, they go through and cull the ‘bad’ ones and throw them in a large box. Then, they sell these large boxes for pennie’s on the dollar. I got a box of apples, tomatoes and potatoes. I bought some canning jars and canned up applesauce and tomato sauce. The potatoes are going home with me where i’ll pressure can some and eat the rest fresh. Such a bounty!
Good morning and greetings from South Africa. I'm a widowed pensioner living with just my cat. I have much the same as you in my fridge/freezer but l couldn't go without my mini- pizza's for when l feel peckish and in need of a quick snack. I'm off to take a friend shopping for her weekly provisions - she doesn't drive and after a few nasty falls is so slow that she can't use the transport provided by our retirement village. Have a good day.
Am nowhere near as organised as you, Ali, but one thing I have done for years is boil up a whole bag of potatoes as soon as I get them. They keep well in the fridge and we have no waste (only two of us). I have given up buying lettuce for us, I find small quantities of rucola etc. better. Your down to earth approach and open heart make me homesick, have lived abroad for years - keep up the good work!
Hi Ali, just a tip for your allotment. If you plant perennials you will have much less work to do and lots of rewards. Such as fruit trees and bushes, herbs. I love gardening but I can go weeks not doing anything and atm I am in full supply of figs apples strawberries raspberries and thornless blackberries, so loads of my own fresh organic fruits that can cost a small fortune in the shops. Mainly use the garden for gathering some sun 😅 free fruit and sun 🌞 such fun!
Great video Ali. Very timely too as I'm up to my eyes in processing a load of eating apples which we foraged yesterday, around 100 apples, so massive bowls of lemon juice in water as I'm chopping and peeling to drop the apples into. Some will be frozen for crumbles, and for adding to pork casseroles in the slow cooker to make a Normandy Pork type dish. Some will be dehydrated too, and the very good unblemished ones wrapped in paper and stored in a box in a cool place for a while. Also making apple sauce which i freeze in ice cube trays, then bag up and take out what i need for different meals. Nature's bounty, free and delicious!
I had to chuckle when I read your apron with the saying, "Every food you make I'll be watching you"....and then, right on cue, Luna steps into frame and starts watching you go through the food in your freezer!
Thanks for sharing this. My inspiration takeaway for today is to go through my freezer and sort out the contents so that I can maximise space to put away extra portions of things for later. It's not too bad - I always start my food planning for the week with an audit of what I already have and factor that into the menu - but there are one or two things that are just taking up space. I might just get around to eating the remains of a tub of icecream that has been hanging around for months - with some stewed fruit ditto. The terrible things we have to do! 😆
I love to make pear sauce when pears are in season and then freeze in freezer bags. It’s delicious thawed in the winter as a dessert or over my oatmeal for breakfast.🇨🇦
If the apples are in good condition you can wrap them in paper and store in single layers in a cool dry place. They will last for weeks. I use to have an apple tree and cod be using our own apples for about 4 months by checking them and using any starting to determinate any damaged ones were cooked and frozen or used. My husband loved a fruit crumble and custard so they made a cheap dessert for most main meals.
Love your channel Ali and like you, I hate waste and if I can use things up in a different way then I will. I recently had some milk on the turn so made cream cheese, made mushroom pate from mushrooms that had seen better days. I also took half a pot of double cream that was beginning to sour and made butter. And finally made grape jam out of grapes that were showing signs of deterioration, then discovered that some retailers are charging around £3 for a small jar of grape jam as though it was a specialty jam! I felt so happy to give these four things a new life and be frugal at the same time 😁
Good to see how you store and preserve your food. It’s pointless putting your energy into keeping the food budget low if you them waste the food you have.
Hello Ali, I’ve realised I used to follow your blog over the years, loved the tartan makes! Great idea to make fruit compotes, I must do the same for using with porridge and Greek yogurts. Like you I am trying to avoid upf‘s where I can. Thank you for taking the time to show us your food store, I need to use up stuff 👍
This is coming from a place of love I have so little to live off and have been given so much helpful advice so hope you find this helpful freezer should be plugged in away from heat sources (your patio) put newspaper Scrooge up in open space so you are not freezing air which can add to the problem of freezer burn all the above costs you pennies extra to run your freezer but doing the tips I had been told saves you pennies but still better in my pocket hope this is helpful I do enjoy your videos take care
I meant to say this last time - belated Happy Birthday! You must have had one recently. This video flowed pretty well withouth the editing. We just cleared out our freezer last weekend due to our upcoming trip - we have a bottom freezer, but just one very deep drawer and a smaller drawer inside that. It's so very difficult to keep organized, but now it's a bit emptier we'll try our best. Love the freezer full of fruit compotes!
Hi Ali, I love to see a good freezer/fridge/pantry tour! Great to see how well you manage to save, process and use all your food. You are very organised. I have a very overstuffed fridge at the moment but am expecting visitors for the weekend, so after that, will give it a good clear out. My freezer always has allotment fruit and veg, plus precooked meals, where I cooked double and froze the extra. I have a store of click lid plastic boxes for meals, they are washed and reused. I even wash out plastic freezer bags and reuse them. There’s a line of seven of them sitting on my windowsill drying off right now! I’m so mean! 😂
You've got the same set up as me, a large fridge freezer and a small under counter freezer. I use the small one for my plum harvest as I get a lot of fruit on my small tree. That fills up one drawer. I also have batches of mixed roast veg like courgettes peppers onions and aubergines that I did a tray full of and can just pull out and reheat to have with chicken, halloumi etc. And excess batch meals I've made like curries, chilli, casseroles. I ususally eat my soups over a few days but I should try freezing them in batches too so I can mix up the variety.
Another interesting video Ali, great to see how you manage to eat unprocessed food on a budget. Trying to do this for my family, it takes a lot of time and effort but definitely worth it! Keep posting your videos, love your channel😊!
Thanks! It's possible but yes it does take time and effort. I try to do something every day whether it's baking/cooking something in batches or processing something in the fridge to put in the freezer so I don't waste it 🙂
@@aliliveswellonless thanks for your reply. I'm currently making a blackberry and apple crumble (from foraged and gifted fruit!) and after reading your reply have decided to make two, one for the freezer and one for today! That will save the effort another day when I don't have time! Thanks Ali 😊
@@elizabethwilson1357 I make large quantities of crumble mix in my food processor and bag it up into useable amounts, which I store in the freezer. Then I just pop it on top of whatever fruit when I need it. Great to always have a pud on hand.
Thank you Ali for your videos, I find them very useful. I’m the same age as you and work p/t. Unfortunately my biggest expense goes on my four fussy cats!
I’ve just frozen loads of apple and pear purée which came from my 2 little trees. It will be added to my Greek yoghurt or porridge and will last me a year.
Im really enjoying these videos. My food budget has got really out of hand and to be honest i need to cut it down. I think i can avoid some waste by freezing more. We are a family of 4 and a dog.
I don’t know if you’re subscribed to Sean James Cameron here on TH-cam, he has an allotment too. He lives in Wales. You seem very organised with your freezer. I have a chest freezer and everything just gets piled on top and you forget what is at the bottom. Every so often (probably once a year if I’m being honest) I go through it and have a sort out.
Your fridge looks very organised. I’m the same but still have the odd waste which I really don’t like. I listen to the BBC The Food Programme podcast regularly and recently they had a good episode on food waste and it made me think of fridge organisation and they had an interesting tip on how to avoid waste. You just have to figure out which part of your fridge is the one you tend to ignore. It’s interesting. I am now thinking how to use the bottom drawer more efficiently as it’s the one that I need to keep an eye on.
That sounds interesting. I'd say the one thing I waste is lettuce, in the bottom drawer. I don't buy it any more but I've had a few in recent Lidl boxes that rotted before I could eat it all!
Do you like mincepies? If you do you could make mincemeat with equal quantities of cooked apples and mixed dried fruit and spices. Happy to send a recipe
Like wise my integrated fridge freezer I got when I bought my house. I checked the freezer by freezing a loaf before filling the freezer the day before I moved in and on moving. On moving day I arrived to find a pool in the kitchen floor and a load of semi defrosted food. Because the food was already frozen when it went in I didn’t loose the contents that goodness.Luckly I had given my large chest freezer to my brother so he rushed everything to his house and back into the freezer it had come out of. 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Hi Ali, you make me feel so ashamed at the amount of food we throwaway bread and bananas are the most prominent ones that come to mind. I don’t eat a lot of bread but my son keeps on buying a small loaf every week for me sometimes I make a bread and butter pudding but most times we throw the old loaf away. We must start freezing it like we used to. Love your videos.❤️❤️
Hi Ali. Thanks for the useful video. I too am living on a similar Teachers Pension amount but in Greece. I was wondering if you could share your recipe for iced tea. Thanks
Not dairy free but I don't use milk in tea or coffee so don't keep any unless I know I'll need it. I have dried milk in my store cupboard which is what I use to make sauces.
It would be good to see a trip to lidl and the veg boxes in plus other in store bargains that you can recommend. Are the veg boxes only available in Scotland or nationwide. I'm in Carlisle and can't say I've heard of them. Thanks ☺️
Thank you, very interesting, I would love to hear about your sourdough experiences, everything else I’ve watched assumes you have a family and bake almost daily, how do you do it?
They are the Sistema mugs, you can get them in most supermarkets. Lakeland have them but they're cheaper elsewhere. I've had mine for years so they're worth the investment. I used to take a mug for my lunch at school every day in Winter :-)
Thank you for the tour. Our chihuahua would help, too, by standing around under foot until we acknowledged her and gave her a treat! We should all be so curious, i guess.
I’m visiting a son where one store sells mostly fruit and veg. Every day, they go through and cull the ‘bad’ ones and throw them in a large box. Then, they sell these large boxes for pennie’s on the dollar. I got a box of apples, tomatoes and potatoes. I bought some canning jars and canned up applesauce and tomato sauce. The potatoes are going home with me where i’ll pressure can some and eat the rest fresh. Such a bounty!
Love the idea of freezing compotes of fresh fruit. I also realised how badly my fridge and freezer need a good clear out. Thanks for sharing!
Good morning and greetings from South Africa. I'm a widowed pensioner living with just my cat. I have much the same as you in my fridge/freezer but l couldn't go without my mini- pizza's for when l feel peckish and in need of a quick snack. I'm off to take a friend shopping for her weekly provisions - she doesn't drive and after a few nasty falls is so slow that she can't use the transport provided by our retirement village. Have a good day.
Am nowhere near as organised as you, Ali, but one thing I have done for years is boil up a whole bag of potatoes as soon as I get them. They keep well in the fridge and we have no waste (only two of us). I have given up buying lettuce for us, I find small quantities of rucola etc. better. Your down to earth approach and open heart make me homesick, have lived abroad for years - keep up the good work!
James Greave apples are absolutely delicious, you are so lucky. Thank you for another great video. ❤
luna checking the food supplies out with you🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hi Ali, just a tip for your allotment. If you plant perennials you will have much less work to do and lots of rewards. Such as fruit trees and bushes, herbs. I love gardening but I can go weeks not doing anything and atm I am in full supply of figs apples strawberries raspberries and thornless blackberries, so loads of my own fresh organic fruits that can cost a small fortune in the shops. Mainly use the garden for gathering some sun 😅 free fruit and sun 🌞 such fun!
Great video Ali. Very timely too as I'm up to my eyes in processing a load of eating apples which we foraged yesterday, around 100 apples, so massive bowls of lemon juice in water as I'm chopping and peeling to drop the apples into. Some will be frozen for crumbles, and for adding to pork casseroles in the slow cooker to make a Normandy Pork type dish. Some will be dehydrated too, and the very good unblemished ones wrapped in paper and stored in a box in a cool place for a while. Also making apple sauce which i freeze in ice cube trays, then bag up and take out what i need for different meals. Nature's bounty, free and delicious!
I had to chuckle when I read your apron with the saying, "Every food you make I'll be watching you"....and then, right on cue, Luna steps into frame and starts watching you go through the food in your freezer!
Thanks for sharing this. My inspiration takeaway for today is to go through my freezer and sort out the contents so that I can maximise space to put away extra portions of things for later. It's not too bad - I always start my food planning for the week with an audit of what I already have and factor that into the menu - but there are one or two things that are just taking up space. I might just get around to eating the remains of a tub of icecream that has been hanging around for months - with some stewed fruit ditto. The terrible things we have to do! 😆
Greetings from Ireland, love your videos and look forward to lots more of them. Your Chanel will grow and grow.
I love to make pear sauce when pears are in season and then freeze in freezer bags. It’s delicious thawed in the winter as a dessert or over my oatmeal for breakfast.🇨🇦
Like that idea of cutting the baked potato into wedges for later use 👍
I do that all the time I cook the baked potatoes as normal,then slice into wedges and do them in my airfryer
Excellent video. It would be good to see how you organise and rotate the produce. It’s easy to forget what needs using. ❤
Your freezers are so much neater than mine! You are so organised you put me to shame 😮
Angie 👍
If the apples are in good condition you can wrap them in paper and store in single layers in a cool dry place. They will last for weeks. I use to have an apple tree and cod be using our own apples for about 4 months by checking them and using any starting to determinate any damaged ones were cooked and frozen or used. My husband loved a fruit crumble and custard so they made a cheap dessert for most main meals.
Love your channel Ali and like you, I hate waste and if I can use things up in a different way then I will. I recently had some milk on the turn so made cream cheese, made mushroom pate from mushrooms that had seen better days. I also took half a pot of double cream that was beginning to sour and made butter. And finally made grape jam out of grapes that were showing signs of deterioration, then discovered that some retailers are charging around £3 for a small jar of grape jam as though it was a specialty jam! I felt so happy to give these four things a new life and be frugal at the same time 😁
Brilliant!!! I love using up up stuff and turning it into frugal gourmet food :-)
Good to see how you store and preserve your food. It’s pointless putting your energy into keeping the food budget low if you them waste the food you have.
Such a clear video. Thanks Ali.
Thanks for your video. I like how organised you are with your food.
Hello Ali, I’ve realised I used to follow your blog over the years, loved the tartan makes! Great idea to make fruit compotes, I must do the same for using with porridge and Greek yogurts. Like you I am trying to avoid upf‘s where I can. Thank you for taking the time to show us your food store, I need to use up stuff 👍
Thanks Ali brilliant video ,lots of good ideas
This is coming from a place of love I have so little to live off and have been given so much helpful advice so hope you find this helpful freezer should be plugged in away from heat sources (your patio) put newspaper Scrooge up in open space so you are not freezing air which can add to the problem of freezer burn all the above costs you pennies extra to run your freezer but doing the tips I had been told saves you pennies but still better in my pocket hope this is helpful I do enjoy your videos take care
I meant to say this last time - belated Happy Birthday! You must have had one recently.
This video flowed pretty well withouth the editing.
We just cleared out our freezer last weekend due to our upcoming trip - we have a bottom freezer, but just one very deep drawer and a smaller drawer inside that. It's so very difficult to keep organized, but now it's a bit emptier we'll try our best.
Love the freezer full of fruit compotes!
Smashing learning a lot from you 👍❤️
Hi Ali, I love to see a good freezer/fridge/pantry tour! Great to see how well you manage to save, process and use all your food. You are very organised. I have a very overstuffed fridge at the moment but am expecting visitors for the weekend, so after that, will give it a good clear out.
My freezer always has allotment fruit and veg, plus precooked meals, where I cooked double and froze the extra. I have a store of click lid plastic boxes for meals, they are washed and reused. I even wash out plastic freezer bags and reuse them. There’s a line of seven of them sitting on my windowsill drying off right now! I’m so mean! 😂
No it's not mean, it's sensible! I've currently got 2 drying off in the dishes rack!!
You've got the same set up as me, a large fridge freezer and a small under counter freezer. I use the small one for my plum harvest as I get a lot of fruit on my small tree. That fills up one drawer. I also have batches of mixed roast veg like courgettes peppers onions and aubergines that I did a tray full of and can just pull out and reheat to have with chicken, halloumi etc. And excess batch meals I've made like curries, chilli, casseroles. I ususally eat my soups over a few days but I should try freezing them in batches too so I can mix up the variety.
Yeah it can be hard having the same kind of soup every day. I've currently got 3 types in the freezer to mix it up!
Another interesting video Ali, great to see how you manage to eat unprocessed food on a budget. Trying to do this for my family, it takes a lot of time and effort but definitely worth it! Keep posting your videos, love your channel😊!
Thanks! It's possible but yes it does take time and effort. I try to do something every day whether it's baking/cooking something in batches or processing something in the fridge to put in the freezer so I don't waste it 🙂
@@aliliveswellonless thanks for your reply. I'm currently making a blackberry and apple crumble (from foraged and gifted fruit!) and after reading your reply have decided to make two, one for the freezer and one for today! That will save the effort another day when I don't have time! Thanks Ali 😊
@@elizabethwilson1357 You're very welcome! 🙂
@@elizabethwilson1357 I make large quantities of crumble mix in my food processor and bag it up into useable amounts, which I store in the freezer. Then I just pop it on top of whatever fruit when I need it. Great to always have a pud on hand.
Thank you Ali for your videos, I find them very useful. I’m the same age as you and work p/t. Unfortunately my biggest expense goes on my four fussy cats!
Thank you Ali 😊🌟
I’ve just frozen loads of apple and pear purée which came from my 2 little trees. It will be added to my Greek yoghurt or porridge and will last me a year.
I would love for you to show us how you make your Sourdough bread.
Very helpful thank you 🙂
Im really enjoying these videos. My food budget has got really out of hand and to be honest i need to cut it down. I think i can avoid some waste by freezing more. We are a family of 4 and a dog.
I don’t know if you’re subscribed to Sean James Cameron here on TH-cam, he has an allotment too. He lives in Wales. You seem very organised with your freezer. I have a chest freezer and everything just gets piled on top and you forget what is at the bottom. Every so often (probably once a year if I’m being honest) I go through it and have a sort out.
I’m trying to reduce processed food in my diet too . I’m having a go at making soda bread this weekend.
Add sultanas to your soda...its my favourite
Cider vinegar! Now there's something for me to try and make!
Your fridge looks very organised. I’m the same but still have the odd waste which I really don’t like. I listen to the BBC The Food Programme podcast regularly and recently they had a good episode on food waste and it made me think of fridge organisation and they had an interesting tip on how to avoid waste. You just have to figure out which part of your fridge is the one you tend to ignore. It’s interesting. I am now thinking how to use the bottom drawer more efficiently as it’s the one that I need to keep an eye on.
That sounds interesting. I'd say the one thing I waste is lettuce, in the bottom drawer. I don't buy it any more but I've had a few in recent Lidl boxes that rotted before I could eat it all!
@@aliliveswellonlessif I’ve got lettuce I haven’t used to stop it being thrown away I will just chop it and add it to a pan when making soup. Heather
@@aliliveswellonlessisn’t there a thing that if you eat lettuce it gives you a natural high? 🤪🤭
Do you like mincepies? If you do you could make mincemeat with equal quantities of cooked apples and mixed dried fruit and spices. Happy to send a recipe
Ooo I forgot I could do that!! Thanks for the reminder :-)
Like wise my integrated fridge freezer I got when I bought my house. I checked the freezer by freezing a loaf before filling the freezer the day before I moved in and on moving. On moving day I arrived to find a pool in the kitchen floor and a load of semi defrosted food. Because the food was already frozen when it went in I didn’t loose the contents that goodness.Luckly I had given my large chest freezer to my brother so he rushed everything to his house and back into the freezer it had come out of. 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Hi Ali, you make me feel so ashamed at the amount of food we throwaway bread and bananas are the most prominent ones that come to mind. I don’t eat a lot of bread but my son keeps on buying a small loaf every week for me sometimes I make a bread and butter pudding but most times we throw the old loaf away. We must start freezing it like we used to. Love your videos.❤️❤️
Bananas can be frozen. Just mash them up first. They're best used for baking as they're a bit watery :-)
Hi Ali. Thanks for the useful video. I too am living on a similar Teachers Pension amount but in Greece. I was wondering if you could share your recipe for iced tea. Thanks
You need to take the lid of to make vinegar just put a cloth over it x
Yes I have it covered with a cloth and wrapped up on the counter. I just had it closed for the video and because Luna was near it! :-)
Great video. I noticed there was no milk in your fridge are you dairy free apart from the yoghurt and butter?
Not dairy free but I don't use milk in tea or coffee so don't keep any unless I know I'll need it. I have dried milk in my store cupboard which is what I use to make sauces.
Do you check the peanut butter before giving it to the dog. A lot of it contains Xylitol as a sweetener which is very toxic to dogs
It would be good to see a trip to lidl and the veg boxes in plus other in store bargains that you can recommend. Are the veg boxes only available in Scotland or nationwide. I'm in Carlisle and can't say I've heard of them. Thanks ☺️
They should be nationwide. Maybe ask in your local one?
my fridge is empty except for eggs cheese and mabye a bit of cold meat.and sandwhich spead.
Thank you, very interesting, I would love to hear about your sourdough experiences, everything else I’ve watched assumes you have a family and bake almost daily, how do you do it?
I bake one loaf a week, slice it and freeze it on the day I bake it. Then I just pull out slices as I need them :-)
@@aliliveswellonless Thank you 😊
I am an American and I love my ice. Do you ever use ice? I didn’t notice any ice or trays. . . .
I'm not keen on ice but I do have ice trays to make ice cubes if I want. Brits tend not to buy the bags of ice unless we're having a party! :-)
Where did you get those soup mugs?
They are the Sistema mugs, you can get them in most supermarkets. Lakeland have them but they're cheaper elsewhere. I've had mine for years so they're worth the investment. I used to take a mug for my lunch at school every day in Winter :-)