A Clean Fridge and A Free Meal

I've been playing a game called Go Grocery Shopping In Your Own House. Give it a go and see what happens. These little beauties (and tasties) are what happened the last time I went grocery shopping in my own kitchen.

The rules I've invented for this game go like this: 

Take everything out of the fridge and put it on the bench or table. If you've got a small kitchen, do it shelf by shelf, but if you've got a big one, empty the whole fridge. (Go on, it's empowering!) Make sure you've got a rubbish bag handy.

One-by-one, inspect the fridge dwellers, and sort into groups.

TOSS health hazards, past use-by date, unidentifiable, or things that are just never going to be eaten. That gets rid of the embarrassing part.

RETURN to the fridge food that's still nice and fresh, your lovely bottles of sauce and jars of pickles, bottles of beer and mineral water, and your other fridge staples. Now your fridge will look delightful. Enjoy the lovely view, then shut the door.

SCRUTINIZE what's left. Not bad enough to toss, not good enough to hang on to. Here's what was in my pile:

• 2 egg whites
• 4 boiled potatoes
• a wilted green onion
• an old  stub of pecorino or parmesan
• half a red onion
• a piece of red pepper
• half a bag of bacon bits
• an almost empty tub of creme fraiche
• expired-yesterday milk
• 3 chunks of stale bread

The fun now is to make something out of this stuff, because it's not going back in the fridge, and if you don't use it today, you're going to waste it. It very nearly became a frittata.

Here's one I made a few weeks ago, after another fridge clean out.

But I didn't feel like frittata again. I decided to scrounge around in the freezer for some more inspiration, found some pastry sheets that were looking a bit tatty, and that lead to a vision of a cluster of little hot savouries piled on a lovely big green salad. Yum.

So, just... 

Roll out the pastry a la Portuguese custard tarts
Make the filling Here's a basic recipe for frittata, which makes a good filling.
Dot or crumble cheese on top and bake for about 20 mins at 220.

Done, except for those chunks of stale bread. Ripped up and mixed with some juicy tomatoes, a big glug of olive oil, a sprinkle of red wine vinegar and a handful of parsley and basil, it becomes panzanella.

There are a lot of different recipes for panzanella, some with toasted bread, some with bread soaked in water, and I'm sure they're all good. But I really like the kind you can make in a couple of minutes.

So that's how to play Go Grocery Shopping In Your Own House, a game of busting waste, saving money, and getting that clean fridge glow. If you're inspired, have a go, and let me know what you make.