Hi there,
I’m just about to start the BSD and going through the recipes and following the 4 week diet sample. I’m writing out a grocery list but I find that you only need a little of a lot of ingredients …… so what happens to the rest of it. eg. 1 slice of cheddar but cheese is not used for the rest of the week. Plus there’s not page number for each recipe.
Is anyone else following the sample 4 week diet and have come across food wastage and how did you combat this?
Other than that the food sounds delicious but I just don’t want to waste anything……that would add up to quite expensive.

Hi Annie
I hear what you are saying! I hate waste too, plus with food prices always going up you really can’t afford to waste food nowadays!
Here’s a couple of things that I’ve found useful:
Firstly, the no page numbers on the menu plan – I went through and added them in, I just wrote with a pencil (I don’t like writing in books usually!)
– if a recipe is for 4, and I’m just making it for myself, then I either freeze the other portions or just make half the quantity and have the same meal again in the next few days.
– left over veg, at the end of the week I make soup with whatever is left over and freeze that in portion sizes. It’s great for a quick lunch or to take to work. Left over veg is also good in omelettes or egg muffins. Some veg is nice roasted and used in salads (pumpkin, mushroom, beetroot, capsicum etc).
– I repeat meals, instead of following the menu plan in the book exactly. So breakfast this morning for example is egg and bacon muffins. I’ll have those for breakfast again on Wednesday, instead of the breakfast on the plan. Same with tonight’s chicken and lentils, I’ll hwve it again tomorrow night, but I also could have it for lunch tomorrow or dinner Wednesday night as it’s fine to keep in the fridge for a few days.
– sometimes I swap meals around, depending on ingredients. I made some hummus yesterday which used 1/2 can chickpeas. I could freeze the other 1/2’of the can and use it in another recipe, or some soup, or I may find another recipe in the book that uses chickpeas and replace one of the meals in the menu plan with that.
– with herbs, I often just use dried ones instead of fresh. I did find a whole variety of herbs reduced to clear at the supermarket a few days ago, so I chopped them up and froze them –
The freezer really is your friend!
– as for your example with the cheddar, I’m pretty sure cheese freezes well. If I’m ever not sure about freezing, I just google it. If a recipe calls for a specific cheese (gruyere for example), and I only have cheddar in the fridge I’ll just use that. You could also buy it from the deli counter at the supermarket as you can buy it by weight (so just buy 50g or 100g or whatever), Same with ham and other cold meats.
– I haven’t done this one myself, but read about it yesterday. With vegetable scraps (tops of celery, onion skins etc) and left over odd bits of veg), you can keep a large zip lock bag in the freezer and just pop them in. Then when the bag is fulll, use the frozen scraps to make vegetable stock (just cook in slow cooker with water for 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high). This stock can then be used as a soup base or in recipes that calls for stock.
Hope this helps 🙂

Hi SueBlue,
Thank you so much for your detailed ideas to help me through the diet. I really appreciate your help and it’s helped me to go forward with the diet.
Thanks again. xx

No worries, it’s a pleasure to help Annie 🙂 you’ll find we’re a helpful, supportive bunch on here, happy to share our experiences, so please ask away if you do have any more questions.
One more tip, you may find it helpful to join one of the challenge threads on here, there’s Kazzee’s road trip to Easter, and some weekly ones as well.
All the best with your journey 🙂

Fantastic SueBlue…..will do. xx