Use It Up: Meal Planning with What You Already Have

When you come to the end of the Weetbix packet and you’re left with the remains of what was once a perfect Weetbix. The family overlook this crumbled mess as “worthy’ for their brekky bowl. But you know. There’s something you could do with it that transforms the Weetbix crumbs into something more appealing.

Thank goodness for recipes from the Seventies and Eighties – for giving us a range of recipes that uses breakfast cereals as the base for a slice! My food memories include the basic Weetbix slice and the very special one that was topped with homemade marshmallow! I can’t find the original recipe, but here’s a modern day version…

Use It Up: Meal Planning with What You Already Have

Homemade Weetbix slice using the Sanitarium brand recipe

Using up and even maximising what food has to offer is a great way to save it from being wasted. Weetbix crumbs may seem an insignificant food item to throw away, but it adds up with all the other food you may throw away. Once you start delving into your pantry, fridge and freezer, you’ll find more than just empty Weetbix packets ready to be eaten.

You may be surprised to see more food than thought, thanks to reasons like:

it was on special,
falling into the trap of bulk purchasing,
buying that one special ingredient for that one recipe which you haven’t used since
thinking you needed it, brought it home to find you already have enough. I’m looking at you tins of Creamed Corn.

Fresh food also has the potential to become unused food and head for the bin, like:

the white inner stems of a celery bunch,
apples that have lost their crunch.
squishy tomatoes and just-past-the-best-stage bananas, or
making a quiche that needs 4 egg yolks…now you have 4 egg whites leftover. At an average of $2.90 for 4 eggs (as of June 2025), the cost and the waste adds up!

The National Food Waste Strategy gives some pretty hard hitting statistics – food waste costs to households in Australia vary from $2200 – $3800 each year.

Start with a Fridge & Pantry Declutter

Meal planning is an excellent way to ensure the food in your household is used and enjoyed by all. Using up food you already have is the first step to a less food-wasted and money-wasted household.

Start by “decluttering” your pantry, fridge and freezer. Look for foods you haven’t used in a while, you’ve just discovered or are teetering on the edge of freshness. Use these as the basis for your meal plan.

Meal Ideas to Use it Up

Here are a couple of ideas to get you into the groove for finding alternatives to throwing food away…

The Tomato Lentil Soup used up four of my ingredients that were either at the end of their shelf life, such as celery and bacon, or were in the cupboard for a while, such as french lentils and a packet of french onion soup.
My fave Stephanie Alexander quiche (recipe found in The Cook’s Companion #affiliate) needs 4 eggs yolks. Left with the egg whites, I learned a number of years ago that a good pavlova needs 4 egg whites! As the oven is already on, I whip up the Stephanie Alexander pavlova using the remaining egg whites from the quiche. It feels special that we have a dinner and a dessert.
Cooking a roast chicken (or buying a BBQ chook) for dinner, followed by popping the carcass with a few other use-it-up veggies in a boiler to make homemade chicken stock. Perfect for portion freezing or using in the following nights’ meal.

Recipes for Low Waste Cooking Ideas

My homemade pavlova using 4 leftover egg whites

There’s no need to own a stack of cookbooks or go down the rabbit hole of an internet search. Too many recipe books becomes overwhelming and you’ll spend too much time searching.

Instead, find a recipe book that works for your style of cooking. My fave is Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion (#affiliate) because it’s Australian and recipes are categorised by main ingredient. Other Australian cookbook authors for the everyday cook include Donna Hay (#affiliate), Nagi Maehashi (#affiliate) as well books such as Use it All: The Cornersmith Guide to a Sustainable Kitchen (#affiliate). These can be borrowed from your local library, or purchased through my Australian affiliate #qbdbooks.

There’s a plethora of internet-based recipes. To simplify your search, be specific about the ingredient you need to use up and how you’d like to use it, eg “dinner meals using celery” or “desserts using lots of apples”, or “recipes for 4 leftover egg yolks”, or even “what can you make with canned salmon”. Oz Harvest has a trove of Use It Up recipes…

As you become more familiar with recipes and discover what works, your favourite recipe collection will take shape.

Collaborative effort

Reducing food waste is a team effort — involving producers, supermarkets, government, and us at home, because we’re just one piece of the food waste puzzle. Encouragingly, three-quarters of Australians are keen to do their part. Something as simple as using up your Weetbix crumbs isn’t just about frugality. It’s a reassuring reminder that you’re not alone and every effort contributes to a much bigger picture.