Reheating porrage – zero waste food gone too far?

Filed in Blog by on May 28, 2009 14 Comments
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porridge

You can reheat porrage to prevent food waste!

Wahee – on to day four without so much as a wilting salad leaf to be found.

And guess what I discovered – you can reheat porrage LOL!

Oh my, it took a leap of faith I can tell you, but then I thought – what difference is porrage to rice pudding. Except oats vs rice of course. Essentially it’s the same idea though – grains floating about in a bit of milk and chucked in a bowl.

How to reheat porridge

You see yesterday I made rather a ‘Daddy Bear’ saucepan full of porrage. I overestimated appetites (such is the way with a child in the house) and we had leftovers. Shock!

We’re not doing left overs this week, so I covered the offending dish and popped it in the fridge to contemplate its fate.

This morning it had set like concrete, but I just bashed it about with a fork to break up the lumps, tossed some more milk in and reheated it gently. I kept stirring and voila – perfect porrage.

I said nothing to Goldilocks and my one bear, but they ate it without complaint.

Using leftovers

So what do you know? There is no need to waste porrage ever again. That’s quite a different story to soggy cornflakes, eh?!

There is half a tin of beans in the ‘fridge, along with a couple of tablespoons of salmon. Lunch will be scrambled eggs with salmon, baked beans and I’ll use up the remaining bread to make fried or garlic bread. Little Miss Green will be delighted – she loves anything resembling a transport cafe ‘fry up’.

For dinner, I’m going to be a domestic Goddess and make Shepherds pie. It’s going to be a credit crunch affair though and I’m taking a tip from Maise. I have just half a pound of mince, and I’ll be bulking it out with oats, pearl barley and lentils. It will be served with salad and some mange tout which are starting to go soft.

The cat’s doing well with her zero waste week too. She’s had most of a tin of salmon and some fresh liver. All is well in at Zero waste towers. Will we get to the end of the week without making a mess in the landfill? So far, so good.

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About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (14)

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  1. Emma says:

    Leftover porridge in this house is fed to the chickens 🙂

  2. Elizabeth B says:

    You can also use oatmeal/oat porridge in oatmeal muffins. Mmm, muffins.

  3. I used to deliberately make too much porridge when younger so that I could have it reheated later on in the day, done just as you have.

    We had salmon fishcakes on Tuesday using up the remains of the salmon we had had on Sunday.

    Last night we had a roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings, but I did use up the cauliflower from the previous weeks veg box.

    Tonight I think will be spagetti and meatballs with hm tomato sauce (made using a tin of tomatoes lol)

  4. Just Gai says:

    When I was a little girl my dad used to tell me that in the olden days the Scots would make a big pot of porridge which would be poured into a drawer to set. Every morning that week they would cut out a slice of it , drench it in hot milk and eat it for breakfast.

    My dad was a great story teller (particularly ones concerning haggis!) so I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it does sound possible. Who knows?

  5. Poppy says:

    Sounds good to me Mrs G 🙂

    Today, inspired by yourself and a TV programme I watched last night, last nights leftovers were whizzed, extra water added and voila! Soup for lunch!! Very nice it was too 🙂

  6. That’s brilliant, you’re doing great. I had to warm up some faded rice pudding a few weeks ago and managed it by adding some milk and mixing it around on the hob. I had to admit at the time that it would have been a hell of a lot easier if we still had a microwave, but I was dead-chuffed it worked. 😀

  7. tammy says:

    @Just Gai:

    what a very cool story! It would make a delightful children’s tale of frugality!!

  8. Mrs Green says:

    @Emma: ah yes, our friend gives her chickens porrage and they are rather fond of pancakes too!

    @Elizabeth B: Elizabeth, I didn’t know that – you can use cooked porrage in this way? Do you have a recipe? I think we might like that!

    @maisie dalziel: Do you prefer porrage reheated then, Maisie? Or is it just the speed factor? Perhaps I should make enough fror 3 breakfasts and start saving on the electricity too 🙂

    @Just Gai: I HAVE heard that Just Gai LOL! along with pease pudding. DH tells me his mother used to keep it in a drawer. I’m just not sure I believe it either 😀

    @Poppy: blimey Poppy; even I have never made soup quite like that. What a fab idea and so simple ! I will have to try it after next week’s sunday lunch.

    @Almost Mrs Average: I’ve never been scared of using rice pudding again, but I had images of hard lumps in the porrage, which would have instantly made me gag. Who;d have thought, eh?

    @tammy: lovely story isn’t it? I can see myself in my rocking chair telling my grandchildren all about our drawers full of leftovers!

  9. @Mrs Green: I would think it was probably a speed factor as I used to do this the days I worked at my second job at nights, so i could have this when i came in from work usually about 9.30pm.

    I have also heard the story about the porridge being put in the drawer and slicves cut from it.

  10. Poppy says:

    @Mrs Green:

    lol Mrs G! It was a bit thick first time round and some lived to fight another day ,but with a bit more water, it served me and Master G, who I am glad to say, also liked it 🙂

  11. Karen says:

    @Just Gai:
    I am a Scot and the porridge in the drawer is a true story.

  12. Mrs Green says:

    @Karen: Wahee! I love that story! Did you keep newborn babies in drawers too!??

  13. Karen says:

    @Mrs Green:
    My Grandmother spoke of babies in drawers. I slept in a proper cot.

  14. Jane says:

    Lol, I threatened to put my baby in a drawer to sleep when and if he arrived – I was so unsure that he would! The drawer doesn’t have to still be in the chest!! In the end I was persuaded to get a moses basket.

    We regularly re-heat porridge the following day. I wonder if that’s because my mother has Scottish ancestry?

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