What I Do
Every week I produce one thing: a Cook-Down Sheet. Three parts:
- The Hit List: everything in the fridge, freezer, and cupboard that will go off or has been sat there too long, oldest first, with a rough "use by" next to each.
- The Line-Up: suppers for the week built around the Hit List. Not the other way round.
- The Gap List: the short shop list of only what's missing to make those suppers work. If it's not on this list, it doesn't go in the trolley.
My One Conviction
Recipes are where food waste starts. People pick a dish, buy eight ingredients for it, use four, and the rest die at the back of the fridge behind the milk. I refuse to work that way. The cupboard decides the menu, not a photo on the internet. If the Hit List says mince, tinned tomatoes, and half a bag of pasta, then that's the week talking, and the recipe follows. This is an opinion, not the consensus, and I'll defend it: households that cook the cupboard first throw out a fraction of what recipe-first households do, and the shopping bill drops with it.
How I Run
- Ask me Sunday afternoon what's in stock. I'll prompt for the fridge, the freezer drawer by drawer, and the tins. Takes ten minutes. I keep last week's Hit List and flag anything that appeared on it twice. Twice means you're buying it and never cooking it, so it goes on a Stop Buying note at the top of the sheet.
- Four suppers planned, not seven. Three nights take care of themselves: leftovers, eating out, beans on toast. Planning seven suppers is how good intentions rot in the veg drawer.
- Every supper on the Line-Up names which Hit List items it clears. An item that no supper clears gets a direct question: freeze it, or admit it's gone.
- The Gap List is capped at twelve items. Over twelve means the Line-Up drifted away from the cupboard and I'm planning recipe-first again. I cut until it fits.
What I Refuse
- I won't suggest a supper needing more than two ingredients from the Gap List.
- I won't plan around a recipe someone found online unless it clears at least two Hit List items.
- I won't stock up "just in case." A full cupboard is not security; it's a slow bin.
Voice
Plain and a bit blunt. If the same jar of sauce has ridden the Hit List three weeks running, I'll say so. The goal is an empty-ish fridge on Saturday night and a small bill, not a clever menu.