Might be off-topic, but did you know that you can light a candle or keep cold water running to stop the crying while you chop onions? HTH!

The old Betty Crocker cookbook has a blueberry muffin recipe that calls for buttermilk. My mom never kept buttermilk so and old trick was to sour milk as a substitute. My never throw out item is spoiled milk because you can make blueberry muffins to throw in the freezer.

Whenever I find a good deal on whole chickens I take advantage because I ALWAYS get 2 meals out of it. First I cook the chicken in the crock pot with traditional root veggies, etc. Then I use the leftovers to make chicken pot pie. It is one of my husband's favs.

Do you use the drippings from the pot roast in the soup too or is the pot roast usually the main entree that has the leftover veggies?

Leftover rice & leftover veggies get turned into stir fried rice (my kids love it)

Over-ripe bananas get frozen (I peel them first, but I think they work either way).

Leftover veggies get put into homeade mac & cheese along with some garlic and other seasonings.

I freeze the bones from roasted chicken or turkey along with any leftover drippings or gravy and make soup. Put some dumplings on it & my DH will have 2nd & 3rd helpings.

For the buttermilk, you could make pancakes and freeze for later. Buttermilk biscuits or soak chicken in buttermilk before baking. YUM!

For mustard/ketchup make homemade sloppy joes add ketchup, a little mustard, water , brown sugar and spices.

For over ripe fruit, like bananas or pineapples, and milk going out of date... I make what my kids call banana icecream. I cut the bananas (or what ever fruit I'm using) into pieces and freeze on a cookie sheet with foil. I then place the frozen fruit in my chopper, add a mocha splenda and a caramel splenda packet, some mini chocolate chips, and then I process until creamy by adding milk. You can add more or less until a consistency you like. I serve part of it that night. But I put the rest in containers and freeze. You can eat cold, or defrost and re-puree for an instant smoothie.

For milk about to go out of date I will also make pudding pops. Sometimes I will mix a bit of left over coffee in with chocolate pudding pops-- to make a mocha pudding pop.

I use ice cube trays to freeze left over coffee and puree'd veggies-- that way I can pull out serving sizes that I need. I actually have some cake recipes that call for coffee-- and I defrost and use as needed. Sometimes I will take the frozen coffee and combine in blender with a little milk and sweetener to make my homemade iced coffee.

I make bisquits with aging buttermilk-- I then slice and put in some eggs or left over bacon-- wrap in saran wrap, and then freeze in a freezer bag... that way I have a quick breakfast to go when I'm in a pinch. They re-heat real quick, about a minute and half in the microwave.

For whipping cream, I make frozen cream pies. I purchased an Eagle Brand cook book a few years ago and it has lot's of recipes for frozen desserts using whipping cream and condensed milk. I have good results with generics as well. A frozen chocolate mousse makes a wonderful dessert in a pinch.

I put gogurt or yogurt cups in the freezer when they are about to expire. My kids love to eat them out of the freezer that way, especially in the summer.
I do the same thing with grapes. Just throw them in the freezer and serve them frozen. Yum!
I do the same with bananas, but then use them in smoothies. I peel them first as it is really hard to peel a frozen banana. It works great to microwave them if you are using them to bake, but not really for smoothies.

I found that peeling bananas before putting them in the freezer is so much easier than trying to peel them after they are frozen. They don't seem to be as dark this way either.
I freeze coffee and lemon juice in ice cube trays. To make up lemonade or add coffee to recipes and such.
I take left over bacon and chop it real fine and put in the freezer for bacon bits. I take onions that are getting soft and chop them up put them in the freezer. Bread ends go in also so that when I get enough I chop them up add some olive oil and spices, bake and have bread crumbs and croutons.

I keep beef broth, ham broth and chicken broth and freeze to use in recipes.

You can cook a large pot of broth down to about 2 cups and let cool. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze. These make great bouillon cubes.

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If you kids are anything like mine, a lot of drinks or liquids get all over. I started cutting up my worn down towels into paper towel size and use those to help clean up messes. Then I just wash and reuse unless it is something really gross.

Milk nearing the expir. date - use to make loaves of bread in bread maker and freeze. (I make my own bread). Make homemade chocolate pudding (doesn't work with milk that's already turning bad).

Leftover steak and/or pork chops - slice thin and heat with BBQ sauce for BBQ sandwiches. Other meat ideas - chop meat and use in quesadillas. Leftover chicken - make chicken salad and put on top of lettuce salad.

Fruit/Vegetables - before they go too bad, make juice in the juicer. Freeze the leafy celery cores and take them out to stuff in roast chicken. Before Onions go bad, chop them all up and put in gallon ziploc bags. Only a thin layer in each bag, lay flat in freezer. When you need chopped onions in a recipe, they're ready for you. Peeled garlic cloves freeze well, too. I thaw them in the MW for 10 sec before using in garlic press.

Bread Heels or bread crusts - save in a bag and retain in freezer. Use to make bread crumbs for meatloaf, when the bag gets full, make bread pudding (another good use of milk starting to go bad).

Someone mentioned Mayo - use it in scrambled eggs. I haven't tried this recipe personally, but good luck!