Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I did order the cookbooks off Amazon, 6P&E and Gfunkdave, so I will see how that goes.

I'll try buying frozen vegetables more and thanks to Missy and Bama, I will certainly try throwing in leftover vegetables/perishables into stews/soups/meatloafs.

I guess my follow-up question would be - what foods (especially vegetables) do you find that do not freeze/refrigerate (over time - 2 weeks) well? Lettuce has been mentioned. I was surprised that mushrooms freeze OK (though I've never tried so what do I know?).