This week I stumbled across The Frugal Girl. One day while cleaning out her refrigerator she realized that embarrassment is a great motivator and starting posting pictures of her food waste each week. Brilliant!
Here goes, my first Food Waste Friday.
First, I will tell you what I didn't waste.
We had 1/2 a large container of cherry tomatoes that was too shriveled to be eaten raw but fine for cooking. I tossed them in a cast iron skillet coated (lightly) with olive oil along with lots of minced garlic, salt, fresh ground pepper and Penzey's Tuscan Sunset blend. I cooked them until about half of the tomatoes burst and they are currently waiting in the freezer to be a part of next week's menu.
(I promise you it is not as oily as it looks.)
1 orange - I zested it and squeezed the juice. They are waiting in the freezer to be added to a homemade citrus salad dressing next week.
On to the waste.
Earlier this week we made vegetable skewers for dinner and 1/2 of one of the yellow squash had a brown ring on the inside. Yuck.
Digging around in the chest freezer yesterday I found a bag of chicken breasts that we bought before we went to Germany. Marty worked his way through them, but we lost 3 to freezer burn. I looked online and found some recommendations about using freezer burnt meat, but Marty (a trained Chef) wouldn't let me try them so out they went.
Hopefully next week I will have nothing to report.
This post is linked to Food Waste Friday at The Frugal Girl.
Mmmm, Penzey's! I've been working out of their 'our magazine turned one' cookbook and love it.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to have you with us! Your cherry tomatoes look delicious. :)
ReplyDeleteLove, the ideas for the tomatoes. How will you be using them?
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone!
ReplyDeleteI love Penzey's, too. I can never walk out of that store empty handed!
To use the cherry tomatoes I will run a knife through them real quick and then toss them into a pan with 2 cups or so homemade spaghetti sauce. Season to taste and then serve over (in our case, gluten free) pasta with grilled chicken. Sometimes I drizzle a balsamic reduction over top (Boil 2 cups balsamic vinegar until reduced enough that it coats the back of a spoon. Add sugar to taste, if desired.)
I will try to remember to take a picture when we make it.
Good idea to document what you waste. I try to "recycle" meals by freezing them and using them at a later date. But alas I don't always stay on top of it like I should and I feel guilty when I throw away food that should've been used before it went bad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this up! Makes me motivated to do better!
RaShell