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Thursday, June 28, 2012

What to do with . . .

by Lili Mounce


So you've probably guessed that I am adverse to wasting food. With this in mind, here are some suggestions for using it all up.

What to do with. . .

leftover fruit salad 
--put into a freezer container, to use for a smoothie on a scorching summer day

leftover limp, tossed green salad, complete with dressing
--put in freezer container, add to it with other salad leftovers. When you make pasta sauce or soup, partially thaw the full container, puree in the food processor and add to sauce or soup.

just the salad dressing at the bottom of the salad bowl
--pour into veggie scrap for stock-making container in the freezer.

heels of bread, stale crackers, stale chips, stale pretzels, crumbs from cereal package
--put in freezer container. When making meatballs, meat loaf or breading meat or veggies, process into crumbs in food processor.

leftover cooking liquid from vegetables
--add to your veggie scrap for stock-making container in the freezer, or, add to vegetable juice like tomato juice, or, add to a pot of soup.

those last few drips of milk in the jug or carton
--rinse jug with a tablespoon of water and add to pancake, muffin, biscuit dough/batter, or, add to your coffee (In our house, we store these empties, with a tablespoon of water added, on their sides in the fridge. This is the one house where it's actually okay to put the empty jug back into the fridge!)

leftover lemon ends, slices or halves
--Feralhomemaking has some good suggestions right here

potato peelings
--scrub a potato well, then peel for potato salad or mashed potatoes. (I will keep a bag of peelings in the fridge for 2 or 3 days to build up a big enough supply to make a snack.) Toss potato peelings in a bowl with about 1 or 2 tablespoons oil, a sprinkling of salt, a bit of minced garlic, some oregano, rosemary and pepper. Spread on a large baking sheet. If you have some Parmesan cheese, sprinkle some over the top of the mass of potato skins. Toast in the oven at 390 degrees F, for 18-25minutes, or until lightly browned. Stir these once or twice while toasting. These are earthier tasting than chips or fries, but make a delicious snack.

already whipped cream
--spoon into individual serving mounds on a sheet of plastic wrap, on a baking sheet. Freeze. When frozen, slide plastic wrap into a large bag and seal shut. To use, partially thaw the amount of mounds that you need, and use as topping on shortcake, sundaes, smoothies, cocoa, fruit salad.

What do you do to use it all up?


7 comments:

  1. Lili,
    I prefer not to dress a salad in a serving bowl, instead offering the dressing separately. Diners select the dressing of their choice and I find that the undressed salad will last several days, while a predressed salad won't
    HTH

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most definitely! I do add dressing for our family dinners, though, as I make it in the bowl just before adding the greens.
      When we have company, I think it's a nice gesture to allow them to select their own dressing. Some don't do dairy, so things like ranch are out of the question. Some are lo-cal, and don't want any dressing. And there are all the allergies to be aware of. It's just way easier to provide a choice and allow guests to dress their own. And the salad ingredients do last for several days if undressed.
      Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  2. Every now and then we use the crumby bits of biscuit (cookies to you?) at the bottom of the jar for the basis of a tray of rocky road or tiffin! (I say 'the basis of' because it usually means buying another packet of plain biscuits (or cookies/graham crackers - whatever you call them across the pond!) to do the job!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sarah,
      That does sound good!
      And for those of us who don't know what tiffin is, here's a recipe that I found at http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091118020935AA3Fhbb:

      "chocolate tiffin, which is like a cakey/biscuity type thing that originated in Scotland. It is traditionally eaten on bonfire night in the UK. It is DELICIOUS!

      8oz cooking chocolate ( I used half milk and half dark as the dark can make it too sharp)
      8oz Rich Tea biscuits
      4oz butter
      2 tbsp golden syrup
      2tbsp sugar
      4tsp cocoa
      Handful of raisins


      melt butter, sugar, syrup and cocoa in a pan.
      Add raisins
      crush biscuits and add to the melted mixture.
      Pour mixture into a swiss roll size tin and press down.
      Melt chocolate and pour over the mixture
      pop into the fridge and leave to set (1hr)
      Cut into about 20/24 pieces.

      VERY fattening...but delicious!"

      Delete
    2. Delicious indeed and dead easy! My recipe is pretty much the same except it uses Digestive biscuits (wheatmeal biscuits) and 3 spoonfuls of cocoa in the melted mixture. That's so sickly in itself that I've never bothered with the chocolate on top!

      Delete
    3. I just love the name "tiffin". It sounded so yummy before I even knew what it could be! I told my two daughters about it, and they're now begging me to make some!

      Delete
    4. For all reading this comment section. . .
      Sarah at Everyday life on a shoestring made up a batch of tiffin. If you don't know what it is, you can see pictures (and her recipe) over at this URL (sorry for cut and paste, can't do a link in comments yet)
      http://www.everydaylifeonashoestring.com/2012/06/food-waste-friday.html
      It looks yummy!

      Delete

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