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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Food Not Wasted Is Money Saved

Gingerbread made with leftover cooked ginger root,
past-dated heavy cream, and"old"rye flour

This last week has been one of using up leftovers. Some of these leftovers we ate, as is, and others we made-over into new foods and dishes. Not only does not wasting food save money on our grocery bill, but it also means that we aren't taking more of the world's food supply than we will use. Here's what I was able to "save" this past week:

  • the ginger root that I used to make a syrup for homemade ginger ale -- I diced the cooked ginger root slices tiny and added to batter for a gingerbread cake. I also used rye flour that has been in my pantry for about 4-5 years.
  • whipping cream several weeks past sell-by date with slightly soured smell and a bit gloppy -- used in the batter as part of the milk for husband's birthday cupcakes and batter for gingerbread
  • leftover cream filling for my birthday copycat Hostess cupcakes -- added cocoa powder, vanilla extract, powdered sugar to make a creamy chocolate frosting for husband's birthday cupcakes
  • 2 tablespoons pizza sauce from Friday's pizza dinner -- made a cup of Italian tomato soup for myself, adding chicken bouillon and water
  • as mentioned earlier, cheese sauce (leftover from brunch), tomato slices (leftover from burger bbq), cooked bacon (leftover from brunch) -- put together with toast and made Welsh Rarebit
  • leftover washed lettuce leaves from burger bbq fixings and leftover celery and carrot sticks from birthday bbq -- chopped the celery, carrot sticks, and lettuce to make a salad for dinner on last Sunday
What have been your "food saves" lately?

8 comments:

  1. Our main focus on preventing food waste, recently, has been cutting up vegetables and fruits for snacking, so they don't hide in the fridge until they go bad. It has also helps us reach for healthier things when we're hungry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      Making everything easier for snacking is a really great way to prevent wasting produce! I had some tangerines that were going soft in early March. No one was interested in eating them until I peeled a bunch and set out the segments on a plate. That worked and like you said, we all snacked a little healthier.

      Delete
  2. You never cease to amaze with your ingenuity and creativity. It all sounds so yummy and gourmet. Seems I'm very often in use it up mode. This week I took too thin split pea soup out of the freezer and added the one leftover serving of ham and beans to it. Just what it needs to thicken it up nicely. Took out lingering coconut and some milk from the freezer to make a coconut cream pie for when we had company Sunday evening. Lingering cream cheese from the frig became part of dessert when we had company Wednesday. (We and our company are vaccinated and we are so glad to be back together in just a few people...like just 3 or 4 of us!) Potatoes and carrots from last summer's garden are getting limp. Used some of those last night in a stew to serve along with the coconut pie. Bit and bobs of food often become part of something else around here. Another thing I like to do..if I just have a Tbsp or two of cooked veg, it goes into a container in the freezer. When it is full, it is time to make vegetable soup. Also do that with leftover cookies or the like. When enough accumulates, it becomes pudding topping or part of a crumb pie crust. Fruit can also be done that way and it can become a cobbler base. Just two in our household but I seem to still cook for four.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda,
      The coconut cream pie sounds delicious! I haven't had one of those in decades. I sometimes use lingering cookies or broken bits of cookies as a base for a pudding, like a soft crust. Years' ago, I kept a container in the freezer for all soup ingredient leftovers -- stock, gravy, meats, veggies. Then when the container was full, I'd heat it, tweak the seasonings and serve. It was hit or miss, but always got eaten.
      Glad you are able to get together with friends, now!

      Delete
  3. My most recent big save .... I tried cooking rice in the crockpot but it didn't get done in time for dinner(I think I had it on too low of a setting). We ate our meal with bread instead of rice and I used part of the leftover rice to make rice pudding. My husband used the rest in soup (also left over) for lunch. This will surprise you, but I had never made rice pudding before--definitely a hit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      I love rice pudding! Rice pudding is a traditional Swedish Christmas Eve food, so I make that some years and it's always a hit. I love both baked (custard-style) and stove-top (creamy) rice pudding. So good!
      Great save on the rice, both you and your husband!

      Delete
  4. Saved and baked one butternut squash for last fall as well as one spaghetti squash for last fall. I made spaghetti sauce from frozen tomatoes, onions and peppers my mom gave me. Will have that with spaghetti squash tonight. Made taco soup with some beef, sausage and same peppers, onions, tomatoes from mom and will serve that for lunch with some leftover liquid cheese.

    I purchased a nearly new bread machine at a goodwill and have tried it several times this week. It works perfectly. I paid 48 cents for it after some kind of small in-store credit I didn't know I had.

    I saved some reduced priced meat at the store this weekend. I either froze them or cooked them right away. I am very careful about selecting reduced meat but mostly it is fine.

    Chicken and rice dinner leftovers turned into chicken broth that I made into chicken and rice soup for the week. Some reduced priced mushrooms have been sauteed and frozen for pizza in the future. Reduced priced potatoes turned into baked potato potato salad which is very good. Bought about 10 pkgs. of boneless skinless chicken thighs and they are all in the freezer. My freezer is now full again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      those are some really great saves on your reduced price foods and last year's garden produce! All sounds delicious.
      What a great find on the bread machine. I'm sure you will get far more than 48 cents worth of value from it. What am awesome deal!

      Delete

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