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| image: Clay Banks on Unsplash |
Would you throw away all of your household's lunch food every day for a year? Americans throw away 30% to 40% of the food supply. That's a huge amount. Of course, the percentage includes waste from farms, processors, stores, and restaurants. We're not off the hook for blame, however. Households make up the largest share of wasted food, often due to produce spoilage, missed expiration dates, or simply cooking too much.
Preventing food waste is about so much more than saving a couple of dollars. Our food "saves" actually help someone who is food insecure. While we can grow more food in the next season or raise more livestock over a year or two, food for this planet for a single season is a finite amount. My way of thinking is if I prevent food waste in my home, I need less food. I buy less, leaving more for the next person. As far as the planet goes, if Americans cut their food waste by 10% or 20%, that would provide over a billion meals per year for the food insecure. And it wouldn't cost us anything but our attention and time.
Hopping onto that train of thought, today I thought we could share our latest food saves, the foods that might have been thrown away, but were instead used.
My 5 food saves come from this past week's meals. Some meals contained a few "saves" as I was cleaning out the fridge. Here we go:
- saved beef fat from browning ground beef on Saturday and saved chicken fat from roasting a whole chicken: I used the last of the beef fat plus some frozen chicken fat in a greens and beans meal this week.
- soured milk: The last of the milk just got away from us. I had 3/4 cup of very sour milk that I seriously considered pouring down the drain. Instead, I used this sour milk in a batch of biscuits. They turned out very good.
- the cooking liquid from teriyaki chicken thighs: When I make teriyaki chicken thighs I marinate the thighs in a combination of soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic for a couple of hours. I then bake the thighs in the liquid, covered. There is always about a cup of cooked liquid remaining. It has lots of flavor, so I try to use it. This week I added it to the beans and greens mixture.
- watermelon rind: I used the white part of the rind grated in salads and cut into small sticks to add to the greens and beans dish. Steamed in with the greens it had a nice firm texture, a lot like bamboo shoots.
- bean cooking liquid : I watered some plants on the deck with the cooking water from beans.
So that last one wasn't something that fed us, but it did water an herb plant. Perhaps it added nutrients to the soil. and the plant will benefit?
Anyway, your turn. How have you saved food in the last few weeks? Your list can be as long as you want. Leave it in the comments, please.
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