50 Ways to Never Waste Food Again (Interesting)

"Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without" is a favorite adage in both frugal and green circles, and it is something I strive to live by. One of the best ways to "use it up" is to think differently about our food and ways to avoid wasting it. Lloyd wrote a great post a while back about the statistics for how much food we waste in the U.S., and the numbers are, frankly, appalling. On average, we waste 14% of our food purchases per year, and the average American family throws out over $600 of fruit per year. Most of the food we waste is due to spoilage; we're buying too much and using too little of it.

We've all had it happen: half the loaf of bread goes stale because no one wants to eat sandwiches today, and the grapes we bought as healthy snacks for the kids' lunches languish in the crisper. With a little creativity, and an eye toward vanquishing waste in our lives, we can make use of more of our food before it goes to waste. Here are a few ideas for you.


Using Up Vegetables


1. Leftover mashed potatoes from dinner? Make them into patty shapes the next morning and cook them in butter for a pretty good "mock hash brown."

2. Don't toss those trimmed ends from onions, carrots, celery, or peppers. Store them in your freezer, and once you have a good amount saved up, add them to a large pot with a few cups of water and make homemade vegetable broth. This is also a great use for cabbage cores and corn cobs.

3. Don't toss broccoli stalks. They can be peeled and sliced, then prepared just like broccoli florets.

4. If you have to dice part of an onion or pepper for a recipe, don't waste the rest of it. Chop it up and store it in the freezer for the next time you need diced onion or peppers.


Much more: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/ways-avoid-waste-food.html

because they lack the bitterness present in the florets at the top. Peel the stalk and slice it 1/4" thick and steam along with the florets, they'll cook in about the same amount of time. The Chinese call them "clouds" for their irregular shapes and they are heavenly, indeed.

baby loves her "trees", stalks and leaves :)

yum yum

you slice off the root end, right?

Take that sliced end, put it sliced side UP in a pot of dirt, about an inch down, and green onions will come up. You gotta water it occasionally but not too much.

I always have a supply of green onion tops on the deck for cooking. Same with garlic.

Do the same with celery and carrot roots, the celery will sprout and make seeds, the carrots will sprout and make lovely white tops that butterflies love.
Even in cold climes, you can do this from early spring thru late summer, using some shade if it is too hot.

Thx!! :thumbsup:

K&R

and throw the rest away??

Hard to imagine.

Hell, I use a whole onion for scrambled eggs!

and the cycle is complete. The chickens eat the veggies. any extras go to the compost bin. The dried manure and decayed compost feed the garden and grow beautiful
new veggies just the way nature intended. And it's all organic.

build up some very poor soil and for my garden.

...goes in the compost bin.

I just posted this to another thread,
and copied it over here because it fits.