Admittedly, I can be a food waster. Sometime I have no idea what is in glass jar #1 or #2. (Or #3 or #4) Even Carol Merrill doesn’t know what is behind that curtain. (Oh come on, you don’t remember her from Monty Hall’s Let’s Make a Deal?) But over the years, I started to look at food differently and tried to use everything from leftovers to food scraps to cut down on my food wasting habits. Listed below are some food waste busting tricks you can use with help from my fellow women eco-warriors.
How to Use Food Scraps
- For coffee lovers: Learn how to use coffee ground in the garden. (Green Talk)
- Love grapefruit in the winter? Don’t pitch them . Read 7 Ways to use grapefruit peels (Green Talk)
- Or use grapefruit or orange peels to make orange/grapefruit scented vinegar (Green Talk)
- Don’t pitch the tomato skin and seeds. Learn how to make tomato sauce from scraps. (Creative Green Living.)
- Egg shells are awesome. 7 Ways to use Egg Shells (Green Talk)
- How to use celery leaves. (Green Talk)
- When you buy broccoli or cauliflower at the farmer’s market ask for the leaves. Here is how to use broccoli and cauliflower leaves in dishes. (Green Talk)
- Don’t pitch vegetable peels. Use them to make your own vegetable scrap vegetable broth. (Green Talk)
How to Reuse Leftover Food
- Only need a tablespoon of tomato paste but still have a can full of paste? How to deal with leftover tomato paste. (Green Talk)
- Leftover sweet potatoes? No problem. Read here on how to use them in other recipes. (Natures Mom)
- Still have a rice leftover from last night’s dinner. Read ways to reuse it in different recipes. (Natures Mom)
How to Use Food that is Ready to Spoil
- Bananas turning black? Make banana bread using almost spoiled bananas (Green4U)
- Breading going stale? Make croutons. (Jen and Joey Go Green) or bread crumbs. (Green4U)
How to Prevent Food from Spoiling
- Kale goes bad pretty quickly. Freeze your kale to make smoothies. (I do this too.) (My Plastic Free Life.)
- Going away and have tomatoes in the refrigerator? Freeze tomatoes to prevent spoilage. (Green Talk)
Other Alternatives
Not sure what to do with your leftovers? Julie of Green Philly Blog suggests using a website like Supercook to create a recipe based upon what you have in the refrigerator (Green Philly Blog)
Join the conversation:
- How do you use your food scraps?
- How to repurpose your leftovers?
Melody says
September 20, 2013 at 6:05 pmBeing thrifty was how I was raised. I love leftovers, we often cook extra and plan meals with them. Bits of left over cooked vegetables are saved, then I add them to the next veg I cook. Left over carrots, added to peas for example.
I often make a bake a pan of chicken pieces in the over and I freeze the drippings.This makes the best ever chicken soup.
Anna@Green Talk says
September 22, 2013 at 7:37 pmMelody, love the idea of chicken drippings to make chicken soup. How do you make the soup? Anna
Carissa Bonham says
September 23, 2013 at 6:55 pmThanks for featuring my scrap sauce post!
If milk is about to hit its expiration date, I use it to make yogurt (I have a tutorial on how to do that here: http://www.creativegreenliving.....-your.html)
I also save chicken bones and scaps from chopping veggies (celery bottoms, pepper stems, carrot tops, etc) in a bag in my frezer to make my own chicken stock 2-3 times a year which I can in a pressure canner. Free and healthier than store bought!
Anna@Green Talk says
September 23, 2013 at 9:36 pmCarissa, love the almost spoiled milk into yogurt! I use almost spoiled milk to keep mildew at bay for my squashes. (I alternate between garlic and milk.) Anna
John B. says
September 28, 2013 at 4:46 amI generally use all my food scraps for my garden, because it is the easiest way how to do it.
I admit I have problems with spoiling food. It happens to me because I´m a vegan, so there are no frozen products in my home.
I started to love pick your own stuff farms. It makes things more simple and is easier for me to get the freshest stuff without any problems. So sad that winter is coming.
Anna@Green Talk says
September 30, 2013 at 9:23 pmJohn, sniff. I am going to miss summer. Nothing like fresh food during the summer. Anna
Amanda says
September 28, 2013 at 8:36 amI put my excess and unused coffee grounds in my compost.
As for leftover meat with bones in it, I just heat it and mix it in my dog’s meal. He loves to dig those bones and helps break out the chain of him eating only the usual food like Pedigree and Alpo.
Anna@Green Talk says
September 30, 2013 at 9:22 pmAmanda, I love putting my coffee in the compost. The worms love it.
Never thought about bones in dog food. I hope my dog lovers are reading your suggestion. Anna
Cyndi says
September 28, 2013 at 7:37 pmWe recently dehydrated a bushel of apples. We prefer them without the skins but that left us with a bunch of skins & cores .. a few too many to put in the compost and I couldn’t bring myself to toss them. So I popped them all in a pan and, on low heat, cooked them down. when they were fully cooked, I ran them through the blender and then a strainer. We ended up with the best apple butter. Very little of the pulp was tossed. Out of a whole bushel of apples, I would say no more than a 1/2 cup of pulp was tossed.
Anna@Green Talk says
September 30, 2013 at 9:21 pmCyndi, this is amazing. I am going to have to try this!
Deb says
November 23, 2013 at 12:18 pmI used to throw out Broccoli stalks and was thinking what can I use these for as I did not want to cook them with the tops so I grind them into my smoothie. Here are some other great ideas: http://www.healyrealfoodvegeta.....li-stalks/
Anna@Green Talk says
November 25, 2013 at 12:40 pmDeb, I tried something similar with kale stems. Awful. Maybe it was just the recipe. Any ideas? Anna
deb says
November 25, 2013 at 1:56 pmAnna
I have tried ideas with Kale like oven baking with oil and didn’t like the taste. I haven’t tried this one but found this idea on the internet Kale Pesto. http://www.loveandlemons.com/2.....tem-pesto/
Anna@Green Talk says
November 25, 2013 at 2:00 pmIt is so funny. When you aren’t sure what to do with something, make pesto…Anna
Russ chambers says
March 21, 2014 at 5:11 pmThe Jora composter will take all your foos scraps and turn into gold within a month. These composters work well as they are well insulated and are turned each and every time you feed them.
The compost is weed free and owner of the house or condo knows exactly what has been out into the compost.