Green Talk®

Whole Body, Healthy Home, and Sustainable Garden Inspiration

 Get Inspired.  Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter

  • About
    • Press
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
  • New Here?
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Hire Me
  • 5 Reasons to Subscribe!
  • Build Green
  • Gardening
  • Green Business
  • Green Living
  • Green Home
  • Recycling
  • Tech

16 Ways to Reuse Your Food Scraps and Leftovers

September 19, 2013 By: Anna17 Comments

Food scrap and leftover use

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?

Similar Posts:

  • 7 Ways to Use Grapefruit Peel. Kitchen to Skin.
  • Leftover Tomato Paste: Easy Waste & Plastic Free Way to Save. {+Video}
  • Orange Peel Vinegar Cleaner. Make Your Own Green Cleaner
  • Eggshells: Don’t Toss Em. Top 7 Uses.
  • Pumpkin Skins Are Edible and Delish

Grow From Seed Mini Course

Grow From Seed Mini Course

About Anna

Anna Hackman is the editor of Green Talk, and owner of The Naked Botanical and a avid (okay obsessed) gardener. She also loves video and podcasting and hosts Green Talk TV and Green Talk Radio. Her most important role is being a mother of four boys.

Chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest , and Google+.

Comments

  1. 1

    Melody says

    September 20, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    Being 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.

    Reply
    • 2

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 22, 2013 at 7:37 pm

      Melody, love the idea of chicken drippings to make chicken soup. How do you make the soup? Anna

      Reply
  2. 3

    Carissa Bonham says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:55 pm

    Thanks 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!

    Reply
    • 4

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 23, 2013 at 9:36 pm

      Carissa, 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

      Reply
  3. 5

    John B. says

    September 28, 2013 at 4:46 am

    I 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.

    Reply
    • 6

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 30, 2013 at 9:23 pm

      John, sniff. I am going to miss summer. Nothing like fresh food during the summer. Anna

      Reply
  4. 7

    Amanda says

    September 28, 2013 at 8:36 am

    I 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.

    Reply
    • 8

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 30, 2013 at 9:22 pm

      Amanda, 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

      Reply
  5. 9

    Cyndi says

    September 28, 2013 at 7:37 pm

    We 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.

    Reply
    • 10

      Anna@Green Talk says

      September 30, 2013 at 9:21 pm

      Cyndi, this is amazing. I am going to have to try this!

      Reply
  6. 11

    Deb says

    November 23, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    I 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/

    Reply
    • 12

      Anna@Green Talk says

      November 25, 2013 at 12:40 pm

      Deb, I tried something similar with kale stems. Awful. Maybe it was just the recipe. Any ideas? Anna

      Reply
  7. 13

    deb says

    November 25, 2013 at 1:56 pm

    Anna

    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/

    Reply
    • 14

      Anna@Green Talk says

      November 25, 2013 at 2:00 pm

      It is so funny. When you aren’t sure what to do with something, make pesto…Anna

      Reply
  8. 15

    Russ chambers says

    March 21, 2014 at 5:11 pm

    The 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.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Would you do THIS for free food? | The Freegan Lifestyle - Mindfully Frugal Mom says:
    February 18, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    […] Ways to Cut Down on Household Food Waste […]

    Reply
  2. 10 Tips for Healthy Green Cooking – The Healthy Green Life says:
    April 1, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    […] make delicious broths and stocks.   For more ideas on how to reuse food scraps, check out this article from Green […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Shop from Anna’s Farm– The Naked Botanical– Farm Fresh Teas, Salts & Body Products

The Naked Botanical " Click HERE

Save Money By Growing Your Plants Indoors.

Three Must Have Equipment "

Grab My Free Mini Course

Connect with Me

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Popular Posts

  • Organic Color Systems: Wash those Grays Away with a Safer Hair Color
  • Coffee Grounds in the Garden: Friend or Foe?
  • Celery Leaves: Cook or Discard them?

RSS Green Talk Radio

  • An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.

Popular Posts

  • Organic Color Systems: Wash those Grays Away with a Safer Hair Color
  • Coffee Grounds in the Garden: Friend or Foe?
  • Celery Leaves: Cook or Discard them?
  • Freeze Cucumbers & Learn How to Use Them.
  • Hydrogen Peroxide + Ears = Bye to Colds. A Remedy that Works

RSS Green Talk TV

  • The Naked Botanical's Gift Boxes
  • The Naked Botanical salts
  • The Naked botanical hydrosols
  • The Naked botanical herbal salves
  • Welcome to The Naked botanical teas

Copyright Green Talk © 2021 · Website Designed by Clever Kiwi