Once a month, we’re looking at ways to help reduce food waste and keep our planet happier and healthier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our ever-growing environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, over a billion tons of edible food, not spoiled, but edible gets tossed in the landfills and oceans. This impacts our environment, our economics, and certainly our health. We’ve rolled up our sleeves in the past to save these resources, and now’s the time to do so again.

Sometimes, with dinner on my mind, I open my refrigerator in the late afternoon and stare. I think I’m waiting for something to magically appear before my eyes that I forgot I had stashed away, only I didn’t. I know you’ve done the same thing, like we’re willing something to materialize. We might even go back a second time and peer inside the (most likely overstuffed) contents, only to shut it again because there just wasn’t anything we think we could toggle together. Or was there?

A little inspiration please

            No matter how much we love to cook, sometimes the enthusiasm just isn’t there. Yet we’re hungry. We need to be fed and probably feed others as well, and the last thing we want to do is go back to the market.

Eggs to the rescue

            Eggs will often come to the rescue. No one complains about breakfast for supper, especially if its fluffy scrambled eggs or a little omelet. I know they are getting pricey and sometimes hard to find, but they are still a good bargain compared to other proteins. A grilled cheese, perhaps, or something stuffed into a corn tortilla. I’ve made many a meal around leftovers slipped stealthfully into a wrap. Add some salsa and you’re all set.

Snacks for supper, just add a salad

Often, I’ll just make a few snacks and call it my happy meal. There’s no law that says one must have a protein, a starch, and some veggies sitting on a plate for dinner, and more often than not, mine don’t. I bet yours don’t either in this day and age. Crostini with that last bit of goat cheese and some sun-dried tomatoes, paired with some warmed olives with shallots and a grating of orange peel, and you’ve got dinner. Maybe a greens salad on the side with bits of this and that salvaged from the fridge on top. A table of snacks is my idea of a feast, and no matter what snacks you come up with, if you add a little salad, it feels like a meal.

Plan ahead, we know this, but sometimes…

On good weeks, I plan ahead and cook once for more than one meal. This means a big pot of rice or pasta rather than a couple of servings, or dried beans from scratch to use in many lunches and snacks all week. Make a big pot of soup for Sunday, save some of it for Wednesday and tuck the rest in the freezer for another time. Of course on Wednesday, I might add some stir-fried veggies from Tuesday to the pot just to make it a little different, and offer up a unique topping. Bits of one meal often morph into the next, easily transformed. Over the years, I’ve made some amazingly delicious dishes from thrown together leftovers, but also had some dismal failures. No matter how long one cooks, there’s always that, and once in a while we settle for just the edible.

Fingers crossed

On bad weeks, when I’ve not planned, that’s when I’m most likely staring at the contents of the refrigerator, waiting for a food miracle, and hoping many of those items stuffing the refrigerator don’t end up in the compost heap.

Our food extras

We need another name for leftovers. Such a sad word “leftovers” implying the ones not called for the basketball team, or the wallflower at the dance. The ones not chosen, and that usually means inferior in some way in the back of our minds. Maybe I’ll call them extras. After all, even the extras in the movies have a chance at becoming a star. 

Look to the past for today’s solutions

I often look to the past when thinking about our food dilemmas of the present, since our current situation is not sustainable by any standards, and doesn’t seem to be getting better. Our parents and grandparents lived through severe rationing in two world wars in the last century, a Great Depression that lingered for a decade, and various other economic turndowns that had us collectively counting both pennies and breadcrumbs.

The lessons of a lifetime

And those lessons learned often lasted a lifetime, I know it did in my family. When I was growing up, nothing was wasted in our kitchen. We cooked only what we needed, cleaned our plates, ate leftovers with delight, and froze or canned our surplus. It was common in the summer for cooks to make a simple but delicious boiled dinner, a combination of all the wonderful vegetables growing in the gardens, usually with beets and potatoes, carrots and onions. Those extra veggies left became the base for a ‘red flannel hash’ the next day for breakfast, and the extras were most definitely planned for this purpose. They were extra, planned, not just passed by and wasted.

Lots of benefits

What do you have leftover in your refrigerator? What are you cooking tonight? Is there something you can use and avoid that extra trip to the market? You will not only salvage food that might be tossed, but also save fuel and time! That’s a win all the way, especially for the planet.

What are your strategies?

 I know you have your own little tricks to transform Sunday dinner into Wednesday supper, and I’d love to hear them. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Let’s try not to toss this!

A pasta dish transformed– Just about any pasta dish easily becomes a pasta salad the next day. I’m not talking spaghetti and meatballs here, but some shells with sautéed mushrooms and artichokes, or penne with broccoli rabe, are easy weeknight pasta dishes that become a tasty salad for lunch the next day. Just add your favorite vinaigrette, or a dressing that goes well with the original dish, maybe toss in a few extra vegetables or nuts, and no one will recognize it. 

Polenta – It’s a dinner staple for many. Corn meal mush we call it in New England, but if you are Italian, you will probably call it polenta. Once it has been cooked, it will firm up beautifully when refrigerated. The next day, you can easily cut it into squares and eat as is, or fry it up and top it with something tasty, even just simple marinated tomatoes or some sauce. My mom used to make a double batch for the purpose of frying the squares in bacon grease the next morning for breakfast. Yes, the bacon grease was saved in a coffee can on the counter by the stove much to my father’s delight.

Pot pies – My mom often made a very large vat of chicken soup with the bones and remnants of Sunday supper. After a meal of soup, later in the week, what was left, she combined with a few more vegetables (think frozen peas), some saved chicken meat, and thickened up the broth to make a thick gravy which she turned into a pastry lined pie dish and topped with an egg-washed crust. It was my favorite meal of all!

You can use this same technique with just about any extra chunky stew, those with meat or vegetarian. In my book, it always needs onions, potatoes, carrots, and peas, but any vegetable you love will do. To cut down on the fat, you can also skip the bottom crust, and top with layers of whole-wheat phyllo dough sprayed with olive oil. It’s just as good!

Mashed Potatoes – Have you ever fried mashed potatoes? A great breakfast dish, just take a couple of cups of leftover mash, add a beaten egg, a good sprinkle of flour, some very finely minced onion, maybe some chives, and form into patties with an ice cream scoop. Place in a little heated oil and cook until brown on one side, then gently flip (only once, don’t keep messing with them or they will fall apart). You can also add some cheese if you like, or bit of another vegetable.

            Leftover mashed potatoes (if there is such a thing) are also used in cod and other fish cakes, use your imagination, add those extra veggies from last night. And, those potato extras can be added to a soup to thicken it up.

Frittatas – We know how good these are, and you can really put just about anything in a frittata including extra rice, veggies of all kinds, the last of a casserole, bits of cheeses, and even pasta. Give a spaghetti frittata a try and you’ll be amazed. I’ve even made a frittata out of all the remnants of a Japanese sushi dinner, and it was a hit. Whatever you use always seems to come out delicious, especially if you add a quick sauce or salsa, just don’t overcook the frittata until it turns into a hard, brown sponge.

Fritters – We love corn fritters when local is available, but so many other vegetables and grains can be formed into these delicious little patties. Zucchini when in abundance often turns up in a fritter at our house, as do sweet peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, even winter radishes, or a combination of what we have on hand. There’s usually an onion of some sort involved, a bit of flour, an egg, and if some greens are looking for a home, spinach, arugula, and chard work beautifully with the other veggies.

Fajitas – The kids love a fajita served up with just cheese, but think of the world of possibilities you can stuff inside! That tomato or avocado ready to expire, herbs on the windowsill, last night’s zucchini, peppers and onions from a stir-fry. Regular or vegan cheese is a must though, to glue it together and satisfy the eyes.

Confit garlic in olive oil – Slow cooking of garlic cloves in olive oil until they are soft, brown, sweet, and tender is a treat. Add this to your hummus, mashed potatoes, other vegetable dishes, or just smear it on toast as a base for other ingredients. The oil you used is filled with flavor, so save it and use it liberally, drizzled over vegetables, sautéonions or other aromatics in it, brush it on a crostini, use it for fried rice or any type of vegetable fritter, or use as a base for a vinaigrette. Flavor all the way.

Baked Potatoes – Almost always, if I’m tossing potatoes in to bake, I’ll add a couple of extras for use as home fries the next day, or to make into a small potato salad, yes, peels and all. 

Wraps – Where would we be without wraps. Wheat, corn, rice, gluten-free, even wraps made of just eggs or egg whites. Turn anything into a taco! Many a bean casserole has ended up in a wrap the next day, that last bit of hummus or stewed beans, or just about anything extra we’ve grilled from vegetables to shrimp! Smear that last bit of goat cheese from the log on a wrap and sprinkle on some olives and sun-dried tomatoes. 

Casseroles – You can take a lot of leftovers and bake them in a casserole, just add some eggs or replacer, perhaps some mashed potatoes, maybe a white sauce, or some cheese, and bake. Add a topping of buttered stale breadcrumbs and you get extra points. I like to disguise previous meals by using a new spice or herb, or letting some tomatoes do the transformation.

Sometimes, if the ingredients are right, you can take last night’s casserole, add some stock, and create a soup. 

Stuffings – Stuffings are a great way to use lots of foods that can be easily repurposed. Think of bulk and flavor when you tuck in leftover rice or other grains, beans, stale bread, last night’s vegetable side chopped up. And it’s not just pepepers waiting to be stuffed, think tomatoes, portobella mushrooms, Vidalia onions, zucchini, eggplant…

Chili – It’s so delicious when you first slow cook it on a weekend, especially if served up with some cornbread. But it will taste even better on Tuesday when it finds its way in a burrito, on Wednesday as a garnish on green beans, or topping a beautifully baked potato on Friday. 

Sweet Corn – When corn is in season, it is eagerly consumed. But often we buy an ear or more too much. The next day, it’s delicious used in any number of ways, but one of my favorites is combined with a can of black beans, some cherry tomatoes, a shallot, and a vinaigrette and we have a tasty and nutritious salad. If you’ve cooked the corn on the grill, even better!

 Ratatouille – One of my favorite dishes to make in the summer when the garden is in full swing. This simmered or baked stew of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and squash can become the filling for a wrap the next day, or a sauce for pastas a couple of nights later. Heat it up for breakfast and simmer some lovely local eggs right in the stew.

Stir-fried or grilled vegetables – We have a stir-fry every week, sometimes multiple times. Any extras make a wonderful salad the next day, by themselves or added to a grain or pasta and livened up with a tangy vinaigrette. 

Pizza – Pop those leftover pizza slices in the oven and reheat the next morning and top with an over easy egg. You’ll get no complaints. Or cut into little squares, top with a bit more cheese and other little tidbits (olives, mushrooms, etc.,) and pop under the broiler. Sprinkle with fresh basil if you have it.

Leftover fruit salad – Make a smoothie of course, or blend into a sauce and freeze for another time. No need to waste.

Cream of Party Platter Soup or Soupe de Crudités – You made this wonderful crudité platter with a rainbow of vegetables, but everyone wanted the stuffed mushrooms and pizza squares. While much of the platter was consumed, you have a couple of quarts of beautifully chopped up veggies to deal with. Stir-fry, of course, steamed or grilled veggies, why not? But what I usually do is toss the entire contents of the platter, garnish and all, in a big pot with lots of water, a few herbs, and the ever-needed bay leaves. Simmer for an hour, then use a stick blender or food processor to purée. Add white of choice, anything from light cream to oat milk, and you have a vat of Cream of Party Platter Soup.

Then there’s those sad little wallflowers we never quite get chosen

There are certain things that are difficult to use up, mostly because after we tuck them in a recipes the rest is just forgotten on the shelf, or looks like it is too little to use. 

That bit of tomato paste in the little can after you only used a tablespoon is one example. One solution for that is to keep a tube of tomato paste in the refrigerator and only use what is needed. It’s more expensive only if you don’t calculate that there is no waste. It also freezes well, and if you remember it is there waiting for you, it adds a lot of flavor and character to sautéed veggies used in soups and stews.

That ½ cup of coconut milk left after a recipe. Yes, you can freeze this too, but probably won’t. Add it to a smoothie, soup, scrambled eggs (not too much), and puréed vegetables which is where mine usually ends up.

Anchovies are sometimes tossed because there is usually more in the little can than is needed in any recipe. It’s a good idea to buy them in a jar packed in oil. They will keep for months. If you have them left from a small can, just tuck the rest in a little jar and cover with olive oil.

The rest of the can of pumpkin purée you didn’t need for the bread. It will sit there making you feel guilty. But it could use this to add some body to a soup or stew without overpowering it. Add it to some hummus. My daughter made this recently, and it was delicious even though pumpkin is not one of my favorite flavors. You could also tuck it in a meatloaf or meatballs, let it hide in some tomato sauce, or even macaroni and cheese.

Every little action counts in the battle against food waste. Every thoughtful act contributes to the solutions, as enormous as it all seems. But it has to start somewhere, and what better place than our own kitchens.

           

     

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