Reducing Food Waste Recipe Sharing/Tips & Kitchen Scrap Tips

tinkerbellang83

I have been trying to make a conscious effort to cut down on waste at home mostly by choosing bigger pack sizes for cleaning materials or making my own. I do already try to reduce my food waste by being more conscious about my grocery shopping by planning ahead, but after reading an article earlier, I am sure there are far more kitchen scraps I could re-purpose.

Some of the things I do already are:

• Planting sprouted garlic cloves
• Using Orange & Lemon peels to infuse into vinegar for a worktop cleaner/glass cleaner.
• Using leftover fruit to infuse vodka for Birthday/Christmas gifts.
• Roasting Potato Peelings
• Using Broccoli & Cauliflower stalks for soups (often freezing them so I can make a bigger batch)
• Growing Avocado Plants from stones.
• Making Banana Bread from overripe bananas

I did also try growing plants from Pineapple tops but have yet to get that to work.

I've also just discovered but yet to try Pickled Watermelon Rind and Baked Banana Skins.

Share yours too.....

amtyrell

Compost bin. It all goes to help my garden which provides more vegetables.

tinkerbellang83

amtyrell wrote: »

Compost bin. It all goes to help my garden which provides more vegetables.

Yeah we have a composting recycle bin which is part of our refuse collection contract, but still would like to try and cut down on that too. I live in an Apartment block so don't have a garden to have a personal compost bin for.

missysippy930

You can grow romaine lettuce from the root end by putting it in water. I use a pint canning jar. You don’t want it totally immersed, just the root end.

tinkerbellang83

missysippy930 wrote: »

You can grow romaine lettuce from the root end by putting it in water. I use a pint canning jar. You don’t want it totally immersed, just the root end.

Thanks I do this with cut herbs too, I always struggle to grow Thyme in soil but popped some in water the other day to keep it fresh and to my amazement it grew 10x better than it does when I've tried in soil

hmaddpear

I make vegetable stock from the outside leaves of vegetables, onion skins, herb stalks, and peelings. Pretty much everything except potato, sweet potato and anything actively mouldy. I store it in my freezer until I've a full bag, then simmer it in water for about an hour and a half. Leave to cool, strain and freeze until I make a stew, soup or rice dish.

MaltedTea

Similar to @hmaddpear, I save veggie cuts.

Also purposefully buy shell-on shrimp and save the shells in the freezer until I have enough to make a stock. And for canned fish in water, I save the water in ice cube trays. Mix those two together and you have fun, tasty dashi.

And when whole chicken is on sale, I'll roast two at a time just to save the bones (the meat of one is shredded and put in the freezer, the meat of the other is eaten fresh within two days).

So basically, different homemade stocks. I rarely buy stock from the store (too salty and, somehow, bland?!)

acpgee

I have something called the bone bag in the freezer. Besides vegetable peels and trimmings I dump all the bones from eating bone in chicken, beef and pork. Don't forget to save bones from ready made food such as rotisserie chicken or even KFC. If I ate more shellfish I would have one for seafood like @MaltedTea. When the bone bag is full I make stock, often adding a halved onion, skin and all (which gives a nice golden colour). I also boil down my stocks to concentrate them so they take less room to store in the freezer.

I've just ordered a few re-usable silicon food bags from a company called Stasher on amazon. Hoping they work to cut down on single use ziplock bags.

tinkerbellang83

acpgee wrote: »

I've just ordered a few re-usable silicon food bags from a company called Stasher on amazon. Hoping they work to cut down on single use ziplock bags.

I have a few of those and the stretchy silicone food covers too. I've not tried them with wet contents yet but they are great for keeping stuff fresh in the fridge.

missysippy930

Another tip I have to keep greens fresh longer is I wash it as soon as I get home from the store and spin it dry in my salad spinner. We like a mix of romaine, spinach and arugula. After spinning, I lay it out on a double layer of paper towels and let it get even drier. After about an hour, I roll the mix up, jelly roll style, put it in a gallon ziplock bag (horizontally) leave the ziplock open and put in the vegetable crisper. It stays fresh a lot longer.
Similar thing with fresh berries (except raspberries, they’re too fragile). I wash & hull (strawberries) them. Let air dry in single layer. Wash the original container in hot soapy water. Rinse and completely dry container. Line the container with a paper towel. Put the dry cleaned berries back in the container and refrigerate. They stay fresh longer.

tinkerbellang83

missysippy930 wrote: »

Another tip I have to keep greens fresh longer is I wash it as soon as I get home from the store and spin it dry in my salad spinner. We like a mix of romaine, spinach and arugula. After spinning, I lay it out on a double layer of paper towels and let it get even drier. After about an hour, I roll the mix up, jelly roll style, put it in a gallon ziplock bag (horizontally) leave the ziplock open and put in the vegetable crisper. It stays fresh a lot longer.
Similar thing with fresh berries (except raspberries, they’re too fragile). I wash & hull (strawberries) them. Let air dry in single layer. Wash the original container in hot soapy water. Rinse and completely dry container. Line the container with a paper towel. Put the dry cleaned berries back in the container and refrigerate. They stay fresh longer.

I find keeping berries in glass jars keeps them fresh too.

aokoye

I agree with everyone who mentioned saving meat scraps for stock (you can make stock from any meat/fish - not just chicken). I know of people who will also freeze or dehydrate vegetable scraps for the same reason.

In addition to this. Most berries freeze very well and are good in smoothies and baked goods and egg shells can be used as a source of calcium for plants. While yes you can save broccoli and cauliflower stocks for steps and such, you can also just eat them the same way you would the florettes, though if it's especially woody you may want to take a vegetable peeler to it.

Katmary71

I'm another that doesn't throw out food, I prioritize things by when they go bad so for example, kale and spinach are cooked with first, potatoes and winter squash last. I just canceled Imperfect Produce because I've had about 6 boxes have a spoiled vegetable and I can't stand tossing food even if I get refunds, supposedly the box is about rescuing produce from being wasted. I also make broth with scraps or compost them. I grow my own herbs, some vegetables, and microgreens, tried lettuce inside but it's not growing well.

acpgee

I grow microgreens too from dried pulses sold for eating too. I normally get three diminishing crops every two weeks. Apparently you can do microgreens from corn sold for popping too but I haven't tried that yet.
https://verticalveg.org.uk/how-to-grow-pea-shoots/

serindipte

Haven't seen this one mentioned... if my bananas are heading into over-ripe, I slice and freeze them for smoothies. Same with other fruits.

acpgee

Moving fruits from the fruit bowl to the fridge will stop ripening too. We do this with pears and avocados.

allieeveryday

I'm also a veggie-scrap saver for broth, but I never thought to save shrimp shells! I'm going to start doing that, and the tuna-water thing too...

When I do make broth, I let it cool enough to put it in freezer-safe mason jars and let them cool in the fridge, then freeze. (Your jars MUST be freezer-safe! Learn from my mistakes! )

Whenever I make a big batch of something, if I don't think we'll get through it fast enough I try to freeze it in individual lunch containers so it's easy to pull like a microwave meal.

mockchoc

I freeze a lot of things so they don't go bad faster than I can use them. Washed whole fresh young ginger (thin shinny skinned) is put in a zip lock bag and frozen then grated straight into meals skin on then straight back in there so it never defrosts. I buy whole bunches of celery because it works out cheaper here than cut sticks or half bunches. Wash it and slice it in the food processor then into bags in suitable portions for stews and soups etc.. same with onions but freeze on a baking paper lined tray first then bag it up. Rarely need to chop onions then except for mainly salads.

Bananas get thrown in whole as then left to defrost when I'll use it for a cake or smoothie. All sorts of flours, nuts and seeds are great kept there especially if you live where it's hot like me. I kept instant yeast powder in there for ages, saffron since I use it rarely, grated cheeses, Parmesan cheese rinds for soups or tomato bases sauces, dried Chinese scallops since they are expensive and you use very little and I have to buy multiple bags when travelling since I can't get them here. If I can't use a lemon or lime quick enough I'll throw it in whole or juice it first. Leftover tomato paste in silicon ice cube trays.. tons more I can't think of right now.

For anyone that lives where you get to eat lots of crabs/lobster/other crayfish you can do what someone else said about saving their shells like shrimp to make stock.

tinkerbellang83

I freeze a lot too, I usually keep diced bell peppers, ginger and garlic in the freezer, I re-use hummus/dip containers to keep them in.

I also freeze grated cheddar/mozzarella and parmesan for use in recipes/toasted sandwiches and breadcrumbs.

acpgee

I just made a meringue disk for pavlova using aquafaba for the first time. It works! So folks, don't toss the liquid at the bottom of a tin of chick peas. Another use for aquafaba I saw online was vegan mayonnaise.

mockchoc

I've read things good things lately about keeping your eggshells to add to your stock/broth so from today adding them into my container of assorted bones and veggie scraps. This is one of them if anyone is interested in the benifits. I do all mine in my pressure cooker.

https://thehealthytomato.com/egg-shell-bone-broth-2/