Comments on: Food Waste Friday-June 19th

By: casey

casey — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:56:14 +0000

I thought I was the only person with the Eternal Problem of Cilantro!! The turkey chili recipe is a good one. My mom also makes a cilantro bean dip that’s amazing, but you use a whole bunch of cilantro, not just a bit.

Now that it’s summer, the best solution to this problem would be to grow a little cilantro! That way you can just clip off what you need.

By: Diane

Diane — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:07:21 +0000

If you have a food dehydrator, cilantro dries very quickly and is just as good as fresh in your recipes. Much better than the store bought in the bottle type. Or use the oven on low heat if no dehydrator.
Fruits and herbs do great in a dehydrator

By: Food Waste: 6/21/09 « The Chicken Coop

Food Waste: 6/21/09 « The Chicken Coop — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:26:58 +0000

[...] you do on your food waste this week? Pop over to the Frugal Girl and see how others [...]

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:03:46 +0000

I’ve not had much luck with freezing muffins… they just don’t taste as fresh and yummy. Instead, if I have muffin leftovers, I cut them into small bits and let them dry. You can use them to make bread pudding
(very yummy), or toast them in the oven and eat them like grape nuts.

By: WilliamB

WilliamB — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:59:41 +0000

Browsing through my personal recipe collection, I found a possible solution to the Eternal Problem of Cilantro.

Turkey Chili:
1 onion, chopped
1 lb ground turkey (or other ground meat)
3+ cloves garlic, crushed
1 c. dry white, black or pinto beans, soaked
28 oz chopped tomatoes & juice
1-2 c. spicy salsa PLUS
2.5 c. liquid (mix of water, tomato juice/V-8, chicken stock)
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
2 c. corn
toppings: tortilla chips, cheese, more cilantry

1. Saute onion till translucent.
2. Add turkey & garlic, saute till meat no longer pink.
3. Add beans, tomatoes, salsa, liquid; enough to cover bean.
4. Simmer till beans cooked, 60-90 min. Or pressure cook till bens done, about 10 min.
5. Uncover, add cilantro, simmer off excess liquid.
6. Turn off heat, add corn.
7. Let rest a day before eating, then season to taste.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:58:51 +0000

Ohhh, I can help with the milk! Whenever I have too much milk, I bake with it (tons of bread recipes call for milk) or I make pudding with it. You can make pudding with milk that’s gone even a bit sour and it’s still just fine.

William’s idea of putting it into a different container is a good one too, though!

Engineer Mom, I would totally freeze the muffins. I never have to do that with muffins (12 muffins don’t go that far with six people), but I do it all the time with other baked goods. And muffins are so easy to defrost, since they’re nice and small.

By: WilliamB

WilliamB — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:43:16 +0000

Rats, I hit “submit” by accident.
Kim – what about decanting your milk into an opaque pitcher? Then it’d be much harder for them to know what the sell-by date is. Your excuse is that milk is healthier from on opaque container than a clear one.

Alternately, no one gets milk till the current container goes bad, even though that’ll mean there will be milkless days. There are even more hard-a** policies, such as measuring how much milk went bad, then buying that much less the next week. E.g., if 1 quart of a gallon went bad, then buy only 3 quarts next week.

By: WilliamB

WilliamB — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:40:04 +0000

@EngineerMom How about freezing the other half dozen for next week? If not, you can cut your recipe in half, unless it calls for an egg. I find it more work than it's worth to beat an egg then split it in half.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:50:21 +0000

My food waste consisted of some leftover frosting, a bit of ham lunchmeat, 3 hard boiled eggs and some milk. This is only my second week, but I can see that milk is going to be my nemesis. The kids won’t touch it past the sell by date, and I am stuggling to find ways to use it.

By: Cate

Cate — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:36:37 +0000

I’m in agreement on tracking food waste being exhausting (especially now that my husband and I are also trying to keep track of a newborn!), but on those weeks when we DON’T waste anything, it’s absolutely thrilling. One of my main motivators is when I remember that throwing away food = throwing away money.