Food Waste Friday | No sighing this week!
Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it's been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
I'm pleased to report that I have no waste this week. Yay! I do, however, have a couple of wrinkly jalapeno peppers that need to be used. I had more than this, and I sliced, seeded and froze those. I suppose I could do that with these last few peppers, but I think it would be a while before I got around to using that many froze hot peppers (we're not big hot pepper eaters here).
Any suggestions? I was thinking of making some Jalapeno Poppers, but they seem to be a fair amount of work, and I'm less than inspired after looking at some recipes.
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Hi -
I loved your beautiful essay on perfection. You're a very smart cookie.
Jalapeno poppers can be a ton of work. What we've done is to cut and seed them, fill with cream cheese, roll in bread crumbs, and bake for about 15 minutes at 375. Some of us love hot peppers, some of us don't. Are tacos, quesadillas or pannins on the menu the next day or two? Omelets, quiche, even diced and put in ground beef/turkey for burgers. How about your tortilla soup? Or a black bean soup? Chopped up and sauteed with the onions in any soup, those peppers would add some background flavor.
I would definitely make jalapeno jelly with them!
Food Waste Friday photos kind of remind me of the gross out pics in biology texts-- the ones you look at through your fingers over your eyes!
Potatoes were our culprit this week 🙁
Pioneer Woman has a stuffed jalapeno recipe on her blog that I've made before ~ good and not too labor intensive. Otherwise, Theresa gave good suggestions. I use them in chili.
Jalapeno popper dip? I've never made it myself, but would assume it's much easier than poppers themselves. A big batch of chili that you can freeze for busy days? Hot sauce? Spicy black bean burgers?
I made the stuffed Jalapeno recipe by the Pioneer Woman. I took it to a potluck at church and came home with an empty plate. They were good!!
Ditto this - those things are addictive. You can search her recipes for bacon-wrapped jalapenos. You'd just need some bacon and some cream cheese. They are phenomenal!
No idea on your peppers, sorry - they are not something we use. I had one cooking apple this week, but the blackbirds are currently tucking into it, so I guess it's not really food waste 😉
I'm going to 2nd the Jalepeno jelly.. yum!! 🙂 I posted my food waste this week, first week joining in! I promise to do better next week! *blush* lol!
We make stuffed jalapenos that sound like what Alison is describing. They are a hit! They have become a tradition at any gathering. We make batches and batches of them all summer. My 14-year-old son loves them and could eat his weight in them if I would let him.
You could make a pesto with basil and olive oil and just throw a couple of the hot peppers into the blender when you are pureeing the pesto. Spread it on sandwiches...excellent with grilled chicken topped with a slice of mozzerella cheese. The hot peppers are not overbearing, and if they are too spicey for your tastes, just add a little tomato sauce to dull it.
Do you have any leftover meat that will need to be used up next week? You could make enchiladas and add the peppers. Yummy.
Poppers aren't that hard! sounds yummy right now.
Here's a Bacon Wrapped Popper Recipe I put on my blog a while back. Even has pictures. 🙂
http://heartofacountryhome.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/holiday-appetizers/
Does it count as a no waste week, if I'm simply ignoring stuff at the back of the fridge?
😉
Katy
That strategy works when I do it!
My week wasn't wasteless, though. I finally gave up on the stuffing I made to do with roast chix for houseguests a few weeks ago - made with homemade bread, boo me. Other than that it was a good week: white rice from someone else's take-out and the usual odds and ends from the dinner plate.
Is it waste if a nonresident brought it into the house? If so, does the answer change if it's something I wouldn't've bought (like that white rice)?
I did my first Food Waste Friday!!
My only suggestions for the peppers are adding them to salsa, pico de gallo, guacamole, or a crockpot of chilli.
Now I want to go make some poppers....
I had some tomatillo salsa that I made up and didn't quite make our expectations. We ate some of it before it went bad, at least.
What about some kind of pepper cheesy Bread??? Dinner rolls?? Corn bread? Now that could be good.
I would second the idea of making the Pioneer Woman's Bacon wrapped Jalapenos. They are delicious! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/
I second Laurie's suggestion to chop 'em up and throw 'em in some bread. I love the idea to add them to your cheesy bread!
I was also going to suggest the bread. Corn bread with the peppers and cheddar cheese served with simple tomato soup .Yummy!
I don't blog, but this week was not a good Food Waste Friday for me . . .
husband is traveling and we had lots of leftovers to use up. Out went some wonderful homemade Italian wedding soup because it wouldn't freeze well with the pasta ruffles --- sigh! I did rescue alot of other things last night by making a big plate of nachoes -- chips that were stale, odds and ends meat a little beef from a roast , 1/2 cup chicked and one shredded pork chop.
I had some baby bok choy bought on sale two weeks ago that got dumped this morning. It was too yellow to use. Usually, I'll cook the vegetables before they get too far gone and freeze them to use later.
If I have a lot of leftover hot peppers, I slice them, put them in a half vinegar, half water brine, heat it together for five minutes, then pour it all into a jar. Store it in the refrigerator when cool. The pepper slices will keep almost forever this way, and you can add just a few at a time to something without defrosting. If you have just a couple of peppers, use a small jelly jar or the equivalent.
Cooked leftovers almost always go to the dogs, since there's nothing I feed my family that the dogs can't eat - very little sugar and salt in the prepared dishes.
Food waste in our house was bad this week. So bad that I didn't even take a picture. 🙁
I always make my jalapeno poppers this way: Slice jalapenos in half and deseed. Fill with a mix of softened cream cheese and chedder (if you don't have any cheese in the house just use cream cheese). Then just wrap half of a slice of bacon around the popper. Make sure the bacon ends are underneath so it doesn't curl up and off the popper. Bake at 350 degrees until bacon is done.
I could make 6 or 30 of these guys but no matter how many, I never have leftovers.
Oh yeah, in one of your cheesy bread or muffin recipes- that would be delicious!
We had moldy clementine tangerines from our CSA- after only 3 days! A fluke, and not our fault, but still waste. To the compost bin!
First week posting my food waste, not too bad - it will get worse as I start to clean out the freezers and pantry, lol!
I would say freeze the peppers and then use them all to make jelly so yummy with gooey cheese sticks. They would also be great int eh cheese bread.
BTW I got a shiny new pan and can't wait to try your hamburger buns again and then onto cheese bread.
I slice them in half and store them in a jar with 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar. They have lasted very nicely like this for me, just barely pickled.
I posted an award for you over on my blog! http://thesavedquarter.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/would-you-look-at-that-im-kreativ/
i'm lazy, but what i do is this:
slice them the long way so you can reach in and scoop out the seeds esp if you don't want it too hot... (but don't cut in 1/2 or anything). shove in a bit of cheese, mozz is great. let it close around the cheese. stick it on a grill for a few minutes (we have a panini type grill that works perfect). then eat.
Breakfast burritos maybe? I tend to scramble odds and ends leftovers into eggs to stretch them into another meal - and breakfast for dinner is a big hit at our house.
Just some lettuce and shallots left over this week and they are going to the worms.
I have an award for you on my blog!
It seems like I always find something that has gone bad in my fridge too. I buy eggs (the perfect protein source), but by the time I get around to boiling them or wanting to cook them, they go bad...
Opps, that reminds me I need to finish off that taco meat!!!
I would make fiesta cornbread with the peppers.
I've skipped out on Food Waste Friday for a couple of weeks, so I'm prepared for a big waste post, hopefully next week. *sigh* It's tough when you're busy and things get pushed towards the back of the fridge. I will conquer food waste though! At least that's my goal. 🙂
I'm passing along a bloggey award to you!
Hope you can play along! http://kolfinnaskorner.blogspot.com/2010/01/im-so-excited.html
Well, if the jalapeno cheese bread is a no go, just dice them up fine and make some salsa (also available at pioneer woman...second to last post I believe!)
Jalapeno poppers are tasty... but the work involved always makes me think twice about them.
if you want you can also chop up the peppers (finely and in small amounts if you have children) and put them in a meatloaf or spaghetti sauce....it gives the dishes a little kick but not to much that you will need a extra glass of milk with your meal to cool your mouth off.