I don't like leftover popcorn.
Relevant because, this week in food waste:
The avocado was one of those odd ones that went straight from hard to rotten. The berries, I forgot about.
And the popcorn...well, I guess I just made too much. Sometimes we do well at eating leftover popcorn, but this time, we didn't.
The butter somehow makes it kind of soggy, so I have to be pretty darn hungry to eat leftover popcorn. You?
I did work on some saves, though. I found four (!) zucchinis that were teetering on the line between fresh and rotten, so I shredded them up.
A pound of them went into this loaf of zucchini bread, which is quite delicious, I must say.
And I haven't decided what to do with the rest. I'd have made more bread, but someone (cough, cough, me) forgot to get eggs at the grocery store, so I only had enough eggs for one loaf.
So, I'm probably going to have to haul myself to the store to buy some eggs.
While I was in food-saving mode, I decided to round up all the tomatoes with bad spots and turn them into some sauce. Lisey blanched and peeled them for me, so now they just need to be turned into a quick sauce.
Also, I'm giving myself food waste points because last night, I really did not want to cook dinner, but I had these chicken breasts that I'd thawed and then not used for a few days. They really needed to be cooked or I was gonna have to throw them out.
So, cook them I did.
I used an ATK recipe for maple-glazed chicken breasts, and while the glaze was great, I thought the chicken itself needed more flavor. I think salting the chicken and letting it sit overnight before cooking would make this way better.
(The recipe was from the quick cookbook, which means they couldn't recommend overnight salting. But if I salt something the night before and then throw the meal together the next night, I still feel like that's a pretty quick meal.)
Anyway, I did not have to throw out the chicken breasts, so, yay me!
________________
How was food waste at your house this week? Any saves or losses? And can we help you figure out how to use up something? Ask in the comments, and the dear people here will be sure to have suggestions!
________________
P.S. Don't forget to snag your free Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap from ePantry before the offer is over on Sunday.
(Existing ePantry customers, use this link for 50% off Dr. Bronner's!)
I will eat leftover popcorn all the time. Sometimes I eat it for breakfast. My grandmother used to eat it as breakfast cereal (with milk and sugar) but that was something I could never do, even though I will eat leftover rice with milk and brown sugar.
You can re-crisp the popcorn by putting it on a cookie sheet in the oven for a few minutes, then spray with cooking spray and add some seasonings. I re-crisp stale potato chips, cheese curls or just about any cracker or snack food this way.
A certain dog in our household took it upon himself to manage most of our potential food waste this week. He ate bagels, a loaf of failed homemade bread (didn't let the dough thaw enough from the fridge, so it was bake but still doughy inside), and some leftover pancakes. How thoughtful of him.
The dogs also got some chicken gravy, but that was an intentional treat.
We still had a little bit of food waste, with some potential for more. The beets I roasted did not agree with me, and I wasn't willing to try to save them after they gave me a stomachache. A few odds and ends from a stir-fry, plus the leftover prepared stir fry with rice; I'll eat those for dinner if hubs doesn't. Half a bag of prepared fruit pie filling (homemade, but old after defrosting...).
But you can be sure your chocolate cake recipe was never at risk for the compost bin! 😉
I make air pop popcorn and drizzle melted white chocolate over it, so no leftovers. 🙂 And yes, I would eat them if there were. 🙂
You can use flax eggs. (My whole food life.) 1 Tbl ground flax, 3 Tbl water. 🙂
I had one of those avocados last week too! It was like throwing out $1, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
I had a fairly large collection of stale bread that went to a co-worker for her chickens. I won't get any eggs out of the deal, but that's OK. I made about seven freezer meals, too, and have them happily frozen, waiting for my crock pot to do it's magic.
I agree with you, home made popcorn is only good fresh. But theater popcorn is still good the next day (because of all the crap they put in it, I guess, to preserve it).
My wastes this week : 2 pizza pita loaded with veggies and cheese (insert sad face). The kids did not want them, I already ate, and my husband can't eat that. The next day it's just disgusting, so in the compost it went. I think that's it.
Have a great week-end!
I channelled you and your readers this week. Neither of us had been to the grocery store for a week or so, BUT I was able to turn two tomatoes with soft spots, the ends of some mozzarella and Parmesan, one lone link of Italian turkey sausage and some basil from the garden into a pizza.
Yay you!!!!
My son loves leftover popcorn, so he often eats it a breakfast. However I do have the same problem with the avocados. They aren't cheap to begin with, but when you lose an avocado because it goes from not ripe to rotten in no time at all it stinks.
Butter makes popcorn soggy because of the milk solids. If you melt the butter, then skim off the whitish stuff that floats to the top, then you get clarified butter (or ghee, you can find one or the other in fancier grocery stores), which won't leave that odd soggy kernel that is super gross.
Oh, interesting. I'll have to try that.
I love leftover popcorn...I too, sometimes eat it for breakfast. That would never go to waste at our house! 🙂
We have done well with food waste this week except for one whole bag of onions from Aldi. They all were rotten when I went to use them. I know many of you love Aldi's produce, but for some reason the produce I get at our Aldi goes bad really quickly. Never have that problem when I get produce at Harris Teeter or Publix. I think from now on, I will stick with things that are non-produce from Aldi, as the savings is lost in waste.
That's really unfortunate about your Aldi produce. They do have a really good return policy, though - they give your money back AND give you a replacement item. I had this happen with a brick of cheese once, on which the plastic wrap was not properly "shrunk." It got moldy well before the "Use By" date and they replaced it and refunded my money. Perhaps you could try this - and if you got another bag of onions, you could try dicing and freezing them for use later.
Was not aware of their return policy. Thanks.
This was a good week for us waste-wise; nothing major comes to mind. We did not eat some bananas before they went brown, so I froze them and used them in smoothies.
I thawed some aging, raw frozen chicken thighs and cooked them in the crockpot in broth to make shredded chicken. I subbed some into a soup recipe that calls for a whole breast (I actually prefer it with the shredded!, used some in fried rice, and still have one easy-to-use package in the freezer. My freezer is getting out of hand, so I am trying to eat it down!
There was one lone package of shredded TACO chicken in the freezer. I cooked up some dried pinto beans I had lying around, mixed them together, added spinach and cheese and presto: burritos!
If you don't add butter then popcorn is good leftover. I don't usually add butter to mine, and my little 5 ye old popcorn lover will always eat it 🙂
If you shopped for eggs, you could make fritters with the shredded zucchini. If not, I like to quickly saute them along with julienned carrots, red peppers and leeks (if you have any of those) and then finish with thyme and garlic.
I make zucchini patties sometimes, which are a lot like fritters, I think? Except my recipe calls for egg. Ha.
If you don't get to the store today I've found that you can freeze shredded zuchinni. Something else I read said to squish the extra water out, but I usually add it to chili with grated carrots to add some veggies so I don't bother. 🙂 I usually prep all old looking veggies and get them frozen flat and in our freezer
Yes, freeze the shredded zucchini. Makes a great addition to soup in the winter!
no eggs needed simply blend up the extra zucchini and use about 3 tbsp a to replace each egg in your recipe. We do 225grams blended fruit or veg, 225grams flour 100 to 150grams on sugar you can add to taste at end as no eggs means safe to eat raw batter, a dash of vanilla and spices, 3teaspoons of baking powder, 75mls of oil and add water a tablespoon at a time til soft batter is formed. Spoon into cupcake papers or tin and bake for 15 mins or 35 to 45 mins at 180degrees Celsius. We've done apple and zucchini, pear and zucchini, banana, beetroot and chocolate.
Oh, beet...interesting! I'd not have thought to bake with that.
There's never any popcorn leftover in our house thank goodness. I had quite a lot of new potatoes in a potatoes salad as my food waste this week. Have a great weekend x
Hi! You mentioned not remembering to buy eggs. In a sweet receipe one half of a banana equals one egg. I use this tip all the time. Happy baking!
I'm not sure there's enough popcorn in the world to create leftovers in my house...
Freeze that zucchini if you don't have time or ingredients to make it into bread. My zucchini bread recipe calls for 2 cups, so that's how much I freeze in each container. I just dump it in a freezer bag or container and pop it in the freezer.
When I thaw it, I drain off excess moisture before putting it in the bread batter. Or I throw the zucchini into spaghetti sauce. Or veggie soup. Or you could substitute it for pumpkin in a pie. Or muffins. Or throw some in pancakes. It's quite versatile.
If you were really not in the mood to cook dinner, you could also have cooked (baked or poached) the chicken breasts without seasoning, then shredded it and frozen it to use later. When I homeschooled (ie, when life was extra-busy), I often pre-cooked meat (hamburger w/onion & peppers, chicken, turkey) then froze it in meal-sized packages. What a great time-saver on a busy night! Just pull out a package of cooked meat, throw in a sauce of some sort, cook up some pasta, and dinner is served!
I did think about that option...but then I remembered that this recipe involved little more than roasting, so I decided to just soldier my way on through!
You can also go the vegan route and make a flax egg. Flax is pretty shelf stable and easy to keep.
My sister swears by using old popcorn as a crouton substitute in tomato soup. I am not much of a tomato soup fan, so I've never tried it, but it's one of her favorite meals.
As a child my mother put leftover popcorn in a zippy bag in the freezer. It is absolutely sooooo good. It does not actually freeze but stats super crispy.
I do it now with my own children (on the rare occasion that there is leftover popcorn.)
Give it a try!
Angela
Oh, that seems easy enough. I'll definitely try this next time.
I love leftover popcorn that was not popped in the mircowave. I manged to make a few saves this last week! I also froze a lot of tomatoes, saved some time by freezing them whole.
If you desperately put butter on each individual serving of popcorn, there is no sogginess with the untouched popcorn, which can then be made into popcorn balls or mixed with melted white chocolate
We make our popcorn in a pot with a lid and a layer of coconut oil on the bottom. Then we just salt the popcorn while it's still warm. We munch it for breakfast the next day if there's some left.
You can grind up the left over popcorn to make popcorn flour for bread. I've not tried it but the Washinting Post did an article on it.
Try putting the popcorn in chocolate chip cookies (ie. mix them in when you put the chips in, may have to reduce the amount of chips...). Surprisingly good.