It's been a long time since I posted on this blog. I returned today for a very good reason.
I came up with a new recipe! Back in Mississippi, I got so good at using all my food scraps that I stopped inventing new recipes. There was no reason to. I only bought what I needed, and I used what I bought. But then, we moved in with my parents. Let's just say my family members aren't food waste warriors. Still, I try to live my conscience, and we're all on the same page in that regard. That's why I was able to serve my family a pot full of "stuff I found in the fridge," and they were game to try it. Soup as a Way to Use Up Food I've heard this over and over again: "When you have a bunch of scraps in your fridge, throw it all into a pot and make soup." I love the idea, but I was too nervous to try it. What if the soup was terrible, and then I wasted even more food? But today, I had no choice. Like most Americans, my parents keep their fridge crammed with as much food as they can fit. It drives me nuts. Today, none of it made sense as a meal. My mom was making homemade bread. "I wish we had soup to go with this," she said. I took a deep breath and decided to give it a try. I made soup out of scraps. Thankfully, the soup was delicious. We had no soup leftover, which disappointed everyone. I wish we could have more! Broth versus Stock Part of what made this recipe so good was the stock instead of broth. Broth is water that has been boiled with animal bones; stock is water boiled with bones, vegetables, and herbs. Typically, you drain out the juice and toss all the boiled vegetables, which I don't like, for obvious reasons. I often keep vegetable scraps in the freezer (onion skins, carrot peels, celery leaves, etc.), and when the bag is full, I'll boil it with a rotisserie chicken carcass and some salt, garlic, pepper, bay leaves, and basil. I usually freeze the stock until I decide to make soup. You can buy stock at the store right next to the broth. If you don't have any stock, you'll want to add garlic and herbs to your soup. That's it! Easy, and delicious. Another scrap saved! Creamy Cauliflower and Sausage Soup
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There are a few recipes that are so simple, I finish them and just sort of stand there feeling like I missed something. "Is that really it?" I wonder. I feel that way with baked potatoes. When recipes are so simple that I feel like I'm getting away with something, the usually go in the crock pot. Anyone who has used a crock pot knows of its magic; you dump in the ingredients, leave the house, and come home to dinner. I have yet to test the limits of everything a crock pot can do, and for a long time, it seemed like the only crock pot recipes I could find were shredded meat (like my Green Chili Tacos) and pot roast. I wanted to make complete meals in the crock pot, not part of a meal. Then my mom made me ham lentil soup when she was over, and I am forever grateful, because we needed a good ham recipe. My husband's job gives him one free turkey every Thanksgiving and one free ham every Christmas, and the ham so huge that we have slabs of it crowding our freezer all year long. So, this recipe is #anotherscrapsaved
Since all the ingredients besides the ham are dirt cheap -- lentils, carrots, celery -- it's basically free dinner for us. ...which is convenient, since I've made a goal to save $300 a month in groceries. It's going well so far, but I haven't quite made my goal, so it's too soon for me to present my methods. Stay tuned. But you came here to learn about ham and lentil soup, so without further ado, here's my fav cheap/easy/yummy soup
I have a new Easter tradition!
Lots of recipes call for only one or two carrots: chicken pot pie, chicken noodle soup, casseroles. But stores don't let you buy only one or two carrots. They usually only sell them in 1 lb, 2 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb bags.
I used to only cook with baby carrots for that very reason. I figured we could snack on whatever we didnât cook, since weâre all too spoiled to snack on regular carrots. But baby carrots cost more, and they can still go bad if you donât snack on them.
The moment I started this blog, friend and family started sending me videos, recipes, and articles with food-related ideas to inspire me. One idea I keep seeing over and over again is how to make vegetable broth out of scraps. (Think onions skins, carrot heads, celery leaves, things like that.)
Obviously, that idea is a home run for No Scrap Left Behind. To think that I could turn garbage into something useful and delicious...brilliant! At least, it sounded brilliant.
The video I saw told me to use onion, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley, mushrooms, and potato peels.
Do you have potatoes and onions that need to be eaten up? Maybe they're getting soft, or they have mushy parts, or they've sprouted arms and legs?
You’re in luck, because I have a recipe that calls for potatoes and onions… and that’s it.
It sounds crazy, but it’s a Julia Child recipe, and everything she touches turns to gold. If you don't trust me, trust Julia.
Did you ever read Julie and Julia? It’s about a blogger who made everything in Julia Child’s cookbook in one year. This potato soup recipe is The One that inspired her to start the blog.
One thing that made me sad about the turkey carcass soup recipe was that I could only make it once a year. Then, I got a free rotisserie chicken at Sam’s club and was once again presented with a bird carcass. Lucky! We’ll have to eat rotisserie chicken more often so I can make more soups.
When I searched Pinterest for a carcass soup recipe, I kept running into recipes for stock. “Stock” is basically broth with herbs and vegetables that you remove after it’s done cooking. You can use the stock as a base for soups, or you can eat it as it is.*
I had already made carcass soup, so now I was going to give stock a try.
My quest to end food waste began with a Facebook photo.
Shortly after Thanksgiving, a friend of mine posted that she was making Turkey Carcass Soup. The name sounds overly morbid to me – I dislike the idea of eating “carcass”, even though I do it every day – but I loved the concept of using something I was going to throw away. That’s almost like free food. After she and her family picked off and ate as much turkey meat as they could, she put all the bones in a pot of water and boiled it until all the meat fell off (about four hours). Then she added vegetables and a carbohydrate, and voila! |
I will never waste food againI've been tired of throwing out food for years - not to mention tired of our huge grocery bill! I decided to make a change and vowed never to waste food again. In this blog, I'll show you how I do it. RECIPESArchives
January 2020
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