In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we’re challenging ReDux members to show how they reduce food waste. Whatever you would normally toss, use it up. Share tips for reducing food waste in meal planning, prep or using up scraps.

There are so many reasons, from environmental to financial, why reducing food waste is a great goal and if I am being totally honest, it is an area that is still a work in progress for me. While I almost never let cooked food go to waste, I struggle with what to do with all of my vegetable scraps since I don’t have a yard big enough for a compost bin. Some of them I store in gallon-sized freezer bags to use when I make vegetable or chicken broth, but often times those bags (yes, there is more than one) reach capacity and so then I end up tossing peels, ends, and cores—and feeling guilty about it every time. Not very productive, I know.

So, if you are like me and throwing food away makes you crazy, here are some ways to at least start reducing food waste that have worked for me. And, please, please, please share your tips and tricks in the comments so we all can benefit!

1. Keep ends of bread or stale bread in a freezer bag to be used for breadcrumbs. When you find yourself facing those straggler pieces of bread that you know no one will ever eat, rip them up into small pieces and toss them in the bag. Then, when you have a need or when you have some time when you’ll just be kicking it around the house, pour the bread pieces out on to a cookie sheet and put it in a 200 degree oven. Let them slowly dry out in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until all the pieces are super dry, then throw them into your food processor and run it until you have bread crumbs! I do this from time to time and then store them in a sealed jar in my pantry to use as needed.
2. Keep vegetable scraps in freezer bags for making homemade broth. I do this with onion peels, green onion stalks, carrot and celery ends, the stems from greens, mushroom tips, etc. When you want to make the broth, just throw them in a pot, fill with water until just covering the scraps, toss in some bay leaves, thyme, salt, and pepper. Bring it all to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for as long as possible, at least 2 hours. Strain and save for your recipes. I like to save mine in 4-cup portions since that is the most often needed amount.
3. Throw parmesan rinds into soups. Just fish them out when the soup is ready. This will add a depth of flavor and works especially well with minestrones and pureed vegetable soups.
4. Turn your potato or sweet potato peels into crisps! The skin is where many of the nutrients are stored, so tossing these always makes me sad. But no more! These nutrient-packed snacks are so simple, so good, and can be changed up easily by tossing in a spice of choice (chili powder, garam masala, cinnamon, etc.). Here’s the super simple recipe:

<p>The post Potato Skin Crisps and 4 Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

Spring Clean the Kitchen. Cook with at least 3 ingredients that are actually in your refrigerator or pantry right now. Try not to go to the store to buy anything new. Give tips on how to make a healthy dish out of whatever you have on-hand.

This topic is near and dear to my heart and is tied to one of the complaints I hear from people over and over again—that they struggle with food waste—vegetables go bad before they can use them all up, meat is forgotten and goes off, and they are reluctant to buy recipe-specific ingredients because they aren’t sure how they will use the remainders in other recipes. I have even spoken with people who have decided that they’d rather order out instead of grocery shop and cook because the food waste stresses them out so much. I am very sympathetic to this struggle as it is one that I experienced for years when I was first becoming comfortable with cooking. I vividly remember going into my produce drawer and finding slimy green things that made my stomach turn. I also remember struggling with what to do with leftover ingredients from new recipes I had tried (I used to avoid buying cabbage and bok choy at all costs for this reason). Over time, though, as I became more comfortable with cooking and improvising, I found this source of stress started to dissipate and I developed a couple of tricks that were really helpful in avoiding food waste.

To use up vegetables:

• Roast, roast, roast! I have roasted many different vegetables that I have discovered kicking around in my produce drawer from cabbage to rubbery carrots. Once roasted, I use them as a flavor and texture boost in salads or as a topping on my favorite lunch: tostadas.
• Pureed vegetable soup! Anything can go into a pureed vegetable soup: bok choy, lettuce, herbs, celery, it is all fair game in a pureed soup.

To use up meat:

• Freeze it. Just throw it in a freezer Ziploc bag, label it, and freeze for another time.
• Roast it and use in salads, pastas, fried rice, or burritos (that’s what I did when I made the recipe below!).

To use up dairy:

• Heavy or whipping cream can be used to make a soup or pasta creamy.
• Sour cream and yogurt can be used in soups or in baking.
• Cheeses can go into a mac n cheese, burritos, as a variation on top of pizza, or on salads.

“That’s all fine and good,” I hear you saying, “but when am I supposed to cook those things?” Next week. Seriously. Here’s what I mean: when you sit down to come up with your meal plan or shopping list for the next week, the first step should always be to check your fridge and pantry for things that need to get used up. That way you can include them in your planning. If you take this step and successfully use up the food that is already in your fridge I guarantee that not only will you feel better about cooking, but your grocery bills will drop, too! It’s a win-win.

Ok. So now that I’ve shared those tips with you, let’s talk about waffleritos. I love these so, so much. I first discovered the idea of making cornbread waffles on the Hilah Cooking blog and was blown away by the simplicity and flexibility of them. We enjoy them as sandwiches with cream cheese, topped with maple syrup like classic waffles, and, of course, as waffleritos.

So this week what I had to work with was two eggs, collard greens, black beans, two chicken thighs, a couple of grape tomatoes, and a stub of cheese. I thought of doing some sort of fried rice, but then decided that I wanted to push the envelope a little with these waffleritos. What is a wafflerito? It is a cornmeal waffle used as the base for burrito fillings. In other words, heaven on a plate. When I made this for my family they were an instantaneous hit! Everyone got to top them with their favorite toppings, it was just different enough to be fun but not so different that it was intimidating (for over-tired kiddos after a long, fun weekend), and it was on the table in 30 minutes. I put out black beans, roasted chicken, Brazilian-style collard greens, chopped tomatoes, avocado, grated cheese, and salsa. Any toppings you would put on a burrito would work with these, or really whatever you’ve got in the fridge. In other words, make them your own!

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Waffle-ritos: And How to Use Up the Food You Already Have in Your House

Course Brunch, Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Mexican, Tex-Mex

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• Waffles:
• 2 cups cornmeal
• ¼ cup corn starch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• ½ cup frozen corn
• 1 ½ cups plain yogurt could also use up buttermilk or sour cream here
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• Toppings pick your favorites or work with what you have on hand:
• 1 15- oz can black beans drained and rinsed (or 2 cups homemade black beans)
• 1-2 cups diced cooked chicken or another protein
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• Chopped vegetables of your choice tomatoes, lettuce/greens, bell peppers, green onion, avocado, leftover roasted vegetables, etc.
• Salsa or hot sauce
• Chili powder garlic powder, and oregano can all be used to season the beans and meat, if desired.
• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on meat if cooking.

Instructions

• To make the waffles:
• Spray your waffle iron with cooking spray and set it up to preheat.
• In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chili powder and mix it well.
• Mix in the frozen corn. Then mix in the wet ingredients and stir until well combined.
• When your waffle iron is ready, start making your waffles, setting a timer for each waffle so you don’t forget them but can also work on preparing the toppings at the same time.
• To make the toppings:
• If you will be cooking chicken, preheat the oven to 425.
• If you will be cooking chicken, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay your meat on top. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Place in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
• Put your beans into a small saucepan and warm over a medium-low heat. If you are using canned beans you can add extra flavor by seasoning with chili powder, oregano, and/or garlic powder, if you wish.
• Prepare your vegetable toppings and grate your cheese.

Notes

Adapted from Hilah Cooking Cornbread Waffle

<p>The post Waffleritos: And How to Use Up the Food You Already Have in Your House first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

Considering it was the end of January, though, and we hadn’t had a cold or flu in the house yet this season, I really couldn’t complain, but just got focused on pulling out all the cold soothing techniques I could. This time ‘round the thing that was most appealing to everyone was broth-based soups. First it was chicken noodle, then it was vegetable noodle, and then there were some of us who just drank broth straight.

People often ask me if making your own broth is worth the effort and this is what I say: homemade broth is incredibly simple to make, tastes better, is a great use of food scraps if food waste irks you like it does me, and can be a fantastic additional source of vitamins and minerals, BUT if buying the pre-packaged stuff is going to get you into the kitchen and actually making the soup/stew/risotto/etc., then just use that.

That being said, here’s why I became committed to making my own: When I was first seriously getting into cooking I couldn’t figure out why my mom’s soups were so much better than mine. I followed her recipes exactly, I splurged on higher quality ingredients, but they were just never as good. So finally I asked her why and her answer was immediate: it is all about the broth. And she was right! Once I started making my own and letting it cook for a long, long time, the quality of my soups skyrocketed and I never looked back!

Have I convinced you to try it out yet? I hope so! Before we dive right into the recipe, though, I want to share some important tips I have gathered over the years:

• Save your vegetable scraps for broth! Kale or chard stems, fennel fronds, vegetable peels, all of it! The way I do this is that I have a freezer bag that lives in my freezer and whenever I have some scraps I just throw them in. Then I’ll just grab what I need whenever I make broth.
• Save your bones (if you eat meat) for broth! Chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, all those bones work well. Same as the vegetables, I just have freezer bags for each type of bone in my freezer in my freezer.
• The longer you cook it, the better it will be. You can do this with a stock pot on the stove or with a slow cooker.
• Adding 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to your meat-based broth will turn it into bone broth, which is incredibly nourishing because it draws out all the vitamins and minerals from the marrow and these are vitamins and minerals that many of us are deficient in. Bone broth can be used anywhere that stock would be used!

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Homemade Stock

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 hours hours

Total Time 10 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 large onion peel on
• 1-2 carrots peel on
• 1-2 celery stalks with leaves
• 1 turnip optional
• Bones optional- about the same amount as would be in one chicken
• 1-2 cups additional vegetable scraps optional for animal-based broth, recommended for vegetable broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar optional for bone broth
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Wash all your vegetables. Put all the ingredients in a stock pot or slow cooker. Cover with water. If using a stock pot, bring to a boil and then turn down to low. Cook for at least 2 hours, but the longer the better—my mom does hers overnight. If using a slow cooker, set it for 10-12 hours and if it then switches to warming until you can get to it, that is fine!
• Once the broth is ready, put a mesh strainer over a bowl or large measuring cup and strain out the bones and vegetables. Measure out either 2- or 4-cup quantities and pour into freezer-safe containers. Let it cool completely and then put lids on. Label with the amount that is in each container and freeze.

<p>The post Surviving a Cold and Homemade Stock: It is easier than you think! first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

But as I have gotten more and more into my own version of making the most of my food there were certain things I noticed that I was still throwing away and it bothered me. Beet greens, carrot greens, fennel fronds, to name a few. The beet greens were easy- sautéing them as I would kale or chard is delicious, especially as a warm salad with roasted beets and some feta! The fennel fronds have been a wonderful addition to my stocks. But carrot greens?

This dilemma bummed me out so much that I often skipped the beautiful bunches of carrots at the CSA or grocery store because I just didn’t want to face wasting the greens. I felt like there had to be an option, especially once I learned that they were not poisonous as I had heard once.  So I started poking around and found that they were great in stocks and salads. And then I thought of pesto. So I tried it out and… it is amazing!! A little spicy and full of spring flavor, sort of like arugula pesto.

For Father’s Day I used some in our appetizer with French bread rounds and tomatoes. To. Die. For.

So, please, next time you pick up one of those wonderful bunches of carrots, don’t throw the greens away, make some pesto instead!

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Carrot Greens Pesto (or ways to reduce food waste)

Course Dinner

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped carrot greens stems removed and saved for stock
• 1 clove garlic roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons toasted walnuts
• ¼ cup grated parmesan
• ¼ cup olive oil
• salt & pepper

Instructions

• Combine carrot greens, garlic, walnuts, and parmesan in a food processor. Once they have started to blend together, slowly pour in the olive oil while the food processor continues to run. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

This pesto freezes well, so if you have more than a cup of greens, just adjust the recipe to fit your needs and freeze the pesto in small containers.

<p>The post Carrot Greens Pesto (or ways to reduce food waste) first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>

I love bok choy. I really do. I love it in stir fry because it adds such a wonderful crunch and flavor. There is only one problem: unless I am making a stir fry to feed 10, I always have leftover bok choy and I just don’t know what to do with it. Now, as I have written about before, I hate wasting food, so I have tried it in salads and have never been crazy about it. I have tried braising it and that’s ok. But I really wanted to find a way to use my leftover bok choy that would be tasty and exciting. And I finally did! Sweet potato-bok choy soup.

Similar to many sweet potato soups, this soup is creamy, sweet, and needs a little spice to make it really sing. But once I found the right balance—to die for! And the best part: it can be made in the slow cooker with just a few minutes of prep time, which makes it a great weeknight meal. This soup is also great for meal planning because one night you can have stir fry and the next this soup, and you’ll only have to buy one bunch of boy choy!

And now confession time: I have a nice little picture to show you the prepped veggies in the slow cooker (which also betrays the almost-dire state the bok choy was in by the time I got around to making this batch of soup), but in my frazzled one-kid-is-on-spring-break-and-the-other-isn’t state last week, I forgot to take a picture of the final product, which we had with soda bread rolls, cheese, kerrygold butter, and a side salad. Yum! But you’ll just have to trust me that it was beautiful, and maybe when one of you makes the soup you can send me a picture to add…

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Sweet Potato-Bok Choy Soup

Course Dinner, Slow Cooker

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 hours hours

Total Time 5 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Author Jessica Braider

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato peeled and cut up into 1-inch cubes
• ½ bunch bok-choy roughly chopped
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 4 medium carrots peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 clove garlic peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 6 cups stock chicken or veggie
• salt and pepper
• Yogurt optional

Instructions

• Prepare the vegetables. Dump all of the ingredients, except the yogurt, into the slow cook and give a good stir. Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 7-8. Puree with an immersion blender or in a blender in batches. Serve with a dollop of yogurt for added creaminess.

<p>The post Sweet Potato-Bok Choy Soup first appeared on The Balanced Kitchen.</p>