Day 1: Coconut chicken soup
Day 2: Fried rice with spinach, carrots, daikon radish, and eggs
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Microgreens salad
Day 4: Beef stroganoff over mashed potatoes, Leftover salad
Day 5: Homemade hummus plate with pita bread, olives, carrots, radishes
Day 6: Eggplant parmesan (last one frozen from 2020!)
Day 7: Lentil soup with garlic olive oil, Crusty bread
Note: Using Food Scraps
One note on the meal plan this week – save yourself some time and make a big batch of rice that you can split between the coconut chicken soup and the fried rice.
We are in week 4 of my miniseries on reducing food waste. Of course no matter how great you are at meal planning, shopping, cooking, and eating there are going to be some food scraps. Bits of vegetable ends, orange peels, and bread crusts. The good news is that there are some pretty great ways to use those food scraps.
Make vegetable or bone broth: This is so easy!! I keep two zip lock bags in my freezer (same ones for about 5 years now!) One of the bags is for veggie scraps and the other for leftover chicken and turkey bones. When the bags are getting full or my freezer stock is low, that is how I know it is time to make some broth! Simply dump the scraps and bones into a large stock pot, cover with water and simmer for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days. Strain and freeze in 1 cup, 2 cup, and quart size portions for cooking. I will have a detailed post on how I do this coming up soon.
Dehydrate: I have been able to save some citrus from the landfill by making candied peels. You cut the peels into 1/4 inch thick slices and boil for 20 minutes to remove the bitter flavor. Then cook in a simple syrup of 1 part water to 1 part sugar until nice and thick. Place in a dehydrator or oven on low heat until dried out (takes several hours). The result is a wonderful, chewy treat with an intense citrus flavor. They are awesome dipped in chocolate.
Feed your animals: You have to be careful with this one and double check that foods are okay for your precious pets to eat. We do feed our dog the occasional salmon skin and chicken scraps. Our hens get a variety of vegetable scraps and apple cores. Believe it or not, chickens also can eat crushed up eggshells as a calcium source.
Compost: This ultimately is the best solution to deal with food scraps. When combined with other organic matter like dried leaves or cardboard, invisible microbes will turn your scraps into a nutritional soil that can be used in your garden in as little as 1 month. Some municipalities are offering drop sites or pick-up for commercial composting. There are also private companies that will do this for you. But… try it yourself at home! Composting is truly very easy to do. You could even simply start piling up scraps and other matter in your yard and they will eventually break down. Stay tuned for an in depth post on home composting later this week so you can try it out yourself.
