Recently someone in our Frugal Living Facebook Group recommended the book Cooking Scrappy: 100 Recipes to Help You Stop Wasting Food, Save Money, and Love What You Eat. It sounded so interesting, so I went ahead and ordered it. However, while waiting for it to arrive, I realized I already cook with scraps. Here are a few of the things I already do to reduce food waste. Try them out and save on the food monthly food bill!
Vegetable Peels
There are a number of ways I use my vegetable peels. I peel and can several pounds of carrots a month and I always peel them first for a cleaner look and to make them more versatile to use when I open them up. I use up the peels in the following ways.
- Feed them to the chickens.
- Make carrot peel cake.
- Add them to the water when making vegetable stock.
- Make carrot peel pesto.
Bone Stock
Whether it be chicken, pork or beef, I always cut our meat off the bones before serving dinner and save the bones for bone stock. Bones make a delicious, nourishing broth that enhances any soup you make. Mary from Mary’s next has some wonderful videos on how to make a bone stock that you’ll want to check out.
Stale Bread Croutons
We use stale bread of all types to make toasty croutons rich with flavor. To make the croutons, cut your bread into 1-inch squares. Rough measurements are fine here. Toss the bread in a bowl with a mixture of butter, garlic and onion powder. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Save the Stems
Many people throw away their mushroom stems and broccoli stems, especially if they’re going for a dish with a pretty presentation. I never throw my stems away! Mushroom stems are wonderful in soup and broccoli stems make a lovely salad.
These are just a few of the kitchen scraps that I try to make good use of. What do you do with your kitchen scraps?