Recycle! Reduce! Re-use!

Recycle!  Reduce!  Re-use! 
I'm Talkin' FOOD here!!

Did y'all watch The Big Waste on the Food Network Sunday evening?  OMG!  I'll never look at a food blemish the same way again!  I try not to throw food out.  I try to use it before it spoils.  Or, at least freeze it for later use if I'm not gonna use it right away.   I also compost peelings from vegs and fruit, eggshells, coffee and tea grounds and their filters, shredded newspaper, etc.  Black Gold is the result!

Being from the "use everything" school, I've learned a lot about using as much of the item as possible before tossing it.  For example, canning apples:  after peeling (or not!) place the peelings, cores and seeds into a separate pot to cook for awhile = natural pectin for thickening  jellies, pie fillings, etc.  Chicken carcass or beef bones?  Slow cook with water = stock!   Cold Coffee?  Iced Coffee!  Any leftover vegs, pasta or meat - toss into a freezer bag or container and make soup!  Leftover or stale bread = freeze it until there is enough for bread pudding!  And more recently, I was making garlic potatoes (any leftovers will become potato soup for our next chilly evening!).  I usually use a potato peeler so there is as little waste as possible.  This time I peeled with a paring knife, leaving some of the potato intact with the skin.  I then micro-steamed them tender and deep fried them.  Amazing potato skins! 

And!  Who doesn't love roasted garlic?  I love fresh garlic, but I took a shortcut and bought a large jar of garlic cloves to a larger amount of roasted garlic.  Normally, you would just cut off the top portion of the whole garlic exposing the cloves, drizzle with olive oil and salt and roast in foil til tender.  I just dumped the entire quart of already peeled cloves onto foil and drizzled them with olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt (tightly enclosed in foil) and roasted them for an hour at 300 degrees.  Amazing results!  Tender, smooth, yummy!  I mashed a dozen with a fork and incorporated them into the mashed potatoes!  Da Bomb!  Just store in fridge or freezer til ready to use!  Add to hummus!!  Mix with buttah and spread on bread!  Add to ANYTHING!!!

On another note, I'm starting another round of juicing tomorrow.  My husband returned home with loads of produce for me!  Gotta get all this scrubbed and bagged today!  I'm shooting for a week at a time.  I may go a full 30 days again.  We'll see!

Tune in tomorrow for Semi-Wordless Wednesday!  Who knows what the topic will be?!!!