Bideshis No More: When Bad Food Can Be Used for Good

Sunday, February 12, 2012

When Bad Food Can Be Used for Good

I'm trying to be a better steward of my fridge these days. The average American wastes over half-a-pound of food every day, and unfortunately, I'm probably pretty average in this respect. You would think having your own fridge would make things better, but it just means that you have nobody else to blame. I tend to be a grazer, eating small meals, and boyfriend's odd hours means that I am cooking for myself most of the time with no human garbage disposal on hand. So all of this leads to wasted food. I'm working on planning better, but in the meantime, here are three ways I managed to save bad food this week:

1. From The Burlap Bag, I found this easy tutorial on making your own veggie broth using vegetable scraps. My freezer will soon be full of ice cubes that are not water - I guess I better label to avoid surprises.

2. I was sad to find that my grapefruit had gone bad, but thanks to Pinterest via Apartment Therapy, I learned that I could take that grapefruit, salt it, and clean stuff. I started with the fridge, and used the other half on counters and floorspace. It works well, smells good, doesn't involve unnecessary chemicals, and makes me feel better about letting my grapefruit go bad.

3. Lemons are in major production mode right now, so I ended up with quite a collection thanks to my CSA box and a generous coworker. In order to enjoy their flavor and utility when times are not so bountiful, I zested the rind (which can also be frozen and used later), cut the lemons in half, and squeezed the juice out. I used a lemon press, but you can also use a fork: stab the fork in the middle of the lemon half and pivot the rind around the fork to get the maximum amount of juice. I made individual frozen lemon cubes for later use in flavoring tofu, fish, veggie dishes, making custard, and cleaning my apartment. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy (sorry, couldn't resist).