Putting Kitchen Scraps to Good Use

I've been thinking a lot about respect for food lately. It all started with an interview I did with Zahra Parvinian, board member at the Toronto Food Policy Council (I'll be sharing this interview next week.) She talked about how, as an immigrant, she was disturbed by the North American attitude towards food. She thinks of the kitchen as a place of family, of community and respect, so when she saw shows like Hell's Kitchen, where Gordon Ramsay throws away platefuls of food while screaming abuse upon his underlings, she was shocked.

That got me thinking about how I view food. As I've mentioned here before, I'm hardly the patron saint of food preservation, but lately, I've been trying to make more of an effort - planning my meals in advance and using my List of Endangered Foods method. So when I heard this Splendid Table podcast about using up kitchen throwaways, I was intrigued. Here are some of their tips (as well as my own) on using up scraps you would normally throw in the trash:

Build a Better Bowl of Cereal

As I said in my Supermarket Survival Guide on cereal, there are a lot of Sneaky Peters out there in the cereal aisle - cereals that promise low-fat, wholesome goodness but rarely deliver. Don't get me wrong - I think cereal is an easy, nutritious way to start the day, as long as you build your bowl right. The following are some tips I got from Mairlyn Smith and Liz Pearson's great book, The Ultimate Health Eating Plan That Still Leaves Room for Chocolate. Though it was published in 2002, it's packed with meticulously researched nutrition information (conveniently decoded for the regular Joe), sensible, non-neurotic advice for eating well and delicious recipes.

Here's an easy way to build your best breakfast:

3 Ways to Fall in Love with Your Oatmeal Again

I have often told A that I can tell the changing of the seasons not by looking out the window, but by looking at my bowl of oatmeal. 

I am a die-hard oatmeal fan and I love to use it as a blank canvas and top it with whatever's in season: sunny peaches and pecans in summer, crisp pears and honey in fall, pomegranate and maple syrup in winter and tender strawberries in spring. But even I get sick of oatmeal, especially as the long, interminable winter sets in. Here are some fresh combinations to keep your oatmeal exciting during the long months ahead - minimal chopping needed.

Hedonist Tip: Drink your Greens

I am going to make a startling confession here. Ready? Okay, here goes.

I hate salad.

Yes, you heard right. The woman who calls herself the Wholesome Hedonist can’t stand a leafy green (or a leafy purple, or a leafy white.)

I don’t know what it is about salad. Perhaps it’s my preference for hot, hearty comfort foods, or my dislike of the bland semi-crunch of lettuce.  Whatever the reason, you will always find me far, far away from the salad bar (one notable exception is arugula, which the Italians converted me to by perching it atop a sublime pizza in Rome.)

I know greens are good for you. And I know I should eat them more frequently (and so should you.) So I have found some unique ways to work then into my meals. My best solution? Working them into a smoothie. A cup of spinach is virtually undetectable in smoothies, so I take a few clumps of frozen spinach out of the freezer and throwthem into whatever concoction I’m making, from blueberry banana to mango lassis. (It doesn’t do much for the colour, but at least I can’t taste it.)

What are your tips for sneaking in your greens?

Quick Tip - Create a List of Endangered Foods

The other day A. was looking through the fridge and, predictably, stumbled upon some green vegetative matter hidden behind the tomato paste and adobo chilies.

"What is this?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied. "But it might have been kale. Or it might have been the single organism that all life originated from 4 billion years ago."

"Can't you just buy what you need, when you need it?" he cried, exasperated. "Must you buy half the grocery store, only to let it rot away in the fridge?"

He had a point. I get seduced by the asparagus that is finally in season, or the sweet potatoes that remind me of that recipe I want to try, or the cremini mushrooms I’m sure I’ll use a thousand times over. Then all that wonderful produce dies a slow death in the crisper.

So this time, I thought I would try something different. I made up a List of Endangered Foods, and marked down anything in my fridge that was in danger of going extinct. Whenever I make a meal or a snack, I have to look at that list and use at least one ingredient from it.

So far, it’s working remarkably well. Having that list on the fridge means those foods are top of mind, not pushed behind the box of baking soda and forgotten. Also, it makes me come up with new and creative combinations in a quest to use up as many of the endangered foods as I can (see Exhibit A above – leftover brown rice, shrimp from last night’s dinner, garlic-sauteed spinach from breakfast, and slightly over-roasted pureed sweet potato that Baby M. refused to eat.)

What methods do you have to make sure all the food in your fridge gets eaten? Or do you let it all eventually go to that big compost heap in the sky?

P.S - There are some exciting new developments here at The Wholesome Hedonist! You can now subscribe for email updates of the site or follow me on Pinterest or Twitter by clicking on the links on the sidebar. I'll report interesting food articles, yummy looking recipes, and the occasional update on the fascinating life of a mom on maternity leave.

P.P.S - I will be on a much-anticipated vacation for all of next week so it will be kind of quiet around here. But I promise to be back with tons of news, recipes and fun stuff to share. Meanwhile, let's all join our heads in prayer for a calm and uneventful four-hour flight in a crowded airplane with a 10 month old. And we might as well pray for the other passengers, too.