"Non-consumerAdvocate" news and stories

I've always been pretty good with leftovers. I always make soup out of roast chicken remains and I have a passing understanding of how to transform bits of one meal into something fresh and interesting for the next. However, at the end of each week, I still find myself throwing out more uneaten food than I'd like. In general, I dislike the waste but more poignantly, I regret depriving the ingredients of their potential (especially when I toss animal products).

However, this week, inspired by this post about food waste at the Non-Consumer Advocate, I managed to avoid waste where I might have otherwise tossed. I made a big pot of chicken soup, using up an aging hunk of red cabbage (once cooked, it was impossible to tell that it was a bit wilted), several bits of half-used onion and most happily, a painfully stale six-inch chunk of seeded baguette. I broke the bread into bits, placed some of it into the bottom of the bowls and ladled the soup on top. The once-stale bread became silky and tender, adding a lovely texture and taste to the meal.

How do you avoid food waste in your kitchen?

Each most Friday afternoons, I sort through the list of recipes, newspaper articles and blog posts that I've bookmarked over the previous week (or two) in order to dish up a tasty assorted eight. Here's the selection this week:

• Did you resolve to eat more veggies this year? Treehugger has written up nine ways to get more veggies into your diet.
• Think any good diet has to exclude delicious things like pizza? According to cookbook author and restaurant critic Joy Manning, it does not. Check out her sensible, healthy and mostly whole wheat pizza dough recipe.
• Entertaining at home is a great way to spend time with friends while saving some cash. Check out Maggie Mason's (queen of the Mighty Goods/Junior/Haus shopping empire) cheese plate jar which makes impromptu entertaining a snap.
  
• Attention Bacon Bits lovers! You would be well-served to skip any food service bits you come across for the near future, as 3,600 pounds of bits were recently recalled.
• The Pro Bono Baker recently adapted a Napa Cabbage Salad recipe from Chez Panisse Fruit to deliciously good results.
• I love the no-knead bread recipe, but sometimes I want bread that doesn't take 24 hours to make. I am intrigued by Katy (The Non-Consumer Advocate's) recipe for One Hour Bread.
• Nearly every week, Stefania (aka CityMama) posts a recipe on her site that makes me start a shopping list so I can re-create it at home. This week I am in love with her Mandoo Soup.
• Love take-out but don't love the cost (as well as all the packaging you consume each time you order out)? Check out this list of nine take-out standbys that you can make at home.

I'm beginning to realize that I'm something of an excessive grocery shopper. I have a particularly hard time being restrained in my food purchases this time of year, when the farmers markets are in full bloom and everything is so perfect and appealing. I do manage to use just about everything I buy during weeks that are free of social engagements, but when I have planned dinners out with friends or a weekend away, I find that my gorgeous kale turns to slime in my produce drawer.

I'm heading out of town on Friday afternoon for Labor Day Weekend and so tried to keep that in mind when I was shopping last weekend, only buying the essentials (white nectarines, fresh corn and several gnarled heirloom tomatoes). This has left me to cobble together a couple of incongruous meals, as I try to use up the veggies that remained from the previous week and incorporate the newcomers. Last night I reheated leftover sausage and potatoes, and sauteed several peppers, half an onion and a wilting bunch of chard. It actually turned out to be a pretty unified meal, although I imagine the rest of the week won't seem so organized.

A post up on the Non-Consumer Advocate got me thinking about this style of "clean out the fridge" cooking and how it's a skill to be cultivated. She recently whipped up a pasta salad out of assorted bits and pieces from her fridge (she's currently engaged in a 'buy no food challenge' in an attempt to use up what she's got) and I've got my sights set on a spaghetti dish for tonight, made with roasted eggplant and some ricotta cheese that's only got a day or two of life left in it.

Before you head to the grocery store after work today or grab a pizza on the way home, take a mental inventory of your fridge. Is there anything you can create from what's there? We'd love to hear about what you whip up!

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