Neglected Soup Eaten at Last. And Improved on.

Where will it all end? Or begin? And how much do I have to eat to get there?


Insulated garage temperatures.

Okay, really. Is there a point where it becomes manageable? My mom's fridge is an absolute wasteland compared to my two (2) refrigerators. Does she just dump the extras or what?

I've barely made a dent in the remaining spicy lentils. Speaking of which, they taste a lot better Day Five than Days Two through Four. And certainly better than day one. Now all it tastes like is garlic and ginger — which are the two of the three reasons I made it in the first place. Lentils being the third.

I had some for lunch today. Finally. The favorable flavor developments may have something to do with the conditions this particular serving has been subjected to over the past three days. It's been hauled to and from work three times where it has been neglected, carted home, had it's hopes raised yet again as it sat on the kitchen counter and finally crushed as it was returned to the fridge.

Today in an effort to actually eat this well-traveled portion, I left it on my desk at work. No luck.

But finally it's gone. Eaten after The Boy went down for his snooze. I really wanted chips, but this was better. Right?

So it's a complicated formula, but I have found it successful in bringing out the tang of ginger. Give it a try and see.

I've got two more lunches' worth but the calendar is ticking. Maybe I can eat it for breakfast and lunch tomorrow?

By the bye, it was 38˚ in our insulated (but unheated) garage this morning. If I fail — and then exceed my previous leftover accumulations — I can expand my storage to the garage shelves for the rest of the cold snap.

Well, that's motivation.

Power Outage I

"Power Outage I" because I don't doubt there will be more.

What outages do to leftover dinner plans.

The power went out around dinner time last night. That means no microwave for re-heating. So, huh.

While Matt scrambled around setting up our generator for the first time (It's new and shiny and a good idea, I guess, come a major outage or come the Rapture, but it does take the fun out of power outages.) I made up some bachelor burritos. Beans, cheese, and salsa all wrapped up in a burrito and fried in a skillet.

Let's hear it for gas stoves.

This didn't get me any further ahead in leftover reductions but I guess I reduced the level of ingredients.

What's the Leftover Half-life?

Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast. Partial ewww. Maybe.


Quiche (made last night) for dinner. 


No cooking today but leftovers appeared anyway. From my mom.

It's only been eight days since Thanksgiving. Every year I pledge to polish off the leftovers. Not all by myself; as a family. Either way, it never seems to happen.

What is the time limit on leftovers, anyway? Three days? A week?

I have a hard time eating any thing more than seven days old.

But this morning I sucked it up and had yams in a lime-jalapeno curry and a nummy wild rice salad that is my current favorite. You know; one of those things you make every week for a month until someone protests.

Yesterday I made my first quiche. It took two hours to assemble it. I don't think it should take that long. I need more practice.

There were mashed potato crusts to be made, carrots and spinach to be chopped and pre-steamed.  Shitake mushrooms and garlic to sauté, manchego cheese to grate. Pepper to grind. Real high level prep stuff.

But our schedule got all bogged down last night so we didn't get to taste it. Operating under the theory that quiche, like soup, tastes better the second day I was looking forward to trying it tonight.

I give it a "meh" with caveats. I would try it again but this time with more interesting cheese and a lot more ground pepper. And maybe some cayenne.

I was feeling pretty good about my lack of leftover creation today until I got to Mom's. She has done a ton of babysitting over the last month.

When I picked up The Boy today she offered me a chunk of turkey loin. After all the work she's done, I felt like I had to accept. And I'm not yet up to the task of explaining my new approach to leftovers.

Anyone else here of a turkey loin. I had no idea turkeys had much of a loin. I choose not to examine this new idea too closely.

So while I didn't create a leftover myself, I did bring one into my house. Sigh.

Eileen

Spinach for Quiche

Spinach left from spicy lentil soup went into tonight's quiche.

Tonight's quiche generated leftover chopped onion and mashed potatoes.

Between the soup and the quiche, there should be enough for the weekend.


Tonight I made quiche from the (old) Enchanted Broccoli Forest Cookbook. I am starting to think that this 27 year old cookbook is from the days where vegetarian food was expected to be Good. It wasn't expected to taste Good.

On Wednesday night I made the Spicy Lentils with Spinach and Apple. This left me with a big 'ol handful of spinach. And ... I am committed.

Must. Not. Waste. Spinach.

So tonight it was quiche. With spinach.

Let me pause here and declare that the terms "simple" and "simply" should be stricken from every cookbook. Quiche may, indeed, be simple, but it still takes time. I started this "simple" recipe at 2:30 p.m. today.

By 4:15 I was still working and had a pile of washing up to show for it.

Perhaps I created too much work for myself?

Didn't get to eat the quiche tonight because of a timing issue. It's a long story involving a Subaru transmission. But we did have leftovers so it's okay.

So, what to I do with leftover mashed potatoes?

Eileen

The Point

My vegetable crisper is a pre-compost bin.

I'm not proud of this. I have excuses. I have the best intentions.

I know it's a waste of money. What I didn't know until yesterday was that people of the earth waste 50% of our food.

See, on December 3rd, I had an epiphany. Unfortunately, it's Paul McCartney's fault.

There was a story yesterday about Sir Paul's call for Meat-free Mondays. The steadfast vegetarian "cited a 2006 United Nations report which said livestock production is responsible for more harmful emissions -- 18 percent of the total -- than the entire transport sector, on 13 percent."
Of course there is some argument whether
1. the UN report is true
2. Paul is going for world-wide vegetarian domination
3. teenage girls will die from lack of beef (some guy actually claimed this).

Reading through that story, I found a August 2009 study released by three collections of acronyms that we in the US waste up to 30% of our food. That's about $48.3 billion dollars.

Can't wrap your head around that? Try imagining how much water it takes to produce the volume of food we are not eating.

So that touched a nerve.

Coincidently, as a family we have been working our way toward 50% vegetarian with an eye toward 70%.

Before you start thinking "health nut" let me step in here. It's more of a turning 40 thing.  And a health thing. But only because we're starting to feel our age.

My deal is that I buy a lot of vegetables with the best intentions. Most of them languish in the fridge until I sneak them out to the compost heap under cover of darkness.

It's embarrassing.

I keep thinking that with better planning I could avoid this.

So here's my plan: I'm tracking my leftovers. Not only food leftover from a meal, but also ingredients left over from preparing a meal — onion, cilantro and the like. And I'm taking you with me.

Yours in 3/4 cup chopped onions,
Eileen

For more, read Saving Water: From Field to Fork – Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain