avoiding waste

Fruit languishing in the bowl? A bunch of fresh thyme in the fridge wasting away? These are problems I face in my kitchen from time to time. I got a lot of ideas from this article about 50 ways to reduce kitchen waste. I really liked some of the suggestions, like freezing herbs in ice cube trays with a tiny bit of water for quick use when cooking later. I didn't know eggs could be frozen as well.


The item we seem to waste most often is old bread. Some weeks we eat loads of toast, other times it seems like last week's bread is sticking around to say hello to the new loaf. From now on I'll blitz the older bits into bread crumbs (to keep in the fridge) or freeze torn-up slices to be whizzed up when I need them.

The biggest way to reduce waste, I think, wasn't tackled in this article: Plan in advance and only buy what you really need and will use. When I'm planning the meals for the week the first step is to make a list of what I have on hand. I look through the fridge, freezer, and pantry, listing everything (well, almost everything). Then I sit down with some cookbooks and try to choose meals that will use up the ingredients I already have. When shopping, I try to buy the amount of meat or dairy that I know we will actually use. At dinner time, we make enough for exactly two meals, and the second meal we either freeze for a lazy night or pack into lunch boxes for each of us for the next day.

Ant and I are hoping to move soon, and one thing I want to start is composting a bit with a little wormery. That will be another way to cut waste and to feed my tubs of growing vegetables on the back patio.

small growing success

My garden was not a great triumph this year, but! But it was better than ever before. Helen and I went out last Sunday to tidy it up and pull weeds and I discovered that my potatoes did grow. I am so proud. There were lots of leaves at first, but recently they had all been eaten. But when I started to dig, I saw that I actually had a decent number of new potatoes. Here is the whole crop: 51 potatoes in all, including 24 reasonable sized ones. Look at the little babies! I dug them up and cooked them with the others; I was determined to waste nothing that I had successfully grown.


On Sunday evening I made Ant and I herbed salmon (Nigel Slater’s recipe from the last Observer Food Monthly) with bacon fried spinach and boiled new potatoes. The potatoes were small balls of delicious success.

soup

I pulled up all the rocket left in my growing tub yesterday. It was getting a bit woody and too peppery to eat raw. So I was excited to use it all up in a soup recipe from my new favourite cookbook, GI Meals Made Easy.


The soup also uses finely chopped onion, courgette, new potatoes, and garlic, shown here from right to left. After some sauteing and sweating, and stock added, the soup is blended with the wonderful invention of the handheld immersion blender. Ant did this part because I am notoriously messy with the blender.


The addition of some goat's cheese topped off the lovely light green soup.

Rocket and Goat's Cheese Soup
adapted from GI Meals Made Easy: 150 Quick and Delicious Meals for All the Family

1 T olive oil
10 g butter
1 leek, sliced
1 medium or large courgette, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 new potatoes, diced
600 ml vegetable stock
100 g rocket
75g firm goat's cheese

Heat the oil and butter and saute the leek, courgette, garlic, and potato over high heat for 1-2 minutes. Then reduce heat, cover, and allow to sweat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add rocket and simmer for 5 minutes. Blend the soup.
Crumble in goat's cheese when serving.

first fruits

Well, today was an exciting day on which the fruits, er, vegetables, of my labour were tasted. I took the first snips of mixed salad leaves from the box I planted for our lamb burgers tonight. I have used Sonya's lamb burger recipe three times recently since she shared it with me. I was looking for a way to get into lamb, since it is so popular here and I have little experience with it.



Minted Lamb Burgers

0.5 kg lamb mince
1/2 cup crumbled (low fat) feta cheese
sliced green onions
2 tablespoons dried mint
1 teaspoon cumin or other spices (eg. garam malasa)
1 egg

Shape into six or eight burgers. Serve with mixed salad leaves, crumbled feta, and red onion marinated in balsamic vinegar. Yum, yum.

the big guy in the garden

No sooner had I switched off my computer and crawled into bed than I wanted to turn it back on. I was reading tonight from The Prayer that Changes Everything by Stormie Ormartian, a gift from my mother ages ago that I have rediscovered. I was praying about God's gifts in creation and thanking him for all that he has made: the beautiful earth and the people around who bear his image. I went to read Psalm 104 as directed and one thing jumped right out at me that I am thankful for in creation: food!

He makes the grass grow...
and plants for people to cultivate--
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts. (Psalm 104:14-15)

I just want to say how thankful I am to God for fruits and vegetables! I really love eating them and I love that he made so many varieties. I am grateful that something so healthy is also tasty and can be made into so many things. I think it's brilliant that God was creative with vegetables and I think this shows his love for us.

Ant has just told me I am insane for sitting in bed blogging about my love of veg. But why should I hide my excitement and love of leafy greens? Sigh. Goodnight, Heavenly Gardener.