When Life Gives You Leftovers…
New to the team, Chef Liz, has a strong opinion when it comes to leftovers.
We *know* you would love having Chef Liz in your kitchen, and we also are pretty sure you are going to love what she has to say about leftovers. Read on to find out!
I absolutely hated leftovers growing up. Unless it was day old pizza or Chinese food you could count me out. Suffice to say I was a picky eater.
I didn’t start appreciating utilizing my leftovers until I had started building my own home life.
Budgeting was a huge factor, as looking for ways to stretch a dollar was always on my mind at the beginning of my career.
Working in kitchens taught me to be more sustainable, as well as help me get creative with how we preserved, reused and consumed food.
During the start of the pandemic our trips to the grocery store became more thoughtful and less frequent. We didn’t want to leave our home more than we had to, which meant getting more creative in the kitchen. Instead of throwing away our wilted herbs, we dried them. Stale bread became croutons or breadcrumbs, and leftover sauteed vegetables turned into soups and sauces.
Initially looking at a full fridge full of leftovers may feel daunting; you don’t know where to start.
Typically as a chef I rotate the ingredients in kitchen walk-ins, and write labels for everything. At home my fridge can be a bit more chaotic to say the least. Lately, I’ve started to become more mindful of how I put food away in order to use it again in another meal for later. By leaving the sauce on the side of pasta dishes or stir frys, you can now look at the ingredients as more of an opportunity rather than a boring waste.
Getting in the habit of utilizing the ingredients you already have not only helps you budget, but it makes you feel less wasteful.
“While the world wastes about 1.4 billion tons of food every year, the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 40 million tons — 80 billion pounds — every year. That’s estimated to be 30-40 percent of the entire US food supply, 4 and equates to 219 pounds of waste per person.” -Food Loss & Waste, FDA
We weren’t always like this…
Using every scrap of food available was a necessity for centuries leading up to the 20th century; it was sustainable, affordable, and overall normalized for everyone in all social classes. Natural preservations like smoking, curing, pickling, and salting were incredibly common and many are still quite popular today, like lox, smoked fish, and corned beef. As refrigerators and ice boxes were introduced, ingredients' lifespan was extended as well.
After centuries of sustainability, postwar times created an abundance of food, and by the 60’s leftovers turned from a necessity to a mundane joke. Soon enough, trying to make leftovers seem fun and moderned backfired; no one seemed to want to eat another Jell-o mold or Casserole.
People began to believe that not eating leftovers was a sign of social status, rather than a sustainable way to reduce waste.
“In the postwar era, a historically anomalous food economy was coming to define American culture, as the cost of food relative to income plummeted and even the poorest Americans were less desperate for calories than they had ever been. Leftovers were coming to seem less like a signal of household abundance and more like a drag.” -An Economic History of Leftovers, The Atlantic.
In a time where waste seems inevitable, let's all do our part to become more conscientious of what we throw away and appreciate the food we have.
There are ways to get in a healthier mindset about using up the ingredients we have:
- Use it as a chance to be creative
- Channel our inner ancestors, start by figuring out what proteins, veggies, starches you have available.
- Leftover rice and vegetables are perfect fried rice, soups
- Refrigerator soup is the best
- Keep leftover grains and sauce separate so that the grains don't get mushy and the sauce doesn’t get absorbed too much in the grains
- Hang unused herbs upside down to dry, like Oregano, Thyme, Dill, Rosemary etc.
- Labeling is always super helpful; a sharpie and painters tape is always a great choice.
- If you don’t have either of these or want to be more sustainable, whiteboard markers work well, but be careful! They smudge easier than sharpies.
Here at Tiny Spoon we are doing our best to help encourage a more sustainable future.
Below are some of the ways we currently do our part, and we are always striving to become more educated about how we can help make a positive impact with both our clients and the world.
- If your residence has a composting center or area, let us know!
- Clients work with us weekly to know what their schedule is looking like for the following week and plan accordingly either with pre-portioned meals, oven ready freezer items, and keeping sauce and meats away from each other so we don’t lose the integrity of the dish.
- Having clear labels with dates on all our prepared food makes it easier to notice what needs to be eaten.
- Making sure we are making pantry checks before we grocery shop to ensure we are not buying in excess,
- Making smart sustainable purchases at the local grocery store.
- Working with clients constantly on the right portion sizes so leftovers are kept to a minimum.