I love upcycling. I love a good repurposed sweater, one made out of old sweaters. I love finding great finds off Craigslist and using them for novel purposes in my home. And yes, I love upcycling in the kitchen too.
Yuck, you say? Not really. Clever cooks have been upcycling for years.
When you save that last bit of rice in the pot or the three leftover apple slices from snack and put them in a pudding the next day, you’re upcycling.
Having a limited student budget made me a good upcycler. After that, it was the child that did it. Kids are notorious for leaving leftovers, and since I don’t like to waste and prefer not to divert perfectly good food to the compost (or to my stomach!), I needed a solution.
For those of you who are new to this whole upcycling thing, here are a few ideas to get you started.
Tiny leftovers are ideal for a child’s snack or a lunch bag. Larger ones are ideal for a leftover night. Just freeze them all in small containers, and you have a selection to choose from.
There’s also soup day, your grandmother’s solution to leftovers. Take the vegetable pieces, and the leftover macaroni, and put it in a pot with a good stock. That’s dinner!
My personal favourite is the fruit sauce. I slice apples and pears for lunches and snacks. My daughter doesn’t eat all of them. They go brown, and then she’s not interested. Funnily enough, when I cook them and turn them into a sauce for the next morning’s breakfast, she’s keen.
My daughter’s favourite is bread or rice pudding. Add a couple of eggs, milk, sugar, butter and seasonings to just about any carbohydrate, and you have dessert (or a sweet breakfast).
You can upcycle small amounts of fruits, vegetables and seasonings into dips, too. Combine them with yogurt, salt, or honey, and you have a good vegetable or fruit dip.
My food safe advice is as follows, however: don’t upcycle any food that has been sitting out for over an hour, no matter how tasty the morsel. It just isn’t worth the potential food poisoning.
How do you avoid food waste in your kitchen?
Image courtesy of egahen at Stock Exchange.