Guest post from Anne Simpson
Frugality doesn’t start with a carefully planned shopping list evolved from hours spent scouring prices, ads and coupons. No, frugality, like charity, begins at home.
Frugality begins with putting into practice the philosophy behind the old Depression mantra: Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without. That, my friend, is frugality.
We’ve become accustomed to throwing so many things away that we’ve almost lost touch with the usefulness of all that we call “trash”. In the past couple years, I’ve been on a mission to find uses for things that I would previously have thrown away, and I’m amazed at how much life is still left in what I considered to be junk.
Food, for example. We peel an apple and run the peel through the disposal, or dump the chicken bones in the trash, never stopping to consider what we are casually wasting.
It’s actually rather exciting to find that this so-called “trash” truly is a treasure! Here are 5 different foods you don’t ever need to throw away again:
1. Apple Peels & Cores
Of course, you should eat the peel when you eat the apple, because it’s good for you. (Didn’t your mama tell you that?) But sometimes, you don’t really want the peel in the way, like if you’re making applesauce. Even the cores can be put to good use – and I hope you don’t eat the core! So whenever you have a pile of peels (or cores), consider turning them into something else:
- Apple Scrap Vinegar – sooo simple, and so healthy
- Apple Pectin – If you make your own jam, you’ll love this idea! Use the apple scraps to make your very own pectin, for honest-to-goodness from-scratch jam.
- Apple Honey Tea – a frugal and delicious alternative to spiced cider
- Spiced Apple Potpourri: Dry or Simmering
2. Citrus Peels
Except for the outer edge of zest, we don’t normally find citrus peels to be all that edible, so it makes sense to throw them away. But citrus has applications beyond food!
- Dried Orange Zest – Dry the peels so you can have citrus zest any time you want it!
- Multi-Purpose Citrus Cleanser – a fragrant and effective household cleaner
- All-Natural Oven Cleaner – Lemon peels are probably the most effective, but you can try any citrus, especially if your oven isn’t all that dirty.
- Candied Orange Peel – Who knew trash could taste so good?
3. Bread Crumbs
I honestly don’t know why anybody pays good money for bread crumbs at the store when they are so easy to make at home. Use the ends of the loaf of bread that nobody will eat anyway, and you’ve just saved yourself a bundle of money. But bread isn’t the only crumb-maker: muffins, sweet rolls, biscuits and more all can be saved and turned into another dish of yumminess. Some ideas to get you started:
- Bread Crumbs – just in case you need a tutorial
- Croutons – another no-brainer
- Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding – Just in case nobody eats the cinnamon rolls (or sticky buns, or sweet muffins) that you made, here’s a way to make sure they never go bad (scroll down for the recipe).
- Chocolate Bread Pudding – You won’t believe this elegant dessert came from bread crumbs!
- Bread Crumb Pancakes – a vintage recipe from a wiser era
- Super Simple Bread Crumb Pudding – Crumble any kind of bread into an oven-safe dish the size you need. Pour milk (cow’s milk or non-dairy) over the bread just until it’s covered. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. Stir in honey and cinnamon to taste, and sprinkle with unrefined sugar. Bake in a 350F oven until bubbly and cooked through. Cool slightly. Top with syrup and whipped cream or eat plain.
4. Meat Bones
Confession here: even my very frugal self has not yet dared to attempt any kind of culinary feat with the chicken innards stuffed into a whole chicken. I’ve seen ideas here and there but have never been brave enough to actually try them. It’s a victory that I manage to pull them out of the chicken without freaking myself out on a regular basis. But the bones? I can handle the bones! And the skin, too. And it doesn’t matter if it was cooked or not. Or if somebody ate off of them or not (If that really troubles you, you can rinse them off. Problem solved.). All that matters is you save those precious bones and use them again.
- Chicken Stock – one of the best tutorials I’ve seen
- Ham & Bean Soup – what ham bones were really made for
5. Vegetable Scraps
There are two basic things you can do with all the scraps – peels, leaves, cores, etc. – left over from certain fruits and vegetables: compost or stock.
Compost-
All your fruit and vegetable “leavings” can be chucked into the compost pile, along with lots of other left-overs (and trash) from your kitchen, like stale bread, eggshells, grains, coffee grounds and more (no meat or dairy). Just remember that all these food scraps are considered “green” items, and need a balancing amount of “brown” items (paper products and fabric, for example). If you’re new to composting, you’ll want to start with this article that explains the basics of composting in more detail.
Stock-
You can either add the veggie scraps to a meat stock, or you can just make plain vegetable stock. Clearly, not all vegetable scraps can end up in the stock pot, because they will affect the final taste. Keep a bag or container in the freezer handy so you can collect the scraps throughout the week as you cook. Make up a batch of stock as soon as you have about 4 cups of scraps. Some delicious stock-making veggie scraps are:
- garlic and onion peels
- celery leaves
- wilted or old celery
- carrot peels and tops
- apple and pear peels
- wilted greens (not slimy greens, though!)
- stems from herbs and greens
- pepper tops
- corn cobs
- cauliflower/broccoli stems
- zucchini peel
- winter squash rind
- well-scrubbed peel from potatoes and other root vegetables (many people suggest these, but I’ve stopped using them, because no matter how well-scrubbed they were, they always gave a very earthy taste to my broth)
You may want to avoid using the following scraps as they can negatively affect the flavor:
- citrus peels
- tomato/pepper seeds
- cucumber peels
- peels from root vegetables (see above)
- corn husks/silk
If you don’t have enough of any of these items (bread crumbs, bones, etc.) to create something worthwhile, simply store what you do have in the freezer, and keep collecting until you can!
Do you have any other ideas for saving food scraps from the trash bin?
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Great post, and thanks for the link! I also use apple peels to make homemade apple butter. When I’m making applesauce, I’ll make apple butter as well. I just toss the peels into the crockpot with my apples for the apple butter. Once it’s all pureed you don’t even know and it gives it great fiber content! Recipes on my website if you’d like it 🙂
Great information! Thanks for the link too 🙂
Give the raw innards of the chicken to your cats and dogs. It is very good for them and they love it. They were created to eat raw meat!
Thanks for all the ideas to use bread crumbs for… i keep all the outsides of the bread,my son doesn’t like the crust on his sandwich’s.
Lots of great ideas but one important thing to add:
Apples and Potatoes are two of the most pesticide contaminated fruits/veggies out there, so I would avoid using the skins unless you buy organic, which you should with these particular items.