Looking for ways to reduce waste in the kitchen without composting and make some truly delicious things this summer? Here are five things you can make with your kitchen scraps today.
I loathe wasting food.
So much so, that it physical pains me to just throw something out that could still be eaten or used. And don’t even get me started on the amount of food waste that my children generate because they don’t actually eat the lunches (or dinners) that I make for them daily.
In an attempt to reduce the amount of food (and therefore money) that gets wasted and thrown out in our house, here are 5 delicious things I make regularly with our kitchen scraps.:
1. French Toast Bake
We go through a lot of bread in this house. Like, probably 5-6 loaves a month at least. Of course, no one likes or eats the ends of the bread. Instead of throwing them away, I cube them up and stick them in a zip-top bag and put it in our refrigerator. Once the bag gets full, I fire up the oven and make a batch of French Toast Bake. Everyone loves it, and even though I personally can’t eat it anymore (stupid gluten), I love that nothing is going to waste.
2. Apple Scrap Butter
The Little has been obsessed with homemade applesauce all year long. I generally make a big batch once a month (sometimes two depending on how many apples we have), using 10-12 apples at a time. After the third big batch and throwing away a giant bowl filled with apple peels and cores, I decided to look up what I could do with all those scraps. My first attempt was an homemade apple cider vinegar, but mine went moldy and I had to throw it out. My second attempt? Apple scrap butter. And Y’ALL. It was so good I began to save all of my apple peels and cores in a giant bag in the freezer for when I ran out. If you decide to go this route and cook the apple scrap butter from frozen scraps, make sure to add an extra hour (or two) to your cook time. I enjoy a dollop every morning on my toast and have been hoarding apple cores and peels like it’s my job.
3. Homemade Stock
I started having a large bowl on my countertop when cooking and meal prepping to collect my food scraps and peels to make it easier for myself. One of the unintended outcomes of that process was seeing just how much food I was throwing out as a result. So I started added those ends to a zip-top bag and storing it in the freezer for making vegetable broth. It takes me about a month — give or take — to fill it up and that usually turns into 6-8 cups of stock, which I also freeze and save for when I need it. I typically make vegetable stock, but the scraps could also be used for chicken stock or beef stock if you have any carcasses or bones that are leftover from other meals.
4. Banana Bread or Banana Bread Slow Cooker Oats
This is a classic one that uses up the bananas that are currently browning on your countertop. Bonus points for these two recipes because it uses up a whopping FOUR bananas each. AND, the oatmeal can be frozen for later.
5. Strawberry Top Syrup
The no-cook version showed up in my Instagram feed this past week and I’m not even a little mad about it. I’ve done something similar with lemons and it was an absolute delight, so know this is going to be along the same lines. I’ve already started collecting our strawberry tops and am looking forward to enjoying this is all summer long. (Prefer one that you make on the stove top? Here’s a simple syrup recipe you can try.)
What would you add to the list? Any favorites I need to know about?
