Waste Not

So we have been making some serious effort to waste less food. Here are some of the things we are currently doing.

1. Only buy what is written on the grocery list, no extras.
2. Eat what is in the fridge before it expires/goes bad.
3. Don't forget about the leftovers in the back of the fridge.
4. Only make enough food for dinner and one leftover meal.
5. Put less food on Jacob's plate. He can ask for seconds if he likes.
6. Compost.

Some other things I decided to do on my own were:

1. Save all bread ends or stale scraps in the freezer and make my own bread crumbs.
2. Make all my own baby fruit and vegetable purees.
3. Eat salad.
4. Be creative.

Now, I have taken this last one a step farther this week:

1. I finished off a box of mini wheats and there was a huge amount of shredded wheat bits left in the bag. I didn't want to save it for breakfast because it would instantly turn to mush when I put milk on it. So I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins and substituted some of the flour with all the cereal crumbs. The were really delicious (I think my brother ate 4 in one afternoon). Daniel and Jacob both enjoyed them too.

2. I made jam this week with frozen raspberries we picked last summer. (I should confess that Jeff picked them, I sat around and watched the kids) After I thawed them, there was a lot of juice that I didn't want to put in the jam for fear of making it too runny. I carefully saved it, but I didn't want to drink it, because that might be way too sweet. So I whipped up a batch of chocolate chocolate chip muffins and substituted the raspberry juice for most of the milk. I figured the flavour would definitely turn out because chocolate and raspberry were made for each other, but I wondered about whether the muffins would actually have a good texture and be edible. Anyways, they turned out amazing and almost had the look of red velvet cake.