Rose Schmidt

Minestrone I talked about last week. Veggies left from last weeks shopping, a handful of celery leaves, basil and cherry tomatoes a bit past their prime. Parmesan rind of course! Beans and/or lentils with some pasta make a complete protein. Vegetarian goodness!

Yesterday was garbage pick up on my street so I did a check. My compost bin had unavoidable food Waste except for one piece of naan bread I forgot about. I weighed my trash that only goes out every other week. It was less than a pound of mostly food packaging. There was one huge exception. Pet waste. I have a cat and the litter weighed ten pounds for two weeks. It goes to landfill in our County. I've tried flushable litters and they don't work for us. So...the majority of my Waste is my pet. I am researching green cones which can take pet Waste. Wondering how many have my problem in the County? If I didn't have the pet Waste I could get garbage down to a bag or less a month for sure. 

For my team mate Danielle, less food waste with vegetable left overs! My favourite to do with bits in the crisper is minestrone. I use a carton of organic veggie stock or make my own, water is fine too. You need about 4 to 6 cups and a can of tomatoes or a few very ripe ones cut up. Then it's pretty much up to what's left over. I always start by sautéing onions celery and carrot.  Add whatever you have after that, parsnips, potatoes, zucchini, shredded cabbage, spinach, kale, etc. Simmer until veggies are done. You can add leftover meat, beans, pasta and Italian herbs. Put it over the top by adding a rind of Parmesan when you add the stock. You can use veggies and herbs that are wilted and not their best to make stock. You don't even have to chop them. Add enough water to cover and simmer then strain. My tip is not to peel the onions you add. This gives the stock a nice colour. When making a cream soup like broccoli, cauliflower, squash etc., chop up any small bits of carrot, celery,  potato you have left and cook together before whizzing. Pretty much anything goes with soup. My favourite tip for things left in the fridge is to Google the ingredients. I'll google best recipe lentils, pasta, lemon, tomato and loads comes up to choose from. Happy eating! 

I would like to challenge Tim Hortons to provide a recyclable alternative to their coffee cups. Until then, no more roll up the rim which encourages even more waste. Most coffee cups  can’t actually be recycled and just get thrown away. Approximately 2 million used coffee cups arrive at US landfills each day. It takes 30 years for a cup to decompose.

I've been focusing on food Waste since February. Doing pretty well keeping it to unavoidable food Waste like banana peels, egg shells, apple cores, coffee grounds etc. Learning new tricks like peeling broccoli stems and chopping them for soup and stir fries. Left over veggie bits and pieces go in an end of the week minestrone or veggie soup.