Are You Gonna Eat That Garbage?

Taken from www.fungrazing.com

The more food garbage you rack up each day, the better your salads will be! I’ll share my past few meals with you and then let you guess what was today’s lunch salad. A few nights ago we had farro with broccoli and cauliflower, followed by a night of homemade black bean burgers which included cooked quinoa and sweet potato, followed by a lunch of steamed lentils and beets.

OK, now guess – what topped my mixed greens today? I bet you’re going to include the broccoli, cauliflower and beets? It’s easy to assume the veggies made it to the salad but the kids gobbled up the broccoli and cauliflower (their fave!) so those didn’t make it into my bowl. I made the black bean burgers all into patties, some in fridge, some in freezer, but I didn’t use all the cooked quinoa or sweet potato. The beets are history, but I had some lentils left over. When I say leftover, I don’t always have enough for even a child’s plate; I am talking small amounts. Amounts that I may have thrown away if I wasn’t trying so hard to avoid being wasteful. Amounts so small I wish I had mini food storage containers just for me and my 4 little sweet potato cubes. I mean seriously small amounts in some cases.

I topped those greens with quinoa, farro, lentils, sweet potato, leftover UNPEELED carrots and cucumbers from a salad a couple days ago, and about 1/8 red pepper I had held onto after not needing the whole thing for something else not long ago. Drizzled a little dressing and bam – all that garbage was great!

Challenge: Take all your leftovers, even the smallest amounts, and save them. If you don’t have tiny containers, maybe you have a larger one with compartments? You’ll get creative, right? Do this today and tomorrow and the next day have a killer salad. You’ll enjoy a hearty salad and know you’ve saved money and waste while enjoying it. Now that’s good stuff.

What's the best use of a leftover you've come up with?