Easy Peas Recipes

How do you deal with leftovers? Take a moment to think about it.

Now that you’ve had time to reflect, I have another question: if you didn’t eat your leftovers (and threw them in the trash after a week – or more), why didn’t you eat them? Was it a bad recipe? Were you quickly bored with what you cooked? Did you cook too much food? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then how did you arrive at that predicament in the first place?

Many times, leftovers are the product of bad planning, or no planning at all. We make hasty decisions and don’t stop to think, not just “What do I want to cook,” but:

• What would my family like to eat?
• What is the total amount of servings in the recipe?
• Do I have the tools, techniques and patience to cook this recipe well?
• If I don’t have all of the recipe’s ingredients, am I substituting ingredients without really knowing if they will work well?
  So, let’s break down how to plan ahead to cut back on, or even eliminate, food waste. It all comes down to taking the time (patience) to plan ahead.

1. What does you family like to eat?
   If canned tuna isn’t your family’s thing, then a quick and easy tuna noodle casserole may sit in the fridge for a while. And how many days in a row are you willing to take it to lunch yourself?
   Choose proteins and vegetables that you and your family likes. If you think your family needs to eat healthier, or broaden their horizons a bit, there are strategies to add healthy ingredients to a recipe that won’t turn them away. Many recipes have clever ways to incorporate options that “sneak” nutrition into a dish. Peas (yes, we love peas!), tofu and brown rice have a way of absorbing the flavors of the ingredients they are cooked with, so your family may not protest eating them.  Throw an avocado into a banana-peanut butter smoothie – you won’t even taste it. There are so many options!
2. What is the total amount of servings in the recipe?
   I overlook this sometimes. I make a huge casserole, hopeful that we will eat it again the next day – and the next day – and that just doesn’t happen. If you don’t like to do the math to change the ingredient measurements to fit the servings you need, don’t fret! I find that many recipes give measurements of ingredients to make 4 servings, sometimes 6. These even numbers are easy to break down by half. Also, there are serving calculators on the internet, and sometimes on the recipe page itself, to help you out.
3. Are you overambitious about recreating a beautiful looking but complex recipe? Do you spend all day cooking Bouillabaisse and it is less than spectacular because you skipped a few “needless” steps? Did you substitute sardines for sole? Now does that poor soup sit, listless, in the fridge? We all have those moments (Someday I’ll tell you the story about my infamous Spam meatloaf.). Some recipes take time and experience to cook well – and that’s why you’re here, right? So, don’t bite off more than you can chew if you’re concerned with the difficulty level of a recipe. Do some recipe research and make sure you can commit to the amount of time it will take to create it. Make sure you have the tools you need for the job and the skill to use those tools.

What can you do if you cook too much food? Can your neighbor benefit from a hot meal? How about packaging and labeling portions of the meal and freezing them for an easy meal another day?
What if the meal you cooked is fine, but hasn’t hit any home runs with your family? Is there a way that you can dress it up for another meal?
What if you’ve accidentally ruined a meal – overcooked, burned, etc.? You can try to salvage it in different ways. But, there are times that we just have to learn from our mistakes and toss those hockey-puck-hamburgers in the trash. On the other hand, we shouldn’t make a habit of tossing food away for just any reason. We also need to be mindful of what we have in the fridge and our cupboards so we can eat food before it expires.

According to Recycle Track Systems (www.rts.com), Americans throw away or waste about 60 million tons of food a year. That equals over $408 billion dollars in food waste. How much food do you think that you and your family let go to waste? How many more dollars could be in your pocket this month if you thought ahead or kept track of the foods in your kitchen? The point is, Planning, Preparation and Patience are key to many things in the kitchen, including avoiding lackluster leftovers – and food waste.