Food Prep: Use it or Lose it

Use It or Lose it

You've just spent your money on a cart-load of healthy, organic produce and taken time to prepare it. You need a plan to use it all up, or you're essentially throwing money away. One effective way of ensuring that you use up the food still in your fridge at the end of the week, is to make shopping and food prep day a flex day for your meals. Use up what is left, instead of having a set meal plan. Here are some ideas:

Breakfast

• Make an omelet, or frittata with left-over vegetables.

• Make a smoothie, or smoothie bowl with left-over fruits, and vegetables.

Lunch

• Make a vegetable salad with left-over vegetables, grains, legumes, and protein.

• Make a grain salad with left-over grain, legumes, vegetables.

• Make a mixed fruit salad with left-over fruit.

• Make a grain bowl with left-over grain, legumes, vegetables and protein.

• Make guacamole with remaining avocados, and hummus or bean dip with remaining legumes, or ranch dip with extra yogurt.

• Put left-over veggies on a platter with ranch dip, hummus, or guacamole.

Dinner

• Make a stir-fry with left-over vegetables.

• Make what I call a hodge-podge soup. Season and sautee an onion, then place extra vegetables, grains, legumes, protein and broth into a pot, or slow-cooker to simmer away for an easy meal.

• Roast left-over vegetables.

• If you have a left-over grain of some sort, top it with roasted vegetables and a poached egg.

• You could also top a fresh green salad with warm, or cold roasted vegetables and feta cheese- yum!

Other Ideas for Using Remaining Food

• If you have a single serving or so left from several meals, pull it all out and have a left-over meal. You could also take it to an elderly person, a college student, or divide into individual portions and place in the freezer for a quick freezer meal.

• Freeze bananas

• Freeze broth in a wide mouth mason jar with headspace to allow for expansion when freezing

• Freeze grapes

• Dehydrate fruits and veggies

• Make mashed, or roasted potatoes with potatoes that are getting a bit past their prime.

• Make veggie chips

• Make fruit leather

• Make applesauce

• Make croutons, or bread crumbs with stale bread