Meatless Monday: Kitchen Tips for the Next Holiday

Thanksgiving 2014 has come and gone, but more holidays loom just ahead on the horizon.

Those of us who cook and bake have only just begun our work.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as we prepare for the next celebration(s).

We should do our best to minimize waste. I have blogged about this before; if you want the statistics on how much food Americans waste each year, I invite you to click on this link. 

Just before Thanksgiving, Food Day and Interfaith Power and Light shared a guide to sustainable food choices and meal preparation; the tips apply to Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations as well.

Here are a few tips of my own.

• The water in which you boil a rutabaga (or other root vegetables) makes a great soup base. If you aren’t ready to make soup right away, freeze it for future use.
• Leftover roasted vegetables (should you be lucky enough to have some) freeze very well when sealed in ziplock freezer bags. I have had particularly good luck with brussels sprouts and mashed butternut squash.

Stock up on locally-grown seasonal ingredients. 

• Now is the time to buy the last of the locally-grown winter squash. Try to buy squash with the stems attached, and store them in the coolest place in your house. If you don’t have such a spot, cook and store the squash in the freezer.
• Buy fresh cranberries while you still can. If you are not ready to use them, put the bagged berries into the freezer right away. They will last for months in their original bag; just be sure to rinse them well before preparing them.

And, of course, plan ahead, and do your best to pool your shopping trips.

That’s it for today. Happy Meatless Monday. 

Good health to you, and to the planet.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”