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.”

Meatless Monday: Why Mess with a Good Thing?

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. 

That sums up my efforts to tweak a perfectly good pancake recipe I shared with you some months back—my friend Cher’s favorite vegan recipe for Banana Flapjacks from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch.

I had been having great success substituting almond meal for half the flour in my baked goods — imparting more protein, significant calcium and iron, and a nice flavor, all with fewer carbs. Why not try this in my pancake batter?

So, I did—using 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 almond meal. I wish I had not. The batter stuck to the griddle, and the cakes didn’t hold together. The pancakes smelled wonderful; I could almost taste them! I was so disappointed [to put it mildly]. I was out of overly ripe bananas. How could I salvage the Saturday breakfast I had promised to make?

Quick thinking and the decisions to add 1/4 cup of flour to the mix and to fry the pancakes in my well-seasoned crepe pan, with a generous bit of butter, saved the day. These flapjacks may not look like much, but they tasted great. Next time I will try adding 1/4 cup of almond flour to the original recipe, thinning the batter if necessary.

After this near miss, I decided to Google “almond flour pancakes.” I found a few highly-rated recipes, none of which were vegan. They all had eggs. Here is a link to a 5-star recipe. 

The lesson in this? When you are trying out a new ingredient, and you are counting on success, start with a 5-star recipe before tweaking a familiar recipe you love. After all, you want to cut down on, not add to, food waste.

Happy Monday. Have a great week!

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.”

Meatless Monday: Counting Down to Earth Day 2013: 4.15.13

Welcome to Day 6 of my Counting Down to Earth Day 2013 challenge. 

Today’s Tip: CUT DOWN ON YOUR FOOD WASTE

In his book American Wasteland, author Jonathan Bloom states that America wastes nearly half of its food. The problem begins in the fields where some crops are left to rot because their appearance does not meet the standards for sale. More food is lost in transport, when it does not sell at the market, or when uneaten food is discarded at a restaurant. Food scraps make up about 19 percent of the waste dumped in landfills, where it ends up rotting and producing methane, a greenhouse gas. 

Here is where we come into the picture. Bloom also estimates that Americans waste an astounding 25% of the food they bring home. 

What can the consumer do?

Here are some easy steps you can take to help both the planet and your wallet:

• PLAN AHEAD. Love Food, Hate Waste, a British site with the tagline “making the most of the food we buy,” offers: many ideas for reducing food waste, suggested weekly menus, and tools to help you discover recipes you can make from ingredients you have on hand. See a post of mine from last fall for more on this site and mobile app. 

• MAKE A GROCERY LIST and try to stick to it. This will work best if you remember my time-tested rule: Never go to the store hungry.

• PUT YOUR FREEZER TO GOOD USE. Yes, I’ve also blogged about this before. Promptly freeze leftovers from your dinner out if you know you won’t get to them in the next day or two. Freeze some of the delicious soup you made over the weekend, or a dozen cookies from that large batch you baked. You don’t need a fancy container; zip-lock freezer bags work well. Just be sure to label the package with the contents and the date before stashing it away. Did you know that you can freeze a partially used carton of milk or juice? Remember that when you are heading out of town. 

• KNOW WHAT YOU OWN. Check out the contents of your refrigerator and freezer BEFORE going to the store. You never know what treasures you might find there. Maybe you can take a night off from cooking…

Come back tomorrow for a new tip as we count down to Earth Day on April 22.

Love Your Mother (Earth). Pass it on. Together we can make a difference. Yes, we can!  

Have a great week.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday 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.”