Ways to Minimize Food Wastage

Food wastage is a major problem in America.  As a nation, we throw away about half of all the food we produce.  We spend $1 billion per year to get rid of the food we throw away on top of the $165 billion in wasted food we toss every year.

Not to go too political on you, but just for the record, that $166 billion in food wastage and disposal?  That could be used to feed a whole hell of a lot of people in developing nations -- or right here at home.  Even if you don't care about feeding starving children (and you should), consider this:  Right now, Social Security is adding about $165 billion to the deficit.  Hmm, I wonder where we could possibly get that much money to counter that cost.....

General Tips for Minimizing Food Wastage

• Make a meal plan and buy only the groceries you need to make the food on your menu.  If you do buy in bulk, only do it on foods that won't go bad, or make a plan for preserving your foods to make them last longer.  
• If you don't eat a lot of produce, consider buying your vegetables frozen instead of fresh.  The nutrition loss is minimal and you don't have to worry about them going bad quickly.  Focus your fresh vegetable purchases on a handful of things that you know you'll eat right away. 
• Take steps to extend the lifespan of foods in your fridge.  Keep the refrigerator at the right temperature.  Store things in the appropriate containers.  Rinse berries and other vegetables in vinegar to kill off mold spores.  
• Don't cook more than you will eat.  If you have leftovers, package them in a freezer-friendly way and be sure you'll actually eat them.  It makes more sense to cook a small portion of something and eat all of it than cook a huge amount of leftovers that you won't eat.  If you're still hungry, eat a snack later.  
• Keep your fridge clean and relatively well-organized so you can see what you have.  Keep a list somewhere of the food you have in the house and cross items off as you run out of them.  It will save you money on groceries and reduce food wastage.  
• Stop sour cream and cottage cheese from molding by storing them upside down.  This makes it harder for contaminants to get inside the lid and ruin your food.  

Ways to Extend the Life of Foods Past their Prime

Even if you're careful, you may sometimes end up with food a bit past its prime.  No problem! Plenty of foods can be eaten past their "peak of freshness."  There's a long distance between "super fresh" and "so rotten it will make you sick," and foods in the in-between category can still be used.  

• Eggs.  Check the freshness of eggs by dropping them in a bowl of water.  Fresh eggs will sink immediately to the bottom.  Not-so-fresh eggs will stand upright on their pointed ends.  Rotten eggs will float.  Fresh eggs stick together better for fried eggs and quiches; use the not-so-fresh ones in baked goods where their texture won't matter so much, or hard-boil them.  
• Milk.  Milk usually lasts about two weeks past the "sell-by" date on the carton.  If it goes past that point or starts to sour, use it in place of buttermilk in pancakes, biscuits and other recipes.  Sour milk is also a fine starter for homemade cheese, yogurt, etc.  Just do something with it before it curdles on its own and you're all set.  
• Cheese.  If a firm cheese like cheddar or swiss goes moldy in your fridge, just cut off the moldy portion.  For best results, shave off about 1" of the cheese that was touching the mold, too.  Don't try this with liquid dairy products like sour cream or cottage cheese, though.  
• Firm vegetables.  Things like carrots, bell peppers etc. can be salvaged if they're slightly moldy.  Just chop off the moldy part.  As long as the rest of the vegetable still feels firm, you should be safe.  Don't try this with soft vegetables or fruits where the mold will penetrate deeper into the flesh.  
• Produces that has begun to go soft.  If your produce has wilted or softened but isn't yet moldy, hurry and use it in something that will last.  Make a sauce or jelly out of your berries and fruit.  Toss the vegetables into your stock pot.  Yes, you're supposed to make these things with foods at the peak of freshness, but I promise that slightly-sagging celery will work just as well in your mire poix.  
• Stale baked goods.  You need to throw out moldy bread, but the stale stuff works just great for homemade croutons and bread crumbs.  Stale chips can be rendered back down into masa or used as coating for things.  

These are just a few ideas.  The real hurdle is to be realistic with yourself about whether a food is actually unsafe to eat or if you're just freaking yourself out.  We have it pounded into our heads all the time that food has to be completely and utterly fresh and crisp and bright or we'll die, and the truth is a bit more nuanced than that.  

The best strategy though, as always, is simply not to buy things that you won't use.  Put some thought into it, be careful about what you buy and avoid creating unnecessary waste by using what you get.  Period.  

How 'bout you guys?  Any fun recipes or ideas for less-than-fresh foods? 

Need Some Dinner Ideas?

I discovered a lovely new website today: Supercook.

The premise of the site is pretty simple:  You plug in the ingredients you have on hand, then the site trawls through recipes online and finds things that can be made with the food in your pantry.  Of course, you can do this yourself by plugging in ingredients to a site like Epicurious or Allrecipes, but Supercook is nice because it excludes recipes that you don't have the ingredients for.

You can write in all of your ingredients, but it's probably easier to choose a recipe type and click the ingredients you have from there instead since the way you input an ingredient will make a difference in how it will show up.  For example, "potatoes" will bring up different results than "potato."  Once you get over those simple glitches, though, this is a pretty awesome and powerful tool.

Of course, you can't count on Supercook to tell you every possible recipe that you can make, and you might get several versions of a single recipe.  Nevertheless, this should be a good source of inspiration for you the next time your kitchen goes bare.  Another useful feature:  After you input the ingredients in your kitchen, it will generate a basic grocery list of items that will help you make the maximum number of meals.  Definitely helpful.

Anyway, here's my projected meal plan for the week (with extra options for variety):


BREAKFAST:
-----------------------
French toast
Pancakes
Breakfast tacos
Cheese omelet
Cornmeal mush
Baked oatmeal
*English muffins
*Bagels
Grilled cheese & scrambled egg sandwich
Potatoes & eggs on tortilla
*Homemade granola

LUNCH:
------------------------
Grilled cheese sandwich
Mac & Cheese
Cornbread dogs
Pasta salad
Bean dip & chips
*Quesadillas
Parmesean pasta
Edamame and mushrooms

DINNER:
----------------------
Peking Style Chicken
Potstickers
*Asian dumpling soup
-- Fried rice
-- Korean squash
*Cheese potato casserole
*Potato cheese soup
-- Bread bowl
Pizza
Pasta la vista
-- Maple carrots
-- Stuffed zuchinni
-- Maple glazed green beans
*Lentil soup (shorbat addas)

(If you're wondering, the astericks designate meals that will take a little bit of extra time to prepare because they're predominately homemade or have several ingredients.)

How 'bout you guys -- what are y'all cooking this week?

Hot and Sour Soup

One of David's

Adventures in the Asian Market

One of the best parts about living in the "ghetto" of North Austin is the proximity to really excellent authentic ethnic cuisine.  Within a few miles of my apartment in any direction, you can find several amazing taco stands, Vietnamese sandwich shops, Chinese barbecues, noodle houses, Indian buffets and more.  One shopping center in particular is jam-packed with Asian shops, including a positively massive market, so we decided to head over for a shopping adventure today.

I really love Asian food.  It's David's favorite cuisine, and his deep love of anime and all things Japanese make it much easier to convince him to eat outside of his comfort zone.  While he can be kind of finicky about some foods, he gets a lot more adventurous when the food in question is Asian.  I, on the other hand, am pretty much an equal-opportunity foodie, but I have a deep appreciation for the economical style of Asian cooking.  Using meat as a condiment, making a lot of soup, eating a wide array of grains, vegetables and legumes...if ever there were a cuisine that's hand-picked for my style of eating, it's this one.

Anyway.  We headed over to the grocery store today and were immediately greeted by a koi pond, where a few young Vietnamese children were feeding some exceptionally friendly fish.  That should give you a pretty good idea of what awesomeness was in store once we went inside.

The market is massive.  I've been in a few Asian markets before, but they've usually been fairly small.  This place, on the other hand, was about the same size as the local HEB.  It had an entire section just for rice, with more varieties than I've ever seen.  It had an entire wall of tofu.  One aisle was devoted entirely to preserved foods, pickles, jerky.  It had duck eggs, goose eggs and quail eggs.  The seafood section had tanks of live catfish, lobsters and crabs, and you could buy fresh raw squid, cuttlefish, dozens of different fish and even sting ray.  Basically, this place was like Disney Land for food nerds.

One thing I especially enjoy about shopping at ethnic markets is the ability to buy fresh produce that you don't normally see at the regular supermarket.  I love eating fresh foods, but it can get really boring when your options are all the same.

I tried not to go too crazy, but we did still go slightly over budget.  Nevertheless, here's the fun break-down of the shopping trip:

• Celery - 1.99
• Pork shoulder (2lb) - 4.03
• Shitake mushrooms - 2.66
• Tomatoes - 1.17 
• Mint - .79
• Soy sauce (1 liter) - 1.89 (this was such a great find)
• Dill - 1.19
• Lo mein noodle (2 packs) 2.49/each
• Pork & veggie pot stickers - 7.49 (an enormous bag)
• Eggplant (2.4 pounds) - 3.39
• Ramen noodles (no seasoning, just the noodles, huge pack) - 3.79
• Napa cabbage (3lb) - 2.80
• Soft tofu - .99
• Firm tofu - .99
• Gekkeikan sake - 12.99 (enormous bottle)
• Siracha - 2.29 (also an enormous bottle)
• Red potatoes (5lb) - 2.79
• Broccoli (2 heads) - 1.26
• Dragon fruit - 4.07
• Sugar plum (2lb) - 3.40
• Vegetable oil - 3.99 (you guessed it - big bottle)
• Rice (5lb) - 5.99
• Sesame oil - 2.59
• Bubble gum - 1.39 (snuck in at the register by a certain boyfriend who shall not be mentioned)
• Eggs (18 count) - 2.69 (these eggs are enormous)
• Ramune (Japanese soda) - 8.94

Obviously, I didn't buy too many really adventurous things, but I did pick up a few staples that I really wanted, and a few fun things to try.  The dragon fruit, for example, is something I've never eaten but am really eager to try out.  Tonight, dinner was pretty straightforward: pot stickers served with some cabbage-and-mushroom lo mein.  Totally delicious.

Anyway, a few of my projects I hope to make (and blog about!) soon:

• Cha siu bau with the pork shoulder.  I've made pork-filled meat buns in the past, and they've always been delicious, but I've never nailed the cha siu.  So I'm going to try that this time around.  
• A small batch of plum sauce.  It's one of those condiments you always end up running to the store for at the last minute (er, if you eat a lot of Asian food), and it'd be so much nicer to have some on-hand. 
• A batch of homemade rice vinegar with the sake.  I've been itching to make some vinegar, and considering the amount of Asian cooking I do, rice vinegar seemed like the way to go.  
• Hot and sour soup.  It's David's all-time favorite comfort food and I think he'd be positively delighted if I could make some up on demand any time he asked for it.  

Anyway, that's just a few projects that are knocking around in my brain right now.  Anybody have any other suggestions or requests for things I can try to use up some of those excellent ingredients up there?  Leave them in the comments!  

What Do You Use Vanilla Sugar For?

So you know I'm having fun experimenting with vanilla beans, yeah? 

One of the ways I've been maximizing my usage is by tossing my "spent" vanilla bean husks into a jar of plain white sugar.  I give this a shake every day to help spread the flavor, and it smells positively amazing.  If you have some spent vanilla, you should totally do this so you don't waste any extra flavor tidbits.  But the question, of course, is what do you do with vanilla sugar? 

You probably don't want to use it in baking.  The flavor's a bit too delicate for that.  Here's a few things I've found to do with it that are great, though: 

-- Sprinkle it over cookies, like peanut butter or shortbread, before baking
-- Stir it into your tea or coffee for a deeper, sweeter flavor
-- Dust it onto homemade marshmallows or other candies
-- Sprinkle it over your cereal
-- Sprinkle some over fresh fruit
-- Use it the next time you make cinnamon toast

Basically, anything that tastes good with a spoon full of granulated sugar tastes extra good with a spoonful of vanilla sugar.  Obviously, don't go out and buy vanilla just to make this stuff...but if you have any husks lying around that'll go to waste, absolutely toss them into your sugar jar.

Collect Experiences, Not Things

Concerning MSG

Monosodium glutamate, ie, MSG, is a flavoring agent that creeps its way into a lot of different foods.  Although it's most commonly associated with Chinese food, you can also find it in packaged snack foods like chips or added to frozen dinners.  MSG has a pretty nasty reputation among some people, and it's not too hard to find signs and packages proudly announcing their products to be "MSG free" -- but the question is, what is the stuff, and do you really need to avoid it?

What Is MSG?  

Glutamate, or glutamic acid, is an amino acid.  Amino acids are the basic building block of proteins, which are in turn the building blocks of living things in the form of muscle and tissue.  Monosodium glutamate is a salt of that acid -- basically, sodium combines at an atomic level with glutamate to form the salt.   This is the same as how table salt is a combination, at the atomic level, of sodium and chlorine.  So far so good? 

Glutamate occurs naturally in your body, where it helps keep your neurotransmitters firing efficiently.  If you end up with extra glutamate in your system, though -- or any other amino acid -- it becomes processed by your liver so that it can be stored for other things.  If your liver and immune system work properly, this process shouldn't cause any problems.  There can be some complications, though, if everything doesn't work the way it should.  One of the most common is an allergic reaction.

Although glutamate occurs naturally in the body, monosodium glutamate has to be manufactured.  There's two basic ways to accomplish this.  The first is hydrolizing vegetable protein.  The second is fermenting certain starches.  Most MSG you find in food is manufactured, but it does occur as a natural by-product in some fermented foods like soy sauce.  

What Does MSG Do In Food?

MSG was most likely identified in the foods where it's naturally produced -- ie, fermented foods like soy sauce or worcestershire.  There it creates that hard-to-pin-down flavor profile, umami.  You're familiar with salty, sour, sweet and bitter, right?  Umami is that delicious "savory" taste that helps complement other flavors and make food taste better. You know, the flavor you get when you eat something protein-filled like a well-cooked piece of meat? Glutamate is pretty much solely responsible for creating that flavor.

If you know anything about processed food, it really shouldn't shock you that "flavor that makes food taste better" is something that food manufacturers are eager to pump into their products.  

This is why you find MSG in so many processed foods.  It's way cheaper to put a little MSG in something than it is to put actual protein in there.  So, for example, canned soup or Ramen Noodle packets can taste meaty and delicious even if there isn't actually any meat in them.  Cheetos can taste cheesy despite there not actually being any cheese.  

Is It Harmful?  

Your taste buds work pretty hard to make sure that the things you put in your mouth are nutritious.  Different foods have different tastes, and giving you a preference for certain flavors helps make sure you eat what you're supposed to.  In the case of glutamate, your body recognizes the umami flavor and says, "hey, this is full of delicious protein!  eat up!"

Except, of course, if the glutamate is added to the food and there's not actually any protein in it.

So you're happily shoveling away food that your body thinks is nutritious and delicious when, in fact, you could be eating the nutritional equivalent of cardboard sprinkled with MSG.  This is no different than the way processed foods trick you with added salt, sugar, and fat.  The added flavors make fake food taste like yummy real food instead of tasteless fake food infused with artificial ingredients.  

MSG has a few other issues.  A small portion of the population is allergic to it, and you can develop a sensitivity to it if you eat a lot of it.  There's also a bunch of genetic problems that can increase your glutamate sensitivity.  For people with a genuine MSG sensitivity, excess glutamate can cause some serious medical problems, including neurological damage -- but this is a tiny portion of people.  To so-called "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" isn't nearly as widespread as people think it is. 

Why Should You Avoid MSG?

It's true:  A small percentage of people in the world have an MSG intolerance that leads to headaches, nausea, fatigue and other nasty problems.  That doesn't mean that MSG itself is necessarily bad any more than peanut allergies mean that peanuts are unhealthy.  If you have a diagnosed MSG intolerance, then you absolutely should avoid glutamate.  If you don't, though, glutamate isn't going to hurt you any more than, say, wheat gluten hurts people who don't have a gluten allergy.  So all of the fear-mongering about MSG is, to put it lightly, inflated.  It's not going to cause cancer or give you birth defects or make your eyeballs explode or anything.  Relax, eat some soy sauce.

The real reason to avoid MSG is because its presence in your food is probably a really good sign that the food isn't something you should be eating.  Remember, glutamate occurs naturally in foods.  But it doesn't show up in the ingredients label that way.  It only shows up in the ingredients if someone actually put the MSG in there.  Which means that the food is obviously highly processed, and thus probably not something you really want to put in your mouth.