Your Share.......

Both Myrna and I made a New Year's Resolution this year (the same as last year) - trying to be less wasteful with food.  Several months later, we realize how it can be a challenge to not let food spoil before it's used - and letting it get freezer-burned because you saved it but still didn't use it doesn't count if you still eventually throw it away.  And letting it pad your waistline isn't the solution either.

It got me thinking about this little World War II leaflet from Betty Crocker – called Your Share.  They gave hundreds of ideas and recipes for stretching wartime rations.  In today’s economy, these ideas still apply.  Here are some that may help you stretch your food dollar or use up those small portions instead of wasting them.  
It's helpful to think about how you could help others if you spent less on food and consumed less of the world's resources.

Food....Don't Waste It:

1. Add mashed beans or bread or oatmeal to ground meat for meatballs, meat loaves or patties.
2. Add beans and/or grains like rice or barley to soups.
3. Top leftover stew with mashed potatoes or biscuits or a biscuit or cornbread crust and bake.
4. Turn stew into soup by adding water – perhaps adding a handful of vegetables.
5. Chop meat into smaller pieces – for example, grind ham and moisten it with some salad dressing –you’ll get more sandwiches.
6. Make meat rolls or pies by chopping meat, adding pickles and mayo, then spread on biscuit dough, roll up and bake, or roll up, cut into slices and bake, or shape into pies either with biscuit dough, yeast dough or piecrust dough.
7. Stir-fry – again, cutting meat into smaller pieces and adding vegetables – best if you grew them yourself.
8. Add beans and less meat to casseroles.
9. Stir some tomatoes and a little cooked ground beef into leftover macaroni and cheese; reheat and serve.
10. Bake meat with stuffing – you can serve a smaller portion of meat if you serve it over stuffing or stuffed with stuffing, like a pocket in small pork chops or chicken breasts.
11. Wrap thin ham slices or beef slices around vegetables to make rolls – whole green beans, long carrot strips or asparagus.
12. Scallop meat with potatoes, white sauce and bread crumbs.
13. Cream diced meat and serve over toast, biscuits, rice, noodles or potatoes.
14. Make old-fashioned croquettes; grind cooked meat and add rice or bread crumbs; moisten with thick white sauce.  Fry or bake.
15. Stuff vegetables with cooked, ground meat or poultry – you can add rice, bread crumbs and stuff green peppers, for instance.  Bake.
16. Make soufflé or quiche.  Only the French could turn a couple of eggs and a handful of hard, dry cheese into a gourmet treat.
17. Save bacon fat and use a little to wipe on your pan before frying eggs, etc.
18. Use all of the vegetable:  tough parts of asparagus and broccoli make delicious cream soups; celery leaves are excellent in soups and stews; combine leftovers and peelings in a freezer container and cook and puree for cream soups.
19. Fruits a little past their prime make cooked sauces, upside-down cake, can be used for cobblers, crisps, added to muffins or cakes or quick breads, etc. 
20. Save stale bread and bread heels and let it dry.  Use for bread pudding, or make crumbs from it.
21. Serve small portions; if folks want more, you can give seconds, but you won't be scraping plates into the garbage.
22. Don't serve snacks; let 3 meals a day do it.  Often snacks are more expensive than food served at meals.
23. Bring back water - I mean tap water for drinking.  Cities spend a great deal making our tap water safe.  Neither adults or children need lots of soft drinks or even juices.  Whole fruit has fiber and satisfies the appetite better than juice.
24. If you are throwing away milk before using it up, maybe you need to make powdered milk up in smaller amounts instead; or freeze some of the milk to use for cooking.
25. Think about puddings, custards, creamed dishes, cream soups, etc. to use up milk.  Substitute sour milk for buttermilk in cookie and bread recipes - just like Grandma.