Five Frugal Things | A No Food Waste Version

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1| A Simple Homemade Sparkling Lemonade 

Lingering in the back of my seltzer stash were a few cans of mineral seltzer water that I had been ignoring because I dislike the mineral taste. 

I decided to try pairing it with a fresh lemon that needed using up and a splash of raspberry syrup to make a sparkling raspberry lemonade. Delicious and no mineral flavor!


2| I Re-Purposed Leftover Chocolate

Is leftover chocolate really a thing?

After making oreo balls last week, I still had a few tablespoons of chocolate left from dipping in the bowl that I couldn't bear to wash down the drain.

I reheated the bowl with the chocolate over a pan of simmering water, added some milk, cocoa powder, and sugar to make hot chocolate. 

Additionally, before putting the milk carton and a heavy cream carton in the recycling, I rinsed them with a few tablespoons of water and dumped that into the hot chocolate as well. It was delicious!

3| Crushed Chips are Perfect in Taco Salad

I used up the crumbs/ broken chips from a bag of lime tortilla chips on my taco salad this week. 

Whenever we finish a back of tortilla chips, we save the small crushed chips lingering in the bottom in a small zip top bag.

Chip crumbs are also great soup or casserole toppers, and can be used as binder in meatballs and meatloaf.

4| Don't Toss Leftover Takeout Condiments!

We've had a couple takeout cups of ranch dressing lingering the in fridge.

This week I used the ranch and lettuce from the garden to make chicken bacon ranch wraps.

5| I Marinaded Chicken Before Freezing

Remember that 19lbs of chicken tenderloin I bought last week in my WWS/WWA post? 

Before freezing, I took a look through my fridge to see what random leftover condiments or other items could be used as a marinade. 

The combinations below were enough to flavor about half the chicken. The rest was frozen plain.
  • 2/3 of a lime and some Chile powder, which become Chile Garlic Lime Chicken
  • A few tablespoons of pesto, which become Lemon Pesto Chicken
  • 1/2 a bottle of Italian dressing, which I added garlic to for Italian Chicken
  • Garlic, lemon juice, and paprika made Lemon Garlic Chicken         
Marinading chicken before you freeze it is a great way to lock in those flavors, and have it ready to go for later grilling or baking.

How did you use up food creatively this week?

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 19, 2020 at 10:16 AM

    You did great on using those little bits of food and condiments instead of letting them go to waste. I use the chip "crumbs" too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MalloryLJune 21, 2020 at 7:11 PM

    Thank you! I hate to see food go to waste, there's typically always something that can be done with it (if you manage to rescue it in time from the back of the fridge at least).

    ReplyDelete

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