Scrappy Meals and Meal Scraps

Economical meals and minimizing food waste.

I have been known to compose meals from food that others might have tossed, that maybe I should have tossed. (Whew! That trip down Instagram lane makes me aware how regularly cuspy food features in my meals... need to eat food faster and purchase more appropriate quantities, fight the urge to squirrel it away.)

Tonight's dinner of brussel sprouts topped with hazelnuts and salad topping mix over brown rice and quinoa was a fine example. I would say it was edible/not entirely pleasurable, not something I would serve to others, nor repeat myself - it's one of the risks of trying to reduce food waste. The brussel sprouts were the remainder of a large takeout serving that I was awarded from Buy Nothing last weekend (the gifter was spice sensitive and had forgotten to order it without pepper flakes; she had also included leftover tiramisu cut around the small bite she had tried in order to confirm that she did not, in fact, like tiramisu - the perfect food gift for me, since both are favorites of mine!). I ate the first half over rice earlier in the week, and for protein, topped it off with the last of a bag of crispy chickpea snacks (a là Girl Dinner) that were just a wee rancid (less Girl Dinner-ish); the texture combination was fantastic, though, and the sauce from the roasted brussel sprouts masked the off-ness of the chickpeas, so I would say that meal was actually pretty decent and a good final use of the chickpeas. Inspired, I tried to replicate the experience for tonight, substituting the hazelnuts that I kept seeing in the fridge - could they really have been around since 2013? Um, possibly. They were not as crunchy as I would have thought, but not offensive, likely benefitting from all the refrigeration, but also fewer than anticipated. So I supplemented with a savory salad topping mix of pumpkin, sunflower, and other seeds and dried cranberries, also refrigerated, but also definitely off - it was the main culprit, and the smaller seeds didn't crunch as much as the chickpeas had; the cranberries were just sweet enough to have detracted from the savoriness of the overall dish, one too many flavor notes. Oh well, I tried. At least I finished the brussel sprouts and hazelnuts, and made a dent in the salad topping mix, and fed myself - that last counts as an accomplishment these days.

I suppose this food sensibility comes from being an early childhood food stamp recipient and an internalized understanding not to waste food born from financial and food insecurity (compounded by the distressing images of starving children in Ethiopia that launched "We Are the World" during my formative tween years), as well as my sense of environmental stewardship and - dare I say it - an optimism that individual behavioral changes - like being open to eating upcycled food (I would try our Christmas tree if it weren't artificial), composting to nourish new food production, and finding other ways to divert food waste from landfills - can make a difference.