Back In Town

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays! I had a great time during mine, visiting with friends and family. Food Waste Friday will, of course, resume this week for me.

When I came home, P had purchased and set up a new pantry rack for me in place of where my other "main pantry" was (I have a second shelf for baking goods, dried fruit and the like). I was very excited and immediately set to work organising it. I love how the sides are both deep and open, since it allows me to have a perfect view of what canned goods I'm lacking, rather than estimating what's there before I head to the store. And now that the baskets are in place, it's extra organised so I can stay on top of everything (which should help me prevent even more food waste!).

Vegetable Couscous

One of the other things I like to eat while P is out of town is couscous. Again, it's simple to prepare, but more importantly, it's one of those things I don't eat often when P is here because he doesn't like Moroccan couscous. Anytime he's out of town I try to take advantage of the opportunity to load up on couscous. This is a simple meal to prepare, but also works very well when you just need a side dish (instead of a full meal, as I'm using it for). Hope you enjoy!

1/8 cup dried mushrooms (I used king oyster but you should use what you have)
1/8 cup dried rutabaga (optional)
3/4 cup boiling water
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth and reserved liquid (total; the vegetable broth should make up the difference lacking from the reserved liquid)
1/4 preserved lemon, diced
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
2 dried lime
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/3 cups couscous

Pour boiling water over mushrooms and rutabaga, then let sit for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Dice mushrooms. Combine reserved liquid, vegetable broth, mushrooms, rutabaga, sun-dried tomatoes, preserved lemon, corn, dried limes, salt and pepper, then bring to a boil. Add couscous, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Drizzle with olive oil if desired. Serves 1-2 for a meal, or 2-4 as a side.

Merry Christmas

No Food Waste Friday today, since it's Christmas. I'm out of town, and there wasn't any waste before I left.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and spend it sharing love and laughter with your friends and family.

Mashed Potato Topping

Well, you guys may have noticed in previous posts that I eat a lot of random stuff when P is out of town and I'm on my own. One of the things I normally don't admit to eating copious amounts of when I'm by myself is potato flake mashed potatoes. I primarily because I never have fresh potatoes on hand (and I like to use canned potatoes for other things), but also I eat them because they're fast to make, can be made in single portions easily and because technically, dairy + potato = nutritionally complete meal. Sometimes I really like to top my potatoes with something (loads of mashed potatoes really can get boring sometimes), though, and today is one of those days. These toppings are convenient and easy to make, and I often make them out of scraps of produce that I need to use but simply haven't gotten around to yet. It's easily modified for whatever produce you have on hand, and of course it's great on "real" mashed potatoes as well. Hope you enjoy!

1/2 - 3/4 cup sliced onions
1/4 cup sliced celery
3 sliced cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Heat the pan over low-to-medium and add butter and oil. When butter is melted, double check to make sure you're not frying any butter wrapper, then add the celery, onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Fry for 5 minutes, then add the lemon and fry another 5 minutes. Serves 1.

Food Waste Friday

No picture this time either.

I lost:

2 slices havarti
1 slice toast
2 biscotti (can you imagine I let biscotti go to waste???)