Renamed: The no-waste pantry help thread, or "Help to build up the stockpile and use up what... - Page 3

[HydeParkB]

Originally Posted by katheek77;11401088
What do I do with [COLOR="Red"

Kale?[/COLOR] I think it's kale - I'm pretty sure it's kale. I've never eaten Kale before in my life.

Kale is probably going to need to be cooked. We mix in in with other greens (collards and mustard). Or you can make a soup of kale, white beans and sausage. DH made a pretty good soup with chorizo and kale!

[velochic]

Originally Posted by katheek77

Got our first CSA today - goat chevre

And fresh herbs that I won't use up so quickly?

How about making an herbed goat cheese spread for crackers or crudité? The herbed goat cheese could also be used for things like spreading on your bread along with other ingredients to make panini, little dollops dotted around homemade pizza, or as the final component/garnish of a soup or pasta dish.

Or, you could make herbed butter. Soften some butter, stir in the herbs and refrigerate. Use like you do the herbed goat cheese.

Radishes? I don't like them much here, either. My family eat them raw. I've had sautéed radishes before. I think some butter and some of those fresh herbs might work for a dish like that.

Good luck!

ETA: for drying the herbs: you can hang them in a dry 70°F basement (upside down), or you can dry them in the oven at about 200°F, (the best way) in a dehydrator.

[jennlyn]

If you have an ice-cube tray you can chop up the herbs, put them in the tray and add some water on top - then you have herb cubes to toss into your cooking pot.

[katheek77]

The cheeses were gone (with half the loaf of bread) within about 5 minutes of getting home : - they were sample sizes, as our farmer is coordinating monthly orders with a local Amish goat cheese maker and a raw milk cheese maker. (Our CSA farmer is great - he works with local chicken and beef farmers, the cheese makers, a local fair trade coffee coop...and I think that's all of them..oh, and a local organic apple farmer). This week was the goat cheese, next week, we get raw milk cheese samples.

I took the advice on the kale, and, unbeknownst to me, apparently, that is a main ingredient in the Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup, which I love, and for which I found a copycat recipe. So, I am making that now (don't have any sausage, but found a recipe FOR sausage, and just added those spices to the soup - I figure the bacon will be enough meat). That used up about half the kale - I may do the bean and kale soup this weekend or try one of the sautes I found for them.

I have a friend who called this morning to see if she could pick up her part of a Frontier order i placed, and I'm going to see if she'd like some of the herbs, will use most of the rest to make herb butter (don't know why I didn't think of that...I always make herb butter for roast chicken ) and will try to dry the rest.

The radishes are the rub, but, maybe my friend will take them. At least it won't be wasting them, right?

Thanks for all your suggestions. As you can see, I used most of them (or some variation there of).

[SeekingJoy]

Whohoo! I think I found my tribe! We are stocking up in a major way (well, major for us) and have a steep learning curve. At the same time, I am trying to find a way to be organized about this so I don't waste things.

Originally Posted by Norasmomma

Well I posted on the other thread about how this and the OP is almost exactly what I am doing. I have my inventory list on my freezer and have a couple odd ball things that need to get rotated out.

Norasmomma, what does your inventory look like? Care to share?

Originally Posted by katheek77

What do I do with Kale? I think it's kale - I'm pretty sure it's kale. I've never eaten Kale before in my life.

I make a quickie lasagna with my spring greens (kale, chard, spinach) and any other random veggies I have on hand (zuc, squash, mushrooms, onions, etc). I layer sauce, no boil noodles, sauce, washed but not cooked veggies, low fat cottage cheese, skim or whole milk mozzeralla cheese, and seasonings. Repeat. Repeat. Top with sauce, herbs and moz. cheese. Either pop in the freezer for later or the oven for now. Super easy! :

This weeks goals:
1 - Find way to store sour cream - does it freeze well? It is on sale and I have coupons to make it free. Free is good, but now I have 20 containers of sour cream.
2 - Find fish and meat on sale to stock up.
3 - Use all my CSA veggies.
4 - Use up broccoli stems. Too hot for soup, so now what?

[katheek77]

4 - Use up broccoli stems. Too hot for soup, so now what?

Maybe you could peel them and julienne them for broccoli slaw? (There's no way in heck I'd julienne w/o my processor , though, so, that might not be the easiest idea).

I don't believe sour cream freezes well...my best idea would be to pull some baking recipes (cakes, breads, muffins) utilizing sour cream and freezing THOSE. And then trying to use as much as possible in recipes for now...salad dressings, stroganoff, etc (I don't know if sour cream will freeze well in other dishes; I would suspecct it probably depends on how much sour cream is in the dish?)

And on my end of things, my friend loves radishes, so, got rid of those. And some of the thyme. I had a very tasty soup, salad, and bread for lunch today, and plenty of leftovers on everything. Oh, and I used the rhubarb (and a spare apple, since I was a cup short on rhubarb) to make a crisp (or a crumble? don't remember) last night. Anyway, it was good. I've moved some frozen butter to the fridge to make the herb butter. I'm assuming that will last as long as regular butter?

[spiderdust]

Radishes: roast them or chop them up to make homefries!

[veggijessie]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

1 - Find way to store sour cream - does it freeze well? It is on sale and I have coupons to make it free. Free is good, but now I have 20 containers of sour cream.

nak ...

Sour cream does NOT freeze. It just doesn't work.

I am a couponer also and a few months ago I got 40 things of sour cream for free. I went against the advice that I received about it not freezing well and last week I had to throw away 10 containers. It will last about a month after the exp. date if it is unopened and UPSIDE-DOWN. I don't know why but it works. Hope that helps!

[Llyra]

Two great ways to use up produce. I'm sorry if they've been mentioned. I did read the thread, but my reading comprehension sucks sometimes.

1. Make stock. You can use all the leftover bits and pieces and the stuff that's gone a little soft but is still mostly edible. You can add almost anything to stock, and it'll come out okay. Saute it in some oil until it's starting to brown a bit (good flavor that way) and then simmer it for an hour or so. You never know what you're gonna get-- the flavor will be different every time, depending on what you use! Then strain the stock and use it in recipes or to cook rice or whatever you'd normally use stock for.

2. Steam it, puree it, and sneak it into smoothies or into your favorite pasta sauce. I puree broccoli stems, for instance, and add them to tomato sauce. As long as you don't overdo it, they vanish right into the sauce and you never know they're there.

katheek77, you're better off drying herbs out of the sun. You'll preserve more flavor that way. I tie mine in small bunches and hang in the upstairs hallway. It's cool and dry up there, and there's no sun. I don't do it in the basement because mine is too damp and they mold rather than drying. Once they're dry, put them in bags or jars, and watch for condensation on the inside that would show they're not really all the way dry. If that happens, take them out and dry longer. You can also dry them in a warm oven if you want it done fast, but you lose some flavor that way.

[Clutterbug Jen]

: My goal for this week is to eat things that I already have here.

I'm not way over-stocked or anything but still would like to use some of what I have up ...

I may have to get a couple of things [but then too, I may not have to.]

Do want to see if there are any "really good" sales and if I find any, I'd like to get a few of them but other than that, I'll use what I have here.

Love,

Jen

[bwylde]

I went to some amazing food storage workshops yesterday that gave me some ideas of how to better store things and great ideas for using the stuff we have (I didn't know we had access to a canner and a mylar pouch sealer, awesome!!).

I have been a sprouting failure in the past but now I know where I was going wrong, so I think I will be trying some sprout salads this week . I have been using up some frozen veggies and meat for casseroles for new moms and a potluck today.

Tomorrow is going to be a fridge day as I need to get it cleaned out. I have some greens that need to be used up and tons of other stuff.