Cook Once, Eat Twice or Even Thrice

Being that I operate a small grocery store focused on local and seasonal items, I suffer from a lot of produce waste. Approximately one third of the produce that I bring in ends  up as waste because it has a bruise or has shriveled quickly and lost its sexiness. Let’s face it, we shop with our eyes, so if produce isn’t shiny and voluptuous, we don’t buy it.

As the owner of this wee grocery store I eat a lot of this not-so-sexy food. It’s perfectly edible; it just needs a little trim here or there before I can cook it. So very often my ingredients are limited not only by origin (Ontario, naturally) and season (as it is for every locavore), but also by the whims of my customers and what they’re not buying on any given week. Of course, recipes are of little help to me, as I must cook what is left over rather than see it go to waste.

As such, I’m a big fan of the “cook once eat twice (or even thrice)” philosophy.

Have you got a lot of milk about to expire? Easy. Make a big batch of macaroni and cheese and freeze many, many meals worth.

Have you got a lot of wrinkly, sprouting taters? No problem. Boil them up and make potato salad for dinner, and many lunches thereafter, plus a big bowl of mashed potatoes for dinner the next night, and then mashed potatoes into croquettes the night after, and for shepherd’s pie the night after that.

(Tip : if you make mashed potatoes with cream instead of milk, you can freeze and re-whip them another day)

Speaking of shepherd’s pie, I never cook roast beef without planning for leftover meat and gravy to work into my shepherd’s pie – which of course I make multiple trays of and freeze for quick weeknight meals.

Never fear “too much”, because you can always turn it into something new. The chickens that Ira & the Mennonites provide for our Chicken Share have been massive this year, five to six pounders easily. With only two of us eating at home those giant chickens make for many meals. Generally I’ll roast a chicken, carve what we need for one meal, then chop the rest into sections: breast, leg, thigh, freeze it for fast frying later in a little of the reserved chicken fat (which I also freeze in individual containers). All the bits and bobs I freeze to add to a quick weeknight pasta or pizza. And of course there’s chicken soup, which also makes great use of the chicken bones and all those shriveling veggies that are so plentiful in my cupboard! I’m amazed how filling a dinner of homemade chicken soup is, with some crusty bread and a salad.

My new favourite way to make the most of our local, organic, sustainably raised beef is as a warm dinner salad. Recently I BBQ’d a small steak, no more than a pound. I was surprised how little of it my husband and I ate at dinner. So the next day I chopped a bit up, fried it with onions, red peppers, and a splash of our Maple Balsamic reduction, and served it over greens. Delish! The next night for dinner I toasted a baguette topped with horseradish mayo and the last of my steak, and a some Lankaster cheese, all melted under the grill. Presto! A delicious hot beef sandwich.

I love disguising leftovers as a whole new meals. And my husband thinks I’m a wonderful cook. Little does he know I’m just a pro at giving leftovers a makeover!