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We've talked before about food waste here on LHL but we haven't really gone into detail yet on how to do it. I think one of the best ways is just having ideas of what to do with certain scraps so they have a plan and you don't just toss them or keep them around forever because you aren't sure what to do with them.
Here are some ideas on what to do with certain foods instead of throwing them away. If you have more, make sure you shout them out in the comments section!
Lettuce or Spinach - Bunny food(not iceberg), vegetable soup, eggroll stuffing.
Meat Scraps - Various soups, dog/cat treats, chili, stir fry.
Carrots - Soups, make vegetable stock.
Oranges, Grapefruits, Other Citrus Fruits - Boil in water on the stove as a natural air freshener. Dry to add to teas. Make candied oranges.
Potatoes - Soups. Drizzle oil and salt onclean skins and bake. Save the water.
Tomatoes - Freeze scraps in a bag until you have enough to add to dishes.
Squash - Stir fry. Roast the seeds (like Pumpkin Seeds). Mash up and use as a hidden vegetable in chicken nuggets or other meals.
Onions - We save small pieces of these in a container in the fridge. Add to soups, pasta, or many other meals.
Watermelon - You can pickle the rinds or dry the seeds. (Like Pumpkin Seeds).
Bananas - Mash up extras and freeze for banana bread or muffins. Place the peels in cars to remove bad smells.
What other uses do you have for food scraps? We feed alot to our chickens, they love it!
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I freeze the root ends of my veggies, along with wing tips & backbones from chicken. When the gallon ziploc bag is full, I make stock. My chickens, rabbits, dogs, & cats take the rest of the scraps – meat to the dogs & cats & veggie scraps to chickens & rabbits. Anything that they can’t eat goes into my compost pile
What about compost for the garden?
I have a zip lock bag in my freezer for any small amount of left over vegetables. Once the bag is full, I make vegetable soup.
I feed it all to my chicken’s!
If it is no good for leftover my chicken’s get them!
Our chickens love table scraps too or then there is always a compost pile
The way I keep ahead of potatoes that are starting to sprout is this: peel and cube and boil for 10 minutes or just until barely tender. Drain and pour onto a baking sheet to cool. Package in Ziploc freezer bags in a single layer and lay flat in the freezer until frozen solid. Heat some oil or butter in a skillet and brown the frozen potatoes for quick breakfast potatoes. Delicious! I tried freezing in a single layer on a baking sheet and they froze to the sheet so that I could not remove them. Then I tried freezing on wax paper and parchment and they were fast stuck to the paper so the freezer bag method works best. If you are making mashed potatoes you can go ahead and do a bunch for both the mashing and freezing all at once. This has saved many a potato from being wasted at our house.
Those are some great ideas for not wasting extra food scraps. I certainly never would have thought of freezing them till I had enough to make something with it. That’s a great idea
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
I make stock or “Dump Soup”…I can’t believe how many chicken carcass’ I threw away..now, I save them all in the freezer, for stock!
Banana peels are great fertilizer for roses. I take them out and throw them under one of my rose bushes.
In our “no fat, low salt” household – I trim all fat from beef & pork and remove chicken skin before cooking. All of this goes in a freezer bag and goes to a friend that has a sled dog team for freezer burn stew. We also make a rotisserie style chicken in the microwave with mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies. After we eat, the entire carcass and leftover chicken is boiled for broth. Chop up the meat, put the broth in the frig to let the fat rise to the top. Next night scrape the fat off the broth and put in the freezer burn bag for the dogs. Make chicken & dumplings with the rest and a few veggies. If there are any leftovers the third night add a little more broth and some egg noodles for chicken noodle soup. One way to really stretch a chicken.
I’ve done this all my life! We never NEVER throw out anything that can’t be utilized by something else.
I’d like to add that orange peels and vinegar makes a wonderful organic cleaner.
Great idea!
I just head of this recently, I made up my first batch and used it for the first time today. It smells great!
Same here. Always. I grew up this way.
Banana peels for a smelly car? That’s a new one! Great tips. I wish I had some chickens to toss some of these out to them!
Turn it into compost for a garden, or feed it to the chickens who lay your eggs.
We can’t have chickens here so we Composte! Everything we don’t use, goes in there, even egg shells for next year to supplement our garden.
Bananas – When a bunch is getting too ripe and I know I won’t get to them, I slice them or sometimes just tear them in 1/2-1″ slices, put in ziplock snack size baggies – 1/2 banana per baggie – then put all the snack baggies into a gallon size freezer bag and freeze them. Perfect for smoothies – makes them extra cold – and in the right portion size!
I love doing this too. Frozen bananas are so handy and have so many uses!
I juice carrots, fruit, greens and squash that need to be used and depending on how much it is I either drink it or freeze into cubes and use in soups, stew and other dishes.
I’ve never had chickens to share with. I learned from my older family members who went through the Depression. I scrape the bits of butter left on the paper wrapper. I save the last 3 peas drowning in the bottom of the serving bowl. Everything goes into the freezer. It used to go to soup but my family has shrunk. So I make dog food for my 13 year old dog. Carrot peels and eggshells go into that. Nearly everything other than onions.
And maybe a bit of soup for myself once in a while.
After using apples for applesauce, use the peels to make apple jelly! Yum!
I always peel our oranges and clementines over the sink and send the peels through the disposal to help keep it smelling fresh.
I use leftover Italian bread or sometimes hamburger buns to make homemade croutons.
Once an onion is cut, whatever is not used has to be thrown out. According to one of the doctor shows, onions become dangerous for a persons’ health after they are cut and aren’t cooked. We have a Siberian Husky sled team so all remnants unless dangerous for them go to the dogs. Since it’s just the 2 of us, we always put leftovers in the freezer for another meal. All of you have some great suggestions.
I’d be interested in seeing the evidence behind this. We use half used onions almost every single day and haven’t had any troubles with them yet!
I have a small bucket with a filter lid and I put my scraps in there for the compost pile.
http://www.ehow.com/way_5494904_onion-remedy-flu.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/fooddrink/a/leftover_onions_are_poisonous.htm
It’s not the onions; it’s how you handle them
According to science writer Joe Schwarcz, onions are in no sense a “magnet for bacteria.” In fact, Schwarcz writes, cut onions contain enzymes that produce sulphuric acid, which inhibits the growth of germs. Onions can become contaminated during handling, but there’s nothing about them that makes them intrinsically more susceptible to bacterial growth or spoilage than any other raw vegetable.
“So unless you have sliced your onions on a contaminated cutting board, or handled them with dirty hands,” Schwarcz explains, “you can safely put them in a plastic bag and store them and there will not be any bacterial contamination.”
I am thinking we are ok. I have always sliced them and put them in fridge to use later. I’m 60 and not dead yet..not even half dead.
Thanks for posting this Ali, now we know!