Salmon Dinner; Food Waste
I grilled/smoked a salmon filet for dinner last night. The girls love salmon, Joe and I not so much. But it’s healthy for you (at least the wild caught kind that I purchased), and I wanted to try one of the grilling boards from Williams-Sonoma that my mom passed along to me. The smoking and the marinade recipe that came with the boards made the dinner tasty even for us so-so fans of the fish. In case you are wondering about the sides in this photo, you see edamame succotash (everyone in this house likes edamame), roasted sweet potatoes (my favorite part of the dinner), and cinnamon apples, made to use up soft apples that had been sitting in the refrigerator for many weeks. You see, the apple connoisseurs in this house won’t eat a less than crisp apple, so I have to do something to use them up, right?
In the news… Food Waste
Actually, I’m better about using up old apples than I am about using other types of old produce. And a recent news story shows that I’m not the only one that wastes food. Americans waste 1/4 of the food they prepare, amounting to 1400 calories per day! And that statistic doesn’t even reflect the produce that is wasted due to spoilage. It’s a sorry statistic in a world filled with hungry people. So what’s to be done? Well, for starters, cook only as much as your family will eat. I rarely get surprise dinner guests so there’s no reason for me to cook for extras. If there are leftovers, bring them for lunch. I try to encourage my family to do that, although sometimes I feel like the trash can, eating leftovers just so I don’t have to toss them away – not a good thing. Leftovers could be recycled into another dish, but usually my creativity in that department is weak. As for produce, perhaps the answer is to purchase only as much as you can eat in the viable lifespan of the food. It’s very tempting to buy bags of apples or gigantic tubs of salad when they’re on sale, but what kind of a bargain is it when half is thrown away.
Do you ever think about the amount of food you throw away each year? Do you think it’s as much as this study shows?
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Yes, wasted food is a problem in my house. The think is, after years of cooking for a family of 5 it’s hard to reduce amounts as they grow up and leave the house. So now we are just the 2 of us and I’m still cooking a lot of food. Neither one of us enjoys leftovers so I freeze a little and wind up throwing out the rest. You have successfully shamed me into thinking this out more carefully and I’m going to make a concerted effort to cook less.
Sorry, wasn’t trying to shame you. Just wanted to raise the general consciousness!
If you’re not a fan of salmon try char. I had char on a plank last night. Its high in Omega 3 and low on salmon taste.
Thanks for the suggestion.