So there you are — without a plan for dinner. You don’t want to go the store. You have a pantry and a refrigerator full of food that is on the bring of spoiling, but you also don’t want to follow a recipe. Don’t you just want to be able to throw something together — like mom used to do? And support zero waste at the same time!
BE LIKE MOM
You don’t always think about how amazing your mom was or is in the zero waste food department. Moms have a way of making the most of what they have, which means a lot of hodge-podge meals, thrown together, with love and ingenuity in the kitchen. The light bulb comes on when that day comes and she visits. She rifles through the cupboards and fridge, and she somehow comes up with a masterpiece at the dinner table. Then she looks at you, like, ‘What?’
GET CREATIVE
You can get there. First, think about what you have on hand, especially the vegetables that need to get used soon before going south. You may have some sort of protein in the freezer to thaw, or something you’ve been hanging onto for a while in the fridge. You have spices in the cupboard. There’s the perfect combination. Where there is a will, there is a way.
So, recently, the Onionista was in that very situation. She had frozen chicken, link sausage, peppers and onions, all days away from the trash can. Infusing mom’s spirit, she threw it together for a sheet pan meal.
She chopped up the chicken breasts into chunks, sliced up the sausage, chopped up some aging potatoes that needed to be cooked and cut up some onions onions and peppers.
