Day Four of Local Food

For Breakfast: Blueberry Muffins

 

These healthful muffins make up super-quick, and you’ll have extra to share with folks at the office!

 

1 ½ cups blueberries, about one pint

2/3 cup sugar, divided, plus 2 T

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1.2 cup whole wheat flour

2 t baking powder

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

½ t cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg

¼ cup oil

1 t vanilla

 

Wash blueberries and drain for a few minutes. In a bowl, lightly mash berries along with 1/3 cup sugar, using a potato masher.

 

Mix dry ingredients together: flours, remaining 1/3 sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, along with berries, and mix together just until combined.

 

Distribute batter into 12 muffins cups, and sprinkle remaining 2 T sugar on the tops.

 

Bake at 400 for 18 – 20 minutes. Pour a little local honey over for added sweetness.

 

***

 

It’s time to use up some leftovers! Halves of fresh bell peppers, roasted eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms, cooked ham and beef will all be incorporated into our next two meals.

 

When Abby was in elementary school, a favorite teacher, Mark Painter at Stonewall Jackson, gave me some of the best advice I have ever gotten. He told me that everyone could afford the very best quality food, organic, local, fresh food, if we didn’t waste any of it. It hit me hard, having just cleaned out the fridge. I had cringed at the amount of waste, and was feeling pangs of remorse. I vowed that very day to make a change. Since then I have become the ultimate waste-not, want-not cook. Leftovers that can’t be used up immediately go into labeled containers in the freezer. Fruit that may be a day past its prime gets washed up, chopped and frozen for smoothies. Unwanted stems of vegetables are grated and added to our pet food to give a boost of nutrition. Apple cores and pineapple rinds go into the compost bin to create free fertilizer for our garden. I haven’t bought chicken broth in years – it’s so easy to make with the leftovers from our fresh-roasted or rotisserie chickens. This practice isn’t difficult, once you get used to cooking this way! Look in your fridge today, and see what leftovers you have that might be used for another meal. Then, use the money you have saved to splurge on some fresh and local food, and take pleasure in knowing you have given your family the very best food that can be grown.

 

 

For Lunch: Chef Salad

 

Rinse lettuce and dry in salad spinner. Toss with olive oil, vinegar of your choice (our everyday vinegar is Bragg’s raw organic Apple Cider Vinegar), salt and pepper. Place lettuce on plates, and add fresh chopped veggies, any leftover chicken, beef, sausage or even lunchmeat, a sprinkling of cheese, and fresh snipped herbs. Season with additional salt and pepper, and serve with some crusty bread.

 

 

For Dinner: Frittata

 

1.   Clean out fridge. Set aside and chop any halves, pieces, or leftovers of the following:

Ham or Bacon

Leftover cooked and raw veggies

Cheese

 

2.   Heat a large sauté pan, or well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Cook the ham or bacon in a small amount of oil until browned. Set aside meat, and use drippings to sauté any raw veggies.

 

3.   Whisk at least 6 eggs in a bowl with some cream or milk. Season with salt and pepper. Use more eggs if your pan is really large.

 

4.   Add any cooked veggies to the pan. The veggies can be stirred together, or added in layers. Warm through. Pour off any juices that have accumulated. Add cooked ham or bacon, chopped, and stir to mix, if desired. Add egg mixture.

 

5.   Cook entire mixture over low heat until eggs begin to set and seem slightly firm. Gently stir the mixture around with a spatula to make sure all eggs have a chance to cook.

 

6.   Grate cheese. This can be a mixture of cheeses – I like to use up all of the leftover pieces that are in the fridge. Sprinkle over top of frittata. Set under broiler, on low, until cheese is melted and eggs are cooked through.

 

Here's the pan when the eggs were added. I whisked and added 2 more after this.

And after it came out from the broiler

 

Not bad for leftovers, don’t you think? Dinner was cooked in under a half-hour, too. To see the original dishes, Day One, Day Two and Day Three can be viewed by clicking on the links.

 

Comments

[Stacey]

Andrea, you have such good ideas in this post. I am pretty careful about not wasting food. I agree with you that most foods can be saved or salvaged by sticking them in the freezer and using them in a soup or stew. Never thought about putting them in pet food. That's great!

Your frittata looks wonderful! That's one of our favorite dinners. Last night we had left over fajita chicken (pulled from the freezer) along with refried beans, guacamole, and salad. It was all just thrown together from what we had at the moment but it was delicious. Nothing wasted.

[Sue]

Everything looks delicious. Sometimes I'm a bit horrified at how much I end up throwing out.