Healthy Household Habits – My Smart Garden

Buying from a supermarket where the packaging is in pre-determined sizes can leave us with odds and ends languishing in the fridge or pantry. Who hasn’t cleaned out their fridge in the past and found some very sad and sorry foods well past their use-by date?

Here are my tips on what to do with these leftover bits that weren’t used up straight away in your cooking.

LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS If you’ve cooked too much for dinner, portion up the leftovers for an easy lunch the next day. Package them as you put them in the fridge so you can easily take them to work or for kids’ lunches in the busy morning rush.
FREEZER TIPS

You’d be surprised at what you can freeze and take out to use later. Before you do, take note of these tips.

Whenever you put anything in the freezer and it isn’t obvious what it is (trust me, you think you’ll remember what it was!), LABEL the container. Get yourself a roll of masking tape and a sharpie marker kept in a handy place. Write down the CONTENTS, the AMOUNT and the DATE that it went in the freezer. This helps you keep the FIFO rule: First In, First Out, so that you use up your oldest frozen ingredients before the fresher ones.
If you are going to freeze fresh fruit and veg, always prepare them so that they’re ready to use straight from the freezer into your cooking eg celery is washed and cut into segments, because when it’s frozen it’s difficult to cut and when if you wait for it to defrost it’ll probably be mushy when you go to cut it.

Foods	Examples	Storage
DAIRY PRODUCTS	Yoghurt, cream, sour cream, ricotta, cottage cheese	Freezer. Defrost and use in cooking.
	Hard cheeses Egg whites	Hard cheeses Freeze and defrost well. Grated cheeses are important to freeze as they can go mouldy quickly in the fridge. Egg whites Freeze easily to make meringues later.
CITRUS FRUITS	Onions, halves	Chop and freeze OR will keep in fridge for up to a week. Store cut side down on a saucer.
	Tomatoes, whole or cut; cherry tomatoes	Freeze and then add to soups, sauces or stocks later
	Leftover tinned tomatoes and passata sauce	Freeze in a jar and use up in sauces later
	Celery leaves	Bag up, freeze and use in making stock
	Celery stalks	Chop up and freeze. Use when needed in cooking or stocks.
	Carrots, limp; or tops	Chop up and freeze for making stocks.
	Leeks and Spring onions, leafy part	Chop up and freeze to add to stocks.
	Leeks and Spring onions, root section	Re-grow in a glass of water or in the garden
	Ginger root	Freeze whole. Easy to grate while frozen.
	Rhubarb	Cut into short lengths and freeze.
	Avocado, over-ripe	Guacamole or avocado dip, stored in fridge.
	Garlic	Separate into cloves and freeze, unpeeled.
	Green beans, silverbeet	Blanch before freezing
HERBS	Soft leafed eg basil, parsley, coriander	To extend fresh life: Wash, pat dry, store in fridge between dampened paper towel or chux in an airtight container. If leftover, make chimichurri, pesto or herb mix and freeze in small portions.
FRUITS	Berries, incl strawberries	Freeze and use in smoothies, making jams, or ‘nice cream’
	Bananas, over-ripe	Cut up and freeze for easy addition to smoothies or to make cakes or ‘nice cream’
	Apples, pears	Stew lightly and freeze to use in crumbles, pies
	Mangoes, stone fruits	Chop up and freeze for smoothies
NUTS	Walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, almond meal	Store shelled nuts in freezer for longer life.
MEATS	Roast chicken carcass	Keep the bones in freezer for making stock.
SMALL GOODS	Salami, ham, chorizo	Freeze and use in cooking or pizza toppings
BREAD	Day old stale bread	Blitz in a food processor or blender for fresh (panko) breadcrumbs. Must be stored in freezer.
	Dried out bread	As above but can be stored in an airtight jar or container in the pantry.
	Flat breads, stale	Brush with oil, season with lemon pepper or garlic salt etc and bake in the oven at 160O for 5 minutes until crisp. Cut before baking or crack into pieces after for delicious crackers.
LEFTOVERS	Soups	Can freeze but might separate and become watery. Blitz up a bit to bring together again.
	Dried pasta in packets	Combine all those odds and ends and make a pasta bake!
	Caramel sauce, chocolate sauce	Freezes and defrosts well

RECIPES

MAKING STOCKS

VEGETABLE STOCK

Gather as many vegetable odds and ends as you can and place in a stock pot or large saucepan. No need to defrost if frozen. The basics will include celery stalks and leaves, carrot pieces and onions. Other good vegetables to add might be cherry tomatoes, clean leek and spring onion trimmings, mushroom stalks, garlic; and herbs such as parsley, bay leaves, thyme or other aromatic herbs from your garden. Add some whole peppercorns. Season if you wish.

Cover with water and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer (even up to 2 hours) until the water content has reduced considerably. If you have a pressure cooker, this cuts down your cooking time considerably.

Allow to cool slightly before straining out the bits. Store your stock in the freezer in useable quantities, such as 250ml, 500ml or 1 litre amounts to use when a recipe calls for stock.

The cooked up vegetables from the stock could also be blended and made into a nutritious soup.

CHICKEN STOCK

As above, but add also the bones and carcass from a roast chicken after you’ve finished the chicken; or purchase the inexpensive bags of chicken bones that a butcher will often have to sell.

BEEF STOCK

Ask your butcher for beef bones for stock and then roast these in the oven before making them into a beef stock. Add your basic vegetables as well.

HERB PESTO

For every 2 cups of leafy herbs (parsley, basil, coriander), use 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts which you will need to pan fry in a dry (non-oiled) pan until golden (or substitute walnuts, pecans, or almonds); and blend all together with one quarter cup of olive oil in a food processor or blender. Season to taste.

If you have used basil, spoon this over cooked pasta and serve with parmesan cheese. Parsley or coriander pesto are good dolloped over grilled meats, chicken or fish.

Store in the fridge for up to a week or cover with a layer of olive oil and freeze in useable portions.

CHIMICHURRI

This is great on almost anything! Use any combination of the soft leafed herbs – the idea is not to buy anything but to use up what you’ve got.

Blend together

½ cup mint leaves
½ cup flat parsley
¼ cup coriander leaves
¼ cup oregano leaves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard.

BANANA NICE-CREAM (serves 2)

2 frozen bananas, peeled

Add YOUR CHOICE OF:

Cocoa powder
Maple Syrup
Honey
Cinnamon powder
Frozen berries
Frozen mango cubes
Shredded coconut
Vanilla essence
BEFORE SERVING:

Allow the frozen bananas to soften slightly and chop into chunks if not already.

In a food processor or blender with a small bowl and steel blade, add the banana.
Select your other chosen flavourings and add to the bananas.
Process until smooth. You may need to stop the food processor and scrape down the bowl.
Serve immediately or freeze in a container to enjoy later.