waste stream day one

The beginning of waste stream week was made a bit easier by the semi-annual Food Fair at Tidal Creek. I grabbed a few free samples of some breakfast cereal and a jar of cherry jam as well as a few sample packets of Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

Breakfast on day one consisted on some ten grain cereal, some “expired” sourdough bread toast, some honey that was packaged with a fly in it (just scoop out the fly!), some cherry jam and apple sauce made from damaged fruit.

I skipped lunch because I was too busy checking on the status of the neighborhood pecan trees. I was able to pick up a few pounds of the nuts, but the big drop is still a week or so away.

Dinner was a very basic ground turkey goulash modified in such a way that it does resemble traditional goulash in any way. I used green pepper, tomato sauce and garlic. I started with a dented can of tomatoes.

I then fried up some ground turkey that had opened up at one end when it was removed from the case.

I then added some green pepper that had some soft and bad spots and some stray and sprouting garlic cloves, all destined for the compost bucket.

Making this meal is easy even if you only have a few ingredients.

1 – Cook a can of tomatoes for a few hours just adding some salt, oil and garden basil. If you don’t have any extra ingredients, just the tomatoes will do. Cooking at a slow simmer for a few hours brings out the flavor and hides the sweetness of canned tomatoes.

2 – In a skillet, brown the meat of choice or some tofu, whatever you have will work. You can add salt and other spices, anything available such as oregano, basil and marjoram.

3 – When the meat or tofu is browned, add green pepper and garlic. Cook until the green pepper is soft.

4 – Add the contents of the skillet to the simmering tomato sauce.

5 – Bring everything to a slight boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook for another twenty minutes or until all the flavors are mixed nicely.

6 – Serve on pasta, fried potatoes, spaghetti squash, fried butternut squash cubes, anything you can find that you think would taste good with the sauce. The mixture could also be served on toasted bread or bagels.

The possibilities are only limited by what you have on hand, which is the essence of waste stream week. What did I find, and how can I make a balanced meal out what I now have available.