No, I’m not writing to confess how much food waste family life creates. That’ll come in a year or so. (Joking, hopefully).
More to the point, my parents are in town helping out while we get used to life with a son (a cute guy, in my humble opinion). Fortunately for us, my mom has been doing a lot of cooking. In watching some of her practices, I’ve been reminded how I became drawn to the issue of food waste.
No leftover is too small to throw out. All scribbles can enhance another meal or snack. In particular, I got a kick out of one tactic:
A generous takeout-barbecue-lunch provided by my sister-in-law left us with a slew of leftover buns. My mom sized them up and saw garlic bread. Totally!
And they were great. Yes, this was just a small thing, but it provided hope that parenthood isn’t synonymous with food waste. Now I’m doubly confident we’ll be OK on that front.
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Thanks to everyone for passing along your kind wishes and to my brother Seth for pitching in with a very cool post.
10 Comments
Cute baby!
I remember the joys of those first days with a new baby and wish you the same.
It seems that your mom and mine went to the same homemaker’s school – there was no waste in our home.
A word of caution for the future: Parents can wind up gaining weight if their children are picky eaters. Why? Because you may find yourself finishing what the kids won’t, even if you’ve eaten your own dinner. Our kids seemed to eat almost anything when they were small and we learned to provide very small portions with new foods so that we didn’t have to throw away things they found offensive. Now in their 20s, one eats no meat, the other no seafood. Yikes!
An adorable little boy! How smart of your mom. I never see food as anything other than its “intended purpose” but at least I’m learning to freeze the buns so they don’t go bad!
Awww, your son is SO cute!!! And I’m not one to say that about all newborns.
I do the garlic bread thing with leftover buns/french bread all the time. Delicious and very easy.
Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean food waste. Once the kid is on solids, leftovers=baby food!
My mom always made garlic bread out of old hot dog and hamburger buns. I didn’t know you could do it any other way till I was in college.
Beautiful baby boy. Congrats!
Thanks guys. It’s just garlic bread buns and dirty diapers from here on out!
I remember my mom telling me that she had a little food processor that they used when my brothers and I were growing up, so that we could eat what everyone else was eating (within reason, of course).
Congrats on your new baby!!!
Also, as an FYI…buns make *excellent* breadcrumbs. Throw those bad boys into your food processor, whirl and then let dry.
Rachel is so right – it takes a year or more before (most) kids eat in volume, so that leftover 2T of mashed potato[1] is the right amount for one meal.
[1] without milk, till the kid is over a year. Read McGee on dairy to find out why. You’ll find yourself keeping your child’s food preferences in mind when you cook for yourself, just so you don’t have to worry about the milk in the potatoes.