Food sustainability, Food potential, Essential food,  Food responsibility…

FOOD-ential!

The global population grows at an alarming rate and so does food scarcity, poverty, and starvation. Climate change poses an extremely serious challenge to agriculture. Yet, everyday tons of edible food is thrown away as left overs or because it has reached its due date. Perhaps simply seen better days.

For many years we lived abroad in areas where the difference between rich and poor was enormous. Scrambling to get their next meal, the poorest struggled to survive. As part of the more affluent world, I would have access to fresh produce food and readily cook up new daily meals. Seeing the discrepancy between the have and have-nots, I decided to be more responsible – minimize my food waste and be creative with my recipes to accommodate what I had left in the fridge or pantry. It was a process! But soon, it became a habit. It felt less like a culprit in the mass waste culture, less like a user in the wealth discrepancy and accomplished the added benefit of saving money in my household budget.

Leftovers are now turned into new dishes – a chicken can make it to our table 3 days in a row: 1st day as a roast chicken; 2nd day the left over cuts of good meat in a salad or as filling in tortillas; and the 3rd day the chicken is peeled meticulously and the meat is used in a stir fry, a pasta sauce or a sandwich. 

Vegetables, fruits and greens which might be a bit sad or saggy are used in stews, soups, cakes and other dishes. 

I still cook with fresh produce – but instead of discarding leftover I didn’t use, I try to adapt my recipes to incorporate whatever produce is left over and be creative with flavors and mix ingredients across recipes. Who says a celery soup can only contain celery? If I have a stalk of broccoli as well – I might mix this in the soup. The taste might change a bit but most often to the better.

My overall purpose of this site is to help everyone think outside of the box when cooking, storing and saving food. There is a tendency of strictly sticking to a recipe thinking if we don’t have one or the other ingredient, it won’t work. While this may be true for baking to some degree – for cooking, most recipes are more flexible. If we are to save food, we need to learn to think across recipes. Recipes are great inspirations but should not be a limitation.

Food is essential and always promises huge potential but it comes with a responsibility. I encourage you all to take a peek at my recipes to start minimizing waste. Be part of the solution and not the problem. Together, we can improve our common footprint on this planet. One meal at a time…

Happy reading! Happy cooking!