Unusual things to reuse

At our house, we refuse and reuse (and unfortunately we can't recycle... But that's for another post I guess). Reusing is a broad aspect and we reuse a lot of objects that would be a bit unusual to reuse for other people. I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with reusing glass jars, or other food containers, and toothbrushes, but there's a lot of items here that are a bit less usual when reusing comes to mind. 

So, here's some things we do: 

•Old tape rolls: these are a great organising tool. I use them to keep my silicone baking paper. 

•Detergent containers: we usually buy bulk containers, for example a 5 litre jug of washing up liquid. The brand we buy has a difficult cap- once it's opened, it won't close properly anymore. So I usually pour that 5 L in a more stable bottle, cut off the top part of the jug, and use the remaining part of the jug as storage containers. We use these "containers" to store various things, like other smaller bottles of cleaners and reusable wipes in the bathroom, freezer bags in the kitchen, etc. 

•Laundry basket: this is probably one of the most unusual things to reuse/upcycle. We used our laundry basket make a grocery stroller out of it! As a consequence, I now procrastinate a bit less with my laundry. Laundry baskets are contributors to procrastinating a lot of the time, because it just sits in that basket and no one notices it anyway. 

•T shirts: I use them as a "tea towel" when making bread or cut in two as a mop. I reuse a lot of clothes anyway to cut out squares of reusable cloths. 

•Lids of old cooking pans: I use them to cover plates of food, so I dont have to transfer them to a food container, and thus save myself a few extra dishes. 

•Food tins: these are used in so many ways, to keep cutlery and tools, to craft materials and even as a measuring cup. 

•Bottles: we dont buy a lot of bottles, mainly oil and vinegar. I have a few bottles of vinegar that I reuse to store ground nuts and sesame seeds. I also freeze homemade broth in bottles. 

•Milk cartons: these are reused to freeze leftover foods. 

•We even reuse components of an old coffee machine! The dipping tray happens to be an excellent way to store our bar of soap, in the kitchen. My husband (the only coffee drinker here) says he doesn't need a coffee machine now anymore, so now he's just brewing coffee the old fashioned way. 

Legumes

We eat a lot of legume based dishes. Not only are legumes quite nutritious, legumes -regardless of where one lives- are very affordable, too. Prices going up and up, and unfortunately, legumes are no exception. Still, in most cases, they're a more economical option than the average animal protein. Actually, the cheapest fish here is half the price of an kilo of lentils... Most fish, meat, and even eggs these days, are a lot more expensive. Also, one kilogram of dry lentils ends up being about double the weight cooked lentils. The fish, not so much, especially if you take into account that there's bones that won't be consumed. Anyway, long story short: no matter how expensive food is these days, legumes are relatively cheap. 

I hear a lot of people saying that they don't like the "bean taste". While there really is not one bean taste, I really, really can not relate to this! I passionately love all kinds of legumes. I don't think there is one kind I dislike. In fact, there's some legumes that aren't available where I live which I quite miss, like black beans and split peas. I always wonder how people can dislike an entire food group even if they haven't tasted all of them. But apparently, there are just people who dislike "beans". Then there's another thing I hear a lot: that they don't necessarily dislike legumes, they just don't know how to prepare them. Well, that's something I get. Because a lot of people (at least from the west) are brought up with a meat dense diet, if they're not completely raised on convenience foods, that is. In a lot of regions in the world, legumes are part of everyday diet, and they have countless of recipes using them. The variety of ways to prepare legumes is probably one of the reasons why people in those countries actually like, or at best aren't bothered with, legumes. 

So what are the dishes I regularly make when opting for a legume based dish? It's a bit hard to remember everything I ever made, because sometimes I really just throw various leftovers together, including chickpeas or lentils. Which, believe me or not, always turns out delicious! Anyway, there's some go to meals that we repeatedly have at our house. 

•Green/brown lentils: as mentioned, I add them to whatever leftover foods I have, to add more nutrition and taste. During summer, I also love making salads with whatever I have lying around in the fridge and make a lentil salad. Since it's very filling  I usually don't add any starchy ingredients. I also love all kinds of lentil-and-rice varieties, such as Egyptian Koshary or Levantine mudjadara. I kind of made our own north African mock version of mudjadara by using couscous and adding some leftover pepper/tomato stew. Green lentils make a decent replacement for mince meat in many dishes, like pastas, casseroles, etc. Or you can even make your own "meatballs" with brown lentils. And then there's of course the famous north African lentil stew using brown lentils that we absolutely love.

•Chickpeas: probably the most used legumes in north African cuisine, and it's used a lot in our cooking! Chickpeas are added to soups, stews, pasta dishes. And here chickpea flour is used a lot too, even in biscuits and other sweets. As far as non-north African cuisine (because I do love international cooking), we love hummus and falafel, and pakora/bhaji. Chickpea flour can even be made into a kind of tofu, albeit with a slightly chickpea-y flavour. But it's a good alternative if tofu isn't available where you live (which is the case for me), or if you're trying to avoid soy (which is also kind of the case for me). Sometimes I just make some "scrambled chickpea flour", which resembles eggs in texture, and is used as a quick addition of protein in many dishes. I also love making savoury chickpea flour muffins in my air fryer - recipe yet to be posted. Probably there's hundreds of other things one can make with chickpea flour, but these are just some of the things we do.  

•White beans: white beans make a scrumptious stew called loubia, which is like the north African equivalent of chilli! This we have quite regularly. Perfect comfort food, if you ask me. White beans can also be added to many other hearty soups and stews, as well as light summer salads. And since black, navy/pinto beans and kidney beans aren't available here I also use white beans for making refried beans. 

•Yellow/red lentils: while these would be considered a soup base for most of us, there's a lot more to use them for. Don't get me wrong, I love lentil soups, in all varieties, but it's just that they're quite versatile. I'm not that familiar with south Asian cuisine, knowing it a few different dishes, but I do make red lentil dhaal quite often. It's one of the children's favourite meals. I also quite regularly make Turkish lentil "meatballs", mercimek köfte. Which is a relatively unknown side dish I guess (if you don't live in Turkey or a Levantine country, that is), but we really love it. We love most or Turkish cuisine actually. 

•Split peas: I grew up on split pea soup, we had it quite regularly during the winter. Maybe it's just nostalgia but in my opinion there's no better winter comfort food than split pea soup! I also love bissara, a Moroccan dish. It's between a dip and a soup made out of split peas. Unfortunately, here they don't sell split peas so I can't make bissara. Although I've read that it can be substituted by broad beans (which is available here), so I might give it a try. Speaking of broad beans, that's something we usually have as a side, sprinkled with salt, cumin, and olive oil. And it's also added to couscous. 

Some kinds of legumes aren't available here, like navy beans, black and kidney beans, which is why I haven't listed them. And there's still a lot of legume based foods I'm yet to try, like porridges. Yes, orange split lentils could even be made into a porridge! And apparently, it's quite good. It may sound a bit strange, but, if like us you're familiar with 'bsisa', it's not that weird to eat a sweet legume based foods. Bsisa is a traditional sweet dish (either eaten for breakfast or as a snack) made of ground barley and/or wheat and ground legumes, mostly chickpeas but also lentils. It's then mixed with olive oil until it reaches the desired texture and a sweetener of some sort. Usually it's decorated with some seeds and nuts on top. Bsisa can also be made with water or milk instead of oil, o make it a bit lighter, because the olive oil based bsisa is quite rich. Apparently you can also make brownies with beans, so legumes and sweet dishes might not be that of a strange combo, after all. 

This is getting a bit long. I hope the point I'm trying to make is clear: that legumes are so versatile, and that you just should give it a try to experiment more with this food group! 

Making foods from scratch, vs eliminating food waste

Like most frugal cooks, I make a lot of things from scratch. Like a lot. I do this for a variety of reasons; first of all, because it's just something I really enjoy. Then there's also the financial/health aspect. And because I live in a country other than where I grew up and where I lived until my 30th age, and can't find certain foods I was familiar with and which I love, I make some of those foods from scratch. So there's defenitely a lot that I make at home. Which, I assume, most people would obviously label as a very frugal and green thing to do. After all, you're avoiding a lot of package materials, you're not buying the ready made stuff which can be a lot more expensive etc. 

The very reason why I do make a lot of foods from scratch, though, simultaneously is the very thing that can make this practice a bit less frugal. Because, to be honest, we ALL waste food. Even as a family that's very conscious about food waste, it still happens in our house. No, it doesn't happen that often but still, unfortunately it does happen. And I don't know of anyone who never ever throws away any food. And I assume that most of us know that non-extremely processed food (without preservatives and other chemicals), those foods tend to spoil a lot faster than the store bought equivalents. So that part of made from scratch cooking is a very tricky one, which CAN lead to wasting food, and thus money.                         Fortunately, I have figured out what works for us when it comes to keeping homemade items fresh for long enough until it spoils.  

•First of all: don't (always) make too large batches. I know, most of us have bigger eyes than stomachs and we tend to do batch cooking in order to make it easier for ourselves. While I'm not against batch cooking at all (we usually eat the same dish every other day, so I'm very familiar with cooking bigger batches), I don't think it's for every dish. Some things we don't feel like eating over and over again and even to eat something just to finish it sounds a bit wasteful to me. And while freezing leftovers is a great option for a lot of foods, it's not for every kind of food, in my opinion. Freezing can change the textures, and while most foods come out perfect once defrosted, that's not the case for all foods. Some examples of foods that we really don't like after being frozen are potatoes, pasta, rice, eggs, carrots, pancakes. Apparently a lot of tarches just don't freeze that well, though I don't have that problem with freezing bread. As for other foods that I don't cook in larger batches, those are mainly plainly boiled legumes such as lentils and chick peas. In the past, I found it useful to have some of those on hand but I found that no matter how well I rinsed them and how well I kept them in an container, they start to change in taste so quickly. So I now make single batches of legumes, unless I freeze them right away, especially chickpeas. Lentils, again, I don't really like frozen. 

•Also, know how to store your foods properly! I usually keep one fridge shelf solely for keeping leftovers and foods that need to be used up quicker than other foods lying around in the fridge. That way it's easier to be reminded of how everything needs to be eaten ASAP. Using transparent food containers or reused glass jars is also a great way to be reminded of what's actually in the fridge. When you see it, you tend to actually use it, instead of tossing it after it begins to smell funny. Make sure that your leftover shelf is not the highest or lowest shelf, the middle shelf is best for this. 

•When it comes to freezing foods, I love using silicone cups. It's just about the size I usually need for cooking for certain foods. Things like pesto, aquafaba, harissa, pasta sauce, bone broth, or soy sauce (which are all homemade- yes, I even make my own soy sauce substitute). After those things are frozen you can transfer them in whatever you find easiest, either a container or a bag, I even reuse milk cartons for this purpose. Some people use ice cubes, but I find those a bit too small. I also reuse small yogurt containers, which are really quite small here, as they contain only half a cup of yogurt. It's also important that if you're  not consuming your homemade food right away, or planning on doing so within a few days, to consider freezing it. That defenitely makes a huge difference when it comes to wasting food. I love reusing all kinds of small food containers really. Like my homemade soy sauce substitute, I keep in small 250 ML bottles in the freezer that once contained rose water and orange blossom water. The homemade "soy" sauce isn't as concentrated as store bought, so I usually use half a 250 ML bottle, or even an entire bottle. I even heard of people freezing milk, as some people only use milk for their coffee and a litre of milk wouldn't last before spoiling. I never tried this myself though since milk doesn't last that long in our house. So educate yourself on how to store your favourites and do research on that. It'll defenitely rescue a lot of foods. 

•While meal planning is great, it's not for everyone.  It certainly doesn't work well for our family, and that's fine. But for some people it's a great way to reduce food waste so it's still something I'd like to mention. 

•Be creative. Think outside the box. Maybe that bit of leftover pasta sauce would make a great toasted cheese sandwich, that half a cup of lentils could be mashed to thicken up your stew or added to a soup. That spoonful of soy sauce can be added to your salad dressing.  Leftovers can be eaten the next day as lunch too, which we really love, especially in colder seasons. We also like to share food with family members, neighbours etc. Which, fortunately, happens to be culturally acceptable where we live. In fact, a lot of people here actually cook bigger batches on purpose so they can share food with whomever needs it. I really love that.