Food Waste Friday...I almost made it..and a recipe.

Hello!
It's...






I was so excited this morning to write this post up because I thought that I had no food waste this week.

But then....

I started putting food in the crockpot for dinner and found this little present inside a potato.

Boo.
At least it wasn't my fault; and it went into the compost.
So not too bad!


Here is how I used up the leftovers in the fridge that were threatening to become waste:

Using Up Leftovers: Beef AuJus Stew


Last week, I made Crockpot Beef French Dip with Swiss sandwiches (recipe here)
and had some meat left over.
We used a tiny bit of the meat on homemade pizza and put swiss on the pizza as well. It was hubby's idea and I must admit, it sounded a little weird to me. But I decided to try it, and it was SO good!

 Then, this morning I decided to make a stew out of the rest of the leftover meat and au jus.
If you have leftover beef in the house, here's an easy way to use it up:


You need:

~A crockpot (or you could just cook it on the stove, but a crockpot is nice because you don't have to babysit it, you just stick everything in there and leave it alone all day)

~Leftover beef

~Beef broth

~Vegetables - Use whatever you have that needs to be used up. For me, this was some carrot sticks that we'd brought in the car a few days ago and not eaten, plus another half that the kids were snacking on and didn't finish, (just cut off the part with the bite on it) and another whole carrot, a huge potato (which I only used half of since the other half decided to contribute to FWF) and some celery that was getting a bit wilty.
I also used half an onion, and a bit of cilantro.

~Garlic, Rosemary, Basil, Parsely, Thyme and whatever spices you desire.

Basically, put the leftover beef and aujus or broth in the crockpot.

Add some fresh (or dried) rosemary. I used fresh, since hubby brought this home yesterday:

I'm so excited to dry this and use it for the next...oh probably year or two. ;)

I don't measure the spices, I just use a bit until it looks like enough.
Cut up your veggies.

Throw them in, add enough broth to cover, add spices, stir. Put on lid, turn crockpot on low (remember your meat is already cooked so you're just cooking the veggies) and let it cook for 4 or more hours.
Devour when it's done. :)

Hubby has to work a double shift today at work, so he'll be home around 3:30 and this will be ready for him to eat before he has to go back to work. Then the kids and I can eat it at dinner time, when we get hungry. I love crockpots!!

How did you do on your food waste this week?
Did you come up with any creative ways to use up leftovers? I'd love to hear them!


This post is shared at The Frugal Girl, who is the brains behind all of this food waste documentation.