Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
A well-known French habit is the ability to make wonderful dishes with the dregs of what you may have left in your refrigerator, bread box, leftovers or fresh vegetables on-hand. Use the wisdom of their techniques to instill a new habit, The Weekend Clear Out.
The Weekend Clear Out is using the weekend as an opportunity to use all the leftovers, vegetables, leftover meats and dairy to their best use before they start to turn. Taking on this habit, will make a measurable difference in reducing your food waste, saving you money and living more sustainably. Give it a try.
Here’s how to simply and easily do The Weekend Clear Out. Of course, the first step is to look at what you have on-hand and see if you immediately already see a recipe ready to happen. If so, wonderful! This will happen more and more, as you do The Weekend Clear Out more often. Now, think about your favorite recipes (or my leftovers recipes to make burritos, fried rice or quiche) and add the following three dishes, inspired by French techniques to cook with what is freshest seasonally or on-hand in your kitchen now.
Top 3 Weekend Clear Out to Avoid Wasting Food Recipe Ideas:
- Omelette or Eggs Cocotte
- French Toast or Pain Perdue
- Potato Hash
Eggs in Cups or Eggs Cocotte, easy breakfast for one, leftovers and flexible ingredient
Ingredients
Must Have Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp Sour cream, creme fraiche, marscapone, ricotta, or heavy/whipping cream whatever you have at home; traditionally made with creme fraiche or sour cream
Flexible Ingredients (Optional, and consider even more items that you have in your home)
- 1 tbsp Cubed meat, poultry or seafood
- 1 tbsp Cheese, your favorite that is on-hand
- 1 tbsp Vegetables (cooked or can be eaten raw)
- Season to taste – salt, white pepper, herbs
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F / 180 C
- Put half the dairy (sour cream, creme fraiche, marscapone, ricotta, cream,etc.) in the ramekin/cup
- Add the egg on top, do not mix
- Put the rest of the dairy on top of the egg, do not mix
- Add seasoning – salt and pepper at minimum, other seasoning as desired
- Add any cheese, vegetables or meat you wish … or have it plain without added ingredients
- Prepare a bain-marie – baking pan with 2 inch or taller sides, filled up to half way up the side of your ramekin/cup with very hot water
- Place bain-marie with ramekin/cup in the preheated oven (350 F / 180 C), bake for 15 minutes
- Take the bain-marie with ramekin/cup out of the oven carefully; carefully remove the ramekin/cup from the bain-marie; it may look soft but egg will be fully cooked with a slightly creamy yolk
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
French Toast or Pain Perdue, recipe idea to avoid wasting bread
French Toast or Pain Perdue are excellent ways to use old bread and make a delicious breakfast, brunch or dessert. Simply mix together milk and eggs (about 1/4 cup of milk to 4 eggs), add a bit of sugar (about 2 tbsp), a little vanilla extract, and season with your favorite comforting spices such as mixed spice/all spice, nutmeg, cinnamon. Whisk that up and soak your old bread in the mixture. Cook in a medium-hot, very well buttered, skillet or sauté pan until cooked on each side. Delicious! Old is new again!
Potato Hash, recipe idea for potatoes and other ingredient favorites
A favorite to bring a wonderful aroma of delicious food to your home is Potato Hash. Use any cooked potatoes – roasted, baked, boiled – in a delicious new way. Cut them into 1 inch cubes/chunks (2 cm). In a medium-hot skillet or sauté pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter. Add the potatoes along with any other great ingredients you have at home. Try adding cooked meat like ham, corned beef, or roast beef. Add chopped peppers, onions, shallots, or leeks, if you’ve got them. Even add a few veggies, if you fancy. Delicious! A great way to clear use left overs in a way that may even be more delicious than the original meal.
You now have six flexible recipes that can take on nearly any vegetable, meat or dairy product and make it into a delicious meal. Avoid wasting food with these recipe ideas. Incorporate these into your weekly cooking and see how much more of the food you buy you actually use fully. But what if you have left-overs, already cooked?
Extending food life to avoid food waste
The best way to use food, is at its prime ripeness or freshness. There are easy ways to extend the life of foods that will also help you use them at their peak. Read Ready and Thriving article on Extending Food Life, which will help you to proactively keep food fresh for longer at its peak and to use your food even more easily. These tips can help you avoid having any food go to waste.
If you are a gardener or have glorious friends who gift you with their large harvest of garden vegetables, you will be able to use those vegetables in these recipes here. But to enjoy an “overly large” harvest, you will want to preserve food for the longer term. Watch for my upcoming articles on Extending Food Life page to learn more on preserving food at the peak of freshness.
What’s next?
Look for future blogs on reducing food waste and extending food life on ReadyandThriving.com’s Extend Food Life page. Some topics include the following:
- Cookies and bread crumbs can take on new life as a cheesecake crust or fried topping
- Create a kitchen herb garden for fresh herbs any time
- Grow a fresh food garden that also allows you to get certain foods whenever you want them
- Preserve harvests that are more than you can eat while fresh
- And more …
Bookmark ReadyandThriving.com and SUBSCRIBE to Ready and Thriving YouTube channel and check back for more ways to decrease your food waste and extend your fresh food life.
