Before you decide to throw out those food scraps, think twice! There are lots of ways to use those food scraps and give them a second life. We want you to reuse those scraps and make turn them into useful products for your home!
Here are our 8 suggestions for what to do with those food scraps.
- One of the easiest things you can do with your old produce scraps is to make easy veggie or bone broth out of the leftovers. All you need to do is take your old scraps and put it in a large stock pot, cover with water, and simmer on low for about 45 minutes. Broth freezes well too!
- Sometimes a recipe calls for only ¼ cup of fresh herbs, but at the store you can only buy a big bunch by default. A fun trick for this is to chop up the rest of the herbs, fill an ice tray with olive oil and freeze it. Then you can have fresh herbs in olive oil you can drop into a pot anytime, and the herbs won’t go bad!
- Tough outer greens, such as kale, chard, and mustard greens may be hard to eat before they go bad. A cool hack is to dehydrate these greens and turn them into a super green powder that you can add to anything! Smoothies, salads, sauces, you name it.
- Brown bananas are great in baked goods such banana bread, muffins, and cakes. If you aren’t a baker or don’t have the time, peel the brown banana and freeze it. You can cover or dip into chocolate or peanut butter for dessert of summer snack
- If you don’t think you can eat that whole loaf of French bread, turn it into croutons or bread crumbs! It is a perfect way to utilize every last bit of your favorite bread that you might not be able to eat
- You can use citrus peals (orange, lime, lemon) and soak them in vinegar to make an all natural cleaner for your house. Just make sure all of the pulpy parts are removed and place into a jar and cover completely with vinegar. Allow the mixture to sit for two weeks, and transfer liquid into a spray bottle
- You can also make your own vinegar out of food scraps. Just take red or white wine, balsamic, or apple cider vinegar and put fruit in as you please. Give it at least two weeks to infuse and enjoy!
- You can also take old scraps and infuse liquor. Just allow a few days to weeks to let the infusion happen and make delicious drinks all from your fruit craps!