Hi everyone. I’m not going to beat around the bush. There’s a whole lot of waste that goes on in the kitchen and elsewhere and I, for one, am really trying to do something about it. Will you join me by following some of my suggestions and those of Jim Oconnor? Who is Jim Oconnor? Well, he’s this guy I met at Starbucks who uses his Starbucks coffee cup three times before throwing it out. He never buys ziploc bags and he taught me to think out of the bag when it comes to using the thick plastic bags that come out of cereal boxes instead. I have dramatically cut down on my ziplocs since meeting him and want to thank him.
As it turns out, Jim is a writer and activist, trying to get clean water to places that truly need it, like Haiti. Please read his post on http://sedonacyberlink.com/?p=886
Thanks, Jim. Jim will be stepping in on TBK from time to time to tell us more about some creative ways we can repurpose and recycle items in our kitchen.
For now, try out this great tip that my sister Zoe gave me. How many of us are “forced” to cut the crust off our kids bread? Although I silently judged kids in elementary school who ate their sandwiches this way, believing it was only precious, rich kids that did this, I now find myself doing it and wasting all that dang bread or worse, eating them myself! I resent having to do it, but not so much anymore because….
Homemade bread Crust Bread Crumbs:
I cut off and save all the bread crusts before making the kids’ sandwiches
I place them all in a bag, a recycled cereal bag, and store the bag in the fridge
Once the bag is finally filled with crusts, I bake them at 300 degrees on a foil lined baking sheet for 20 minutes or so until they are full toasted
Let them sit out for a while once they are removed from the oven, season them if you like with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano what have you, and then process them into crumbs with a food processor or smashing them with a hammer while placed back in the plastic bag. Store in pantry in an airtight container.
Use them to bread chicken or fish, to make a meatloaf,add a little butter or oil to them and top a mac n’ cheese with them or any way that you would normally use bread crumbs. Check out the video below to see how to bread a chicken cutlet (and to bid on the Fireball auction item in Montclair). Thanks, Zoe!
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
5 Responses
OMG, as my kids would say. I never, ever thought to save the crusts for bread crumbs and I hate that I throw them away. What a great idea. Thank YOU!
My kids don't eat bread at all but I love your idea. And I'm sure Jim's a great guy and all by sheesh, Alma, I could have sold you on the evils of disposables! Don't use that nasty, toxic, saran wrap, use those washable, shower-cap looking things as a cover. If you have to use Zip Locks, just get a little bag drying rack and reuse those suckers until the seams split. Juice boxes?! What a waste when you can just fill a little metal water bottle with juice. And what is the point of packing all this organic stuff in our kids' lunch boxes when we package it in disposable plastic packaging when they make lunchboxes with washable containers. Ok, sorry if I sound preachy, I just love reducing waste!!!
We're blessed with crust-loving kids. But I love Jim's rules for plastic bags, and would love to hear more ideas for minimizing kitchen waste. We carry our own coffee cups, never buy anything in a plastic clamshell (can't recycle them in our town) and buy loose veggies (not bagged) in the store. I'm always after my husband to stop window-shopping from an open fridge. Other big savers? I'd love to hear.
We will keep these waste-free suggestions coming! Thanks for reading, ladies!
Hey Alma, James O'C here. Like the comments, and happy to suggest additional reuse / repurpose ideas for the kitchen.
BTW, my kids now reuse the cereal bags for their school lunch sandwich, crust included. At first they thought it was "weird," but we got beyond that…via patient and persistent parent prodding…;-)
Hope folks take the few moments to check out water sustainability issues on SedonaCyberLink. Thanks.