Food is something most of us do not give a second thought to, even when we indulge in it throughout the day. As important it is to eat the food which is right for your body, it is equally important to make it a point to not waste unnecessary food while cooking it. This makes us miss out on some amazingly healthy nutrients which are often present in the parts that we usually tend to throw away. While it is not possible to eat some of these, if they are edible and have no dangers attached to eating them, then there is no plausible reason why we should not be consuming them on a regular basis.
But a lot of this waste occurs due to the lack of information and knowledge on all of our parts. For this precise reason, we have come up with a list of ways in which you can effectively use your leftover food while minimising any kind of wastage. This also helps to serve a dual purpose as the vestiges of these foods can provide great health benefits to your mind and to your body. Read on to know all about these ways which are listed below.
- Do Not Discard The Leaves:
One common mistake that many households commit is discarding perfectly good leaves which come attached with root vegetables such as carrots and radishes, among others. These leaves have amazing nutritional properties and can also be used in salads and smoothies. Instead of throwing them away, you can also use these as garnishes or in making soups during the winter season to get all the goodness of certain vitamins and minerals out of them. Instead of spending so much extra money trying to get exotic leaves to use in your salads, you can easily use these versatile ones that you most probably already have in your kitchen.
- Save The Stems:
Many vegetables come with a stem which is usually too fibrous and difficult to eat in its raw form and can also give you a bad stomach as a result of eating it. A good way to consume these stems is to cook them so that they can be softened and used as a side with your dinner. Once they become easily chewable, you can pretty much use them in any way to decorate a dish or even as an addition to a customised salad. These stems are not only delicious but also contain a number of nutrients which are not usually available in the other foods that we all tend to eat on a regular basis.
- Alternative Use Of Squeezed Lemons:
Almost all of us know of all the edible uses of lemons and citrus fruits, but do you know about some other great uses of them around your house as well? Lemons, oranges and other citrus foods can be used as room fresheners as they emit a good fragrance and help to keep your space fresh and smelling good for longer. All you need to do is to squeeze all the juice out of the lemons to use in making lemonade or in general cooking. Then you can keep the peels in the sun to dry out for a bit. Once they have dried, you can put a string through these and decorate any room in your house with them to make it smell amazing.
- Use Leftover Vegetable Cuttings:
When you chop up vegetables, you may have noticed that there are certain small cuttings which more often than not get thrown away into the trash. An innovative way to use them would be in soups which are extremely healthy and yummy to eat. Also, the good part about using these to make soups is that the cuttings of a number of vegetables can be mixed together to make these so you really do not have to worry about anything at all. If you are not immediately making the soup, then that is fine as well as you can freeze the cuttings till the time you get around to making soup with them.
- Reuse Tomato Juice:
Tomatoes are usually not considered as juicy but whenever you chop one up, some amount of juice does flow out. If this residual juice is not used in whichever dish you are cooking, it usually gets discarded. One way to reuse this leftover tomato juice is to put it on your face. As unconventional as it sounds, it actually acts as a natural tan remover and additionally helps to give your skin a nice glow. You can also regularly make vitamin C dietary supplement a part of your diet as that is great for your skin as well to reduce dullness while also providing a host of other uses.
- Using Old Tea Bags:
You may have noticed that tea bags often get thrown away once you have used them to steep your tea. But what if we could tell you of an innovative way to use them once again? You can put them in any space where there is a lot of foul smell in order to reduce it. For instance, you can use these tea bags in your workout shoes which tend to stink due to sweat. These have been proven to not only reduce the smell but to also inhibit the growth of any harmful microorganisms in certain cases by sucking in the moisture and heat from them.
- Peels Can Be Used As Compost:
Now this is a tip which most people already know of. But it still serves as a great way to reduce the wastage of food. And that is by using the fruit and vegetable peels as compost. This helps to serve as a natural fertilizer for your kitchen garden and can help your fruits and vegetables to grow much faster and in a much better way.
So now that you have seen all the ways in which you can utilize your average kitchen waste as a healthy alternative for your body, do let us know if you will try these out. Also, do share this article with other people who you think can benefit from it.