I don’t know about you, but I NEVER throw food away. I keep an active eye on my inventory and as soon as I see a product deteriorating I either toss it in the freezer till I get an idea or I rustle up something delicious right there and then.
That’s what I did today. I had a cut up fresh pineapple in the refrigerator that had seen better days. I had fresh spinach slightly wilting in its bag. I had a half a loin pork left over (in the freezer, that I thawed today) and I had some leftover fresh made chunky apple sauce that needed a home plate to go to.
What did I do with all of the above?
I had heard about pineapple pie and looked it up on the internet. I found a recipe from Martha Stewart using diced, fresh pineapple simmered in brown sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and rum (yum!) When fork tender, combined and thickened with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, poured into an open tart and baked for 15 minutes. Since I didn’t have that much pineapple, I noticed on the cornstarch box a recipe for meringue. So, I whipped up 3 egg whites with 6 teaspoons of sugar and voila! Pineapple Meringue Pie.
What to do with all those egg yolks? I combined them with 3 more whole eggs and made a baked frittata. I had left over sautéed peppers and onions, a few cooked slices of sausage, grated some cheddar cheese, combined all in the eggs, a 1/3 cup of whole milk, salt, pepper and parsley and voila again! Cut into squares and placed in between a toasted english muffin, my baked frittata will make a great breakfast sandwich tomorrow.
I used the entire bag of spinach as a stuffing for a home-made lasagna. I made a quick, one hour marinara tomato sauce. I had an opened half box of lasagna noodles (I don’t pre-boil my lasagna noodles. I place them on the baking pan straight from the box. As long as you heavily coat the noodles with tomato sauce they cook very well in the oven). I layered the spinach, with dollops of ricotta cheese and mozzarella and sauce. I was able to get three layers stacked. I topped the whole lasagna with grated parmesan cheese when done.
I baked most everything at the same time, so as not to waste any electricity. I purposely have three shelves in my oven instead of two specifically for this reason.
Here are the photos, randomly. You can figure it out. Enjoy. (PS: yes, I did eat one slice of each dish I cooked. I couldn’t help myself. Everything looked so wonderful!)
Yesterday I heard someone say that the food you throw out or don’t use becomes the most expensive ingredient you bought, no matter what you paid for it.
I’m like you – every bit of food gets used up in someway, or goes into the freezer until it can be used. I salute your creativity!
Thanks Laura. I can’t believe how tasty the pineapple pie I made is! Who knew? I made something that was inedible, VERY edible. Next time I have a pineapple that is leftover, I’ll make them into preserves for either yogurt or ice cream toppings. It’s very good.
Oh.my.gosh! That food looks amazing! Your whole house must smell divine!!
Sweet smell of pineapples and lasagna. How’s that combo?
I pretended I was on an Italian island in Tahiti. LOL!
Everything looks so good!!! My meringue never comes out that pretty
Thanks Judy. It was my 2nd time. I think the 1st time was 20 years ago however. Yikes!