Why I'm not buying groceries

and a little low-waste inspo, too!

There was a day a few weeks ago where I looked at my pantry and was like, “this is simply too much.” It was boxes of half-used pasta, so much tinned fish, jars and jars of THINGS and of course, mystery items. I have so much polenta and I don’t. Know where. It came from!!

My job relies heavily on creativity, experimenting, and lots of failing, all with the goal of getting to: The Best Possible Recipe for the Best Possible Use. This means if I test a risotto recipe and it would be better as a pasta, my coat goes on and I’m out the door to get a pasta box (even if I already had a pasta box because what if it was the wrong shape??!).

And that, dear readers, is how I became overwhelmed with pantry items.

Sometimes I wonder if I take recipe development a bit too seriously, but then I remember these recipes live forever on my site, and I want to be proud of them forever! Plus, I like seeing story posts when you make something and it’s delicious. I take your dinner seriously.

But while I was looking at my overflowing cabinets I told myself, maybe it’s okay to put up a few scrappy, back-of-the-pantry recipes. Maybe I can share how you could do the same thing, too. So for the past week or so I’ve been uploading recipes of me cleaning out my pantry. Rice paper wrappers have been used! Bread has been unfrozen! I am pulling out condiments that haven’t seen daylight in weeks. All of these recipes are delicious and ones I am happy to repeat again. While they are meant for cleaning out the pantry, if you go pick up some pantry items to make them, I’ll be just as thrilled.

I’m not sure when we’ll return to normal recipes. Maybe when I can finally see the back of my shelves.

The weekly round-up!

Radishes in Browned Butter & Lemon - Less of a pantry recipe and more of a “don’t let these vegetables die in your crisper” recipe. Radishes are a winter staple, but crunchy salads are not. Here’s how I make radishes craveable in the dead of winter, when I can’t fathom eating anything raw. Low waste tips: after frying your radishes, toss them with peppery arugula or any mixed greens you need to use up in your fridge. They make a great breakfast salad.

Edamame Shiitake Dumplings with a dumpling skirt! - ooohhh I loved making this one. If you have frozen edamame around, this filling is a dream and I could eat it with white rice for multiple meals and be happy. Low waste tips: beans or tofu would be delicious in this recipe as a sub, swap the dried shiitakes for mushroom powder if that’s all you have, if you don’t have bok choy, pan fry any vegetables you are trying to use up and pair them with this filling instead.

Vegan Carrot Muffins for Two - a small recipe for small pantry use! This is for my girls who always have flax in their freezer. Code JUSTINE2025 if you also want to always have flax in your freezer. Low waste tips: On the blog post I have the other fruits/veg you can use in these. Have an old banana? Let’s try it out!

Kabocha Squash Bowl with Golden Raisin & Kalamata Olive Dressing - This recipe earned me four (four!) empty containers to finally get out of my pantry. Plus it also gave me a killer sauce. If you have a crusty box of raisins, turn it into this packet of concentrated flavor, I beg of you. Low waste tips: Any jarred olives will be great in this dressing, if you have onions of any kind, they will also thrive here. Use up your tender herbs that are about to go bad by making them into this herb salad. Also, any pantry grain you have will work wonderfully with this recipe.

Tofu Cutlets! - I’ve made a cutlet recipe here, and other here, and this is the tutorial with a citrus dressing I just uploaded. There are many ways to cutlet, but I love them all equally. Low waste tips: Bread your cutlets with crunched up cereal (what I did here!), or panko, or dried bread crumbs, or crackers. It’s a really forgiving breading! Use cornstarch or flour to be the breading base, either will work. Water and/or any kind of milk can be the binder, no need to use an egg or flax egg. If you have any herbs to use up, an herb salad is always a great companion to a cutlet. Save your frying oil, strain it after it cools, and use it again and again.

And that’s it for this week! I have many more pantry-clean-out recipes coming, so I hope they don’t get boring. I need to use up all my condiments…so that I can then buy new ones. Vicious cycle.

Happy weekend, love you very much.

Xoxo,

Low Waste_Snacks