How to eat all that food (plus a bonus recipe)

I was fortunate to attend a screening of the documentary Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story in Madison a couple of weeks ago. It was sad to see how much food is wasted from grocery stores, in homes, and even wasted on farms when food goes unharvested. I questioned again conventional agriculture's claim that we need to buy expensive biotech seeds and chemicals to feed the planet-- we first need to look at the food we waste and how food is distributed, since we are tossing so much of it in the landfill. A few things have stuck with me, and I have been moved to change my ways and evaluate how I treat food.

To start with I am working on eating all the food in our fridge and making sure we are eating the food we have before buying new food. Putting all of the leftover containers in one area and eating those first is a good reminder for a busy family. Plus, if you don't feel like cooking there are likely to be leftovers to nosh on (so much easier, healthier, and cheaper than ordering a pizza!). Shopping with a list is also very helpful so I don't buy too much food or bring home food that no one will eat before it spoils.

For the farm this growing season, I have a much larger project:

• Make a list of all the food in the chest freezer and cabinets, and then create food menus to eat everything by the time we start harvesting veggies this spring.
• Select seed varieties based on food that my family will actually eat and make sure the veggies and fruits we grow are ones that will be eaten quickly or stored.
• Most importantly, I need to learn to can! Last year my smaller garden produced enough that my chest freezer was full. This year my goal is to provide more of our calories, so I will have a lot more to save back. I am really looking forward to eating good, homemade food next winter!

One fruit that we had an abundance of last year were raspberries. I froze them individually on baking sheets and then stored them in baggies. This method keeps them separated and looking just like store bought frozen berries. Below is a recipe for one of my favorite winter treats. It is a delicious muffin adapted from Jae Steele's "Raspberry Millet Muffins" recipe found in her vegan cookbook, Ripe From Around Here. I highly recommend this book. It is a great resource that encourages local cooking and eating, and it also contains my very favorite waffle recipe!

I changed this recipe to use ingredients that I more typically have on hand.





Raspberry Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour (I use a coarsely ground flour I pick up in bulk at the local organic co-op)
2/3 cup dry steel cut oats
1/3 cup fair trade turbinado sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk (any kind)
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup expeller pressed canola oil (or other flavorless oil)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries (the star of the show!)
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Method: Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly spray a 12 cup muffin tin with baking spray. In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the milk, apple sauce, oil, and vanilla. Stir until just mixed, then gently add the frozen raspberries and chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin tin. Bake 25 minutes.

Eat these muffins right out of the oven for a warm winter breakfast and save the leftovers in an air tight container in the fridge. They won't last long!