What are you passionate about?
I know, I sound like a school counselor trying to help you explore life options, or a life coach trying to encourage some self reflection, or your mom. All of these people generally give solid life advice, though, so I don’t think it’s a bad idea to take a page from their books. What are you passionate about? And more importantly, what are you doing about it?
I think it’s amazing how our passions shape our lives. I don’t know what makes me more enthusiastic about food and health than someone else, but I’m excited for the prospect of forming my life around these obsessions. I recently met a girl whose passion for the environment led her to work for a nonprofit in the area. My dad is passionate about giving, and he focuses a lot of his time on being selfless, whether helping a community in Haiti or giving meals to the homeless down the street. My mom is passionate about teaching, learning, and mathematics, making her the perfect- you guessed it - math teacher. I do love math, and my bookshelves are filled with math and puzzle books, but that pales in comparison to the passion my mom has for the subject. I’ve never seen someone who so wants others to love something and see the beauty in it as much as she does.
I also enjoy seeing how passions change; I don’t think you need to have one lifelong cause to be happy. As some of my friends can attest to, I change my life causes and my future life plans every month (and some of my closer friends— I’m looking at you, Allison-- have heard my equivocal deliberation almost daily: should I continue with physics? math? neuroscience? nutrition? dietetics? metabolism research? grad school?). All of this is to say, one of my newest life causes is food waste, and it is all because of a 20 minute clip from John Oliver. Seriously, go watch it. It takes less time than a lunch break, and it will forever change what you do with the leftover food from that lunch break (and all the other food you normally just throw away).
My boyfriend has long been championing the anti-food waste campaign, and I think a major push factor for him is his own prudent frugality. As the clip mentions, “Americans throw away $165 billion worth of food every year. If that number doesn’t make your skin crawl, you can stop reading now.
But there are so many more reasons to limit food waste than just the cost of it. For one, it’s hurting the environment. There are some things that hurt the environment that most Americans see as somewhat necessary: driving around in cars, for one, which contributes to over half of all air pollution. It’s hard (impossible?) to convince someone to walk 4 miles to work instead of driving there. However, I think there are components of eliminating food waste that require almost no effort on your part. That’s right, this is the oft-reported but seldom-seen monster, Healthy Life Choice that Requires No Willpower. Just as recycling is just as easy as creating trash (you’re using just putting something in the blue bin instead of the green one; how hard is that?) and less than half of Americans recycle daily, reducing food waste doesn’t require that much effort but the outcomes can be monumental. (And if you're confused about recycling, don’t feel bad because at least 70% of Americans get it wrong sometimes. Here’s some help, and remember, you can’t recycle pizza boxes.)
If you put food waste (think banana peels, egg shells) in the trash, they will end up in a landfill. Once they get to the landfill and more trash is thrown on top, not only are they adding to the humungous mass of slowly-decomposing trash, but the food waste can’t get air to properly decompose. It will start to rot anaerobically, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas more than 20 times as potent as CO2 at trapping heat. Or you could put that food waste in a compost, which will give nutrients to the soil that helps to produce more food. A simple choice with very different outcomes. (I know not everyone has access to a compost, but if you do, please take full advantage of it!)
Instead of just harping on how much food Americans waste, I want to give you some concrete ways to reduce your food waste:
1. Don’t pay so much attention to expiration dates. John Oliver explains this pretty well, but the main reason is that these dates, along with the Sell-By and Best-By dates, are only a manufacturer’s best guess at when the product will go bad, and they aren’t regulated. Keep in my the manufacturer’s incentives: they want you to buy more food, and they want to avoid litigation, so that date is almost always going to be on the shorter end of things. Use the sniff-and-look test to tell if the milk has gone bad. Test eggs in a bowl of water; if they sink, they're fine. Here’s a guide to telling how long things will last. Keep in mind, if a hard cheese gets moldy, you can usually just cut off the moldy part and eat the rest. If a piece of produce looks strange, that doesn’t necessarily mean it tastes bad.
2. Utilize your freezer. I honestly used to hate reheated leftovers, if only for some unwarranted bias against food that’s not considered “fresh.” (Fruits and vegetables that are frozen can actually be healthier than their fresh counterparts, because they are generally picked at the peak of ripeness, so their nutritional content is maintained and generally not diminished in the freezing process.) Now that I cook on my own for basically just myself, I generate a lot of leftovers. Being able to put half a dish in the freezer and pull it out again weeks later saves me from eating the same exact meal all week. Remember to date and label your food so you know how long it will last in the freezer, and you can avoid the dreaded “is this chili or pasta sauce” conundrum.
3. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables… just not all the time. As noted above, buy more frozen fruits and vegetables; peas, broccoli, and even kale are all great for adding right into dishes. Frozen fruit is great for smoothies. I also love turning a bag of frozen berries into a sauce for ice cream or yogurt, and frozen bananas make a wonderful ice cream (don’t know it until you try it!). I also consider my fresh foods in three categories: ones I have no problem finishing before they go bad, ones that freeze easily, and ones I might have a hard time finishing on my own. The first group might include peppers, potatoes, and cucumber. The second: kale, spinach, and berries. The third: avocado (I just can’t eat a whole one myself!), zucchini (I don’t like it roasted or sautéed, so I generally have to get creative... see below!), and squash. When I’m shopping, I can keep in mind my three categories and make sure to only get one item a week from the last category, which changes every week. I might get an avocado and make a lot of use them in smoothies and salads one week, and get zucchini the next to spiralize into pasta (I’m obsessed.) If I end up with two many from the first two categories, I can freeze them or...
4. Come up with some easy kitchen sink recipes as a go-to. Frittatas are wonderful for this, and also cheap. Rice bowls, soups, and pasta dishes also work well: add leftover vegetables, grains, meats, and cheeses and you’re good to go.
5. Meal prep. Just a little bit. I understand how hard meal-prepping can be; I have no desire (or, honestly, forethought) to spend hours on Sunday preparing and packing meals for the week. Still, I shop (mostly) on Sunday for the week, and as I do I think about what dish each item will go in. If I can’t think of two or three uses for an item that week, I won’t buy it then. This avoids the “I bought a bag of limes and they’re all going bad at once” situation. (But seriously, use those limes up in a mojito, and make some for your friends. Even the virgin mojitos I drink I think are pretty fabulous.) Another component to meal prepping, other than the thoughtful-shopping period, is the prepping. You don’t have to make 7 lunches and dinners on Sunday. If you want to make one or two, that’s great (and freezable ones are good too). Otherwise, cut up some vegetables: peppers, onions, and mushrooms for eggs in the morning; peel the carrots for quick snacks with hummus; wash some berries (but not all, or they will rot quicker). If you prep your vegetables ahead of time, you’re more likely to use them up instead of throwing them away.
6. Donate. Can you eat an entire loaf of bread on your own before it gets moldy? I sure can’t. If you have food (that is obviously still safe to eat), especially nonperishables that you’ll never use, go ahead and donate them.
As I mentioned above, I am really bad at using up zucchini. Enter: zucchini noodles! This is a perfect dish for avoiding food waste because:
1. It uses up whatever protein you have on hand
2. and whatever vegetables are in your fridge
3. It uses one zucchini per person, so you won’t have to worry about leftovers
4. You can customize the dish however you like
5. The pesto (on it’s own) freezes well).
I must admit, I was very skeptical when I first saw this fad of spiralizing vegetables into pasta. I’m not a big fan of spaghetti squash, and I figured zucchini noodles would be similar. Let me tell you: they are SO much better, and I am obsessed. They cook quickly; this is the only substantial meal I think I have ever made in 6 minutes (when you use shrimp). And talk about substantial: I had no doubt a meal of vegetables instead of grain pasta wouldn’t fill me up, but I find this meal really filling and satisfying. Unless a cold salad, the warm noodles make this healthy dish a comfort food. The zucchini even tastes surprisingly similar to real pasta! It holds its shape and, with a speedy cook, even tastes slightly al dente. The only caveat to zucchini noodles: if you let the dish sit for too long, it starts to get a little watery. No problem; I don’t need any excuse to down this as quick as possible. I’ve made zucchini noodles at least 5 times in the past two weeks, for multiple people, with several different sauces. The best sauces, like this one, are thick, because as I mentioned, the zucchini can water it down a little bit. This recipe also uses parmesan to soak up any moisture and make a thick sauce that adheres to the noodles. This recipe is also wonderful as a kitchen sink dish: whatever vegetables I have leftover, I thrown in the pan. Any that aren’t cooked yet go in first: onions, spinach, mushrooms, peppers. If you have any roasted vegetables, throw those in as well, right before the zucchini, to heat through.
If you don’t have a spiralizer, I think it’s definitely something worth investing in. You can get a small, cheap hand-held spiralizer (I have this and it works great for around 10 bucks). Otherwise, you can cut the zucchini into thin strips, or use a vegetable peeler for wider noodles similar to pappardelle (pasta shapes can be wonderful! another [ridiculous] passion of mine: funny-shaped pasta). This recipe is for one person, but you can easily make multiple servings depending on the number of people you're feeding.
Zucchini Noodles with Pesto and Chicken
For one serving:
1 thinly-sliced chicken breast
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon of pesto (I used my recipe here, but since it’s not really basil season I subbed most of the basil for kale, leaving about 1/4 cup in the recipe)
1 cup vegetables (i used 1/2 cup spinach and 1/2 cup white button mushrooms, chopped)
1 zucchini
Parmesan for topping
Directions:
1. Cook the protein: I usually use shrimp or thinly slice chicken breast, but you can use any protein (pre-cooked or raw) and cook it any way you want. Using the chicken breast, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large pan, and sauce chicken for about 3-4 on each side until brown and cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. If you can’t find thinly-sliced chicken breast, you can slice normal breasts yourself, or pound them until thinner. This help it to cook evenly and quickly.
2. While the chicken cooks, spiralize (or cut) the zucchini into noodle shapes. Squeeze the zucchini over the sink to get out any excess water.
3. When chicken is almost done cooking, add the vegetables to the pan. I uses spinach and mushrooms because they cook quickly and it’s what I had on hand.
4. When the chicken and vegetables are done, take out the chicken to let rest and then slice. Add the pesto and zucchini noodles to the vegetables, and swirl to coat all the noodles in pesto. Cook for about 2 minutes.
5. Add the sliced chicken and top with parmesan (and more pesto if desired).
6. Enjoy right away! These noodles don’t make good leftovers, but you won’t have any because a) they are delicious and b) the meal is perfectly portioned with a zucchini per person. Enjoy!
