Leftover Recipe Contest Winners!

Happy Earth Day/Week, Conscientious Food Consumers!

Our first-ever Recipe Contest featuring YOUR LEFTOVERS is a big success! Many thanks to everyone who participated. You ALL are winners in the No Food Left Behind movement!

We received 25 submissions for tasty, homey and creative meals, including ethnic and zero-waste-inspired dishes. Our contest chefs reported saving anywhere from $3-$20 with their recipes and prevented at-risk items like these from going into their compost bins or garbage carts:

• Carrot tops, cauliflower stems/leaves, wrinkly tomatoes, squash, kale, greens and other past-prime veggies;
• Leftover turkey, chicken, chicken bones and canned tuna fish;
• Leftover spaghetti, mashed potatoes, beans, macaroni, takeout rice;
• Bruised peaches, overripe bananas, even veggie pulp from the juicer;
• Year-old Valentine’s chocolates!
• Past “Use By” and “Best By” dated cans of tuna, packaged pancake mix,  packaged shredded coconut. (Note: see “Check before you chuck it,” about those dates on food containers and packaging.)

We had a lot of fun reviewing your wonderful submissions, and wished we could have doubled the number of Co-op gift cards for our drawing! Reminder: although we called it a “contest,” it was actually a random drawing — from a real straw hat.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Drawing Winners:

• AMY B., Leftover Chicken with Indian Spices
• MARVEL V., Sheetpan Noodle Soup
• VIRGINIA N., Mac-N-Leftover Squash-N-Cheese

Again, HUGE thanks to everyone who submitted! Your recipes will be listed on our NEW Leftover Recipes compilation page (under construction) and may also be shared on our NFLB Facebook page (“NFLBCorvallis”).

A FEW FAVES:

• Sue’s Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Soup), combining the divine flavors of lemongrass, curry paste, coconut milk with leftover meat/veggies, served over leftover takeout rice;
• Sarah’s Always-Homemade Soup Stock from veggie scraps stored in the freezer;
• Leigh Ann’s Grits & Greens, making Southern comfort food with polenta and aging greens;
• Olin’s Olde Valentine Choco-Coco Cookies; and
• Donna’s Watermelon Rind Pickles and Carrot Top Pesto

NFLB STAFF RECIPES: Unbeknownst to one another, we both did something with tuna fish! (Note: staff recipes were not included in the drawing.)

Many of us have made nachos before, but what about Tuna Nachos? That’s what Jeanette, NFLB’s Director, was inspired to do. She says they were just as tasty as the conventional kind!

I was inspired by a childhood memory of “Fish Fridays” to make Tuna Patties with Picklejuice Crema, using a couple of “expired” cans of tuna in my pantry. Instead of standard tartar sauce, I used some juice from my favorite dill pickles that was left over in the jar after all the pickles were gone. (I’ll never throw pickle juice out again!)

CONGRATULATIONS again to our contest winners!

In our next Kitchen Confessions, we’ll highlight several zero-waste recipes from our drawing. The zero-waste approach in the kitchen utilizes even more parts of food and thus prevents more greenhouse gases. HAPPY EARTH DAY 2021!