Waste Not, Want Not

Happy Superbowl Sunday ya'll,
I tend to be the type of person that over-estimates things.  Especially when it comes to food preparation.  I might think the family will be extra hungry or that left-overs will make their way into a week-day lunch.  Often times that is the case and just as often it isn't.  In the recent run of prosperity our country has enjoyed throwing food that is no longer palatable or maybe even growing some sort of mold hasn't seemed so bad.  Now days, the outlook on our prosperity horizon isn't too bright.  Many people around the world have begun doing things to eek a little more out of their food budget.  Growing veggies and fruits on their own is one way.  Preserving foods by freezing or canning is another way.
Frequently when the word "canning" is mentioned, a vision pops up of long hours in the kitchen with tons of corn, green beans, strawberries, or any of a huge variety of food.  Hey, if you have tons of it and are able to preserve it - hooray for you and your family.  Less money going to the grocery store. But what about when you don't have tons?  What to do then?

Last week, I cooked up 3 cups of dry beans for making re-fried beans.  For the four of us in our house that actually will eat beans that was still way too much.  By the end of the week, I still had over a quart of beans in the fridge.  So I got out my 9 quart pasta pot, some canning jars and lids, the canning tongs, funnel and lid magnet.  Then I washed the jars, and sterilized them in the water I had boiling in the 9 quart pot (about half full).  I had put the beans in another pot to get them hot and added a little water to thin them down.  When the jars were ready and other utensils had been sterilized, I filled the jars, put the lids on and put them into the 9 quart pot.  Finally I had 3 pints of beans and 2 pints of home-made enchilada sauce in the jars and ready ... into the pot they all went... on went the pot lid and the timer was set for 15 minutes.  Ah ha!  No waste of good ingredients.  We LOVE Mexican food and these will be used before summer gets here.  All told, it took me about an hour to get this job done - and little by little my shelves are being filled with food my family likes to eat.  Should there be food shortages in the future, my family will have plenty of appetite pleasing food and all it takes is a little time and effort on my part.  Canning is another thing that isn't rocket science and isn't hard.  A person just has to have a desire and the courage to do it that first time.

The finished products ... enough saved leftovers to augment at least 3 future meals... EZ

Another thing I do with much smaller amounts of left-over veggies is pop them into the freezer.  They make great additions to hot soup on cold winter nights.  And mashed potatoes can be used as a thickening agent in cream of ???? soups.  Pop that stuff in your freezer not the trash or compost. 

As Ben Franklin said, "a penny saved is a penny earned" ...