I hit the clearance bins at stores long before I was unemployed but I used to shy away from the reduced produce. Til my beloved vegetable was 54cents for a huge bunch I just had to rescue it from certain doom aka garbage bin.
I brought the still delicious kale home and cut off some tips that were beginning to turn yellow. The leaves themselves were still hearty so I wasn't worried about the taste (was fine.) I threw some jasmine rice that I had on hand in my rice cooker and began to think of how to prep the kale for lunch.
Staring in my fridge I noticed I had a little bit of marinated artichokes left, that magically disappeared when I opened the jar, and then it hit me in the face: Use the left over marinate for the kale!
I threw the kale and marinate in a pan and sauteed it and had it over a nice bowl of rice that I sprinkled with rice vinegar *my new crack.
It is obvious that with produce that's marked down its best to use it that day for meals but I didn't give much thought to my own "reduced" section in my fridge. Items that were ready to be tossed ,thinking they served their purpose, are now going to be given a second look to see if I can give them one last meal idea before its too late ( and by late I mean expiration dates.)
I make it a habit to go through my fridge once a week, every garbage night on my street, and toss any items that spoiled or expired. I think this week I will stop to see what twists I can use to break the monotony of some of my go-to dishes.
