Waste Not

                Let’s start today’s blog post with a question!  How much food do we waste each week? You would be amazed how much food we throw away each week. It is either spoiled, getting old or we just do not want to eat it anymore. I hate throwing away food because to me it is wasting money. Do you like throwing your money in the garbage? I know I don’t like wasting food or throwing my money away. This weekend my oldest daughter came home from college with a lot of food her roommates wanted to throw away, she asked me if she should throw it away or was there something I could do to keep it fresh longer? So today I will give you a couple of things you can do with food that is getting close to being ready to be thrown away.

                The one thing my daughter brought home was celery that was getting wilted and a little brown. Don’t throw this away because I have an easy way to keep it longer and use it for soups and other things later. All you have to do is cut away the brown stuff and wash it up a little. Do not throw away the leaves they are great in soups. This is what I want to show you today, how I take celery that is starting to get bad and dehydrate it for soups and salads later on.

1.   

    Pull out your dehydrator and some trays and your fruit roll-up tray.

2.   

    First, wash your celery and cut off any brown spots and throw them away.

3.    

   Take your stalks and cut into thin strips.

4.   

    Cut the leaves and stalks into little pieces.

5.     

  Place an empty tray on the bottom of your dehydrator.

6.      

The next tray place your fruit roll-up dish in your tray and spread your celery and celery leaves around the tray. The fruit roll-up tray will keep the celery from falling through the tray.

7.    

   I place another empty tray on top because my American Harvest dehydrator has the heat source on the top. This way the heat does not touch the celery and get caught in the unit. Always check your dehydrator's instructions.

8.      

Turn your dehydrator on to the temperature you need for vegetables. Every dehydrator is different, so check your directions.

9.      

The celery will be hard little pieces when done.

10.  

Place in a sealed zip lock bag or a sealed container.

The next time you make soup just take a little handful and sprinkle it into your soup. This is what I do with my celery before it gets bad. I hate wasting food and throwing away money. The next time you have some food starting to go bad don’t throw it away, consider dehydrating it to use at a later date and time. Check your dehydrators directions on what you can dehydrate and how to keep it fresh the longest. Investing in a dehydrator is well worth the money, I use my dehydrator at least once a week. This last week I picked my grapes and I made my kids grape fruit roll-ups using my dehydrator. Don’t be wasteful, dehydrate and save your food for later from Suzie Homemaker.