Sustainable Found Food Artist
By: Melissa Peterman
Published: November 10, 2009

You can often find me chuckling when I stand in my mother's kitchen. On the counter it's not surprising to find three crackers wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, five almonds in a small dish or something like three pear slices leftover from breakfast resting on a clean plate.
"Why are you keeping three grapes in this dish?" I'll laugh. "Really mom, there is only about a quarter cup of mayonnaise in this container and it's taking up space in your refrigerator, why don't you toss it out?"  Neither of my parents are  what I call penny pinchers, nor did they grow up with the notion to save every scrap of food, but one thing my mother hates more than anything else is wasting food. So why throw away three segments of an orange when you could add it to your yogurt tomorrow?
My mother is one of the best cooks that I know of. Extremely resourceful and downright clever when it comes to making something out of nothing. Perhaps like a "found artist," she looks at every ingredient in her kitchen as if it could be part of a greater piece of work.
Whether we like it or not, we often turn into our parents- and I am no exception.  My husband has since put my counter and refrigerator gatherings on a mental due date. Ever so carefully he'll ask if he can toss half of a grilled chicken thigh that is wrapped in plastic or the quarter-sized piece of blue cheese that I simply couldn't bear to toss from a couple nights ago. The beauty of it all is that I DO find ways to use these found items in my fridge. Like the Cobb salad that I made using the leftover blue cheese and the diced chicken thigh or the half stem of fresh rosemary that -even though small- the leaves were sprinkled on a pizza and I used the stem to infuse the tomato sauce. When you think about it, many gourmet meals we happily pay  for in restaurants today came from leftovers, like cassoulet, Asian dumplings, bouillabaisse or cioppino- the Italian seafood stew, which name comes from people assembling "a little bit" of what ever was leftover from the day's catch.
I challenge you all to rethink what you consider as garbage in your fridge simply because you can't be bothered to include bits and pieces into your next culinary creation.  I've got three words for you when it comes to most odds and ends: soup, salad or bento box!
A little bit more inspirtation for you:
The Frugal Girl - Gives you pointers on leftovers.
CheapEats.ie- Gives advice on fishcakes using leftovers.
The World According to Eggface uses the bento box solution.
Above photo by: The Pack