Ahh! My food is spoiling!

[Kibbles314]

How many of you out there have gotten lots of fresh produce, only to find that at the end of the week plans changed, meals didn't get made, or you simply lost it in the fridge, and suddenly you discover that your beautiful fruits and vegetables have suddenly begun to turn to the dark side. Perhaps they're bruised, or wilting, or beginning to turn interesting colors. Normal (sensible) people would look at these foods and throw them away. I on the other hand, am not normal, and look at this as a prime opportunity to test my inventiveness in the kitchen. I live alone, and while I'm not poor, I don't make enough money to feel OK with wasting my food.

If you are like me, this slightly overripe food can be the perfect ingredient for that one recipe you wanted to try, but didn't want to use good food on. Maybe you're a college student who needed to find a way to eat the scraps left in the mini fridge under your bed. Or possibly you wanted to test the fortitude of your digestive tract. Whatever your reason, you've found your fridge or pantry filled with clearance items, and they must go today. I for one would like to hear what inventive recipes (or culinary abortions) you have discovered in your time of need.

I shall start. Last night I realized I had an avacado, about 8 tomatoes (from a coworkers garden), and two sweet potatoes that had been sitting around waiting for me to eat them for about a week (I think). The sweet potatoes were beginning to soften, the tomatoes were...past soft, and did you know avacados go from hard to soft to hard when unripe, ripe and then a little past ripe? I needed to find a way to turn these foods into delicious calories instead of compost. So, I sliced the sweet potatoes into relatively thin chips (maybe thick for chips, I'm not a master chef here), and the tomatoes into slices. I coated them with coconut oil, threw some thyme, salt, pepper and symeons seasoning, turned the oven to 375, and threw those puppies in there. The avacado I decided to turn into guacamole. I didn't have any shallots or salsa, but I did have some cut up veggies from last weekend that needed to go (don't you judge me!). So I tossed them in with lemon juice, hot sauce, salt and pepper, and chili powder. I blended it all up, and set it aside. After turning the potatoes, I let everything bake for...a while. I think 30 minutes, but if you're entrepid enough to try this I would suggest keeping an eye on it. Once everything was out, I put the guacamole on the sweet potatoe chips, topped them with the tomato, and magic! They were actually delicious. I'm thinking of turning this into something I make more often.

Hopefully you have similar experiences to tell! Or if not, I'll continue to use my blender as a way to eat my wilty spinach in peace. 😉

[MatthewFitbit]

@Kibbles314 It sounds like you handled the crisis well! This happens to me plenty of the time - I get overzealous when buying delicious produce, and all of a sudden I'm making a massive stir-fry, just to use the rest of it up before it turns to sludge.

For what it's worth, I've learned quite a bit from this page (offsite link) - it's a fairly comprehensive list of where different foods should be stored. I was definitely storing some food items in the wrong location, and have been able to keep things fresher longer by changing those habits. Definitely worth a read!

[TCG]

Try buying your fruit and vegetables in different stages of ripeness, I buy bananas that are still a little green and toss in a nice yellow one that I can eat the next day and let the other ripen during the week, same goes for avocados and mangos. I buy one that is ready to eat and the others will ripen during the week. I'm married but my spouse is not a big fruit and veggie eater so I have to pick and choose how I purchase the produce.

[Kibbles314]

@Matthew: thanks for the link! I'll be sure to save that for later. I've certainly had plenty of practice making food from junk. Have you got any fun for stories?