One of the most chilling statistics about food is that the United States throws away at least half of all food produced here. This is because it rots before people can manage to buy or consume it. I know that I still end up throwing food away at times even though I try really hard not to. It is difficult to cook just enough for one person and sometimes even more difficult to keep eating the leftovers. Sometimes eating the same thing for three days out of the week makes me feel like I would rather not eat at all.
But, what if we found ways to use leftover foods that seem to be unusable? What if we transformed our leftovers into a whole new meal? I think if I worked harder at this, I could manage to avoid throwing out any food at all. And, I could also buy less food and spend less at the grocery store.
A couple of days ago, I made what I like to call "Italian mashed potatoes" to go along with some tilapia piccata. It is very easy to make too many mashed potatoes. For one thing, I love them and I make a lot because I always think I will eat a lot. Anyway, today I still had three servings of these mashed potatoes still in the refrigerator and had no desire to eat them. So, I made "breaded Italian mashed potato balls". There are probably a million things one could do with leftover mashed potatoes. But, I went with this because of what other things I had laying around that needed to be used. One such ingredient was the end of a baguette that went stale to the point it could not be consumed as just bread. So, I ran it across the cheese grater and made it into coarse bread crumbs. I then shredded some parmesan cheese and added that along with oregano and basil to the bread crumbs. Then, I beat an egg. I got the leftover mashed potatoes out and while still cold i gathered some up in the palm of my hand and rolled them into a ball. I then rolled each ball in the egg and then in the bread crumb mixture. I baked them in a toaster over at 350 for about 10 minutes. I enjoyed eating them for lunch. They had just enough of a new flavor and texture to make it seem like I was eating something else entirely. Making it took a total of 15 minutes and I was able to use things I would have otherwise thrown out. I did have extra bread crumb mixture which I saved to use as a topping on some baked pasta in the next couple of days.
I am sure you could do this with any type of mashed potatoes and hard cheese you happen to have leftover. In case you want to try to make Italian mashed potatoes, here is how I do it:
Quarter and boil red potatoes with the skin on until they are tender. Drain and transfer them to a mixing bowl and add 1/2 c plain Greek yogurt, 4 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 c white cooking wine, 2 cloves chopped garlic and whip until they reach your desired consistency.
Baked Italian Mashed Potato Balls
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