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Uses for food scraps around the house

Note: I took a lot of these suggestions from this Mother Nature News article

1. Clean greasy messes: Sprinkle affected area with salt or baking soda and then rub with juiced lemon halves. (Do not use on granite or marble!)

2. Shine your coffee pot: Add ice, salt and lemon rinds to an empty coffee pot, swirl around for a minute or two, dump and rinse well.

3. Clean your kettle: For mineral deposit build up in tea kettles, fill with water and a handful of lemon peels, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let sit for an hour, drain and rinse well.

4. Make citrus extract powder: Take the zest or twists of citrus (being sure to remove the pith and allow to dry, about three or four days) Put in a spice grinder and pulverize into a powder. Store in a clean jar.

5. Make citrus sugar: Make citrus extract powder and add it to sugar, or you can use fresh twists, put them in a jar with sugar, let the oil from the peel infuse the sugar and remove after a few days.

6. Make lemon pepper: Mix lemon extract powder with pepper.

7. Make zest: If you've juiced lemons, limes, oranges or grapefruit but don't have an immediate need for zest, you can make it anyway and dry or freeze it for future use. Zest is a versatile item to have on hand for a bright boost in any number of dishes. If you don't have a microplane or zester, you can also use the small side of a box grater. Try to scrape just the outer layer, the white layer of pith is bitter. Freeze in an airtight container. To dry, spread the zest on a towel and leave until dried, then store in a clean jar.

8. Make candies: cut citrus rinds into thin 1/4″ slice and leave to dry overnight. Make a simple syrup solution of 2 cups sugar to one cup water and boil. Once at a rolling boil, dump in citrus rinds and let steep for 10 minutes. pull out and let dry over night. Dip in melted dark chocolate the next day for some knock off Godiva goodness.

9. Make citrus olive oil: Pound citrus peel (pith removed) in a mortar and pestle with some oil added. Place in a jar with more oil and let rest for six hours. Strain into a clean jar. I love using this oil for salad dressings.

10. Make infusions: Infuse vinegar with citrus peels by placing twists in the liquid and letting the flavors seep. Strain vinegar into a bottle, and add 10 parts water to 1 part citrus vinegar solution, store in a clean spray bottle, and use as window cleaner.

11. Make potato chips: Mix potato peels with enough lemon juice and olive oil to evenly coat, sprinkle with salt. Spread the potato peels in a layer on a baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees, stirring once, until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

12. Make stock: Boil potato peels, onion skins, carrot peels, leek ends, etc. for vegetable stock.

13. Boost soup and stock: Cheese rinds can be placed in soup stocks for an awesome secret boost of flavor and texture. Just make sure once your soup is done cooking to take out what is left of the rind.

14. Add 'meat' to greens: Cheese rinds can also be added to braised greens for added depth of flavor.

15. Keep brown sugar soft: If you regularly fall victim to the brick in the pantry known as hardened brown sugar, try adding some lemon peel to keep it moist and pliable.

16. Make vanilla sugar: If you use fresh vanilla, after scraping the bean, add the pod to sugar to make vanilla-infused sugar.

17. Refresh your face: For a skin tonic, rub orange or grapefruit peels on your face (avoiding the eyes) and then gently rinse with warm water.

18. Moisturize: Rub the fleshy part of an avocado peel on your face for a rich moisturizer.

19. Relieve your peepers: Potato peels and cucumber ends can reduce puffiness around eyes; press the moist side of the fresh peels to the skin for 15 minutes.

The Earth provides everything we need for survival. When we take what we do not need then we are being greedy and we will lose everything. Respect our planet!

#save mother earth #don't deplete her #be respectful #don't waste #we have to do better #wake up people #we must change