Making a Masterpiece…

Wednesday Wisdom 🙂

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Today’s scripture verse comes from Luke 4: 4

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

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Last weekend, I traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to participate in the 2018 Food Waste and Hunger Summit. In the United States, we waste 40% of the food that is grown while 1 in 6 Americans are food insecure. The summit, put on by DC Central Kitchen and its Campus Kitchens Project, brought college students from across the nation together to brainstorm solutions to this challenge. It was truly an honor to lead a break out session and participate on a panel as a speaker for the summit.

In 2018, we have the best and safest food supply in the history of our nation. My favorite farmer and I are proud to play a role growing it. It is a sad story that neighbors go hungry while landfills are simultaneously filling up with wasted food.

We can do better.

We must do better.

It’s hard, but the road to excellence is never easy or comfortable. I believe that part of the problem can be solved by working to improve the logistics and integrity of food production and delivery, as well as inspiring responsible eating. But, it is bigger than that. While there is an obvious physical link to hunger, food insecurity finds its roots in a larger social challenge. We grow enough food to feed everyone, so why are so many of our neighbors going hungry?

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Jesus reminds us repeatedly in the Gospels that we do not live by bread alone. While bread fuels our bodies, love must fill our hearts to heal our souls. Growing food is important and honoring it by limiting waste is critical.

But that’s not the entire story. The rest of the story exists in our ability to end the cycle of hunger by teaching skills and offering jobs — one American at a time – until everyone has a place on the team.

A team that brings love and opportunity.

A team that packs their FAITH to live with GRACE.

My trip home took an unexpected turn and I ended up driving from Minneapolis (that’s a story for another time). As I drove,  I kept thinking about how each one of us is a masterpiece in the making. God asks us to open our hearts so that He can travel the journey with us — impacting our attitudes and inspiring us to offer service and outreach to others. When we let Him in, He fills us with agape love to share. In that moment of joining, our lives become meaningful. The world looks different and our natural internal focus broadens as we look to share and contribute.

Imagine a world where everyone looks to serve instead of to receive.

Imagine a world where we are all members of God’s team.

It is incredibly powerful to realize that while bread is necessary for physical survival, it is truly God’s love and guidance that sustains us in our earthly journey. Our country faces many, many challenges in 2018 — From hunger to food waste to the daily violence that seems to stem from disunity and fear. When I closed my feed yard down 14 months ago, I promised myself that I would intentionally devote more meaningful time to serving others. I felt the call to share — to help the youth in our community to learn to love and to understand that they are loved.

Each one of us is a masterpiece in the making. Perhaps most importantly, all of our masterpieces fit together like pieces of a puzzle in order to heal both our hearts and those of our fellow countrymen. As we progress through Holy Week, I pray that each one of us intentionally opens our lives to share with others. Together we make a difference 🙂

Love Food Friday Tip #9: Get Serious!

Love Food Friday!

Love Food Friday Food Waste Elimination Tip #9: Get Serious — Document — and Save!

Chef Chris Giegel

For anyone serious about reducing food waste, it helps to know what is often wasted. Designate one week where you keep a journal or record all the food that gets wasted in your household. This will help you make informed and wiser buying decisions. If you buy less you waste less.

This could be as simple as freezing half a loaf of bread because you don’t eat an entire loaf before it goes bad, or realizing that your family doesn’t like something and avoiding purchasing it in the future. Buy a smaller gallon of milk if that regularly spoils before you can drink it all.

It’s easier to form a plan to reduce your food waste if you know what’s wasted. It’s well worth the time and will likely save you some money too!

Grecian Beef Strip Steaks & Mushroom Kabobs…

A great way to celebrate May as Beef Month and Memorial Day Weekend

Wishing you a fun filled holiday weekend, from our family to yours 🙂

Love Food Friday Tip #8: Donate!

Love Food Friday!

Love Food Friday Food Waste Elimination Tip #8:

DONATE!

Chef Chris Giegel

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we wind up with an excess of food—canned goods, perishables, meal leftovers. The best way to minimize waste is to SHARE!

• If you made too much for dinner and no one in your family wants to eat it anymore, bring it to work and share with co-workers. They often enjoy something new, especially if they don’t have to cook it themselves.
• If you find yourself with an excess of perishable and canned goods there are always food banks, homeless shelters, and other organizations that would be more than happy to take your excess and use it for a good cause. A simple internet search will help you find resources in your area. It’s always a great feeling to know that you’ve avoiding wasting food and used it to benefit someone in need.

*Anne’s note: My crew of guys at the feed yard LOVE it when I bring leftover food and baked goods to work with me.  It’s a great way to both reduce food waste and make someone’s day just a little bit brighter 🙂

Grilled Steak and Vegetable Salad!

This grilled steak and vegetable salad is a great way to use up leftover steak and vegetables for a tasty and healthy meal!

Love Food Friday Tip #5: Purge the Pantry!

Love Food Friday

Food Waste Elimination Tip #5: Purge the Pantry!

Chef Christopher Gigiel

Use it so that you don’t lose it!

While you’re getting into that habit of planning meals and menus and organizing your kitchen, be sure to plan one day a week that uses what you have on hand. No matter how well you plan there are always leftovers, and left over groceries that need to be used. I do this regularly in the Culinary Center at NCBA. I often have extra produce on hand and get creative with how I can use it instead of buying more. I look at my canned goods and dry storage and see what I have on hand already and plan something that utilizes those things with a minimum of additional purchases required. And, of course, if you have several kinds of leftovers in the fridge and haven’t frozen them it’s always great for the family to be able to “make what they want” for dinner, and if there’s still some left, freeze it.

Love Food Friday Recipe Share #5: Four-Way Slow Cooker Shredded Beef

Click here for the recipe!

Love Food Friday Tip #3: Stock the Staples…

Love Food Friday

Food Waste Elimination Tip #3: Stock the Staples!

Chef Christopher Gigiel

A kitchen stocked with the staple ingredients is a happy and less wasteful kitchen!

While it may seem counter intuitive to the two former tips (Plan and Organize!), stocking the staples is actually a key way that I ensure that I have what I need to make use of the more expensive and more perishable fresh items. I routinely stock dried and canned goods like pastas, rice, canned beans and tomatoes, and several jarred sauces as well as flour, sugar, etc.

With a basic inventory of these items, I can ensure that I make use of the produce or meat I bought but didn’t get around to cooking when my busy life got in the way. “Shelf stable” items like this never go bad, and allow me to whip something up in a pinch or for that unexpected company that drops by.

Love Food Friday Recipe Share #3: Beef Chili Five Ways!

Click here for the recipe!

Anne’s note: I don’t purchase 93% lean ground beef as the recipe suggests.  It cooks up nicely with burger that is less lean as well 🙂

Love Food Friday Tip #2: Organize Your Kitchen!

Love Food Friday

 Food Waste Elimination Tip #2: Organize Your Kitchen!

Chef Christopher Gigiel

Organize your fridge and pantry.  An organized kitchen is a happy kitchen, and also an efficient and less wasteful kitchen.

If you can easily see what’s in your refrigerator and pantry you’re much less likely to waste things.

• I keep perishable things at the forefront of my fridge so that they don’t get shoved to the back and become a fuzzy science experiment-gone-wrong.
• I regularly take mental inventory of what I have and make sure that I store newer groceries behind older ones so the older ones get used first.

In the restaurant business we call this FIFO – First in, First out, it ensures I use things in a timely manner and they don’t go to waste. I go so far as to physically do inventory and check things off the grocery list that I made before I go shopping so I know that I’m not buying in excess.

Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day by organizing your kitchen and enjoying Chef Chris’s: Slow-Cooked Corned Beef in Beer with Red Currant-Mustard Sauce

Love Food Friday #1: Get Organized and PLAN!

Love Food Friday

Food Waste Elimination Tip #1: Get organized and PLAN!

Chef Christopher Gigiel

One thing that sets professional chefs apart, as a group, is that we are planners. We don’t like flying by the seat of our pants. We have a plan, and a backup plan, and a backup plan for our back up plan.

When we’re talking about food, this means we plan a menu and shop for that menu. Most commercial food establishments operate on a very slim profit margin and food waste can make the different between profitability and loss. Therefore, food waste is often at the forefront of my mind.

I plan my menu and shop for what I need for that menu, and go to the store with a list. I do the same thing in my personal life – I’m much less likely to impulse buy or purchase things because they’re on sale if I have a list and stick to it. This also means that I’m not purchasing excess without a solid plan of what I’m going to do with it and what I buy is much less likely to go to waste.

I know in our busy lives it’s difficult to carve out the time to plan, and often the decision of what we’re eating for dinner is only made several hours before it needs to be on the table, but I promise you if you’ll start the habit you’ll waste a lot less, and save some money too.

Love Food Friday Recipe Share #1 : Asian Beef and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Click here for the recipe!

Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner 🙂

Love Food, Hate Waste!

The United Kingdom launched a large scale public awareness campaign called “Love Food Hate Waste” in 2006-2007.  Data taken by the WRAP demonstrated that this campaign successfully reduced avoidable household food waste in the U.K. by 21% from 2007-2012.  I believe these to be impressive results accomplished relatively quickly and with reportedly little inconvenience to the citizen.

Recognizing food waste and making a conscious decision to improve provides the most important key to reducing food waste in the home.  Following that with understanding labeling, being willing to purchase produce that is not “visually perfect”, and either correct portioning or a dedication to eating leftovers provide some of the basic cornerstones.

In an effort to continue to raise awareness relative to food waste, and also to give each of you some practical tips for reducing waste in your kitchen; I am beginning a season of Love Food Friday.  This spring, I am enlisting the help of professional chef Christopher Gigiel to offer a tip for eliminating food waste each Friday.  I am also hoping that he will share a few of his favorite beef recipes as well!

Christopher joins us from Denver, Colorado where he manages the day-to-day operations of the Beef Culinary Center, caters in house meetings and events with recipes that prominently feature beef, and works with the Beef Innovation Team on recipe and new-product development.

He has worked with the beef checkoff program since the spring of 2014. A Johnson & Wales University alum, Christopher earned his Associates of Science in Culinary Arts and Bachelors of Science in Food Service Management. In addition, he held a Culinary Fellowship where he taught culinary lab classes and helped manage the operations of the culinary building.

Prior to working with the checkoff, he served as Food Service Director for a non-profit in Eastern Pennsylvania where he revitalized their culinary program. When he’s not in the kitchen, you can find him cycling throughout the Mile High City which boasts more than 850 miles of bicycling adventures or camped out in a local coffee shop with a book and caffeinated beverage in hand.

I am really excited about this series as it brings practical tips for reducing food waste to all of us as we work on this journey of continuous improvement 🙂

Please help me to welcome Christopher to the Feed Yard Foodie Family for the Love Food Friday series!