One of the best ways to beat the winter blues is up your vegetable intake! Let’s face it… those cold and flu germs are everywhere right now and before you know it – BAM! – you’re under the weather, your energy is low, you’re dragging, heads in a fog and the last thing you want to do is get out from under those covers and exercise. Amiright?

Our mom was right. It IS good for us to eat our vegetables! So each week we drive to the grocery store or farmers market and dutifully stock up on our green, yellow, orange, and red colored veggies. We load up on herbs. Shop the rainbow, we’re told… but then… something terrible happens…

Those veggies wilt.

They rot.

They get half-eaten and forgotten about.

They get dumped in the trash. 

Or compost pile.

Does that ever happen to you? It’s okay to confess, because we aren’t alone. The USDA claims that Americans on average waste about a pound of food every.single.day. That’s a lot of food and adds up to 150,000 tons a day across the nation. Yikes! 

The easiest way to do our part in cutting down food waste is to shop our pantries. I make it a point to pull out all the vegetables in my crisper every other week and make, what I call, Reset Soup.

Reset Soup 

Full disclosure… I am not going to post an actual recipe right here because Reset Soup is something we can all do to flex our resourcefulness muscles in the kitchen! Reset Soup is taking all your leftover, ugly, or starting to turn vegetables and chop them up with some broth and fat (olive oil or butter) and make a soup with them!  Each week the ingredients will be different and the more ingredients, the better! I often like to add bits of frozen veggies here and there to add texture and flavor. Hint: frozen Swiss Chard is AMAZING in this soup and if you have mushrooms that turned to hard rocks… add them to the soup for flavor and right before serving, take them out! Viola! Look at your – so chef-like!

Before you know it, your body will be singing and thanking you for taking good care of it!

Now, go call your mom and thank her.

Have you ever found yourself throwing away vegetables and wishing that you hadn’t? Besides Reset Soup, what other ways have you rescued vegetables from your fridge crisper?

Happy crisper shopping!

Lyndi