If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission.
Molly Yeh knows a thing or two about cookbooks. The Emmy Award- and James Beard Foundation Award-nominated star of Food Network’s series Girl Meets Farm is the author of four cookbooks and now she’s combining her passion for cookbooks with her goal of helping families reduce food waste.
“145 billion meals are wasted a year in the US, and that equals over $1,000 lost per family,” Yeh told SheKnows. “We have a long way to go.”
American families are already feeling the economic pinch as inflation drives the cost of groceries higher, and the bird flu outbreak is causing the price of eggs — a staple ingredient in most American households — to skyrocket. Losing over $1,000 annually to food waste is a top-of-mind concern for parents who are budgeting and planning meals for their families and as a mom to two young daughters herself, Yeh is excited to help families combat food waste with her newest project — a partnership with Ziploc to launch the “World’s First Frozen Cookbook”.
The “World’s First Frozen Cookbook” as Ziploc calls it, is not a traditional cookbook. Instead, it’s a kitchen tool that will help families repurpose food scraps that would have otherwise been thrown out.
“This is such an awesome spark to continue or grow this conversation about saving food scraps,” Yeh explained. “The cookbook is modeled around three sections to save scraps that would have otherwise gone in the trash, which is something that I would hate to see.”
The cookbook holds three large Ziplocs that can be used to house and organize your food scraps that would have otherwise been thrown out. The three-compartment system is mirrored after the three types of food scraps Yeh collects and saves.
“I have three big Ziplocs that I keep in my freezer. One is for bread scraps, which are all the crusts from my daughter’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then I have a bag for veggie scraps, which is mainly pieces of carrots and bell peppers with hearts and stars cut out of them because that’s how I make them for lunches for school. And then a third that accumulates the rest of my food scraps,” Yeh detailed.
To celebrate the launch of the new cookbook, Yeh has also crafted three coordinating recipes to go along with the three compartments of the cookbook. The recipes include a crunchy Parmesan, salami and kale crumble, ginger scallion fried rice, and a rose berry cookie salad.
The new frozen cookbook is available to purchase on Amazon and the recipes can all be found on Ziploc’s website.
When speaking to Yeh about the new cookbook and reducing food waste, she also offered some tips on how to make the process simple and easy for families to tackle.
“Start a system,” Yeh says. “For me, it’s all about the system, because if you’re disorganized about it and you’re just throwing stuff in your freezer, you’re gonna forget about it. My system, which is represented in the frozen cookbook, is that I have just a few main Ziplocs in my freezer that I add to over time.”
As far as how to use the scraps, the possibilities are endless, but a few of Yeh’s suggestions include homemade stock, and a Midwestern classic called cookie salad, which is great for all of those leftover bread scraps.
Happy freezing!
