Waste Not, Want Not

So I'm cleaning out the refrigerator and find 3 of these little things.  What do you do with them when you get them with Chinese take out?  Don’t toss them away if you don’t use them.  Not wanting anything to go to waste, I use them in homemade salad dressings.  

This is the recipe for the Chinese dipping sauce, so you can see it can go in a salad dressing very easily.

1/3 cup rice vinegar

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 4 teaspoons water

So it pairs very well with a simple dressing for most salads.  Try adding it to the juice from the can of Mandarin oranges. I love Mandarin oranges and always have a couple of cans in my pantry. You can use the oranges on the salad too. I don't even want the juice to go to waste.  Add a bit of good balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and you have a wonderful dressing to pour over lettuce, oranges, cold chicken, what ever nut you have in the house, and what ever else you have in your refrigerator.   You can add oil, but I don’t find it necessary and you will save on the calories.   

Put the ingredients into a mason jar and shake well.  You can store it for weeks in the refrigerator. 

Salad and Raspberry Lemonade will be my lunch today.

Ideas on the salad mix:

Lettuce

Cold chicken (I still have some left from that roast chicken, making 3 dinners out of it)

Mandarin oranges

Diced celery

Cucumber slices

Pecans or sliced almonds would be nice

Salt and pepper to taste

Bottom line is I just don’t like anything to go to waste.  You can also toss it into your bottled French or Western dressing, since they both have a tomato base, to extend your dressings and add a different flavor.  Just don't throw it away when it has so many uses.  What would you add it to to give a little more sweetness and flavor?

Be happy, be fugal and may God bless you and yours.