We’re trying to reduce food waste after I saw this article about Food Waste (be sure to click through to the infographic!) and watching Dive.

Tonight dinner time came around. I had a cup of quinoa leftover at the bottom of the bag, which isn’t enough to do anything with to serve the family. Or is it?

I cooked the quinoa thinking about some quinoa based veggie burgers I had seen recently. Then I got into the anti-food waste spirit!

I combined:

2 cups leftover hopping john
1 cup of leftover cooked collard greens and some of the liquid for processing
1/2 of a leftover green bell pepper
1/2 of a leftover yellow onion
1 can garbanzo beans-rinsed
2 tsp chopped garlic

I ran all that in the Vitamix until it was a hummus like consistency. You could use a food processor. I stirred in the cooked quinoa. I formed 6 largish “burger patties” by using a large spoon and thwapping it into the skillet with a bit of heated oil.  I fried them until brown on both sides. I also made 6 mini meatloaves in the oven. (I just put the mixture in the muffin pan and baked.)

I served on hamburger buns with leaf lettuce, tomato and mustard.

Note: They aren’t a veggie burger for people who expect a “meat” like burger.

Verdict: Easy, popular, and no “I can’t eat more reheated greens and Hoppin’ John.” guilt

Tonight I knew I must do something with the zucchini. There was also the matter of the couscous. I have some sample size packets of Bob’s Red Mill couscous and quinoa leftover from BlogHer Food.

(Disclosure: No, they didn’t ask me to blog about it, but I did receive the sample from the company. By the way–their products rock. I wish I could find the full line in a single store nearby. Yay for their really GOOD nutritional yeast and their pearl couscous. (a new addiction) They do have mail order.)

Ok, so I grabbed the zucchini and inspected to see if they were indeed still edible. They were. I grabbed the couscous from the stockpile room and peeled off the peelie coupon for the next purchase. Oh wait, it was quinoa! Oh well, that works.

So, I cooked the quinoa according to the directions. 1/2 cup quinoa/1 cup water.

I split 3 medium large zucchini (6-8 inches long 1-2 inches in diameter) in half length-wise and scooped them out.

The quinoa was ready–but what to mix with it to add zing? No mushrooms or canned mushrooms. My default for stuffed veggies usually involves mushrooms. We did have a can (4 oz?) of fire roasted green chilies though. Hmm…sure–why not? I drained it and mixed it in. One more thing. CHEESE! Ha–feta to the rescue. I tossed in about 1/2 cup feta. Mixed it all together and stuffed the zucchini boats.

Baked until tender–about 30 min.

Consensus: delicious.

My thoughts: Easy, nice protein, and feta and green chilies? an odd combination to think about but totally tasty together. Give it a try.