About Mindful Home Kitchen
The idea of becoming a home food waste prevention consultant came to me when I was preparing to move to a new home and I challenged myself to use everything perishable in my fridge and everything that was open in my pantry.
In those two weeks I enjoyed the creativity and challenge of using everything up. I ate well and only went to the store once for bread and salad greens.
I made homemade beef jerky, fried chicken, a vegetable-rich chicken stew, spicy tuna rolls, cauliflower and potato curry, and flavorful sauces using what I had at home.
The box in the picture contained the only perishables that remained on moving day.
Our Origin Story
About Me
Hi, I’m Amani Ali, MSW, and I’m proud to introduce Mindful Home Kitchen.
I worked several years at food access nonprofits, managing food pantries, supporting small grocery stores, and administering local discount programs. In my office jobs, I was always the one with a nose in the shared fridge, asking folks to be mindful of not wasting.
As someone who provided food for thousands of people in need, and experienced my own food insecurity, it became imperative to me not to waste it.
Today, I work with a zero-waste chef turning excess fruit and vegetables from farmers into hot sauces, marinades, and pickles. I support her in the commercial kitchen while also using the products in my own meals. I blog about those meals to inspire readers on the different ways to use our products.
I learned to cook by doing and by watching cooking shows like Chopped, which is an excellent example of cooking intuitively (a MHK value).
I lived on a tight budget for a long time. As such, I became very resourceful and found ways to make humble ingredients exciting while saving money.
