Though it’s been said that households around the country throw out 40% of purchased food a year (National Resources Defense Council), I like to say that I try to throw out a lot less of that in our house. I’m stuck with some bad fruit purchases and I refuse to throw the whole thing out.
I have a bin full of tangerines (with seeds in every bite) and a bag of apples (with bruises at every turn that were artfully placed the in the plastic bag to hide the evidence). Evidently, I haven’t learned my lesson to buy seedless oranges or loose apples so I can inspect them. (Note to self: stop grabbing bags of apples even when in a rush.)
My fruit doesn’t have to be perfect…I’m not that kind of shopper who bypasses misshapen fruit–it’s the overly-seeded, overly-bruised fruit that makes me crazy. I’m tired of returning fruit (and other items) that aren’t up to snuff.
In my upcoming book, Ditch the Coupons: Save Money, Spot Secret Sales, Love Grocery Shopping…Without Couponing, I include recipes on what to do with wayward fruits, vegetables and other bits of leftovers. But now I have a larger amount of fruit to contend with, and I’ve decided to take it up as a challenge.
Do I make orange juice out of the tangerines? Do I make apple sauce out of the apples? What about apple cake? Apple pie? Maybe I should search or post a question in Quora–I know I’ll read some interesting suggestions there! Tune in to find out what happens to my ugly fruit.
~Marilyn, TFF
Two Frugal Fairfielders 
Juice the citrus, perhaps make a slurry and serve it as a sauce over angel food cake, vanilla ice cream, pancakes/waffles. Dry the peels and save to infuse in vinegar for cleaning purposes. Bruised apples are fine in pie, cobblers/crisps, coffee cakes if not apple sauce. Salvage what you can.
Excellent!
I will also report on my orange jelly tomorrow–just waiting for it to set, then I can taste it and crossing fingers it turned out well. Next, on to salvaging those apples 🙂