Feeling Inadequate

Have any of you read An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler?

I haven't finished it yet, but I feel remarkably inadequate in the creative cooking department as I read about how economical she is with her food.  Not financially economical, although that's part of it, but waste-economical.  She saves every little bit trimmed off everything and uses it for something.  Croutons, bread crumbs, parsley stems for stock, other vegetable odds and ends.  It's inspiring and scary and all the more impressive in that she makes it seem so simple, really.

This week, in response to her book, I purchased a bunch of parsley.  And I've been using it - mainly on baked potatoes and broccoli (drizzled with olive oil, not melted butter, another suggestion straight from the book).  The 10 year old has gobbled up everything I have presented.  The 6 year old, not so much.  Although the lasagna I made yesterday was a hit for the first time.  Usually pasta needs to be plain, with butter and parmesan cheese only.  I was shocked to see the empty bowl when I got home!

Today I made a sausage-kale soup.  I browned 5 sweet Italian sausages, removed from the casings, with chopped onion and celery in a little olive oil.  I then added 2 pints of chicken stock, 2 cans of cannelloni beans with their liquid, 2 cans of water, and half a bunch of kale, chopped.  I even added some minced parsley stems.  I did not add any salt or pepper because the sausage was spiced enough.  This simmered for about a half an hour and then I added some ditalini pasta and let that cook.  It was nice and stew-like and we ate it with chunks of fresh bread.  And a bowl of blueberries.  Because I suspected (correctly) that the 6 year old wasn't going to eat a lot of the soup.  We just picked out the pasta bits....