With food costs increasing every day, getting the most out of your groceries is becoming more and more important.
Thanks to one TikToker, you can even turn your scraps into snacks with a few simple steps.
The scoop
Elli (@elli.tamar) demonstrated a quick way to turn potato peels into a crunchy snack.
@elli.tamar Why bin it when you can bake it? #AirFryerSnacks #EasyRecipes #MumLife #CookingHack #ZeroWasteCooking #ScrapsToSnacks #RelatableFood ♬ Wannabe - Spice Girls
The process is simple: just rinse your potato peels in water, pat them dry in a clean kitchen towel, toss them in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, and other seasonings, and spread them out on a baking sheet or your air fryer basket and cook.
She even paused the music she used in the clip to hear that delicious crunch of what is basically a quick and easy potato chip for cheap.
"Why bin it when you can bake it?" she asked in the caption for the video.
How it's helping
Food prices keep going up and up. Using data from July 2024 to July 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported there was a 2.9% increase in food prices alone, and they are predicted to increase by another 2.2% going into 2026.
Unfortunately, a lot of the food we do buy goes to waste. According to the USDA, food waste at consumer and retail levels reached up to 133 billion pounds in 2010, equivalent to $161 billion worth of food. That means every dollar at the grocery store matters, and being able to use every last scrap of food you buy will stretch your budget.
All that food waste is bad for the environment, too. From the mechanical costs of farming the food to fuel for shipping around the globe, to wasted food rotting in landfills, all stages emit planet-warming gases that negatively impact the environment.
Those planet-warming gases cause knock-on effects that often make farming more difficult due to increased and shifting extreme weather events.
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People in the comments loved Elli's simple hack.
"I love doing this especially when making mashed potato and adding [it] as a crispy garnish," one person wrote.
Another said, "Yeah okay, absolutely would eat that!!!" Elli replied that it's even better with some garlic tossed into the mix.
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