Reducing Food Waste

[Mrs SimplestHappiness]

We seem to be wasting quite a bit of food: produce, bread and at times even cooked food. I try to freeze things after we cook a big batch of something, and sometimes I throw in the freezer tomatoes or even bread when they seem to be getting old or close to expiration (I use the tomatoes in soups later) . I'd like to reduce the amount of food we waste while also not going to the grocery store more than once a week. Both my husband and I work full time and we have 2 little ones.

Give me your best tips and what has worked for you. thanks!

[ministashy]

As a singleton, this is always a problem for me.  My solutions thus far:

Keep track of the produce, meat, or leftovers in your fridge (anything likely to go bad).  Rotate older stuff to the front of the fridge so that you remember to use it up.

Only buy what you know you can use in a reasonable amount of time, no matter how good the deal is.  (Obviously if you can freeze/store it in a way that it doesn't spoil, this doesn't apply.)

Figure out how long it takes bread to get moldy where you are--before it gets to that point, put it in the fridge.  It'll dry out there, but when it gets too dry for sandwiches you can then use it to make croutons, bread pudding, etc.

Find flexible recipes that you can use different ingredients with, for example:  quiches, frittatas, panade, different stews.  I have a rotation of several recipes that I can throw whatever vegetables/cheese/meat I need to use up into, which works really well.  You can also search by ingredient for recipes on food.com if you need to find a way to use up something specific.

It's not a perfect system--every once in a while I find something shoved to the back of the fridge that's a goner.  But it works pretty well the rest of the time.

[Mrs SimplestHappiness]

thanks for the tips! yup, I need to move things to the front and I wish I could see better inside to be reminded that things need to be eaten. Things seem to go bad in there regularly but once this is made a priority perhaps buying less things would help also.

[Catbert]

Buy food for how you really eat, not how you wish you did.  By that I mean, don't buy 5 lbs of peaches on sale hoping/wishing to have every member of your family eat a piece at each meal when right now no one eats fresh fruit. 

When you toss things take a second to analyze why they didn't get used.  Do you eat out rather than cook at home?  Think you're going to cook 3 course meals, but fall back on scrambled eggs?   Buy things no one likes?  Forget about leftovers?  Not put things away properly (e.g., bough food to freeze for smoothies but left out to rot instead)?  Each of these has a different solution.

[nancy33]

Chickens turn food waste into eggs

[SC93]

www.savethefood.com

I hear the commercial all the time when I listen to Todd & Tyler on their radio app.

[MMMaybe]

In our house, fruit gets chopped and put into the freezer, ready for smoothies. Or if you have a fruit bowl, try to deal with any fruit before it goes bad. It can become banana bread, compote, fruit crumble etc.

We know we have an issue with certain things going off before we can eat them, like spring onions or feta. I will chop the spring onions and put them into the freezer. Or if we use some fresh feta, I will throw the rest into the freezer because it will be fine to throw into recipes later on.

Stale bread gets turned into breadcrumbs or put a sliced loaf into the freezer and take it out when you want some.

We have fridge clear out recipes, which we throw all the items, which are teetering on the edge. Such as frittata, soup, stirfry, noodle dishes etc. It really forces you to be creative and mindful of waste.

Leftover rice can be frozen and tossed into soup to make it more filling. Etc.

But probably the most important thing is not to a) overbuy b) buy weird ingredients that you wont use or c) go shopping before you have done your fridge clear out recipes for the week.

[Mrs SimplestHappiness]

I'm going to make a list of all the tips and stick it on our fridge until it becomes habit. My assumption is that we potentially waste $30-$50 worth of food monthly. That's enough of a motivation for ~ $500 yearly.

[Raenia]

Every week I do my meal planning on Sunday or Monday before going grocery shopping.  I make my meal plan based on what is currently in the fridge, and then anything additional needed to make those meals goes on the grocery list.  I also always have at least one day a week, often two, designated as a "leftover day" to polish off anything that didn't get eaten as work lunches.  I also try to re-purpose some less appealing leftovers as others have mentioned - three-day-old roasted potatoes are great in a fritatta, leftover chicken goes in soup or fajitas, etc.  This is particularly important with leftovers that no one seems to want to eat.

[Noodle]

I came across this blog post awhile back and thought it was really helpful. http://www.thelazygeniuscollective.com/blog/bizarro-meal-prep  I had always thought of prepping ingredients as being something to do after the grocery shop, but her approach makes a lot of sense.

Other than that, I keep a little white board in my kitchen and write down 1) produce that needs to go and 2) cooked food that needs to be used up. It's amazing what I can lose in the fridge, even though I personally shopped for, cooked and cleaned up after all of it. I also learned that things like peaches and avocados will hold in the fridge if you let them ripen on the counter and then switch them over.

I also alternate weeks when I cook new recipes from my wish lists with "use-it-up recipes" to clean out the fridge.

[Retire-Canada]

Plan meals as best you can and buy the food you need for those meals. That should result in minimal waste. If you are still wasting loads of food you are either 1) not buying according to plan or 2) not cooking according to plan. Tweak the bit you are not doing and you should be solid.

You can develop weekly meal plans with associate shopping lists and stores them then mix and use as you are feeling it.

[CheapScholar]

I toast bread and turn it into bread crumbs in the food processor quite a bit.  I use it to make meat loaf or breaded chicken.  Bread crumbs keep for a long time if you store them in an airtight container.

[frugalwitch]

If I have too many leftovers, I won't cook until they are eaten. Or I freeze them for lunch. I buy less fresh produce but more often. As we almost eat no meat/dairy/eggs, all of my food waste is composted and used in the garden.


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[Capt j-rod]

It is difficult to do this. I have a food saver. I bought it for the garden but I use it constantly. When I get home from the grocery store I split out what we will eat this week and preserve the rest. I buy bulk packs of chicken, whole pork loins etc... fruit is the same. Just froze a ton of sliced peaches and blueberries. The green beans are canned and ready to roll. Apples are next. We will do applesauce and apple butter in October. Tomatoes will be coming in full force soon. It's really hard when everyone works and time is precious.

[libertarian4321]

Chickens turn food waste into eggs

My dogs turn food waste into fertilizer in the yard. 

Although I'll admit the "eggs" thing does sound better.

[Prairie Stash]

French Toast is my favourite for bread products. Anything that's dry, slice it and make into French Toast. Cinnamon buns, croissants, muffins, bagels etc. all become delicious again.

Cheese,with a mold spot? cut the spot off and freeze the rest for an Italian dish. Don't like Italian, then any and all cheese can top French Onion soup, which also uses any Beef Roast broth.  Milk or Cream getting old, freeze it and pull it out as needed for soup. People forget that milk products freeze well, Cheese gets crumbly and loses texture so its better baked onto something after. 

Freezing works for almost everything and soup is the go to for pretty much all food waste. Most soup recipes are invented to use up food scraps or times of excess; if you look at a lot of them its starts with broth from a previous meat meal (french Onion), copious amounts of cream that would otherwise spoil (any Cream of whatever soup), slightly wilted vegetables that need to be used (minestrone or Vegetable soup) and the ever popular "Soup of The Day" which is a euphemism for "Yesterdays Leftovers in Liquid." I love soup, its delicious. 

[Sibley]

You're buying too much, and probably have too much in the house. Challenge yourself - how long can you go without buying food besides milk, bread, and eggs? I once did a month with no problems. You might eat slightly oddly (4 sides DO make a meal), but food is food.

Eat leftovers before making new food. If you eat the same thing for 3 days in a row, it won't kill you.

I'm guessing your fridge is one of the ones that's chock full. Pull EVERYTHING out and look at it. Take the opportunity to do a deep clean of the fridge. Throw out anything that's gone bad, is really old, or you realistically know isn't going to be used. (No, you can't keep the 5 year old jelly that no one really likes. Toss it. Same with that new dressing that wasn't a hit.) Then, don't fill it back up. Embrace having half empty shelves.

Eat what you have, then start buying only what you need. You may need to not take the kids to the store (I know, that would be such a sacrifice! /s) while you adjust. Plus, kids get grabby, either put up with the tantrums or leave them at home with someone.

And don't make specific foods that you know you hate just because someone's visiting and they will eat it. They go home, and you get to stare at that tupperware in the fridge until you throw the food out.

[frooglepoodle]

If you need ideas for turning leftovers into new meals, I highly recommend Tamar Adler's book An Everlasting Meal. It's more memoir/essays than cookbook, but contains a fair amount of how-too information as well.

Her approach to cooking is pretty opposite the "meal plan and shop weekly" you usually see recommended for reducing waste, but it seems to work if that's your cooking style. And worst case it has provided me with lots of ideas!

[Imma]

I rarely waste any food. The key is: don't buy too much. Not only because you'll waste more when you buy too much, but also because your fridge and freezer are of limited size and once they're full you lose track of what's in it. It does mean my fridge looks rather sparse when I open it in company.

The second tric is to not be too critical. Fresh foods and produce are edible long after they stop looking their best. My breakfast is two eggs with random vegetables I happen to have. When I have lots of leftover produce, I cut all those half onions, last carrots and quarter bell peppers up and put them in a tomato sauce or a beef stew. Soup is also a great way to use up leftovers. I like banana cake with leftover bananas and apple crumble with leftover apples too. If you have 5 go-to leftover dishes, you won't waste much anymore. All of the dishes I mentioned before can be frozen easily.

When I was a kid, my mum used to make leftover meals on Saturday. For lunch, we had 'surprise' closed sandwiches which could have anything on them from baked eggs to sliced banana to peanut butter. Sometimes she'd make 'surprise' toasties as well. For dinner she'd make homemade pizza that had all the leftover vegetables and meat from the entire week on them. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found all my favourite childhood dishes were actually leftovers.