8 Easy Ways To Cut Back On Food Waste

[Praying Colonel]

We definitely waste too much food and need to get it together. Interesting article on how to cut back on waste:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/75871/8-easy-ways-cut-back-food-waste-and-save-groceries

Any other tips?

 

[Malibustyle23]

Any other tips?

Meal plan every single meal. Grocery shop with a list set by the meal plan ingredients. Don't shop without a list.

 

[eliza61]

Meal plan every single meal. Grocery shop with a list set by the meal plan ingredients. Don't shop without a list.

I do plan every meal, our problem is leftovers. I've been trying to cut back on meal sizes, lol I'm always petrified that my sons will want more and there won't be seconds.

My problem is with young adults they change their minds. like Sunday, I fried up some chicken wings, youngest decides to go to a Temple ball game and skipped dinner and oldest decided to go to the movies. cooked enough wings for 4 and I'm the only one who ate.

thanks PC
lol not sure I want to challenge myself to eat every part of the animal. growing up we ate pig feet and chittlins (pig small intestines). lol not going there again

 

[hsmamato2]

I just read the Nat. Geo. article on this.... very interesting,I am making it a goal to waste less, by trying to be aware of what I buy/use all week- and if something needs using,I make an effort to use it before it goes 100% bad. (like I cut off the less desirable part of an aging mushroom for a recipe,etc) I am also interested in less packaging waste too....so much packaging is unnecessary

 

[TwoMisfits]

I do plan every meal, our problem is leftovers. I've been trying to cut back on meal sizes, lol I'm always petrified that my sons will want more and there won't be seconds.

My problem is with young adults they change their minds. like Sunday, I fried up some chicken wings, youngest decides to go to a Temple ball game and skipped dinner and oldest decided to go to the movies. cooked enough wings for 4 and I'm the only one who ate.

thanks PC
lol not sure I want to challenge myself to eat every part of the animal. growing up we ate pig feet and chittlins (pig small intestines). lol not going there again

Plan them as a lunch...cold wings can still be tasty, but if the "fry" is no longer good...then take all the meat you can get off the bones and make a buffalo chicken salad (you pay premium price for this at a restaurant and you're already halfway there...green salad base, some shredded carrots or chopped celery, blue cheese or ranch dressing, extra blue cheese crumbles (if you're me - love that) or extra hot sauce and done...

If you don't like the green salad approach, take them off the bone and make a chicken salad sandwich (again with ranch, hot sauce and/or blue cheese making it creamy...

 

[eeyoresmom]

I've been trying not to throw food away at all lately. I have been eating the leftovers myself all weekend and reminding the rest of the family they need to be eaten

 

[Judique]

I've been trying not to throw food away at all lately. I have been eating the leftovers myself all weekend and reminding the rest of the family they need to be eaten

When I ate the leftovers, I just gained too much weight.

Eating them was motivated by the desire not to waste food.

Now, I don't worry about waste and in response try to solve the problem by eating and gaining unhealthy weight.

I don't consciously do any heavy duty meal planning either.

I just try not to over buy and I try to use what is available before I go shopping again.

 

[Narnia_girl]

Less food waste was one of my New Year's resolutions.

One thing I've been doing is Scrappy Vegetable stock/broth. You can google different "recipes" but basically, I don't throw away produce that is edible but not something we normally eat. So when I trim celery and am not using the leafy parts, I put them in a freezer bag and freeze. I keep adding vegetable 'scraps' until I have a full gallon bag. Then I put in a big stock pot with seasoning and water and make vegetable stock which can be used in place of chicken stock.
I don't ever use any scraps that are bad or inedible. I do use onion skins, leek tops, green bean trimmings, carrot peels, mushroom stems, parsley, shallots, celery leaves, etc...

 

[OhMari]

I portion out left overs in containers for work lunch the next day. Or I put it in freezer containers and freeze. We tried to start eating healthier and no fast food.

 

[ldo]

Except for peelings, I really don't have much food waste. Assuming food is not eaten in a few days in the fridge, I freeze in baggies or glass containers. Leftover steak--chopped and frozen-used for soups or steak-cheese burrito for DS. Chicken-frozen--added to canned soups or to fetticini alfredo (teens' dinner tonight). Casserole type meals, lasagna, spaghetti, etc--frozen in single-double servings for quick meals. However, it's time to toss the left over stuffing from Christmas in the freezer (too many carbs)-lol!

 

[mickeyschickie]

when planning my menu for the month, I try to squeeze in a leftover night every few days and/or plan meals that will use up the leftovers so that no one knows that they are just that.

 

[sheetz]

I admit to not using peelings, but other than that I can't think of anything I had to throw away recently. I'm not so thrilled with the idea of soup from peelings but I'm sure they would go well in a meatloaf.

 

[LuckyBelle81]

This is a problem at our house too. We have 3 kids: 9, 6, and 2, so even though 5 ppl are in the house I'm really cooking for 3 or 3.5 at the most. One of the things that has helped me is freezing at least half of whatever I cook (when that is possible) before the food is ever served. That way we have another meal a week or so later than doesn't have to be prepared from scratch.

I'm not really sure how to address it but it seems one of the main problems I have is finding meals that everyone will eat until they are gone. DH is a bit of a food snob and the kids are, well, kids, so they aren't necessarily in to the things he likes.

 

[katmatry]

Tonights dinner plan was pea soup but since we have leftovers in the frig the pea soup will be made another day. The leftover meal is pasta with diced tomatoes and zucchini. I will saute some mushrooms and onions and add the leftover pasta to it with a can of kidney beans and a little sauce.

 

[superme80]

I am not the best at meal planning, but we do eat leftovers in my house. I made nachos for dinner with the chicken I made the other day. I have to remind my husband about produce. He rarely eats in, and then it goes bad.

 

[barkley]

One of the things that has helped me is freezing at least half of whatever I cook (when that is possible) before the food is ever served

I do this with stuff I KNOW ds likes-in individual containers for the days he does 'cold lunch' (microwaves available at school). I don't make it often, but he loves hamburger helper (more the helper than the hamburger) so I make a double batch but just use the meat a single batch calls for. before ds gets served I've made multiple containers and set them aside. same goes for chili, lasagna and a few others he enjoys. I tend to make larger servings b/c it's less time consuming but if I just left the items in the fridge for him to eat he would tire of it after a couple of days and I would end up wasting the remainder.

dh and I also have a few dinner items that are absolutely cooked knowing that half gets frozen for a future meal-greek sloppy joe meat, lamb chops (we buy the racks at Costco which have 9-10 chops-we eat half/freeze half), chicken mole...beyond preventing waste it's incredibly convenient to have these in the freezer to set out to thaw in the fridge the night before what we know will be a busy day/late dinner.

 

[indimom]

I didn't plan to "eliminate waste," but we have had very little waste lately and it was a pleasant surprise.
Basically, I started Weight Watchers and stopped buying single serve snacks, junk food, pop, etc... because I struggle if these are in the house. lol.
Suddenly, with no easy snacks to grab in the house, the entire family was eating the leftovers, fruit was disappearing before it spoiled, etc.
So, my suggestion, would be to get rid of all the quick and easy packaged snack foods, so they have to eat the perishable stuff. lol.