Wasting Less Food

I’ve been shocked by some statistics I’ve been seeing about wasted food lately such as:

• 40% of the waste in landfills could have been composted instead
• 25% of the food Americans buy gets thrown out

I’ve been doing a couple things differently in the last few months that have had a huge impact on how much food I throw out.

Immediately freeze all leftovers that I don’t plan to eat the very next day. I used to have to regularly throw out leftovers that I had put in the fridge and not gotten around to eating before they went bad. Now I freeze everything in single servings with the main dish and sides all in one container just like the microwave dinners you can buy at the grocery store for outrageous prices.

Buy frozen produce or freeze your own fresh produce. Produce used to be a big (and expensive) waste area for me. I would buy fruits and vegetables with the intentions to eat them but I’d never get around to them or I’d only use a portion of what I had purchased before they went bad. Now I either buy frozen produce or freeze my own fresh produce. The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook has great instructions on what produce can be frozen and what if anything you need to do to prepare it for freezing. Frozen produce is great if you’ll be cooking or baking with it but I much prefer fresh produce (purchased in very small portions) for eating raw.

Freeze at least half of every batch of baked goods. Living alone, it’s unreasonable (but possible) for me to be eating whole batches of baked goods by myself before they go stale. Now I freeze at least half of every batch as soon as it’s cool which allows me to eat more reasonably sized portions and have more variety in my home baked goods.

A major difference that I’ve noticed since I’ve started freezing things like this is that my freezer is now stocked with preservative free home cooked items or whole ingredients like vegetables, fruit, and meat. The only processed food in there is ice cream (and I’m planning to get the Kitchenaid ice cream kit before summer so I can start making my own preservative free ice cream too). Six months ago my freezer was filled with expensive convenience foods so not only am I wasting less but this is helping my food budget too.

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It’s easy to waste less food. From food recycling to composting, you don’t have to put it in the bin.

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1. Food Matters: A Review
2. Food Blogs are an Amazing Source of Free Recipes
3. Review: Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
4. There’s Another Everyday Food Cookbook on the Way
5. Meal Plan 2/1

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