Don’t forget that it’s time for Pennywise Platter Thursday tomorrow! Check out last’s week’s contributions and share your nourishing frugal tips tomorrow!
Yesterday I started cleaning out my fridge. Something I have been trying to avoid doing for longer than I want to admit. I wanted to avoid it partly because of the work, but partly because of wasted food that I didn’t want to face. I hate having to throw away food and I knew I had some ripe specimens waiting for me. I had been dealing with being overly tired the last few weeks, and hadn’t the energy to prepare some of the food I had bought. So they went to waste instead…
And I am not alone in wasting food!
“At home, the average American family throws away 14 percent of their food, Jones said. In terms of money, that’s almost $600 every year in meats, fruit, vegetables and grain products.
The best ways to cut the losses is for families to honestly examine what they actually eat, draw up menus and freeze leftovers so they don’t spoil before you can eat them, Jones says” Food Waste Epidemic in America
In the end, Americans waste 75 billion dollars each year on thrown away food. And my fridge accuses me of being part of the problem!
Contrast current practice with the past, this quote is talking about the early Victorian era.
“Out of necessity, people also ensured that no edible item was wasted. Just as excess or cheap milk would become cheese and thus find its way into a number of sweet and savory dishes, and abundance of wild mushrooms would be dried and later turned into powder to thicken winter stews and gravies and any number of wild berries would be gathered, chopped, and turned into preserves. Dishes such as pickled radish pods (from a variety of radish grown for it’s edible seed pods and not its roots), pickled walnuts, and nettle hash are for most of us obsolete because we have no need to view them as food sources. “
Food and Cooking in Victorian England, Andrea Broomfield, Page 11,
People went to great lengths to not waste anything in the past, and I think that we could learn a great deal from their frugal practices. I know I certainly could!
But beyond it just being wasteful, once you have limited means and want to eat healthier food, you find yourself trying hard to not waste anything out of necessity.
Here are some of my personal goals towards reducing waste in the kitchen
- Save all bones and suitable vegetable scraps for broth making (I’ve done this over the last few years and it really helps the budget!)
- Don’t waste leftovers, either reheat, or reuse in a new dish.
- Get organized! Mark leftover containers, freeze when needed, and keep a clear rotation going.
- Lacto-ferment extra vegetables, freeze berries in season
What about you? How do you reduce waste in your kitchen? Share you ideas and tips! Or, write a post about it and share it tomorrow on Pennywise Platter Thursday.
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Something an older cousin of mine does: save all the water veggies are boiled/steamed in in a large mason jar in the fridge and add to the soup on the weekend (presumably with the bones from the Sunday night chicken or ham).
I do what I can, but I feel as though I don’t do enough. I save veggie scraps and use them for soup stock, and after that I use the used scraps for compast.
I freeze fruit that is getting too ripe or is over ripe and use in smoothies or compotes.
I blanch fresh veggies and freeze them using my food saver if I know I cannot eat them all before they go to the dark side.
I dehydrate fresh herbs. I also dehydrate fresh fruit and store in the freezer (great for using in trail mix)
I make big pots of vegetable soup (which can be mis-mashes of different veggies) and then freeze them for quick single serving meals.
I save all my glass jars as they are perfect for freezing soups.
i’m totally a food waster. ugh. id guess since my budget is higher then the average american family, whom, according to the article you refer to must be spending less then 500$ a month, i waste 1000s of $ in food a year. depressing thought. thanks for posting this. i think meal planning is probably key, even planning out breakfasts and lunches, which i almost enevr do but am going to start doing!
We freeze a lot of stuff. I often make a big batch of something and freeze it in meal sized containers. Not only does this save money because I can buy foods in season, but it also saves me time because I have quick meals in the freezer.
I think that keeping things simple helps a lot with food waste as well. Once I quit trying to cook groumet meals I quit wasting a lot of food.
Another great way to reduce food waste is to start growing some of your own veg & fruits. Once you realize how much work goes into it you want to make sure to use it all up!
I like to preserve as well, although I’m really trying to learn less energy intesive preserving tactics, like lacto-fermenting.
I was just thinking about how to deal with food and the excess yesterday, after reading Stephanie’s post over at Keeper of the Home. She’s contemplating different ideas for long-term storage (mostly with lacto-ferments). It’s something that I feel very torn about, mostly because as AWESOME as the lacto-fermentation process is, it’s a long term storage nightmare for those of us who a) live where it’s hot, so natural cold storage doesn’t work; and b) don’t have the option of a second (or third, as would be our case) refrigerator.
We just lost an entire freezer of food to a heat wave that caused the seals to leak… and I’m not pleased. I’m planning on doing a LOT more canning (read= dead enzymes) this summer, simply because I cannot afford to waste food on the compost pile! I really feel like this is the worst kind of waste, simply because it was unintentional! Argh. *still bitter* 😉
Wow – I express my sympathy to Meg over the freezer melt-down. So sad!!
Sometimes I am able to save things, but occasionally what I need to do to use up ingredients I have left over from a recipe means buying more things — and when it is that situation, it’s a toss-up for me.
I was given the idea to puree cooked veges, freeze them (ice cube trays?) and use them to flavor soups and stews in the winter. I haven’t needed to do that as yet but I will try it.
This weekend I went walleye fishing and you should have seen the jaw drop of the guide when I asked for the fish carcass head and all. I froze 4 of them, took them home and made a lot of fish stock. A little stinky but the Thai Fish soup I made was delish!! Now I am ready for gumbo and other fish base recipes.
I find that planning is essential in keeping down waste. Not always easy but once you start it does become easier to think ahead alittle. What I save in buying only what I need outweighs the sale prices of bulk especially if my bulk purchases go to waste.
I’m with you…it kills me to throw out food! But between the chickens and the compost pile, it all comes back around as food in the end. Not as frugal as just eating it in the first place, but at least it eliminates waste. I recently spent a week babysitting some teenagers for a friend in another city and they don’t compost nor do they have birds so we had to throw a lot of scraps away. It was painful.
Because of meal planning and the fact that we like leftovers for lunches, we waste little food here. I like making a pot of ministrone soup every week or so b/c it is easy to throw in the little bits of veg leftover from other meals. I guess it also helps that I currently have a 13yo son who is taller than me and growing fast with an appetite that literally scares me some days:)
I have been trying very hard lately to let NOTHING go to waste. Here are a couple of ways that have worked for my family. 1. Vegetable peels are placed in the freezer to make stock when I have a sufficient amount. 2. Apples were cored but unpeeled. I used the apples to make juice for jelly, the pulp was used for applesauce after it cooked, the cores were chopped and given to the chickens. 3. After roasting a chicken for dinner, the carcass was placed in the crock pot and a stock was made. If you let the stock simmer for up to 2 days, the left over carcass along with the vegetables can be easily mashed and given to the cats along with their dry food. The marrow from the bones is a wonderful nutrient for them. Nothing at all thrown out. 4. Leftover veggies (and sometimes meats) are used to make a vegetable soup. 5. We compost everything that can’t be reused or used to feed the animals. These are just a few ways we are trying to be good stewards of what we have been given.
Thanks everyone for the thoughtful comments with some great suggestions! Keep them coming!
Wow…Debbie’s contribution is one of inspiration. Thanks for sharing, I’m going to try the carcass simmering method for my cat. My methods are much more simple: puree veggies, freeze and add to sauces, soups, scrambled eggs (anything for added nutrition), omelets filled with whatever I can find in the fridge, label all containers with date and contents, lunch for breakfast, breakfast for dinner (think outside of the expected breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu) invite friends over for smorgasbord (my favorite option).
We do not throw out much. Once or twice a week we have YOYO night (You’re On Your Own) where the contents of the refrigerator is placed on the countertop and each person gets to pick their own. The fact that we have 3 growing boys (ages 15, 13, and 10) really makes a big difference as well. However on the rare occasion they do not care for something it is either put in the freezer or disguised in a casserole. We do many of the same things listed above but also have a dehydrator so any overabundance of greens/lettuce/uncooked carrots/peppers are dried to be crumbled into winter dishes. (We also dry and powder mushrooms. In fact we were just given a case of dried shitake mushrooms which the purchaser did not care for. My family does not really like them but when I grind them and make Asian style soups during the winter they love it. I also add the dried greens to add a bit of brightness to the flavor!)
Eggs are one of your best friends when it comes to not wasting food. Many, many sorts of leftovers work added to scrambled eggs/as omelet filling/baked in a “fritatta” (I never knew this was an actual dish till recently. We just called it “yummy baked egg mess”). Melt some cheese on top of whatever else it is, eat up, and life is good. Eggs are fine for breakfast, they’re just as fine for a quick supper, and, if you ask my 2-year-old, they’re fine anytime in between.
I have made a conscious effort lately to use EVERYTHING we buy. Leftovers get transmografied daily into one thing or another – till they’re gone. Using up all the food in the fridge makes it all that much easier to clean.
If you have small bits of this and that, make what I call “Clean the Fridge.” Get a round loaf of bread and saw off the top 1/4 (like a lid). Pull out the fluff which you’re free to grind as bread crumbs. Beat a couple of eggs, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Slice, dice, chop all the stuff you have accumulating in the fridge (so long as it’s still viable), mix the ingredients together with the eggs, fill the bread and bake it at 350 for about 45 minutes. (Check periodically for excessive browning of the bread. If it gets brown quickly, cover with foil.) Let the baked bread rest about 10-15 minutes then quarter the loaf and enjoy. No waste!
As I learn to do things the ‘old fashion’ way there can be such a huge learning curve. For instance I still have batches of yogurt or bread that flop, and it is SO maddening and disheartening. But one thing I have tried to learn is to not get so mad that I just throw it out. Often there are other ways to use it. Some of my flopped yougurt I have been able to strain and turn into a useable soft cheese, and even if I can’t the whey is sometimes still good. I’ve gotten very creative with bread that turned out aweful or just not quite right. If it didn’t rise at all, slice it VERY thin, place them on cookies sheets and turn it into crackers, or melba toast. My was useable and if sliced thin enough pretty taste too. My husband was atcutally disappoint when we ran out. Bread crumbs are another option to eliminate waste. I’ve also found that very dense bread makes for wonderful bread pudding-just let it soak for a while before baking. I beginning to think that clear labeling and a list of stored foods in the freezer that I might not remember (like that cheese rind which would have been a great contribution to an italian soup that I had to throw out when we moved because it had been too long forgotten) would help in meal planning.
What great tips!
I will be putting a lot of these to use.
These two really caught my eye – definitely something I need to get better at doing! I think it all comes down to mindfulness – with the food in your home and the processes you go through for it. Thanks for the reminder!
I feed pretty much everything to the chickens. I can usually guess whether or not a leftover will get used and if I know I am unlikely to feed it to the people before it goes bad, I just send it straight out to the chickens. I don’t actually feed them chunks of steak or chicken, but I will toss a bit of casserole with meat in it. The cats appreciate that 🙂
Thanks for the push about the berries- we’re being overrun with blueberries and have a smattering or blackberries. We’ve been out of town for a week and now they’re all ripe. Time to get out there and fight the mosquitoes!
I’m surprised this didn’t come up (though I suppose it is an element of planning). I buy only a couple types of dried bulk items. That way, when I half not enough for dinner in one box or bag and not enough for dinner in another, I can easily combine them. For example, if you have half a box of farfalle and half a box of fussilli, it would be a pain in the butt. But if you only buy fussilli for when short pasta is needed , capellini for long pasta in a light sauce, and spagetti for long pasta in a heavy sauce, its easy to combine one box of of fussilli with another. The same goes for beans. If you have ten types of beans, but only a bit left, it doesn’t work so well, and you probably won’t use up most of them practically ever. If you know you love green lentils, navy beans, and sprouted mung beans, just buy those, and you can use the little bit of the old, and the new together. Yeah, it might be a little less interesting, but really its all in what you do with it anyways, and no one perishes for lack of variety of pasta shapes, or types of beans. (thinking about adding another type of bean or two though, I must admit, since I’m still learning about beans. maybe pinto, black, pink or black eyed peas?)
Freeze herbs. I’d love to dehydrate them, but I don’t have a dehydrater yet, and I’m scared to do it in the oven, so I freeze them in ice cube trays. This is the first time I’ve tried it, so we’ll see.
Having a partner who eats enough that we almost never have leftovers helps too.
Also, learning new ways to use leftovers that growing up, I was taught had no use and must be thrown out. Turns out, oatmeal makes the most delicious filler for meatloaf (though don’t add too much or it can’t hold it’s shape), and leftovers would be better than fresh since you don’t have to let it cool so as not to cook the egg or meat before it’s time to cook it. Things like that.
Also, learning how to store foods properly. I’m still working on this. Learning how to store them, and making sure they are. For instance, making sure the sandwich bread ALWAYS goes back into the plastic bag, or else it goes stale too fast. (actually, I’m considering storing all bread in plastic. Yeah, the crust won’t be crusty, but it won’t be stale either).
I wonder if Marissa (or someone else) could describe for me how they make vegetable soup stock (I don’t eat meat). Thank you!
the biggest help for us with dinner leftovers has been eating them for lunch. It’s especially helpful in our house where 1) my husband ‘doesn’t care’ for leftovers for dinner & 2) i’m home with the kids, so regardless of WHAT the leftovers are, it’s easy to heat them up since i’m not transporting them. it’s also helpful in giving the kids more ‘opportunity’ to be presented with our dinner foods (many of which they don’t like), i don’t have to buy sandwich making items much, and for whatever reason, i find heating up leftovers quicker (yes, sans microwave) than making 3 sandwiches. oh & i don’t have to ‘decide’ what’s for lunch most days. whatever’s leftover in the fridge is lunch! (though the sometimes small amts of leftovers makes weird combinations. for example, a bit of shepherd’s pie, a side of craisins & cheese squares….again, it helps that i’m feeding kids who don’t know that’s weird!)
Another practice we could learn from days gone by–sharing! Granted, sometimes everyone is overrun with zucchini, but in general an abundance can be given away to friends and neighbors, and when they have a lot of something they will give back to you. Not only is this kind of interdependence frugal, it also builds community that nourishes more than just our bodies.
I was just reading how one mom would clean out her fridge and make a party platter one night a week. Her whole family thought it was great. They never realized they were eating leftovers. LOL She might add some bread for inspired sandwich making, or tortillas, or make pancakes/waffles (we sometimes forget they can also be used for savory dishes) or crepes if needed to help use the bits and pieces up. I thought this was a great idea as I’ve found sometimes that even just putting out little tidbits of “ingredients” makes for nice snacks or light meals. Red pepper rings, sliced cucumbers, raw mushrooms (although I did read recently they shouldn’t be eaten raw–know anything about that, Kimi?), and the like. Like everyone else, I use leftover chicken carcasses, bones, stock, veggies, and fruit (great for cold soups or homemade salsa). I typically make what I call my “everything soup” which turns out to be different meat and veggie soups from a container I add those ingredients to. (Sometimes I make other dishes like chicken pot pie or quiche from this container.) I do the same with other bits and pieces suitable for chili: beans, tomato-based sauces, bits of meat that would be good for chili like meatballs or taco meat, etc. Love all the ideas here! Right now, our 21-year old son is home and I’m definitely cleaning out the fridge just to keep him well fed. 😉
Shirley
This is interesting! Another idea — In many parts of the world, dinner is simply leftovers from lunch. I’ve lived in Ecuador and Africa, where families eat a proper cooked lunch, then save the leftovers on the stove and reheat for dinner (with the result that dinner is often simpler than lunch).
“bubble and squeak” is the traditional english way of using up leftover cooked vegetables. One of my favourite meals early on in the week. I do get mildly annoyed by people who ‘make left overs’ (boil / steam vegetables) to specifically make bubble and squeak! seems mad to me.