How to Fight Food Waste

A lot of bloggers I follow often post what they wasted that week--or what they didn't waste. I've never been remotely tempted to keep an account.

In recent years I've gotten food waste down to a minimum. 

Oh, I've found the occasional lost lime, or tomato that got pushed to the back of the crisper and forgotten, but I do try to keep a fair assessment of what's in the fridge at all times.

The Pantry List that I update regularly has helped too. I'm sure I missed ticking off a couple of things I've used up, but for the most part I think it's fairly reliable.

Below is a list of things I do to keep waste at a minimum.

A menu. I don't write my weekly menus on the blog anymore, but every week I take out whatever food (from the freezer) I plan to cook that week. 

A lot of what I take out is directly correlated to whatever I have in the fridge waiting to die a lingering death if I don't use it soon.

Check your fridge (and pantry) regularly. Get familiar with what you have on hand, and jot down any item you may run out of soon.

Buy only what you need. Often times recipes call for an ingredient I may only use that one time. Don't buy something for a one time use. There's always a way to substitute it for a more common pantry ingredient. 

Buy longer lasting ingredients. Milk and buttermilk are prime examples in my house. Neither of us drink milk, but I use it often for baked goods. Unless it's a special occasion, I always use dried milk or buttermilk. It lasts a long time and it's easy to stock.

Use your freezer. This one is tricky. Don't waste freezer space for something you know you won't defrost and eat again. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable. I do freeze less than perfect celery or carrots, including the root base so I can use it in a future soup. I freeze bread too. Old bread makes great croutons and bread crumbs. Though I must admit I like feeding leftover bread to the crows and songbirds.  

Cook enough for only that night's meal. I'm bad about this. I usually cook extra so we'll have leftovers for lunch the next day. One less meal for me to cook.

Hide it in that night's meal. If I'm making a soup, stew or jambalaya, it's easy to tuck in leftover veg or meat into the recipe.

Have animals. If veggies or leftovers are beginning to languish and it doesn't look like I can convince Greg to eat them, I mix them up in the dogs' food if I can. If it's spicy, I give it to the chickens.

Did you know chickens lack the capsaicin receptors that can turn strong men into milk lushes if they eat something too hot? I don't cook really spicy food anymore (other than chili) but if any is leftover I prefer to give it to the chickens than the dogs, who cannot tolerate the spice.

Keep a compost. If all else fail, feed the garden by tossing food scraps into the compost bin. It has a nice symmetry of giving you another chance to eat your veggies. 

PS  Don't throw meat into the compost unless it has a lid. You don't want to invite animals to root in your compost.

Is waste a problem at your house? How do you handle it?

**We like to feed our crow 'overlords' quail eggs. I only keep quail eggs when I plan to incubate them but the rest of the year they're too tiny to fuss with. The crows love eggs though. We put out 4 or 5 every other day and they swoop in like thunderbirds.

We started laying out gifts for them last year and it's been a treat to see these big birds land so close to the house. They bully the squirrels away, and the songbirds wait their turn until the crows take off with their loot.

Shopping at Amazon? Start Here.