I Hate Food Waste!

I hate food waste! I really do. It is one of my biggest issues. Farmers spend so much time and money to grow the food and then we just let it go in the garbage. I cannot control all of the wasted food that never even makes it to the store. That is a conversation for another day. I am talking about all of the food that gets wasted at my home, work and other places I eat. I was reading a study done by the USDA that the average American family wastes 1 pound of food a day or 290 pounds a year. The average American family was 3.14 persons in 2017. So my family of 4 (OD does not live here) is above average. 

I try very hard to not let food go into the garbage. But I am not perfect so it does happen. I get upset every time it does. I feel like I am throwing money away, which is what I am doing. Here are some of the ways I try to prevent food waste:

* We eat leftovers. There is rarely a day that goes by that we do not eat some type of leftovers. I deliberately make them to cut down on cooking. I don't have time to make pancakes 4 days a week, but the kids like to eat them. They make a very easy breakfast before school or work. Also, we don't buy lunch. We bring it to work and school. Cold cuts are not cheap so we bring leftovers. If I have lots of sides leftover I sometimes just make a meat and we eat all of the leftover sides. If someone is looking for a snack, I will direct them to small amounts of leftovers. 

* We speak up. This is a huge one. If people don't know that you will take home food, then they will not give it to you. Just recently my YD brought home food from float build 5 times and from the senior breakfast. If a 17 year old can speak up and say "Don'y throw that away,  I'll take it." Then so can you. 

* The dog gets it. I make dog food for Oreo. It is easy to throw that extra rice that has been in the fridge for 3 days into her food. But even if you don't make your pets food, mix it in with their store bought food. Most dogs would love it. Just be careful not to give them items that will make them sick. 

* I freeze it. I throw lots of things in the freezer for future use. I break it up into meal size portions and then in it goes. I also have several baggies that are used when I have enough. I just made bread crumbs from bread ends that I had in the freezer. We also use them for croutons.Very ripe bananas go into the freezer for smoothies, muffins and pancakes.  I keep a bag of veggie ends to make vegetable stock. I do the same thing with chicken and turkey bones, if I don't have time to do it right away. I would rather put it right into the freezer then wait to do it and forget about it. Then the food goes bad and it ends up in the garbage. 

* Compost! Things happen, and I get slimy fruits and vegetables. When my garden is producing like crazy, it happens. When I store a 100 pounds of potatoes, a few end up going bad. I put them in the compost bin to turn into beautiful compost for my gardens the next year.  

* I get a doggie bag. We don't eat out often but when we do I bring home any food that is left. I even bring home the leftover bread in the basket. They are going to throw it out. Restaurants cannot reserve the bread to another customer. If it is just a little of this and a little of that, I put it all on one plate and explain that my dog will love it. 

* I can my garden produce. We cannot eat everything the day we pick it or even in a few days. I am happy to can it for use later. It takes time and energy but I make sure that it gets done. My wallet is very glad I do. 

*I give it away. Remember my story of free donuts. There was no way we were going to eat them all. So I called around and brought them to both my and Hubby's job. They all got eaten, no problem. Sometimes I will get a free item from the store. We all love free stuff. But if we don't eat it, I give it away. Plain and simple. I know the food bank is happy to take it. 

* I cook it. I have a confession. For years we went pumpkin picking and after Thanksgiving, I throw away the pumpkins. I was not a huge fan of pumpkin. My mom always used pumpkin out of a can. She still does and so do my sisters. I thought the pumpkins we picked weren't the same kind. That stopped about 10 years ago. I read something about a women cooking her pumpkin from Halloween. I was shocked. Now everyone I know gives me their pumpkins. I happily cook them and freeze the pumpkin to use all year. It is so much better then the canned stuff. 

* I ignore expiration dates on most foods. My job has to throw away food once it hits the expiration date. BOH mandates that. I always speak up and most of the time I am allowed to take home the food. Sometimes they make me sign something saying that I won't sue if I get sick. I have never heard of someone getting sick from expired coffee or tea. When my uncle passed away, he had several items in his pantry that were past their best buy date. I took them home and used them. I am happy to report no one died or got sick from the food.  

* We use every little bit of the food. Take apples for example. We make home made apple juice in the fall. I put them through the juicer. I am left with a beautiful apple pulp. I think most people just throw it away. I make apple muffins or apple cake with it. With the internet, you can find a use for most things. I just the other day poured my hot water into the almost empty honey jar to make sure I used all of it. It was a great cup of tea. 

If we all try a little, we could reduce the amount of food that is being throw away in our homes. I know for a fact that my family does not waste 290 pounds of food a year. I think I would cry everyday if we did. What tricks do you use to avoid food waste in your home? 

Comments

  1. Wonderful post. I do believe we do all these as well.
    It is so pitiful and sad the waste that there is and at the same time people are going hungry.
    We all need to be more aware. I think stores should make "old" food available to those in need - even if they did have to sign something.
    Thank you for this post.

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    1. It really upsets me that food banks can't distribute out dated food. There is nothing wrong with it and kids are going to bed hungry. Have them sign away the right to sue and then let them have the food if they want it.

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  2. I cook Halloween pumpkins from the curb where people put their uncut pumpkins and squashes. I have given the rind to my very ecstatic chickens.

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  3. I have trimmed countless items that are past their prime, and used the remaining parts. I can and freeze anything I can get that we cannot eat right away. We freeze little bits of leftovers for future meals. I cook brown rice and freeze in 1/2 cup portions. It saves wasting it, energy since I cook a bunch at once, and provides us with the portion control we desire at this time. I shop at places like Wheeler Dealer, and Grocery Outlet that sell things that are reaching their expiration date. I get a bargain, and those foods are used, not thrown away.

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  4. YES!!!! I do all of these things as well. My mom brings up all the things she's not going to eat (from produce to snacks to baked goods) because she knows I rarely let things go to waste. She brought up two enormous zucchini this summer and I used up all but a small piece of them (that one got slimy before I could get to it), turning them into dinners, and lunches and breakfasts for my son.

    Ignoring expiration dates is crucial. Things aren't rotten just because they're past date, and as long as things don't smell off, we eat them. I plan my meals based on what I need to use up- if I look in the fridge and we have eggplant that's about to go off, I start looking for recipes that use eggplant. That alone saves so much food! A lot of what I cook is vegan, and so even if something does get away from me, it can go into the compost. We produce so little garbage thanks to my compost bin; I think the compost is a huge reason why my tomato plants did so well this summer.

    Great post, and it's nice to see other people fighting food waste too! :)

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    1. Your compost is the reasons your tomatoes did so well. People are always amazed at mine. That is great that you are so on top of food waste. Glad to know others that are just as crazy about it as I am.

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  5. We have a small farm so our small amt of food waste always has a place to go. My pet piggie is especially good for this and he makes great manure in return. We usually have "leftover" pizzas on Friday. Just a simple crust topped with any odd bits of fruit, vegetable, and cheeses.
    Ging

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    1. A pig would be even better with excess food then a dog. I do the same thing with omelettes. A little of this and that. It is always different.

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  6. I can so identify with this posting. I come from a long line of farmers and ranchers. The amount of time, energy (human and all the fuels used), thought and money that goes into getting our amazingly cheap food to our tables is HUGE.

    One thing I have had to curb is overbuying and then not being able to get to it in time. I cook almost everything we eat from scratch but my partner can be mighty picky at times. So I've learned that even if it is a good deal it is expensive if I have to throw it away. I bought some bagged salads that were so inexpensive but they got shoved to the back of the veggie drawer and were slime by the time I found them again. I could have cried!

    In the past few days I made two huge batches of red sauce - one thicker for topping pizzas and one thinner for pasta. When I was dealing with the mouse invasion of early summer I somehow missed one shelf in the pantry that held canned goods. As I was cleaning it last week I looked at the dates on all of the canned tomatoes and realized they were a year out of date. I took them all - 15 14oz cans, two cans of tomato paste and made them into sauce (after washing them down with a bleach mix - put them in the sink and washed them as I found evidence of mice there). Except for 4 can they were all "seasoned" - some with sweet onion (which we really didn't like so maybe how I "forget" them and some with basil, oregano and garlic. I used the ones with the sweet onion for the thick sauce. I was able to balance the sweetness with some red wine vinegar and some needed to be used up balsamic vinegar. I also put in some red chile flakes and LOTS of garlic. Once it was ready I put in some sliced olivesd and canned mushrooms. The mushrooms I keep as an emergency backup but we didn't use them as much as I thought we would. All that made 8 2C bags of sauce - put in the freezer. The others I made into a thinner sauce - again more garlic and added onions as well. That all made 9 2C bags for the freezer. I store them flat in the freezer - they defrost more quickly and they are easier to store.

    While I had my Cuisnart out I took the bread I'd dried out and made two quarts of crumbs - one whole wheat and one white. The bread were odds and ends that I had put in bags in the freezer until I had enough to dirty my Cusinart. So now I am set for making meatballs, meat loaf and breading for oven baked chicken.

    My one big frugal fail. I bought a huge container of basil and when I got it out to refill the smaller container I noticed that it had 1. lost its color and 2. lost its flavor. I looked and its expiration date was two years ago. I haven't been buying the Sams and CostCo big herb jars for awhile as it is only the two of us and while I do a lot of cooking we just don't get through it fast enough. So a little less than half a big container of basil went to compost. Mary

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    1. Great point about over buying. Where I live there are tons of stores so I can go everyday if I wanted. If you can eat it before it goes bad, you are buying too much. Sorry about the basil. That stinks. At least it went into the compost and will help your garden next year. Great save on all of the old sauce.

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