Ideas for zero waste food/meals

[frugal-one]

I would get these books and see what recipes I like and shop accordingly (ie sales, etc). I think it would be fun to experiment!

http://www.linkcat.info/cgi-bin/koha...number=1030849
http://www.linkcat.info/cgi-bin/koha...onumber=875362

[Blackdog Lin]

I also heavily utilize the freezer in trying to reduce waste - anything that doesn't get eaten by the end of day 2 goes into the freezer. And then every 6 weeks or so I spend a week devising dishes/menus to clear it all out. I generally have little food waste.

[Float On]

I was toying with a future class about 10 foods and 10 things you can make with them. That's essentially what meal planning is all about so you don't waste food. Take one whole chicken, roast it, and how many different ways it can be used. Or cutting the chicken up and it's different uses. I'm an expert at uses for lentils (tacos, bar cookies, waffles, sprouted in salads and stir-fry, soup, casseroles...), they are one of my favorite foods. I boil ground beef and put it in 1-cup portions in the freezer. It's amazing how many things I can make with 1-cup of cooked ground beef. I've been buying more ground turkey (with the price of beef going up), and I brown it and package it the same way and for many of the same uses. I also use fresh ground turkey to make breakfast sausage, as another use for it.

What a wonderful post you had lessisbest...I'm going to read it more completely but am interested in these "classes" you talk about and would love to see what your list is of things you make with 1 cup ground beef. Sometimes I look at a package of ground beef and all I can think of is tacos (again), chili (again), meatloaf (again), spaghetti sauce (again)....I need more ideas because I get a lot of ground beef out of 1/2 a beef my parents give me every year.

[frugal-one]

What a wonderful post you had lessisbest...I'm going to read it more completely but am interested in these "classes" you talk about and would love to see what your list is of things you make with 1 cup ground beef. Sometimes I look at a package of ground beef and all I can think of is tacos (again), chili (again), meatloaf (again), spaghetti sauce (again)....I need more ideas because I get a lot of ground beef out of 1/2 a beef my parents give me every year.

I love Taste of Home Ground Beef Cookbook. I have made NUMEROUS things (sometimes use ground turkey instead) such as refried bean pizza, spanish rice enchiladas, fast minestrone....+ many more.

[Aqua Blue]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas.

Sorry I used the words zero waste, lessisbest, I didn't realize those two words when used together had rules. I wasn't worried about composting banana peels(which I wouldn't eat anyway) as ending up composting 1/2 an onion that I could have used. I was thinking more along the lines of "using what I purchased in a timely manor"' I am impressed that you can feed two people for $135 a month.

At this point I am seeing my freezer more as an enemy than a friend. Things tend to go in and not come out until they are freezer burned and need to be thrown out. One of my problems is I really don't care to cook and plan so I need to decide if $$ wasting is more important than planning.

[Blackdog Lin]

If you don't like to "cook and plan".....I don't think there IS any way to reduce your food wastage Aqua.

Not being snarky. We all have different talents and interests. It's just that the very nature of reducing food wastage demands.....cooking and planning.

[herbgeek]

I don't think there IS any way to reduce your food wastage Aqua.

The only alternative I can think of, is just purchasing exactly enough for one meal. But THAT is pricey, because to do that you'd likely be going to a salad bar (much more $$/lb than buying in bulk) or going to a specialty butcher where you could buy just one chicken leg or 1/4 lb of hamburger.

You get to trade off either time or money. Planning is time, and purchasing just enough for one meal is money.

[Miss Cellane]

the celery and the parsley come specifically to mind ... do those two ever get all used up?

I used to throw out a lot of fresh produce that went bad, because I couldn't use it up before it turned to slime.

Finally, I realized I had to plan more than one meal for certain types of produce.

I bought a big bunch of celery on Tuesday. Some of it got cut up for celery sticks for work lunches. Tonight, I used 4 stalks in a casserole, and tomorrow I'm making another casserole that uses celery. And some of it will go in tuna salad on Saturday. The rest will be in next week's work lunches.

Parsley was tough until I learned how to make tabouli. And if I have some in the fridge, I've just started throwing some in sandwiches, or casseroles, or green salads.

[kib]

The only alternative I can think of, is just purchasing exactly enough for one meal. But THAT is pricey, because to do that you'd likely be going to a salad bar (much more $$/lb than buying in bulk) or going to a specialty butcher where you could buy just one chicken leg or 1/4 lb of hamburger.

You get to trade off either time or money. Planning is time, and purchasing just enough for one meal is money.

Just have to say, I worked as a secret shopper for a grocery chain for a while, and one of the things I always had to do was ask for special services like double grinding meat or repackaging in a smaller size. I could be wrong, but I believe a store that does packaging on site, even if it's not chi-chi, will package up what you want. Personally I think daily shopping would be a lot more work than a little planning, but each to his own!

ETA: one thought, shopping at the grocery store deli for sandwiches, salads or chicken etc., while more expensive than traditional home cooking, allows for small/single portions, no cooking, and cheaper prices than going to a restaurant.

[ApatheticNoMore]

But THAT is pricey, because to do that you'd likely be going to a salad bar (much more $$/lb than buying in bulk) or going to a specialty butcher where you could buy just one chicken leg or 1/4 lb of hamburger.

I buy small quantities of meat like that, a lot.

At this point I am seeing my freezer more as an enemy than a friend.

Yea I get that. I don't think it works well for that many things for me either really (having tried it). It works ok for me for tomato paste, jarred tomatoes, pesto, roasted red pepper salad dressing, always having frozen fish handy, freezing butter or cheese sometimes, sometime meats (if a meat is going to go bad I'll put it in) - it often gets used but even in the last one I sometimes forget about it. No it's not a particularly spacious freezer anyway of course (it's on an apartment sized fridge, not mini but apartment sized). So it's very easy to just have it crammed to the busting point with stuff that gets forgotten about. I guess it's possible if I got a separate freezer and had boatloads of space, I might be much more methodical about it, but I really don't' want to go down that road either (such an energy suck for one thing).