Personal food waste solutions

[Yppej]

A small thing, but I switched from onions to onion powder in recipes. Even in a Ziploc bag and inside a compartment the odor of half an onion left over would creep out.

[happystuff]

I haven't had too much food go bad lately, so that makes me happy. My dh will usually take most leftovers for work lunch. Anything left by the end of the will usually get used up in a soup or stew, or we will just have leftover night with everything laid out like a buffet. Again, anything leftover from that will go into a soup or stew the next night.

I get the whole veggies left in the drawer thing. You have me thinking I may need to re-arrange the shelves in my fridge to get the veggies up higher.

I have had the freezer on the bottom type fridge, but did not like it. Things kept falling/dripping down onto the seal and the constant cleaning wore it out quick. I also didn't like how the storage was set up in the drawer section. But, again, that is just me - I know a lot of folks who love the freezer on the bottom. I think I might like my next fridge to be a side-by-side. I think the set-up would more align with my food freezing style.

[SteveinMN]

I know a lot of folks who love the freezer on the bottom. I think I might like my next fridge to be a side-by-side. I think the set-up would more align with my food freezing style.

We bought a freezer on the bottom because top-freezer models get only so big and don't get many of the nicer features found in -- well, every other kind of refrigerator. I am not one of the bottom-freezer lovers. I'm forever (re)arranging items in the baskets so the &^\# door closes properly. Small items fall through the basket or slip over the back of the basket to the bottom of the freezer. Never had these issues with a top-freezer.

We had a side-by-side growing up. I'm not a fan of those, either -- the width is not enough to store a larger pan/box or sometimes even a larger pizza. And where the 'fridge is positioned in our kitchen, the landing spot for items taken out (or waiting to go in) would require moving items around the freezer door -- kind of a U-shaped move instead of a straight --- move. I'm sure plenty of people love 'em or they wouldn't exist in the numbers they do; the configuration just doesn't work for me.

[iris lilies]

Keeping a list helps me, too. Other things that minimize waste in our kitchen are: making fruit salad every day or two (my family will rarely take the time to wash their own fruit, but if I make fruit salad, they will eat a lot ...

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this is timed with something I tried from the grocery store that seems simple but new for me: buying fruit already cut up.

I’m not a big fruit eater but I always say to myself if my mommy would cut it up for me I would eat it.haha.

Well, this week I bought a container of cut up fruit and yeah it’s easy to eat that way!
It’s a new experience for me to buy cut up fruit, and also I bought greens in a package. They are baby green and “ organic” . I was amazed how easy it is to eat those greens that have been washed three times according to the package.

My only previous experience with salad greens in a bag was more than a decade ago when everything I took out of that bag tasted like the plastic bag it was in.

I sense a whole new luxurious lifestyle coming from the food store in these cut up, pre-washed vegetables and fruits.

In my past life I would never ever have paid for that. I remember I was married for 10 years before I bought a chicken that was already cut up.About eight years ago I’ve ventured into the world of pre-shredded cheese, and I still buy that now and then, and feel very naughty and lazy in my spendthrift ways.

[catherine]

this is timed with something I tried from the grocery store that seems simple but new for me: buying fruit already cut up.

I’m not a big fruit eater but I always say to myself if my mommy would cut it up for me I would eat it.haha.

Well, this week I bought a container of cut up fruit and yeah it’s easy to eat that way!
It’s a new experience for me to buy cut up fruit, and also I bought greens in a package. They are baby green and “ organic” . I was amazed how easy it is to eat those greens that have been washed three times according to the package.

My only previous experience with salad greens in a bag was more than a decade ago when everything I took out of that bag tasted like the plastic bag it was in.

I sense a whole new luxurious lifestyle coming from the food store in these cut up, pre-washed vegetables and fruits.

In my past life I would never ever have paid for that. I remember I was married for 10 years before I bought a chicken that was already cut up.About eight years ago I’ve ventured into the world of pre-shredded cheese, and I still buy that now and then, and feel very naughty and lazy in my spendthrift ways.

DH, who is a great food prepper and entertainer, is a huge believer in making things easy to pick up and eat. I would leave out bread and deli meat--he'd assemble finger sandwiches and dress them. He'll make a mid-afternoon charcuterie board from cheese and sausage going bad.

As for me, I have found that I eat anything on the kitchen table. Anything. M&M's, Twinkie's, baby carrots, nuts. So if I walk out of my office and there are cookies on the table I'll eat them. If there are celery sticks on the table, I'll eat them. If there are nuts on the table, I'll eat them.

Maybe I should take 10 minutes out of every afternoon to put out some stuff from the fridge on the table. I agree, IL, I generally eat whole apples, but if they are sliced for me, I'm probably even more likely to eat them.

[iris lilies]

Steve agreed about bottom freezer. We have that with our latest refrigerator purchase and it is annoying how often things fall into the bottom where i can’t reach them without taking every bloody thing out.Also this current fridge is bigger than our last one, and I don’t especially like that. The back of the top shelves is wasted space.

In Hermann we have an older, smallish side by side, and that is my first experience with that style. Don’t like it for the lack of wide shelf space.

[razz]

I wonder if this experience that we all seem to going through is because we are trying to have too much on hand at the same time.

Right now, I have plums, pears, apples, and my beloved Concord grapes (that I picked up yesterday because they are so hard to find) all in the fridge plus bananas. I have bread, tortillas, carrots, celery as well as Greek yogurt and milk, a variety of cheese, pepperette sticks in the fridge with tomatoes, onions, garlic and red peppers on the counter with more in the garden. All the sauces, jams and condiments. Do I really need them all? When I add leftovers, is it any wonder stuff gets forgotten? Add stuff in the freezers above the fridge and the stand-alone...

This thread is really making me think.

[Simplemind]

My DH has traditionally done the shopping and the cooking. After his stroke 8 years ago he had trouble with meal planning. So I would mark on the calendar a meal for each day of the week. I did finally understand why my mom always complained that it wasn't the cooking but the planning that was the bugger.
I have found that food purchased without a plan can often go un-used. Since we have planned meals out there has been little to no food waste. Some meals are a one and done and others give us one to freeze later.

[iris lilies]

Since I have started preparing lunch every day for DH, I have ways to use up a little bits and dabs of leftover foods. A half a cup of spaghetti is one ingredient for his lunch, for instance. I have small plastic containers to freeze to keep the dibs and dabs. So that way we do keep them used uP.

[SteveinMN]

It’s a new experience for me to buy cut up fruit, and also I bought greens in a package. They are baby green and “ organic” . I was amazed how easy it is to eat those greens that have been washed three times according to the package.

My only previous experience with salad greens in a bag was more than a decade ago when everything I took out of that bag tasted like the plastic bag it was in.

I sense a whole new luxurious lifestyle coming from the food store in these cut up, pre-washed vegetables and fruits.

In my past life I would never ever have paid for that. I remember I was married for 10 years before I bought a chicken that was already cut up.

I eat a salad for lunch pretty much every day and, 95% of the time, it comes out of a bag. It provides a variety of greens I could not duplicate on my own without a lot of additional shopping and composting (when I don't want to eat a salad that's 80% ready-to-toss radicchio or forget about the spinach for a couple of days). I'm not crazy about the plastic bag the salad comes in but tossing rotted vegetables has its carbon footprint, too.

My experience has been that some brands of bagged salad taste better than others. Unfortunately (and, as usual) there seems to be a correlation with the price.

I can see that buying food that will get eaten and not just sit until it's tossed because nobody wants to do the prep work (or there are higher-value ways to spend that time) is not being spendthrifty (if I may coin a word). I still buy whole chickens and cut them up, mostly because we eventually use the backs, giblets, and excess fat for chicken soup. I'll buy just thighs or chicken breast if they're at a good price. But I have sharp knives and I use the entire chicken, so whole chickens it is here.