Why do we waste so much food/interesting blog

[Miss Cellane]

A hot dog bun is just a holder for a filling. My mom used to sent tuna sandwiches to school in hot dog buns, because they got a lot less soggy than regular bread.

Sometimes it's hard to think outside the box on food and how to use it. I once drove a roommate nuts because I'd put tomato sauce on rice instead of pasta. Well, I had the rice and I had no pasta and it tasted good, so why not?

My biggest food waste is when I cook a meal, and then am not hungry enough to eat it all at once. I'm fine with cooking a big batch of something, planning to freeze it in individual portions. But when it's actual leftovers, they tend to get put in the fridge and forgotten. And because I usually plan out my meals for a week or so at a time, there's no logical meal to include them in. I need to work on this.

[Chicken lady]

I'm the leftover queen. I will eat three tablespoons of half a dozen things out of containers in my fridge and call it lunch. I will eat the same pasta salad twice a day for a week. And I get annoyed when the fridge is full of food and dh wants me to cook. It drives him nuts.

However, as I am cleaning out my pantry I am discovering that in 2011 I canned a bunch of strawberry jam that my dd never ate. (24 half pints to be exact) It may still be good, but I have six new pint jars of strawberry jam and I just don't eat that much jam. I am giving the chickens two jars a day to go with their oversized zuchinni, damaged tomatoes, whey etc. I would waste a lot more food without my chickens, but I am still under utilizing.

Because I need to use the pantry to store other things for a while, I'm trying to make meals that use as much stored food as possible while buying a minimum number of additional ingredients. It's an interesting exercise. I'm getting groceries twice a week - Wednesdays and Fridays - because those are the days I have to leave the house.

[Stacy]

I'm loving this thread. Lots of inspiration.

We bought a small freezer in 2013, with the intention of emptying it periodically to defrost. Well, we haven't done it yet, and I'm afraid that some of the older meat in there made not be good anymore. Time to plan some meals to use it up.

Also, I went on a stocking up binge between 2013 - 14 before realizing that I'd better slow down. I did learn exactly how much we use every month through some careful record-keeping, but I over-shopped before I got to that point. We have lots of expired canned goods that I need to use up.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm loving this thread. Lots of inspiration.

We bought a small freezer in 2013, with the intention of emptying it periodically to defrost. Well, we haven't done it yet, and I'm afraid that some of the older meat in there made not be good anymore. Time to plan some meals to use it up. ...

I think people have eaten mastodon meat preserved in the permafrost, if that helps.

[catherine]

I haven't read all the responses yet, but I will. I also really like that blog! I had read "How Nations Fail" and I thought it was provocative..it was interesting to hear the blogger's take on it. Thanks for the link.

As for the food issue, I feel like, as with many other things, the more skin in the game you have with something, the more you protect it. For instance, I am VERY careful about not wasting the food I've grown myself. I love those vegetables so much... I feel like a Proud Mama. And the last thing I'm going to do is throw them out.. when they do go bad, I feel better knowing they'll be composted and reintroduced into the garden next season.

I think the article makes a lot of good points, though.

[kib]

Just to be clear, I'm a champion of macaroni tacos, green curry meatballs and a side of potatoes with, um, what was in here again? Right, spicy jicama relish. The real issue comes in combining DH's food style and mine. He only wants to eat the hotdog bun if there's a hotdog inside it, and I don't really want to eat it at all. We really waste barely any food, but when we do, it's usually the balancing act gone wrong.

Jane, that was hilarious.

[Stacy]

I think people have eaten mastodon meat preserved in the permafrost, if that helps.

I guess you could eat anything, if you really had to.
I wonder how that tasted?

[JaneV2.0]

Gamey, I'd wager.
Talk about an aged steak...

[iris lilies]

Stacy, we regularly eat meat that's been frozen for 2-3 years. It's fine.

[Stacy]

Stacy, we regularly eat meat that's been frozen for 2-3 years. It's fine.

Yep, we just used some of the pork that was way down at the bottom of the freezer and found it was still good. Still, I'd prefer to use it up sooner than that.