Limiting food waste

[mama2James]

I clean out the fridge each time I grocery shop, and I am always so disappointed by how much food has gone unused and needs to be trown away. I usually plan a dinner for each night, and we often have leftovers. They get put in the fridge for "later" and forgotten. One way for me to tackle this will be not to cook something new if we still have enough leftovers for dinner. Also to use up leftovers as a creative part of a new meal, and to take leftovers for lunches. I would like to use this thread to track the waste, and the foods that successfully get used Please feel free to post yours too!

Today I threw away: a half gallon of homemade soup
4 cups of potatoes and carrots
Large piece of pot roast
A few tbsp of cranberry sauce

I used up a half onion, three tomato halves, a pint of cherry tomatos that i had no other plans for and about 1/2 cup of cooked spinach. I used it all to make chicken with tomato pan sauce! Very well recieved!

[Contrary Housewife]

I hate tossing out food too. I find that if I label things then DH can find then for lunches more easily and that helps get them eaten. Also, if there is a lot of something like soup that I am sure won't get eaten up, I put it in the freezer to have later. Then things get lost in the freezer but at least they don't go bad. We have leftover night almost every week. Sometimes if we have too many leftovers and I am feeling tired I will skip a planned meal in order to eat the food we already have.

[Libby]

I place leftovers in plastic storage containers. Dad likes to place in bowls with plastic wrap. I usually keep track of whats in there and try to eat the leftovers for lunch or use them up in a planned over meal or a throw it together creation. The only time I toss something substantial is when dad decides to reuse a plastic container with lid - ie sour cream or margarine tub and uses matching lids. I really think thats what it is and when I go to use it, I get the awful surprise.

Most of the time I end up tossing 3 florets of broccoli, two bites of leftover whatever. I purposely save it b/c its a snacksize that dad could have before bed should he have a hungry.

[zakity]

I have a white board on the fridge for leftovers. If it is available to eat, then it goes on the board. If it is saved for another meal (some call it "plannedovers"), then it will be used and doesn't go on the list. Leftovers are for lunches and for snacks. Every few days, I take a peek at the list and see what is on there still. I have a four day rule for food. If it isn't eaten in four days, it needs to exit my fridge: either to the freezer, eaten by someone, or to the compost/garbage.

I also try to plan in a leftovers night once a week. I only officially plan in one every other week, but we tend to really have one once a week. I aim for it to be on a Friday to eat up the leftovers and clean out the fridge.

Oh yeah, if I call it "leftover night", my guys moan and complain. If I call the it "fend for yourself" (or FFY for short), then they think it is fabulous. They even request FFY nights. Nothing is different between the two. I still pull out all the leftovers and everyone is supposed to eat that first before they get out anything else.

[brennasmom]

One thing I am trying to do is cook a little bit less. For tonight I only used 1/2 box pasta which fed 4 of us with 1 serving of leftovers.

You can also utlilize your freezer... I try to put things in the freezer until I find a plan to incorporate them.

Hoping to do better in 2012

[greekislandgirl]

My method might be unpopular but I avoid food waste by cooking only enough food for each meal, and almost never having leftovers. The only time that there will be leftovers is if I make a large quantity of soup for DH (who likes soup when he's sick, I can only have it once before I get tired of it) so he eats that for a few days til it's gone. And sometimes if he's eating soup and I'm not, I'll make something that takes me 2-3 meals to finish. But 99% of the time, I only make what we're going to eat (I weigh ingredients before cooking as a rule).

It also saves space in the fridge and we're just not big fans of leftovers. I love to cook and the idea of cooking something from scratch for each meal makes me happy.

[NicJean]

I need to get better at using all in the fridge - right now I have tossed, frozen or "planned over" several items from last week - but garbage day Saturday was a big bummer: lost count of the baked beans (can't remember when I had baked beans), spoonfuls of homemade cranberry sauce, tiny portions of stew, I've even got a couple wilty green onions (not bad yet - but need to be used!)

[Handy Andy]

Every friday is "leftover" night. This way I am only cooking Sun-Thurs and I get a few days off too from being in the kitchen. (I do not like to cook.) We also tend to take left overs for work lunches as well.

I like Zakity's "FFY" night - I might have to borrow that phrase! It sounds so much better than "left over night".

[Ponderer]

My solution is that I have started cooking to serve 3 adults. The first portion I dish up is my lunch for the next day at the office and then I dish up the 2 servings for that nights meal.

A lot of times I will cut a recipe in half so it does not make too much.

[savvy_sniper]

All leftovers are put in see through packaging AND always go on one particular shelf. The oldest is pulled to the front and the newest is placed in the back.

I always cook extra portions with future use in mind. I pretty much cook a large amount one day, leftovers from the fridge are used the next day, and so on. That way I don't spend as much time in the kitchen AND I can usually run the dishwasher every other day.

It just takes some planning, forethought, and getting used to a schedule. Since starting this I never throw away leftovers because they are used on a timely basis.

[Uniwolf]

I do not put leftovers in the fridge, They never get used and I throw them out. I put everything in containers that can be taken to work, and put in the freezer right after dinner. If we have left over veggies, that I don't care to take to lunch, they go in a ziplock bag in the freezer that goes to soup when I make any veggie type soup. I also have a bag that has small portions of meat in it, that gets the same thing done with it.

[oheoh's momma]

this is my biggest problem hubby don't like leftovers for lunch when our emt son is here he cleans us out but he has not been here. I never know who is or is not coming for supper. I got all new pryex and corning ware for Christmas for leftovers. grandma was so bad to leftovers in butter dishes and coolwhip bowls.... I really need to work on this. maybe a list on fridge/

[nodmicks]

Thur and Fri are leftover days here. I cook extra on purpose. Anything that may not get used in 3 days goes in the freezer in individual portions for lunches etc. Any little bit of veggies etc if only a tiny bit goes to the chickens.

We got into the habit of using every scrap when we were really struggling. It has sure stayed with me

[rgay2]

Thanks for all of these great ideas! I am horrible about letting things go to waste and I feel that leftover night and freezing right after meals are some great ideas!

[sunshine]

Generally we put all "leftovers" into the freezer, right after we clear the table. . .

Occasionally though, there is produce, milk, etc. that needs used before it spoils.

We do C.O.R.D. nights here -- clean out the refrigerator dinner.