2012 No More Wasted Food Challenge

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-01-2012, 07:10 PM

This is an area I really need to work on. Wasted food is wasted money. I may as well take a few dollar bills out of my wallet and toss them in the trash can each week. So I'm trying to be vigilant with either eating, repurposing or freezing leftovers and not over purchasing produce.

My plan is to post here everyday and fess up to anything that ended up in the garbage.

How about you? What is your biggest food waste and how do you plan on reducing it?

To kick off the New Year I have to admit to tossing almost a full head of lettuce today (actually it was composted so not a total loss but still). They're running anywhere between $1.19-$1.50 a head right now so I pretty much just tossed a dollar bill in the trash.

**Palooka** · 01-01-2012, 10:09 PM

Ugh, I've had to toss lettuce too. Trying to plan better and not over buy/cook what we can't eat. I had some LO brown rice with lunch today that I would have normally tossed, since it was 3 days old. I'm alive and fine.

**mama2James** · 01-01-2012, 10:52 PM

Oops, i just started a similar thread... I too am guilty of food waste and am strategizing to work on it.

**tervsforme** · 01-01-2012, 11:32 PM

I cleaned out my fridge yesterday and threw out tons of food. I am definitely working on not wasting food this year.

**qsaver704** · 01-02-2012, 12:48 AM

Sounds like my kind of challenge! I am in! I also cleaned out my fridge to. Egin the new year. I will begin today. We had leftover takeout for lunch and leftover new year' s eve snacks for dinner. I also cooked up The rest of the potatoes and made potato soup with precooked bacon from Christmas morning. Two no wastes!

**nessarowdy** · 01-02-2012, 01:06 AM

I'm in for this one. I throw away SO much it's embarrassing...

-Vanessa

**Chevelle72** · 01-02-2012, 01:29 AM

What a great thread.

I'm guilty too but I used to be worse. I realized a couple years ago how much food I was throwing away. I think it started with hamburger buns and bread. GAH!, yes like tossing dollar bills in the garbage. I found my husband will eat a bun thats been frozen before he'll eat one that's stale. He has a very low tolerance for stale <g>. So now I buy the 12 pack of buns (cheaper!) and leave 4 out at a time. Very rarely do I throw any away.

I'll look forward to some tips from others

. Freezing is of course one idea, but I don't have a big freezer. And since it's just my husband and myself our small freezer isn't a problem. What we have seems to work if we plan well.

**AspiringToBeFrugal** · 01-02-2012, 01:40 AM

I'm in for this challenge! I desperately want to reduce the amount of food we waste as like you, I feel like it's money wasted. I don't know if this counts, but I threw away some Christmas candy and some pumpkin bread that we'd received as a gift and had opened for a family gathering. The chocolates were truffles and none of us (in my immediate family) is a fan of white chocolate so I ditched the ones that weren't eaten by others in our extended family. The pumpkin bread had been eaten and shared and was pretty much shredded so what remained was tossed today. We didn't spend any money on either of these things but I still felt bad throwing it out.

**wunsagin** · 01-02-2012, 12:56 PM

I'm in again this year, I did a lot better in '11 but not good enough.

I cleaned the fridge and cabinets so starting fresh. Yesterday I made an ambrosia salad using out of date (by 10days) sour cream and there's still enough for a baked potato later in the week. I mean really, how can you tell if sour cream is bad

I do have a bunch of green onions that need to be used, dh is not an onion fan so I would have to sneak them in something. Any ideas? Will they freeze?

**AspiringToBeFrugal** · 01-02-2012, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by wunsagin

I cleaned the fridge and cabinets so starting fresh. Yesterday I made an ambrosia salad using out of date (by 10days) sour cream and there's still enough for a baked potato later in the week. I mean really, how can you tell if sour cream is bad

Hahahaha!! I use sour cream until it starts growing fuzz! Then I know it's bad and beyond saving!

**AspiringToBeFrugal** · 01-02-2012, 01:04 PM

I'm planning to use up some overripe bananas today for banana bread as well as some way overripe pears + apples to make some applesauce to go with our supper tonight! Hopefully the only parts of the pears I have to throw away is a little bit of the skin that is beginning to mold and the cores!

**mndtrp** · 01-02-2012, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by wunsagin

I do have a bunch of green onions that need to be used, dh is not an onion fan so I would have to sneak them in something. Any ideas? Will they freeze?

More or less. I would chop them up prior to freezing, and then use them later in a soup or sauce.

Just about any food that is starting to push it's welcome too far ends up in my soup tub. I dice up the items, freeze in the tub, and eventually add homemade tomato soup to create a very unique soup. Doing this allows me to waste next to nothing, outside of dairy and fruit.

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-02-2012, 08:29 PM

Wunsagin, I agree with mdstrp, I'm pretty sure you can slice them and freeze them then you can toss them in something else later. Maybe you could make some kind of onion dip with them and some of the sour cream?

We had zero waste today.

**Jeanna** · 01-03-2012, 02:37 PM

I learned that green peppers and celery are 2 things that I end up throwing out about 1/2 of before I get it used so I started taking at least half when I buy it and cut it up in small pieces and freezing it on a baking sheet and then storing it in a freezer bag in the freezer. I use both in things that I cook so it really doesn't matter that they are frozen. It has saved me quiet a bit in the long run.

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-03-2012, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by Jeanna

I learned that green peppers and celery are 2 things that I end up throwing out about 1/2 of before I get it used so I started taking at least half when I buy it and cut it up in small pieces and freezing it on a baking sheet and then storing it in a freezer bag in the freezer. I use both in things that I cook so it really doesn't matter that they are frozen. It has saved me quiet a bit in the long run.

Wrapping celery in aluminum foil is supposed to help extend it's life. I'm doing a test run now but I didn't think about it until there were only a few little heart stalks left so won't trust my results on that one. Gonna try again with a fresh stalk when I shop on Friday.