One of my New Year’s resolutions is to reduce food waste in my household. This should not only save a bit of money, but also reduce our environmental footprint as well.
My worst offenses:
- I have a bad habit of buying perishable vegetables, like bean sprouts, without a set plan to cook them that day.
- I also make batches of things like roasted peppers, pop them in food storage containers, and “lose” them in the back of the refrigerator, only to discover a “science project gone terribly awry”, in the future.
- I’ve been guilty of buying the big packages of chicken on sale, and ending out throwing out about a 1/3 of the package, due to spoilage.
- My daughter’s contribution to food waste, is her habit of grabbing a fresh piece of fruit, when she still has half of one left… life with a 4 year old.
So, how am I going to resolve this problem?
- I have already resolved the issue with my daughter and her fruit obsession. All the fruit goes in a large wooden bowl, and is placed in a cupboard, far from her reach. While my daughter is mostly non-verbal, due to her autism, she has a fruit picture card she gives me to get some when she wants it. She picks the piece she wants, and the bowl goes back up out of reach.
- I will just have to hold myself back from buying produce that is quick to perish, unless I an going to cook it that day, or have an established plan to do so the next day.
- I’ve started to put more leftover prepared items directly into the freezer.
- I will do more frequent “fridge purges”, to avoid the “petri dish effect”… yeah, I am a little ashamed, to need that one.
- I am going to start using that vacuum food storage bag system I bought a few months ago, instead of letting the box collect dust in the corner. This will be great for when the larger packs of chicken are on sale.
- I resolve to make sure produce trimmings actually make it to my tumbling composter, and not lazily tossed into the trash.
- I’ve already started making smaller pizzas using 1/2 of a pound of dough, and smaller batches of pasta and rice. As a family of 2 rather than 3 now, we simply don’t need that much.
- Put the open jars of pasta sauce in a door shelf, so they don’t get shuffled to back of refrigerator. This should prevent unwittingly opening a new jar, when one is already open.
Writing about food spoilage, made me think of the "Tiny Ugly Germs", from Yo Gabba Gabba... so I couldn't resist sharing them.
What are your tips for reducing waste and improving food storage, for the New Year?
Everyone is going green these days. Our family has been working on making our home more eco-friendly. We look for energy star appliances, use cfls, bypass the disposable cups & plates, look for high percentages of recycled content in products and make sure to recycle all we can.
