8 Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste

So I was reading online the other day, and I came across this article in my Facebook newsfeed.

About 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. The average American consumer wastes 10 times as much food as someone in Southeast Asia — up 50 percent from Americans in the 1970s. Yet, 1 in 6 Americans doesn't have enough to eat, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And food waste costs us about $165 billion a year and sucks up 25 percent of our freshwater supply.

Seriously. 40%??? 

Wow. Why in the hell are we wasting that much food? So I dig deeper. Turns out that we've grown so accustomed to "perfect" food (no blemishes, or odd shapes etc) that we throw things out willy nilly now. Also the old mantra "when in doubt, throw it out" plays a part, because a lot of Americans are completely out of touch with their food, their food sources, and don't have the knowledge they need to make proper food decisions.

Now don't get me wrong, if I pull chicken out for dinner and it smells "off" because I left it in four or five days, then I toss it. But the idea is that we should be organized enough and aware of what's in our fridge and pantry so we don't waste! We also shouldn't cram our fridges so full we forget what's in there, thereby wasting food. So here's some steps to reduce your kitchen waste.

1. Use what you have in the fridge first. This goes for both freezer and pantry items.

2. Plan your meals. This sounds like a no brainer, and I imagine we've all at one time or another planned our meals, but then a few days of harried schedules happens and the meal routine is off. So one good thing is to plan out 21 days of food, that your family likes. Then go over your schedule for the next week and plan your weeks meals from that (I do this on a two week rotation). I try to have several crock pot meals so that if I have a busy day that's unplanned I can simply make a crock meal. This will help you buy only what you need and then you'll use it.

3. Don't buy so much in bulk! Ok, so I'm the queen of bulk, I know. I buy whole wheat flour by the 50lbs bag, and pinto beans in 25lbs. But one thing I won't buy in bulk is fresh items. Now, I totally break this rule if something is on a really good sale Like last summer, cherries.Cherries were 1.99 a lb That *never* happens around here, so I bought 20lbs and canned them. I made cherry jelly and canned cherries in water with a tsp of sugar. So for months we had cherry jelly (it's gone now) and every now and again I make a black forest cake or put some in my yogurt.

4. Use mason jars and plastic screw on lids to store your leftovers. Now this is twofold for me. One, I hate plastic. I really hate it. It gets nasty and scratched up, it gets smelly from things like spaghetti sauce, and eventually you dont wanna put food in it. Plus, you can't see through most of them to know what's in them. So I use mason jars. They come completely clean, I can easily go from pantry to fridge with goods I've canned and best of all I can see leftovers. We don't have as many now that I've started using clear jars.

5. Freeze stuff. Don't be afraid of the freezer! If you have wide mouth jars, you can even store stuff in the jars in the freezer. If you have an abundance of something, freeze it so it doesn't get wasted.

6. Can stuff. Don't be afraid of the canner! There's so many recipes out there, and best of all, you can can things like soups and meats where if you take advantage of on sale items, you can prepare them ahead of time,all at once, thusly using your bulk purchases and not letting them go to waste.

7. Eat your leftovers for lunch or snacks, or have a leftover night for dinner.  Lunch is one meal that's not too planned around here. We do pack our Bento boxes for the kids for school and some days, I have to plan out a meal, but mostly, I just send them with leftovers now. Hubby and I also eat leftovers a lot of days. I'ts easier and cheaper to make a meal for 10 and just eat the leftovers than it is to plan 2 separate meals.

8. If  you must throw it out, put what you can in a compost pile. Even if you just compost for your flower bed, it used to be that humans would eat foods, of course, there were no processed foods then, just whole real food, and then wed toss that apple core or carrot top back onto the ground where it would decompose and put nutrients back into the soil. Now, we grow our foods on commercial lots that are so devoid of minerals and nutrients because they don't use compost, they use chemical fertilizers, and then we toss our "trash" into landfills where they don't do us any good. So see our post on composting if you need a place to start.

If we work hard enough we can reduce our waste, which is better for everyone, including your pocketbook!