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!

Simple and Delicious Peppermint Pinwheels

You guys. Oh you guys! Doze cookies! Let me tell you, these cookies are delicious. Like....I mean, I'm a cookie girl, but these are really good. And the options are endless with colors! I chose red and green with red and green sprinkles because it was "fun" for the kindergarten class I was cooking for. Want something a bit more classy? Use red or green only and leave the other "white". Need them for a baby shower? Use pink and blue and fun baby sprinkles!

For the holidays they are nice wrapped up as a small gift, or put with other candies and goodies into  a tin for a larger gift. Have fun!

• Ingredients
• 5 cups unbleached wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cup sugar
• 2 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 3 tsp  red  gel food coloring
• 3 tsp of green gel food coloring 
• Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
• 6 tablespoons milk

Directions

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar together in another large bowl. Add egg, vanilla, milk, and peppermint extract, and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the dry mixture, beating until combined. Remove half of the mixture from the bowl. Add red food coloring, beating until fully combined. This is where I threw on gloves and used my hands to mix it up.  On a sheet of waxed paper, roll out dough to form a large rectangle, about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat this step with the other half of uncolored dough with green food coloring.

Now, slide the red dough on top of the white dough. I simply took both of them and just slapped  them together sammich style. Then I trimmed the edges and patched an area with the trimmed dough so it would be more uniform. Roll dough into a log, creating a swirl effect. I actually rolled up short logs (rolling from short end to short end) and after three rolls, I cut down along the width, removed the roll and repeated this process. You could roll from short end to short end, but my dough was so large, picking up a log of that size would have been a chore.

If the dough starts to break or crack while rolling, don't sweat it. Just pinch it to patch it up. :) 

Now, the trick here is to let the dough chill. I didn't need this until the morning, so I let it chill overnight. But an hour or so would work if you're pressed for time. 

Go preheat your oven to 375°. Now for the fun part! I took some sprinkles, used them on the dough, then rolled it over a little and repeated the process until it was covered. Then you can slice into oh, quarter inch or so slices. I got about 60 cookies with this recipe. Just place them about an inch apart and bake for about 12 min. 

Make it Yourself! Vintage Girls Nightgowns

Crunchy Girl in her favorite hand made nightie. 

Topstitching around your lace or ruffled
trim gives it a nice clean edge. 

How many people do you know that make their own clothing? Would you like to? I will admit, I don't make all our own clothing, and what I do make is borne more of necessity than want, though once I started, I wanted to then make ALL the THINGS. One thing that every homesteader should know is how to mend and how to make their own clothing. It's easier than you think, and more rewarding than you expect. Especially when you score a bolt of fabric for like massive discount and can create something for every one of your kids for $10 total.

150 years ago, it was almost unheard of for people to not make their own clothing. Even when you "boughten" clothing, it was still handmade, as sewing machines weren't really around, though it wouldn't be long. The idea that someone would take 10000 yards of fabric and turn it into 1000 pairs of pants didn't exist.

I take every advantage I can use. I use a heavy duty basic sewing machine, a serger for seams and hems and edgings and then I even break out the embroidery machine every now and again to have some fun! While being a homesteader these days is all about getting back to basics, I see no reason not to use tools that can help make that journey more achievable.

Besides, who doesn't love nightgowns? I think all little girls do, and I know I prefer them. I hate wearing PJ's. They get bunched up around my knees at night, and then I wake up a tangled mess. So what's better than a frilly vintage nightgown? Why, one that's easy to make to boot! This one? Super easy, seriously you can make these in an hour or less. I was able to make four for my daughter in less than a half day.

There are two types of fabric I would use for this. Quilting cotton, or flannel. I use quilting cotton for a lightweight summer nightie, and then flannel in the winter, for a warm, fuzzy cuddly nightie. This nightgown only has four pieces, the front, the back and 2 sleeves. Now, I'm going to link the pattern here that you can buy for about $5 if you buy somewhere like Joann Fabrics or Walmart. But don't get overwhelmed! Patterns are so much easier than winging it! I promise you, this is a great project to start out with if you're a beginning sewer. Nothing fancy, just seams, and elastic. That's it. You can even forgo the lace trim on the bottom and cuffs and just turn up and hem to make it even easier.

A set of 6 nightgowns that went out for
the shop recently. Aren't they lovely!

Ok, so here's the link to the pattern. Just remember the number at the top right corner, that's how you'll find it in the store. The actual pattern calls for elastic in the waist area. I don't use that. I just omit that step altogether.

So just cut out your newspaper pieces and if you want, transfer them to poster board. That's what I use for patterns like this. I have all the sizes and use them over and over for the shop, so I like the poster board. You could also use card stock if you have that on hand and just tape them together.

After that, you simply cut out your fabric (after you've washed and dried it for shrinkage!) and then follow the directions!

How to turn Jeans into a skirt!

You know what I hate? Jeans that don't fit. Can anyone find them that do? Who are the jeans made for? I look for jeans made for "curvy" people, as I've got an arse that's completely not in proportion to the rest of me, and the waist gaps. I find some that fit in the hips and rear only to find that when I bend over, I'm giving off quite the show. You get them to fit in the waist and hips and find out that the thighs are as constricting as a boa.....Right. Jeans that fit. Oxymoron.

You know what I love? Skirts. Especially in the winter, and especially denim. Denim skirts allow me to be rough and tough around the house, but still have the benefit of a skirt. I bend over and show nothing. No strange breezes on my nether regions. Throw on a pair of cable knit tights and you'll be much warmer than when wearing pants, and with the weather we're having as of late, that's a blessing.

Now, know what else I don't like? Well, number one that it's hard to find denim skirts. You can check your local thrift shops, but if they are like mine, there was one skirt, and it was actually 2 sizes too big, so I was able to take it in, but sheesh! What's a girl need to do to find a decent skirt? Oh, what's that you say? Hit the jeans rack? Why yes! I think I will.

You can find jeans for like $3 a pair or less at most thrift shops. I prefer ones that have a bit of stretch in the denim because Im always crawling around or bending over doing things here at the homestead. I went to my closet first though because I had 2 pairs that I knew fit me, but the fits were all wrong, and so I turned one of them into a skirt this morning. Now, you'll need 2 pairs of jeans to make one skirt. Or, you can use fabric in the "holes" that you'll need to fill up if you want to recycle some fabric and the jeans at the same time. I prefer all denim because I need the warmth factor, but I will probably make some with quilting fabric for in the summer.

So, onto the tute! Now, you'll need some basic sewing skills, like how to sew a straight line, and a zig zag stitch (unless you have a serger). You'll need pins, thread, and scissors. Seriously it's that easy. I didn't even need to change out needles. I just used a simple size 80 needle.

So now you want to open up the inseams. All the way. Just take a seam ripper if you have one and open them up being careful not to rip the denim. You know, like I did.

Jeans after the inseam has been ripped. 

Front side of the old  jeans.

Opening up the front crotch. 

The next thing you'll need to do is to open up the crotch a bit and lay it flat. This is better explained by the photo below. Just rip the seams until the jeans will lay flat in the crotch. Then pin it down. You'll be sewing this down later.

Backside of the old jeans.

Then you'll need to get your fabric to fill this hole that's made by the legs being opened up. I chose to cut up another pair of jeans I wasn't using (guess what! They didn't fit right. Shocking). So I just cut off the legs, you know, just like how we did when we were in the 80's and wore our jean cutoff's except this time, you're going to discard the cutoff jeans shorts and use the legs. So open the legs up. You don't need to rip the seam, you can simply cut them open.

Denim fabric is underneath the old jeans. 

Lay out your opened leg under the hole of the denim soon to be skirt. Then just pin it up. Simply walk over to your machine now and stitch the fabric together. Then turn the skirt over and do the same for the back. You'll need to open the crotch a lot more in the back to get it to lay flat.

Pin up along the seams where you're going to sew. 

Turn it inside out and trim excess fabric. 

Now, just sew up the old seams tacking the jeans and the jean fabric (the leg you used from the other jeans or the fabric you're using) together. Turn it inside out and trim the seams. You can serge or zig zag the seams here together if you like.

Trim your hem to be equal all the way around. 

Once you're done with this, you now have a

skirt. Albeit one that is in dire need of hemming. I suggest trying it on and seeing about how much you want to take off. I like long skirts, so I just trimmed the fabric to be all even, then took off an inch.

Serge or zig zag your hem so that you can simply fold up and tack down. 

Hop on over to your serger, or sewing machine (with the stitch set to zig zag) and stitch your hem up. This will allow you to simply fold over your hem once, which is easier and creates less bulk, and is easier on your machine to stitch as well. I put a double stitch on the hem, which can be achieved by either changing the needle position and going around twice or by using a double needle and 2 spools of thread. I was too lazy to put in the double needle though, so I just went around twice.

Fold over and pin up your hem. 

Tack down with a single running stitch. 

I've added a double running stitch here for extra durability cause Im hard on things. :) 

Now! You have a skirt! And the best part? This type of denim skirt doesn't need slits in the sides or back. I've been wearing it all morning and have been cleaning and what not, and I've had enough room to move around without any issue!

You can see the finished product here, ignore my giant sweater, it's like 63° in this house. I love how flouncy it is!

Ignore the paint drops on the bottom of my mirror. I'm a sloppy painter.
See how cool this looks! I love that it doesn't need slits!