I was JUST talking to my family last night about how we don't throw food away in this house......we put it in Tupperware to throw away a week from now 🤦♀️🤣 lol this video was perfectly timed! Thank you 😊 💓
Stop cooking so much. I batch cook and make enough food for 3-5 days. We eat nearly everything with little left over. Have things had to be tossed? Yes, unfortunately, but we strive for little to no food waste.
I have a running joke with my son about cilantro. We go to the grocery store and I tell him I don’t know why I just don’t throw this right in the trash right now. Instead I take it home put it in the fridge and then a week later I throw it away.🤣 I might use it once
@@cindyabraham5503 I've chopped it up and freeze it in a baggie to throw in cooked dishes. I've even froze it with water to keep it greener and then it's more like fresh thrown in. I too have this problem, doesn't hurt so much when I get it 3 or 4 for $1 but when I pay nearly a dollar or more it hurts worse 😜
When I figured out you really can freeze almost anything, it was a game changer. We make a ton of taco meat at once then portion it out and freeze. Instead of smoking one rack of ribs, we smoke 3 and then freeze. Buy a dozen donuts and freeze half for next weekend. Love love love the freezer!
I heard a comment once that ‘if you can buy it frozen then you can freeze it yourself’ Take a stroll through the freezer aisles at the grocery store and look at all the prepared foods.
Meatloaf,lasagna, meat hand pies, fruit!, taco meat, pulled pork, soup!!, Freeze it allll!!! My mom freezes milk.. well not so much now but you can. Freeze eggs in an ice cube tray. All meats in a rub or marinated! Life changing!
Yep, we do this as well. Especially with working from home- it makes it very easy to just heat up those leftovers. I think our food waste is actually at an all time low (we used to be terrible for it)
I'm so happy that I RARELY throw food away. My boyfriend and I plan about 3 meals a week and the other days we eat left overs or have eggs, grilled cheese, pancakes ...whatever we have that we can use up.
My in-laws are the biggest offenders when it comes to food waste. When my family was staying with them during a family emergency and I was in charge of cooking, everytime I said that dinner was "leftovers", because I wasn't going to cook more food until the fridge was cleaned out, they always ordered food in! 🙄 and not a normal amount of take out, but for like 10 people. My husband says that they never adjusted their food order from 6 people to 3. 6 people haven't lived under that roof for 8 years. I told them they could take leftovers for their lunch to work. Did they? Nope.
I plan for leftovers in my 2 week meal plan and I will cancel or move a meal with no problem if we have leftovers. My husband will eat whatever he’s served without complaint so it makes life easy
My husband hates leftovers. Sooo.....I hide them by making them into something else later that week. It's impossible not to have leftovers sometimes. Most of our meals get eaten at that meal. However, I cannot figure out why some of our produce goes bad so fast. I quit buying it until I need it for a couple of days. We only eat out about twice a month so I cook a lot. Thank you for the tips on how to keep things organized and money saving tips. When my 5 children were at home none of this was an issue. lol 🙂
I learned this from another youtuber, if you prepare salad for a couple of days, place a paper towel on top, it will help get rid of the excess moisture. I do the same thing with cut up celery, sweet peppers & carrots. I usually put those in a zip lock bag, so put the paper towel in the bag first , then the prepared veggies on top. It has worked really well.
When we only have a spoonful or 2 left of something and it’s not really enough to save, I toss them in a cool whip container in the freezer. When it’s full- BAM free veggie soup! I just make a broth and add the leftover veggies.
Exactly what I do with small amounts of left over veggies. And do one for leftover cooked & boned meat too. Not worth it to put 3 T in ref to throw away later. Every few weeks, LO (leftover) SOUP with cornbread is on our menu. It can turn into a chili, stew or unnamed concoction but we eat it all. Sometimes puree the veggie mixture to put in tomato based sauce too.
I was born in the 70s(UK) for me I just visit memories of what we dis & didn’t have.We didn’t have a cleaner for every cleaning job,just jif & fairy liquid.No throwing food away.Ate quite a bit of tinned ham lol We couldn’t afford meat every day.We ate seasonal vegetables usually from our own country.Our clothing & furniture were better quality but had to last a long time ,I could go on lol
I love taking the scraps from veggies like onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc along with my chicken bones/caresses and popping them in the freezer to make bone broth another day! 🤗
We try to have no waste. My husband and I are great about eating leftovers. It becomes lunches for work the next day. We recently grilled 5 pounds of Greek chicken kabobs. We have been eating from that for 2 days now. Goes great on salads. Quick dinners in the car on way to the kids sports. If I have veggies that I don't think we will eat fresh, I chop them up and make crockpot meal kits to freeze. I also make a large crockpot meal (meat and veggies) and we eat a few meals from that. Saves so much money that way
I grocery shop once a month and it's actually helped us waste less food because I have to plan more intensely. Also food goes through a cycle in our house, if we don't eat it, whatever is dog safe goes to the dog, what he doesn't eat goes to the chickens, what they don't eat goes to the compost 😂 I call my chickens my little walking composters. They turn food into eggs and fertilizer. Not to mention we can enjoy our backyard without getting ticks or using bug spray!
Haha sounds like our house! Cats, dog, chickens, compost. I also use things like pineapple cores and apple peels and cores to make jelly. I hate food waste so thankfully nothing goes to waste around here!
BIG KEY for me was see-through containers. I got a nice set of Snapware at Costco (it's pyrex, so freezer to oven if you need to!). No more empty margarine or cottage cheese containers for leftovers. If I can't see into it, it is almost guaranteed to go to waste. But if you can see those delicious tacos, it looks like lunch!
When we have plenty of leftovers, we do a Fend for yourself night. The grandkids love it. They mix and match what they want. It cleans put all the leftovers. Whats left, goes into the garden.
Spot on! My wife's take on leftovers when we were first married was to simply toss them. How she grew up her dad would usually take them for lunch so she never was used to eating them. Now she's all in using them up either via reheat, freezing or repurposing them. For stuff going/getting close to expire it goes to the dehydrator (mainly veggies) or we simply make up a hybrid meal of mix and match, stew or casserole.
I have a few tips...if you don't eat the left overs the next day for lunch...freeze it. Have 1-2 nights a week that is left over/clean out the fridge night...we do ours the night before trash pick up. If you don't use fruits or veggies within a few days...freeze, dehydrate, or can it. If fruits or veggies go bad you can compost them and use that soil to grow more food. :) Some veggies will even re-grow and you can have a kitchen scrap garden.
One of the biggest changes I made was to get as many uses out of things that I buy as possible. Scrap veggies (onion tops and peels, carrot tops and peels, garlic peels, celery leaves, tomato cores, etc etc), they get turned into vegetable broth by simmering on the stove 8-10 hours in loads of water. The spent veggies get buried in the garden, the broth gets pressure canned and donated to my vegetarian friend. Apple cores and peels go into jars of water to make apple cider vinegar. Orange and lemon peels go into jars of vinegar for antibacterial cleaner.
Your point about meal planning is so right! I purposely planned for Wednesdays and Saturdays to be for leftovers, we rarely throughout food! Once in a while I’ll throw out some produce, but that’s usually during a particularly busy week or schedule change, etc. We’re also in the habit of using our freezer for any leftovers that don’t get eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I typically plan dinner by the quarter (I’m trying to get a yearly plan made, but haven’t gotten there yet. Breakfasts and lunches for my kids are planned for the rest of the year 🙌🏻). A little tip for those that meal planning seems scary to, plan dinner by the month using themes (For us for May, Sundays= comfort food, Mondays= older son picks, Tuesdays = Mexican/ Texmex, Wednesdays/ Saturdays= leftovers, Thursdays= younger son picks, Fridays= seafood).
That’s a good idea. I use the theme planning too. It can get overwhelming when you’re just trying to plan for individual recipes for 30 or 31 days. It stumped my planning a lot before I started using themes for each weekday.
@@eatsipkrave exactly! Before themes, I was totally lost. With the themes I like how it breaks it down to smaller chunks, that for this month I only had to come up with five comfort foods for example.
@@kymmarye you example was eye opening, only 5 comfort food 🤯 My hubby doesn't wan chicken or casseroles 2 and definitely not 3 days in a row. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Sometimes I deconstruct the casserole like serving the meat and soup/broth/gravy over rice, potatoes or noodles and the veggie on the side 😁
@@tcctocrazytccarson7309 We aren’t casserole eaters pretty much at all. Something about blending stuff together and baking it, just isn’t appealing to me (like at all) 😖. Maybe try looking at what you all typically eat, and then come up with themes that fit your family. Some of the themes that fit my family are Italian night, seafood, Mexican, comfort food, new recipe night, Asian night, pizza night, etc. I also used a calendar (regular cheap wall calendar, tried a meal planner and it was useless) so I could see it more visually laid out. Also we like a lot of variety, but if you all have your family favorites, just put those on rotation 😊.
Before I toss my veggie scraps in the compost, I make vegetable broth with them. Super easy. I throw the scraps in a zipper bag in the freeze. When it gets full, I dump in a pot, cover with water and simmer. (You can do it in the slow cooker too.) Then I strain out the veggies and toss them in the compost and I have yummy broth almost for free. I use it almost anywhere water is called for. Of course it’s a great base for soup, but I also put it in bread, etc. It freezes well too.
I'm a widow living alone and have found if I make meals ahead and freeze in individual containers, it helps. Also, planning what I'm going to eat for the week and buying in smaller size packages. Great tips you had!
I was talking with several people this week about food. People can cut their food bill ...quit eating so much! Everyone is eating all through the day with snacks, special drinks, etc.
For bell peppers, when you get them home, clean them and cut them into strips. Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap or parchment paper (waxed paper will work, but it is a bit more difficult to work with for this). Lay out your bell peppers so the strips don't touch, then put them in the freezer. When they are frozen, just toss the strips into a zip top bag. When you want to use them for a dish, do not thaw. Instead, you can either chop them and throw them into a sauce, or what I often do for philly sandwiches or fajitas is to put them directly into a hot pan that has some oil in it. Throw a lid on and sear them and they will caramelize nicely, then use in your dish. So simple and quick and my peppers taste garden fresh when I cook them like this. Bonus, if a frozen pepper strip falls on the floor, the dog thinks he scored a popsicle!
Saving money is one important thing but thinking over it all, as a society we got to use wisely and entirely our ressources. The planet earth is already unable to produce what we need in a year and meanwhile we throw good stuff in the garbage?!? That doesn't make any sense to me. I always try to be grateful for what we have and respect where it comes from, so compost is a fabulous way to use up every inch of it!
I’ve been spending $20-40 per week for my family of 3 for the entire year. With some good planning and shelf shopping it’s really easy. Just a little bit more effort on the front end. And you MUST eat the leftovers lol I plan 2 meals that will create leftovers and then we have burger and hotdogs to fill in the gaps.
I've had to stop planning a full 7 days of meals so that we can utilize leftovers on at least 2 or 3 days of the week. These were great tips! Thank you Christine!
Great money saving tip: freeze your left over veggies/cut offs. Examples are tge skins or ends of onions, carrot tops, and celery leaves from the stalks. Then when the gallon bag is full, make veggie stock. Or if your a meat person, save the bones and make a beef, turkey, or chicken stock. As you are using what you normally through away, it's basically free (minus a few herbs and whatever it costs you for water). I know stock isn't horrible expensive but with what I use, I saw about 100 or so a year and have all my fall and winter stocks readily available even when the stores run out.
I used to have a moldy bread issue, but now I store it in the freezer. The only thing we throw away are the eggshells and vegetable scraps you're not supposed to eat. And we actually compost that. We've always been good about eating leftovers and not overbuying.
I learned to can and dehydrate. Fresh fruits and veggies get turned into fruit snacks and home canned veggies I.e. pasta sauce, mixed stew veggies, etc. I also have a compost bin as gardening season is about ready to begin. I hate food waste. I could probably skip the grocery store for 6 months 😂. Only buying loss leaders and replacements now. Stock up is complete. Thank heavens.
Pretty good tips! I’m definitely going to do the “use up bin” because I’m always forgetting about stuff and/or losing it in the outer limits of the fridge. I swear stuff finds places to hide in there. Or maybe it leaves and then comes back only after it starts breaking down and growing fungus. Lol.
If anyone is interested in a small space garden, Green Stalk has their vertical planter on sale currently. You can also find codes for an additional discount (I know Roots and Refuge on UA-cam has one).
I definitely am going to be more aware of food waste! I need to scale down my cooking amounts to giving just 2 days worth of leftovers so that it doesn't get dumped. Love the tips, and making me think about not being wasteful!
We dice green peppers, put on tray in freezer and flash freeze them. Then they go in freezer ziploc baggie. We don't blanch them and they are fine. We do the same with carrots and mushrooms. They are ready to use and don't go to waste.
I’ve been gurella composting. Which is just a nice way of saying I throw my trash out in a public space 😮. I live in a condo and I found a bit of neglected county owned land. Don’t worry, it is discreet!
I keep lettuce fresh longer by storing in glass jars packed fairly tight and check salad toppings mid week. I'm an ingredient cook, so I tend to cook single foods, carrots, green beans, etc. by themselves as well as meats. I also cut up salad toppngs and place in glass containers. I pull from the ingredients to make meals/ entrees adding the spices to complete the dish. When it looks like something may go bad before I can use it, I either freeze or dehydrate it.
I cannot wait until one of these companies with Delivery's takes food stamps i am disabled i already wasted money sending someone out set my stuff then on top of it i have to have them get a lot of stuff because i can't afford to pay them go out more often and then stuff goes bad i love your ideas
The tiktok trend of putting your condiments in your produce drawers and the produce in the door helps us huge. I don't forget about produce intense drawers. My toddler can access the fruit. It works for us.
Thank you for tips! We as a family of four have a habit of not finishing our leftovers. After seeing this video the other day, I chose to eat the leftovers instead of having take out pizza with my family.
All people mostly waste food in one way or another; Even people who hate to waste do it accidentally even though they have good intentions. Thanks for this video!!! I love bc you buy the last chance discounted items from the store and use them too!
Another way to use up scraps if you cant compost or dont have plants is to make scrap veggie broth! Save bones too and you can make bone broth as well. You can always compost them after you make the broth as well.
Whenever I have leftover cooked meat (NOT left on the plates, of course), I dice it up and put it in the freezer in a plastic bag. When I have enough, it goes in the crock pot and make excellent chili :)
I live alone and I don't throw anything away! I can't buy bulk and I have to live with pretty sparse options because otherwise food would spoil. Also if I buy it, I have to eat it, no matter if I'll have to eat the same food several days or if I don't like it. It really helps that I only buy and plan for myself.
I bought a dehydrator and now dehydrate leftover veg to throw in soups and chilis. While I haven't done this yet, I have watched videos on dehydrating greens to make into green powders for shakes. Those powders are super expensive so if you can make them yourself out of stuff in your frig that may be looking wilty, why not??
We don't waste much food here. In the last month we have thrown out two thin slices of cantaloupe and a small spoonful of potato salad. Our retirement budget does not allow for waste.
I bought a pack of Post It Flags (plastic ones) wrote the days of the week on a few of them and use them to label leftovers. It saves me from trying to guess how old something is and because the flags can be repositioned I reuse them over and over again.
So plan better, make less and be willing to put time into preserving what you’ve already purchased. I have also found portion control to be a big money saver and the waist line benefits.
Most of those things to compost... If you can't, save it still in freezer and when the bag is full make soup/broth... Then freeze that if you don't want to eat soup for cooking later on.
Great tips. I make left overs into something else. Spaghetti Pie. Layer spaghetti with meat sauce next sliced pepperoni or sliced meatballs then cheese. Next layer spaghetti and neat sauce top with cheese. 350 degrees oven 20 or so minutes until heated and cheese is melted. Yummy.
We pretty much never waste. I was so upset this week when I had to toss some zucchini and asparagus. I hurt my foot and ankle a couple weeks ago after buying all the good things, and it was difficult to walk, let alone stand and cook, so a few things went to waste. This was the first time in maybe a year that anything was wasted. We bought a few things to make my life easier, like hot dogs and pre seasoned chicken from a local Hispanic store for fajitas and burritos for this week, to limit my time standing. Fortunately, my Husband loves my cooking and leftovers. The freezer is one of my best friends, I store so much goodness so it won't get wasted 👍
I’m pretty religious about using up leftovers at our house. We’re both retired so we love having them as lunches! I plan all our meals before shopping and buy just what I need for those recipes so very little gets forgotten.
I meal plan, buy for a week at a time items I don’t already have in freezer or pantry, and I list leftovers on a dry erase board that I keep on the fridge
After watching you for so long, I can finally give myself an A+ on this topic. I'm crazy about not wasting anything! Got a composter and a garden and my freezer is my best buddy! Great video!
I meal plan monthly. We have leftovers every 4th day. There is usually enough for dinner & 1/2 of lunch. Add a salad & bam! Every quarter we eat freezer items for 2 weeks, move items from back to front, then decide what I can buy to restock. I also do themes every week like Mexican, Italian, Asian, American, soul & hodge podge (whatever I think of or a mixture of themes). I use up more items because many themed foods have similar ingredients. Waste is down to minimum now, thank goodness! At these prices, can't let old habits cause me to go broke.
It is hard to not throw food out when just cooking for one. I live in an apartment, and we are not allowed to have a freezer. Two things I've discovered: I have a large set of glass snap on lid containers, but fresh pineapple starts to degrade in one day in them. I've gotten out my old tupperware--the real ones--and my pineapple lasts up to 2 week. Also, lemons and limes freeze wonderfully. I usually just throw them in the freezer, no Bags. When I need a squeeze of lemon, I microwave it for a few seconds, stick a fork in it and squeeze and throw it back in the freezer for another time.
Label every container that goes in refrigerator. I use masking tape and a marker. Has helped a lot.I have cut back on the amount of food I am cooking. Trying to be creative and use pantry and freezer stuff. Shop at home first before buying.
This is no joke, I try extremely hard to use as much of the food we buy as I can. What we don't use is still utilized as chicken and dog food, but if we can eat it we do. I was extremely upset by the amount of food we wasted recently after a birthday party, due to a car accident I lost hundreds of dollars of food. Definitely appreciate the tip of doing an inventory though, usually I find food I need to use while cleaning but maybe I could utilize the food better if I know what's on hand! Love your videos thank you!
My fridge is an older model and still has the upper freezer. The biggest thing I have adopted to cutting back our food waste is meal planning and keeping the food at the front of the fridge shelves. Once it gets shoved towards the back of the fridge, It camps there for too long and ends up in the compost. I still end up tossing less than $3-5/week of food but it used to be a heck of lot more.
way back when my kids were home, about once a week or two we had 'Graze Dinner' which was just each of us would open the fridge and eat whatever you find... if it was in the fridge or on a counter it was fair game.. my son's friends all loved that....
I just made an account to order from Green Chef, it's not $130 of your first box, it's off 4 boxes. That's false advertising on their behalf. I did tell them that on chat btw! Thanks Christine, but I can't afford their prices either.
About 75% of the time, I eat the leftovers on the weekends. But I still throw out fruits and veges that I don't get to eat. Will work on buying less. Thanks for the tips.
I've always wanted to try one of those meal box kits, but there's a hidden cost that people sometimes forget about. Out where I live (rural Australia) I end up paying more in shipping to get the box than the cost of the meals in said box. Sadly that makes it a pointless effort, it's still cheaper to buy food every week, even if some of it ends up in the trash every week.
Food waste is my biggest pet peeve! I’m a master food preservationist (I literally took classes at our state agricultural college for this), and I am a canner, so I can stay as frugal as possible with my food choices. One of my favorite things to do is to keep a wide mouth quart jar in the freezer with a screw style lid on it. When we have left over veggies I throw them in this jar. Once the jar is full, I will use the contents in a soup, stew or shepherd’s pie type meal. Might only save a few bites from the trash, but over time it does add up.
I do something similar, keeping a gallon size baggie in the freezer and fill with leftover vegetables and vegetable scraps to use for making vegetable broth then freeze that. Wonderful to use instead of water for things like rice.
I try to plan meals that I can change the leftovers into two to three other meals. Sometimes our leftovers have leftovers. They move to the bottom right side shelf of the fridge. I don't cook another meal until their eaten. Most times they end up lunches. Yeah, the freezer is your friend for sure. We watch for sales on hams and pork loin roasts. Our store butcher can cut them into ham steaks and boneless chops and freeze them. If you have a cattle farm near you and they butcher, buy from them. The prices and quality are better than the stores. We buy frozen vegies from warehouse stores divide them into meal size portions, foodsaver them and put them in the freezer. These are some things that help us stay on budget and reduce wate.
Its still costing me money for the food, but I bring all my leftovers to my bachelor librarian. He loves it because he gets homemade meals and he hooks me up by not making me pay late fees on my borrowed items! Its a win win situation for both of us! And i don't throw away food!
The video was for me! I have realized that there are somethings I'm just not going to eat as leftovers because the texture changes or it's "too complicated" to reheat it to the desire consistency for me to eat it 😅 I just started cooking less and created a use up bin as well
Find a neighbor or friend with chickens! They love all sorts of veggie scraps and use them to make very tasty eggs. They don't even care if it's wilted
This is such an important thing to consider!! I am vigilant about never letting anything go to waste, so I stay on top of my fridge/freezer/pantry inventory and review my lists every day. You have great advice.
I try to creatively change leftovers. Make a new sauce. Add meat or veg to a cream soup. Don't call them leftovers, say must-goes. 🙂 I try but like most homes, I throw out food.
I live in the perfect spot for people to drop off their unwanted dogs. So a lot of my leftovers get fed to them! I know it's not ideal but it's the best I can do
We cook for the present meal and lunches for two to three people. We work very hard to not throw away anything. I freeze items and put them in the "individual serving" bin in the kitchen freezer. I am at home with an infirmed relative so I eat most of the "individual servings" that I freeze, or can use them for her lunch as well. We discard very little. If we won't eat it, it goes to the chickens or cats, or to the compost. It has to be ACTUALLY bad to go to the trash.
I always make way to much. My husband works evening and take leftovers for dinner. I also do leftover most of those nights since I have 2 boys 2 and under making it hard to cook some nights. I love the idea of the use it bin.
Leftovers don't last long at our house and are usually used for additional dinners. I made Sicilian pizza from scratch for our Friday Pizza and Movie night and it was also dinner on Saturday and today (Monday) it was lunch, it reheats perfectly in the oven. Dinner tonight was an 8lb pork shoulder for pulled pork and a mountain of hand cut Coleslaw and since we're busy the rest of the week it's great for several easy dinners and we'll be sorry when it's gone. After that, most likely for Sunday dinner. a good sized whole chicken with home made biscuits and asparagus, leftovers on Monday night, several lunches of thinly sliced breast meat sandwiches and a small batch of chicken salad. We should be back down in the 60's by then (it's HOT now) so maybe I'll make soup from the chicken carcass as well. We aim for zero food waste and we're usually pretty good each month.
My issues are wasted eggs and milk. My solutions include: mix them up and freeze the right amt for my next bread machine mix; make pancakes and freeze; make a complete bread or pizza dough ball and freeze; freeze the milk in small one cup baggies to use for cereal, coffee etc; hardboil the eggs and give to my friend for her lunches. I’m sure there are more ideas. Lettuce is still an issue. I now try to buy the smallest head instead of largest. Doesn’t impact the wallet but at least not going in trash bin. We need a community group so it can be donated to folks with guinea pigs!
My biggest help has been I only use the drawers for bottled water. I don’t go thru it that quick and it will last if I don’t think about it. Everything that has a shorter shelf life gets put on shelves in sight
I do like the idea of the "use up container" so that it's fresh in your mind and you can plan around that. I have been going through once a week when I am planning meals to see what's been in the fridge or freezer for a hot minute, to make sure I can incorporate them into my meals I make that week.
Definitely using up the leftovers here at our home with the high price of gas and groceries. We either just eat them after a day or two or I repurpose them into a different meal. Right now we are dieting so mostly eating alot of salads. We love stuffed peppers and I do make a batch and freeze them. So easy for a quick meal.
I was JUST talking to my family last night about how we don't throw food away in this house......we put it in Tupperware to throw away a week from now 🤦♀️🤣 lol this video was perfectly timed! Thank you 😊 💓
LOL! Exactly!
Stop cooking so much. I batch cook and make enough food for 3-5 days. We eat nearly everything with little left over. Have things had to be tossed? Yes, unfortunately, but we strive for little to no food waste.
@@FrugalFitMom I used your link in the "doobly-doo" to try Green Chef. Pretty excited 😊 🤗
I have a running joke with my son about cilantro. We go to the grocery store and I tell him I don’t know why I just don’t throw this right in the trash right now. Instead I take it home put it in the fridge and then a week later I throw it away.🤣 I might use it once
@@cindyabraham5503 I've chopped it up and freeze it in a baggie to throw in cooked dishes. I've even froze it with water to keep it greener and then it's more like fresh thrown in. I too have this problem, doesn't hurt so much when I get it 3 or 4 for $1 but when I pay nearly a dollar or more it hurts worse 😜
When I figured out you really can freeze almost anything, it was a game changer. We make a ton of taco meat at once then portion it out and freeze. Instead of smoking one rack of ribs, we smoke 3 and then freeze. Buy a dozen donuts and freeze half for next weekend. Love love love the freezer!
I heard a comment once that ‘if you can buy it frozen then you can freeze it yourself’
Take a stroll through the freezer aisles at the grocery store and look at all the prepared foods.
Meatloaf,lasagna, meat hand pies, fruit!, taco meat, pulled pork, soup!!,
Freeze it allll!!! My mom freezes milk.. well not so much now but you can.
Freeze eggs in an ice cube tray.
All meats in a rub or marinated! Life changing!
Same here! But I've run out of space on my freezer.😩
I just figured out this year that I can freeze cooked meat 🤯
99% of our leftovers get eaten for lunch! As far as taking inventory, we do that the day before trash pickup. 😉 You do have great ideas!
Yep, we do this as well. Especially with working from home- it makes it very easy to just heat up those leftovers. I think our food waste is actually at an all time low (we used to be terrible for it)
Trash day or the day before is a great day to inventory the frig
I'm so happy that I RARELY throw food away. My boyfriend and I plan about 3 meals a week and the other days we eat left overs or have eggs, grilled cheese, pancakes ...whatever we have that we can use up.
My in-laws are the biggest offenders when it comes to food waste. When my family was staying with them during a family emergency and I was in charge of cooking, everytime I said that dinner was "leftovers", because I wasn't going to cook more food until the fridge was cleaned out, they always ordered food in! 🙄 and not a normal amount of take out, but for like 10 people. My husband says that they never adjusted their food order from 6 people to 3. 6 people haven't lived under that roof for 8 years. I told them they could take leftovers for their lunch to work. Did they? Nope.
Gotta do what you can do
I plan for leftovers in my 2 week meal plan and I will cancel or move a meal with no problem if we have leftovers. My husband will eat whatever he’s served without complaint so it makes life easy
My husband hates leftovers. Sooo.....I hide them by making them into something else later that week. It's impossible not to have leftovers sometimes. Most of our meals get eaten at that meal. However, I cannot figure out why some of our produce goes bad so fast. I quit buying it until I need it for a couple of days. We only eat out about twice a month so I cook a lot. Thank you for the tips on how to keep things organized and money saving tips. When my 5 children were at home none of this was an issue. lol 🙂
I learned this from another youtuber, if you prepare salad for a couple of days, place a paper towel on top, it will help get rid of the excess moisture. I do the same thing with cut up celery, sweet peppers & carrots. I usually put those in a zip lock bag, so put the paper towel in the bag first , then the prepared veggies on top. It has worked really well.
When we only have a spoonful or 2 left of something and it’s not really enough to save, I toss them in a cool whip container in the freezer. When it’s full- BAM free veggie soup! I just make a broth and add the leftover veggies.
Exactly what I do with small amounts of left over veggies. And do one for leftover cooked & boned meat too. Not worth it to put 3 T in ref to throw away later. Every few weeks, LO (leftover) SOUP with cornbread is on our menu. It can turn into a chili, stew or unnamed concoction but we eat it all. Sometimes puree the veggie mixture to put in tomato based sauce too.
I have a hard time identifying with this because we almost never throw away any food. I work very hard at making sure I use things before they spoil.
I was born in the 70s(UK) for me I just visit memories of what we dis & didn’t have.We didn’t have a cleaner for every cleaning job,just jif & fairy liquid.No throwing food away.Ate quite a bit of tinned ham lol We couldn’t afford meat every day.We ate seasonal vegetables usually from our own country.Our clothing & furniture were better quality but had to last a long time ,I could go on lol
I love taking the scraps from veggies like onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc along with my chicken bones/caresses and popping them in the freezer to make bone broth another day! 🤗
me too! I also dehydrate veggies I cant use up quickly...or even mushrooms bought on clearance...
Save your seafood, beef, pork, etc scraps as well - they can all be used to make really delicious stocks.
We try to have no waste. My husband and I are great about eating leftovers. It becomes lunches for work the next day. We recently grilled 5 pounds of Greek chicken kabobs. We have been eating from that for 2 days now. Goes great on salads. Quick dinners in the car on way to the kids sports.
If I have veggies that I don't think we will eat fresh, I chop them up and make crockpot meal kits to freeze.
I also make a large crockpot meal (meat and veggies) and we eat a few meals from that. Saves so much money that way
I grocery shop once a month and it's actually helped us waste less food because I have to plan more intensely. Also food goes through a cycle in our house, if we don't eat it, whatever is dog safe goes to the dog, what he doesn't eat goes to the chickens, what they don't eat goes to the compost 😂 I call my chickens my little walking composters. They turn food into eggs and fertilizer. Not to mention we can enjoy our backyard without getting ticks or using bug spray!
I don’t know how you do that and still eat foods that are fresh…
Haha sounds like our house! Cats, dog, chickens, compost. I also use things like pineapple cores and apple peels and cores to make jelly. I hate food waste so thankfully nothing goes to waste around here!
BIG KEY for me was see-through containers. I got a nice set of Snapware at Costco (it's pyrex, so freezer to oven if you need to!). No more empty margarine or cottage cheese containers for leftovers. If I can't see into it, it is almost guaranteed to go to waste. But if you can see those delicious tacos, it looks like lunch!
We so rarely throw away/waste food that when it does happen (once a year maybe?), we dump it in the trash with all the solemnity of a funeral😆
Sounds like you are doing REALLY well on this issue!
When we have plenty of leftovers, we do a Fend for yourself night. The grandkids love it. They mix and match what they want. It cleans put all the leftovers. Whats left, goes into the garden.
We do this also, and call it FFY! (;
Spot on! My wife's take on leftovers when we were first married was to simply toss them. How she grew up her dad would usually take them for lunch so she never was used to eating them. Now she's all in using them up either via reheat, freezing or repurposing them. For stuff going/getting close to expire it goes to the dehydrator (mainly veggies) or we simply make up a hybrid meal of mix and match, stew or casserole.
"Use Up Bin"....perfect, i'm doing this, i will put it on a dedicated "need to use that month" shelf. Thanks christine👍❤
I have a few tips...if you don't eat the left overs the next day for lunch...freeze it. Have 1-2 nights a week that is left over/clean out the fridge night...we do ours the night before trash pick up. If you don't use fruits or veggies within a few days...freeze, dehydrate, or can it. If fruits or veggies go bad you can compost them and use that soil to grow more food. :) Some veggies will even re-grow and you can have a kitchen scrap garden.
One of the biggest changes I made was to get as many uses out of things that I buy as possible. Scrap veggies (onion tops and peels, carrot tops and peels, garlic peels, celery leaves, tomato cores, etc etc), they get turned into vegetable broth by simmering on the stove 8-10 hours in loads of water. The spent veggies get buried in the garden, the broth gets pressure canned and donated to my vegetarian friend.
Apple cores and peels go into jars of water to make apple cider vinegar.
Orange and lemon peels go into jars of vinegar for antibacterial cleaner.
Your point about meal planning is so right! I purposely planned for Wednesdays and Saturdays to be for leftovers, we rarely throughout food! Once in a while I’ll throw out some produce, but that’s usually during a particularly busy week or schedule change, etc.
We’re also in the habit of using our freezer for any leftovers that don’t get eaten on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
I typically plan dinner by the quarter (I’m trying to get a yearly plan made, but haven’t gotten there yet. Breakfasts and lunches for my kids are planned for the rest of the year 🙌🏻). A little tip for those that meal planning seems scary to, plan dinner by the month using themes (For us for May, Sundays= comfort food, Mondays= older son picks, Tuesdays = Mexican/ Texmex, Wednesdays/ Saturdays= leftovers, Thursdays= younger son picks, Fridays= seafood).
Love all your planning 💞
That’s a good idea. I use the theme planning too. It can get overwhelming when you’re just trying to plan for individual recipes for 30 or 31 days. It stumped my planning a lot before I started using themes for each weekday.
@@eatsipkrave exactly! Before themes, I was totally lost. With the themes I like how it breaks it down to smaller chunks, that for this month I only had to come up with five comfort foods for example.
@@kymmarye you example was eye opening, only 5 comfort food 🤯 My hubby doesn't wan chicken or casseroles 2 and definitely not 3 days in a row. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Sometimes I deconstruct the casserole like serving the meat and soup/broth/gravy over rice, potatoes or noodles and the veggie on the side 😁
@@tcctocrazytccarson7309 We aren’t casserole eaters pretty much at all. Something about blending stuff together and baking it, just isn’t appealing to me (like at all) 😖. Maybe try looking at what you all typically eat, and then come up with themes that fit your family.
Some of the themes that fit my family are Italian night, seafood, Mexican, comfort food, new recipe night, Asian night, pizza night, etc. I also used a calendar (regular cheap wall calendar, tried a meal planner and it was useless) so I could see it more visually laid out. Also we like a lot of variety, but if you all have your family favorites, just put those on rotation 😊.
Before I toss my veggie scraps in the compost, I make vegetable broth with them. Super easy. I throw the scraps in a zipper bag in the freeze. When it gets full, I dump in a pot, cover with water and simmer. (You can do it in the slow cooker too.) Then I strain out the veggies and toss them in the compost and I have yummy broth almost for free. I use it almost anywhere water is called for. Of course it’s a great base for soup, but I also put it in bread, etc. It freezes well too.
I'm a widow living alone and have found if I make meals ahead and freeze in individual containers, it helps. Also, planning what I'm going to eat for the week and buying in smaller size packages. Great tips you had!
I was talking with several people this week about food. People can cut their food bill ...quit eating so much! Everyone is eating all through the day with snacks, special drinks, etc.
For bell peppers, when you get them home, clean them and cut them into strips. Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap or parchment paper (waxed paper will work, but it is a bit more difficult to work with for this). Lay out your bell peppers so the strips don't touch, then put them in the freezer. When they are frozen, just toss the strips into a zip top bag. When you want to use them for a dish, do not thaw. Instead, you can either chop them and throw them into a sauce, or what I often do for philly sandwiches or fajitas is to put them directly into a hot pan that has some oil in it. Throw a lid on and sear them and they will caramelize nicely, then use in your dish. So simple and quick and my peppers taste garden fresh when I cook them like this. Bonus, if a frozen pepper strip falls on the floor, the dog thinks he scored a popsicle!
Saving money is one important thing but thinking over it all, as a society we got to use wisely and entirely our ressources. The planet earth is already unable to produce what we need in a year and meanwhile we throw good stuff in the garbage?!? That doesn't make any sense to me. I always try to be grateful for what we have and respect where it comes from, so compost is a fabulous way to use up every inch of it!
I’ve been spending $20-40 per week for my family of 3 for the entire year. With some good planning and shelf shopping it’s really easy. Just a little bit more effort on the front end. And you MUST eat the leftovers lol
I plan 2 meals that will create leftovers and then we have burger and hotdogs to fill in the gaps.
Hi, what do you use as your primary protein source? Thats incredible savings!
I've had to stop planning a full 7 days of meals so that we can utilize leftovers on at least 2 or 3 days of the week.
These were great tips! Thank you Christine!
Yes!!!
Me too.
We have one leftover night a week. Either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on when we get back from the gym.
Great money saving tip: freeze your left over veggies/cut offs. Examples are tge skins or ends of onions, carrot tops, and celery leaves from the stalks. Then when the gallon bag is full, make veggie stock. Or if your a meat person, save the bones and make a beef, turkey, or chicken stock. As you are using what you normally through away, it's basically free (minus a few herbs and whatever it costs you for water). I know stock isn't horrible expensive but with what I use, I saw about 100 or so a year and have all my fall and winter stocks readily available even when the stores run out.
I used to have a moldy bread issue, but now I store it in the freezer. The only thing we throw away are the eggshells and vegetable scraps you're not supposed to eat. And we actually compost that. We've always been good about eating leftovers and not overbuying.
Here in NC, the 18 gallon storage totes are $6.98. Drill holes in top, sides, and bottom...great compost bins.
Great idea! I have one in the garage. My small countertop one can get dumped into there! I’ll do it tomorrow.
I learned to can and dehydrate. Fresh fruits and veggies get turned into fruit snacks and home canned veggies I.e. pasta sauce, mixed stew veggies, etc. I also have a compost bin as gardening season is about ready to begin. I hate food waste. I could probably skip the grocery store for 6 months 😂. Only buying loss leaders and replacements now. Stock up is complete. Thank heavens.
Pretty good tips! I’m definitely going to do the “use up bin” because I’m always forgetting about stuff and/or losing it in the outer limits of the fridge. I swear stuff finds places to hide in there. Or maybe it leaves and then comes back only after it starts breaking down and growing fungus. Lol.
If anyone is interested in a small space garden, Green Stalk has their vertical planter on sale currently. You can also find codes for an additional discount (I know Roots and Refuge on UA-cam has one).
I definitely am going to be more aware of food waste! I need to scale down my cooking amounts to giving just 2 days worth of leftovers so that it doesn't get dumped. Love the tips, and making me think about not being wasteful!
You got this!
@@FrugalFitMom I really appreciate your encouragement! I can do this!
Also. We need garden content Christine lol
Well it snowed last night so I think I might wait a few more weeks 😂
We dice green peppers, put on tray in freezer and flash freeze them. Then they go in freezer ziploc baggie. We don't blanch them and they are fine. We do the same with carrots and mushrooms. They are ready to use and don't go to waste.
If its not meat, save it and use it for the garden. Recycle all food scraps. It makes wonderful compost.
I’ve been gurella composting.
Which is just a nice way of saying I throw my trash out in a public space 😮.
I live in a condo and I found a bit of neglected county owned land. Don’t worry, it is discreet!
You can shred non-glossy mail & newspaper to use in your compost as the brown material instead of trashing or recycling it.
Bell peppers are great and my birds love the little seeds inside.. none of it goes to waste 🥰
I keep lettuce fresh longer by storing in glass jars packed fairly tight and check salad toppings mid week. I'm an ingredient cook, so I tend to cook single foods, carrots, green beans, etc. by themselves as well as meats. I also cut up salad toppngs and place in glass containers. I pull from the ingredients to make meals/ entrees adding the spices to complete the dish. When it looks like something may go bad before I can use it, I either freeze or dehydrate it.
I cannot wait until one of these companies with Delivery's takes food stamps i am disabled i already wasted money sending someone out set my stuff then on top of it i have to have them get a lot of stuff because i can't afford to pay them go out more often and then stuff goes bad i love your ideas
The tiktok trend of putting your condiments in your produce drawers and the produce in the door helps us huge. I don't forget about produce intense drawers. My toddler can access the fruit. It works for us.
Thank you for tips! We as a family of four have a habit of not finishing our leftovers. After seeing this video the other day, I chose to eat the leftovers instead of having take out pizza with my family.
All people mostly waste food in one way or another; Even people who hate to waste do it accidentally even though they have good intentions. Thanks for this video!!! I love bc you buy the last chance discounted items from the store and use them too!
We have a can in the kitchen for all food waste that goes to the chickens every day. It added up to a full trashcan a month before we had chickens.
I totally ADORE Mavis! I have been following her for many years! Awesome for that shout out for her!✌
Another way to use up scraps if you cant compost or dont have plants is to make scrap veggie broth! Save bones too and you can make bone broth as well. You can always compost them after you make the broth as well.
The 'Use it up" bin is a GREAT IDEA, thanks!!
Whenever I have leftover cooked meat (NOT left on the plates, of course), I dice it up and put it in the freezer in a plastic bag. When I have enough, it goes in the crock pot and make excellent chili :)
I live alone and I don't throw anything away! I can't buy bulk and I have to live with pretty sparse options because otherwise food would spoil. Also if I buy it, I have to eat it, no matter if I'll have to eat the same food several days or if I don't like it. It really helps that I only buy and plan for myself.
We waste too much food and are now starting to meal plan to try to prevent food waste. Ty d for all you do!! 4
I bought a dehydrator and now dehydrate leftover veg to throw in soups and chilis. While I haven't done this yet, I have watched videos on dehydrating greens to make into green powders for shakes. Those powders are super expensive so if you can make them yourself out of stuff in your frig that may be looking wilty, why not??
I love the dehydrating greens idea! Brilliant 👏
I live in New Zealand and hunt for food. Here deer are a pest. I’m interested in buying a dehydrator and making venison jerky
We don't waste much food here. In the last month we have thrown out two thin slices of cantaloupe and a small spoonful of potato salad. Our retirement budget does not allow for waste.
I bought a pack of Post It Flags (plastic ones) wrote the days of the week on a few of them and use them to label leftovers. It saves me from trying to guess how old something is and because the flags can be repositioned I reuse them over and over again.
I always cook for an army but there's only 2 of us. But I love a freezer of leftovers for a quick dinner when we're busy. 😋
So plan better, make less and be willing to put time into preserving what you’ve already purchased. I have also found portion control to be a big money saver and the waist line benefits.
Most of those things to compost... If you can't, save it still in freezer and when the bag is full make soup/broth... Then freeze that if you don't want to eat soup for cooking later on.
Great tips. I make left overs into something else. Spaghetti Pie. Layer spaghetti with meat sauce next sliced pepperoni or sliced meatballs then cheese. Next layer spaghetti and neat sauce top with cheese. 350 degrees oven 20 or so minutes until heated and cheese is melted. Yummy.
We pretty much never waste. I was so upset this week when I had to toss some zucchini and asparagus. I hurt my foot and ankle a couple weeks ago after buying all the good things, and it was difficult to walk, let alone stand and cook, so a few things went to waste. This was the first time in maybe a year that anything was wasted. We bought a few things to make my life easier, like hot dogs and pre seasoned chicken from a local Hispanic store for fajitas and burritos for this week, to limit my time standing. Fortunately, my Husband loves my cooking and leftovers. The freezer is one of my best friends, I store so much goodness so it won't get wasted 👍
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who doesn’t do leftover meat. The taste and texture just isn’t the same the next day and I just can’t do it!
Thank you! I love the “ use up bin “ idea! Genius!
I’m pretty religious about using up leftovers at our house. We’re both retired so we love having them as lunches! I plan all our meals before shopping and buy just what I need for those recipes so very little gets forgotten.
I meal plan, buy for a week at a time items I don’t already have in freezer or pantry, and I list leftovers on a dry erase board that I keep on the fridge
After watching you for so long, I can finally give myself an A+ on this topic. I'm crazy about not wasting anything! Got a composter and a garden and my freezer is my best buddy! Great video!
I meal plan monthly. We have leftovers every 4th day. There is usually enough for dinner & 1/2 of lunch. Add a salad & bam! Every quarter we eat freezer items for 2 weeks, move items from back to front, then decide what I can buy to restock. I also do themes every week like Mexican, Italian, Asian, American, soul & hodge podge (whatever I think of or a mixture of themes). I use up more items because many themed foods have similar ingredients. Waste is down to minimum now, thank goodness! At these prices, can't let old habits cause me to go broke.
I freeze as much as I can.
We call mixed leftovers Must go...everything must go. Have a Mustgo night whenever you need it.
It is hard to not throw food out when just cooking for one. I live in an apartment, and we are not allowed to have a freezer. Two things I've discovered: I have a large set of glass snap on lid containers, but fresh pineapple starts to degrade in one day in them. I've gotten out my old tupperware--the real ones--and my pineapple lasts up to 2 week. Also, lemons and limes freeze wonderfully. I usually just throw them in the freezer, no Bags. When I need a squeeze of lemon, I microwave it for a few seconds, stick a fork in it and squeeze and throw it back in the freezer for another time.
Label every container that goes in refrigerator. I use masking tape and a marker. Has helped a lot.I have cut back on the amount of food I am cooking. Trying to be creative and use pantry and freezer stuff. Shop at home first before buying.
This is no joke, I try extremely hard to use as much of the food we buy as I can. What we don't use is still utilized as chicken and dog food, but if we can eat it we do. I was extremely upset by the amount of food we wasted recently after a birthday party, due to a car accident I lost hundreds of dollars of food.
Definitely appreciate the tip of doing an inventory though, usually I find food I need to use while cleaning but maybe I could utilize the food better if I know what's on hand!
Love your videos thank you!
When milk goes sour, you can use it as buttermilk to make pancakes.
We also put a sticky note with the date cooked.
Recycle ♻️ glass and plastic as well. Just had to compost a lot of slimy veggies 😟. Thanks for the helpful tips👍
in march i discovered many foods that can be frozen like butter, milk, bread/buns. game changer!!!
My fridge is an older model and still has the upper freezer. The biggest thing I have adopted to cutting back our food waste is meal planning and keeping the food at the front of the fridge shelves. Once it gets shoved towards the back of the fridge, It camps there for too long and ends up in the compost. I still end up tossing less than $3-5/week of food but it used to be a heck of lot more.
Nobody is perfect and life is learning and improbeing
way back when my kids were home, about once a week or two we had 'Graze Dinner' which was just each of us would open the fridge and eat whatever you find... if it was in the fridge or on a counter it was fair game.. my son's friends all loved that....
I just made an account to order from Green Chef, it's not $130 of your first box, it's off 4 boxes. That's false advertising on their behalf. I did tell them that on chat btw! Thanks Christine, but I can't afford their prices either.
I have a white board that I write what needs to be eaten soon (leftovers / expiring soon). Also what needs to be cooked soon.
About 75% of the time, I eat the leftovers on the weekends. But I still throw out fruits and veges that I don't get to eat. Will work on buying less. Thanks for the tips.
I've always wanted to try one of those meal box kits, but there's a hidden cost that people sometimes forget about. Out where I live (rural Australia) I end up paying more in shipping to get the box than the cost of the meals in said box. Sadly that makes it a pointless effort, it's still cheaper to buy food every week, even if some of it ends up in the trash every week.
We meal plan and "upcycle" leftovers. And freeze produce that may not be consumed before it spoils
Food waste is my biggest pet peeve! I’m a master food preservationist (I literally took classes at our state agricultural college for this), and I am a canner, so I can stay as frugal as possible with my food choices. One of my favorite things to do is to keep a wide mouth quart jar in the freezer with a screw style lid on it. When we have left over veggies I throw them in this jar. Once the jar is full, I will use the contents in a soup, stew or shepherd’s pie type meal. Might only save a few bites from the trash, but over time it does add up.
Oh that is a GREAT idea!! thanks for sharing, I'm using that tip 😁
I do something similar, keeping a gallon size baggie in the freezer and fill with leftover vegetables and vegetable scraps to use for making vegetable broth then freeze that. Wonderful to use instead of water for things like rice.
@@amyjohnson7729
I used to do that as well! ... until my daughter refused to eat anything I made with that broth. Now the scraps go to the compost.
@@sharonlynn3358 haha, well your daughter is missing out!
I try to plan meals that I can change the leftovers into two to three other meals. Sometimes our leftovers have leftovers. They move to the bottom right side shelf of the fridge. I don't cook another meal until their eaten. Most times they end up lunches. Yeah, the freezer is your friend for sure. We watch for sales on hams and pork loin roasts. Our store butcher can cut them into ham steaks and boneless chops and freeze them. If you have a cattle farm near you and they butcher, buy from them. The prices and quality are better than the stores. We buy frozen vegies from warehouse stores divide them into meal size portions, foodsaver them and put them in the freezer. These are some things that help us stay on budget and reduce wate.
Its still costing me money for the food, but I bring all my leftovers to my bachelor librarian. He loves it because he gets homemade meals and he hooks me up by not making me pay late fees on my borrowed items! Its a win win situation for both of us! And i don't throw away food!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 You have made a friend for life!
You can put every letturce in the Frish who you could cook with but not the delicate leafy greens
The video was for me! I have realized that there are somethings I'm just not going to eat as leftovers because the texture changes or it's "too complicated" to reheat it to the desire consistency for me to eat it 😅 I just started cooking less and created a use up bin as well
Find a neighbor or friend with chickens! They love all sorts of veggie scraps and use them to make very tasty eggs. They don't even care if it's wilted
This is such an important thing to consider!! I am vigilant about never letting anything go to waste, so I stay on top of my fridge/freezer/pantry inventory and review my lists every day. You have great advice.
I try to creatively change leftovers. Make a new sauce. Add meat or veg to a cream soup. Don't call them leftovers, say must-goes. 🙂
I try but like most homes, I throw out food.
I live in the perfect spot for people to drop off their unwanted dogs. So a lot of my leftovers get fed to them! I know it's not ideal but it's the best I can do
We cook for the present meal and lunches for two to three people. We work very hard to not throw away anything. I freeze items and put them in the "individual serving" bin in the kitchen freezer. I am at home with an infirmed relative so I eat most of the "individual servings" that I freeze, or can use them for her lunch as well. We discard very little. If we won't eat it, it goes to the chickens or cats, or to the compost. It has to be ACTUALLY bad to go to the trash.
I always make way to much. My husband works evening and take leftovers for dinner. I also do leftover most of those nights since I have 2 boys 2 and under making it hard to cook some nights.
I love the idea of the use it bin.
Leftovers don't last long at our house and are usually used for additional dinners. I made Sicilian pizza from scratch for our Friday Pizza and Movie night and it was also dinner on Saturday and today (Monday) it was lunch, it reheats perfectly in the oven. Dinner tonight was an 8lb pork shoulder for pulled pork and a mountain of hand cut Coleslaw and since we're busy the rest of the week it's great for several easy dinners and we'll be sorry when it's gone. After that, most likely for Sunday dinner. a good sized whole chicken with home made biscuits and asparagus, leftovers on Monday night, several lunches of thinly sliced breast meat sandwiches and a small batch of chicken salad. We should be back down in the 60's by then (it's HOT now) so maybe I'll make soup from the chicken carcass as well. We aim for zero food waste and we're usually pretty good each month.
Leftover night is called Buffet Night at our house!😁
My issues are wasted eggs and milk. My solutions include: mix them up and freeze the right amt for my next bread machine mix; make pancakes and freeze; make a complete bread or pizza dough ball and freeze; freeze the milk in small one cup baggies to use for cereal, coffee etc; hardboil the eggs and give to my friend for her lunches. I’m sure there are more ideas. Lettuce is still an issue. I now try to buy the smallest head instead of largest. Doesn’t impact the wallet but at least not going in trash bin. We need a community group so it can be donated to folks with guinea pigs!
when i have milk left ill make pudding. yum
lv2flip24: oh good idea. Adding to my list!
Use your milk for homemade ricotta and cottage cheese. It freezes well, and the leftover whey is great for bread dough.
My biggest help has been I only use the drawers for bottled water. I don’t go thru it that quick and it will last if I don’t think about it. Everything that has a shorter shelf life gets put on shelves in sight
I do like the idea of the "use up container" so that it's fresh in your mind and you can plan around that. I have been going through once a week when I am planning meals to see what's been in the fridge or freezer for a hot minute, to make sure I can incorporate them into my meals I make that week.
Definitely using up the leftovers here at our home with the high price of gas and groceries. We either just eat them after a day or two or I repurpose them into a different meal. Right now we are dieting so mostly eating alot of salads. We love stuffed peppers and I do make a batch and freeze them. So easy for a quick meal.
My favorite video of yours is when you do Gluten free. I have Celiac Disease. I enjoy that someone does Gluten free videos