During the holidays, our food waste was a little high. We shopped a lot, cooked a lot and packed the refrigerator with all sorts of ingredients and good things to eat. The environment was just right for food waste, since we hardly knew what we had. Having another person in our home didn’t help, either, since we all tending to save things for each other to the point where some items went bad (a crying shame in the case of the over-the-top chocolate bread).
Since one of my New Year Resolutions is to find an extra $5,000 toward my mortgage coupled with the fact that food prices are rising at a crazy rate, I’m motivated to eliminate food waste. I’m getting serious, too.
For example, I got my behind out of bed extra early this morning in order to prepare some of last night’s dinner ham. I diced up a bunch so my son could mix in it with homemade macaroni and cheese (also left over in the fridge), heat everything and place it in his thermos. For my daughter’s school lunch, I cut the ham into thin squares and placed them in a container, along with squares of American cheese. In a separate container, I placed various crackers (use them up before they go stale). Instant Lunchable lunch without the expense or the extra preservatives.
I did plan on cooking this dish today for dinner, so I’ll make sure that gets done, but I’ll also dive into my cookbooks to make sure that whatever is left in the refrigerator (including more ham) is either frozen as is or turned into new meals that can be used later.
If I get really ambitious, I’ll go through the pantries to identify any soon-to-be expired ingredients and make use of those, too. I know there are probably a couple of cake or cookie mixes that should be made soon.
To get some motivation when it comes to using up leftovers or cooking up those neglected ingredients, just try to picture them with price tags on them. That usually helps me! Won’t you join me in the quest of not wasting food today?