Live More Frugally and Mindfully
Image Credit: http://tinyurl.com/pw23h49
Wasting food is as natural as breathing for many people. They don't even think about it, they eat what they want of a meal and toss the rest down the disposal. Putting a stop to this practice is a great part of living more frugally and more mindfully.
1. When deciding what to have for dinner (or breakfast or lunch) try to use the items in the fridge that are the oldest. This will prevent losing them due to spoilage. This also applies to the food in your freezer, which can also spoil or get freezer burn, making it inedible. If you are fresh out of ideas of what to cook from the stuff you have on hand, go to Supercook.com and enter the list of your items and they will give you a list of recipes that you can make using your stuff. How cool is that?
2. Take your dinner leftovers and be creative for lunch. You don't have to eat them in the same form you had for dinner; sometimes it's not that great to have to eat the same thing two days in a row. Take what you have and make something new. Left over pork chop? Cut it up and put it in a salad. Left over cooked vegetables? toss them in a bowl of soup. Leftover casserole? Heat it and serve it on crispy toast. The moral of the story is, leftovers for lunch don't have to be the same old, same old.
3. Don't buy more than one week of fresh produce at a time, and make sure you have plans for what you buy. In other words, don't buy produce because it is pretty or cheap when you have no idea what you plan to use it for. This is a recipe for spoilage.
4. If you find yourself with an abundance of something, like tomatoes or peppers from your garden, do something with them right away! Cut them up and freeze them. Dehydrate them. Can them. You will be so happy you did when you need them and you don't have any, like during the cold winter months.
5. If, despite your best efforts, you do find yourself with food that resembles a science project, use it to start a compost pile. If you don't have a good place to put a pile, then buy a compost bin. Even a small one will provide you with great fertilizer for your garden, even container gardens. Be advised, you should never put meat, oil or grease or dairy products into compost. It will stink terribly and promote maggots, which you do not want in your compost. One thing that you do want to put in your compost is dirt, just stir it in liberally.......and it's also a good idea to toss in a handful of earthworms to help aerate.
Statistics say that Americans waste 30% to 40% of the food we buy, either through spoilage or from just throwing it away. You can cut this down to almost 0% by using these 5 easy steps. Don't be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution.
Have a great day,
Jade :)
2. Take your dinner leftovers and be creative for lunch. You don't have to eat them in the same form you had for dinner; sometimes it's not that great to have to eat the same thing two days in a row. Take what you have and make something new. Left over pork chop? Cut it up and put it in a salad. Left over cooked vegetables? toss them in a bowl of soup. Leftover casserole? Heat it and serve it on crispy toast. The moral of the story is, leftovers for lunch don't have to be the same old, same old.
3. Don't buy more than one week of fresh produce at a time, and make sure you have plans for what you buy. In other words, don't buy produce because it is pretty or cheap when you have no idea what you plan to use it for. This is a recipe for spoilage.
4. If you find yourself with an abundance of something, like tomatoes or peppers from your garden, do something with them right away! Cut them up and freeze them. Dehydrate them. Can them. You will be so happy you did when you need them and you don't have any, like during the cold winter months.
5. If, despite your best efforts, you do find yourself with food that resembles a science project, use it to start a compost pile. If you don't have a good place to put a pile, then buy a compost bin. Even a small one will provide you with great fertilizer for your garden, even container gardens. Be advised, you should never put meat, oil or grease or dairy products into compost. It will stink terribly and promote maggots, which you do not want in your compost. One thing that you do want to put in your compost is dirt, just stir it in liberally.......and it's also a good idea to toss in a handful of earthworms to help aerate.
Statistics say that Americans waste 30% to 40% of the food we buy, either through spoilage or from just throwing it away. You can cut this down to almost 0% by using these 5 easy steps. Don't be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution.
Have a great day,
Jade :)
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