Hello there everybody,
Before you get all worried, no, I am not going to rant on about wasting food. Instead, I have a plan to help you to STOP wasting food.
I find for myself that I like to work with a menu for the coming week. I have posted about this before. I usually make up the week's menus on Sunday and then I will grocery shop on Monday or Tuesday.
As I have said before I like to have a quick look in the fridge or the pantry to see what is there before I start. It is usually a good idea to try to use up what you already have on hand rather than just simply go buy more.
In an effort to accomplish this in a better way I have begun to make a list on Sundays of what I find in the fridge. The food in the pantry is not perishable so it is not as critical to use it up.
Open up your fridge. Have a look in there.
What we are concerned with is the fresh produce, cheese, leftovers, etc. We are not concerned with jars of jam or condiments or the maple syrup. All of those things keep well. They should of course be used up in a timely fashion and not forgotten.
However, it is all the lovely fresh veg and fruit and the cheese and certainly the leftovers that can go on you in the blink of an eye.
If you make a very quick list, you can make sure that you use it up before it becomes something that has crawled out from a swamp.
My list for this week went like this:
- 3/4 head of green cabbage
- bag of baby carrots
- 1/2 head of broccoli
- 8 stalks of celery
- 1/2 package of mushrooms
- 4 anchovies
- 1/2 pork and ham pie
- assorted pieces of fruit, 2 apples on the verge
- bowl of cut up squash pieces from another large Hubbard
- 1/4 container of Hummus
- 1/3 large English cucumber
My solution to this is as follows:
Last night's dinner consisted of Squash Soup (saute a chopped onion in butter until softened, add all the cut up squash and both apples, cored and peeled. Add stock, cook until softened, blend and enjoy), the re-heated remains of the pork and ham pie and a plate of crudite (cucumber, broccoli and baby carrots) served with the Hummus.
That one meal alone took care of a lot of the stuff that could have gone west very quickly. I have a bit of soup left which I will have for my lunch today. There is a tiny piece of the pie left and that will be for lunch tomorrow.
Tonight's dinner will be a beef stew with anchovies. The recipe does not call for the mushrooms but I will toss them in there anyway. Serve this with some buttered egg noodles and some steamed cabbage and carrots.
You can see what I mean here. I have found that the very simple act of writing it down makes it so much easier for me to decide what to make in order to have nothing go to waste.
If you have any sensational tips along this line, please do leave me a comment. I love to hear how others are managing to keep the grocery bill down and reduce the amount of food that they waste.
Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful day. Cheers.
~ Melanie ~
Before you get all worried, no, I am not going to rant on about wasting food. Instead, I have a plan to help you to STOP wasting food.
I find for myself that I like to work with a menu for the coming week. I have posted about this before. I usually make up the week's menus on Sunday and then I will grocery shop on Monday or Tuesday.
As I have said before I like to have a quick look in the fridge or the pantry to see what is there before I start. It is usually a good idea to try to use up what you already have on hand rather than just simply go buy more.
In an effort to accomplish this in a better way I have begun to make a list on Sundays of what I find in the fridge. The food in the pantry is not perishable so it is not as critical to use it up.
Open up your fridge. Have a look in there.
What we are concerned with is the fresh produce, cheese, leftovers, etc. We are not concerned with jars of jam or condiments or the maple syrup. All of those things keep well. They should of course be used up in a timely fashion and not forgotten.
However, it is all the lovely fresh veg and fruit and the cheese and certainly the leftovers that can go on you in the blink of an eye.
If you make a very quick list, you can make sure that you use it up before it becomes something that has crawled out from a swamp.
My list for this week went like this:
- 3/4 head of green cabbage
- bag of baby carrots
- 1/2 head of broccoli
- 8 stalks of celery
- 1/2 package of mushrooms
- 4 anchovies
- 1/2 pork and ham pie
- assorted pieces of fruit, 2 apples on the verge
- bowl of cut up squash pieces from another large Hubbard
- 1/4 container of Hummus
- 1/3 large English cucumber
My solution to this is as follows:
Last night's dinner consisted of Squash Soup (saute a chopped onion in butter until softened, add all the cut up squash and both apples, cored and peeled. Add stock, cook until softened, blend and enjoy), the re-heated remains of the pork and ham pie and a plate of crudite (cucumber, broccoli and baby carrots) served with the Hummus.
That one meal alone took care of a lot of the stuff that could have gone west very quickly. I have a bit of soup left which I will have for my lunch today. There is a tiny piece of the pie left and that will be for lunch tomorrow.
Tonight's dinner will be a beef stew with anchovies. The recipe does not call for the mushrooms but I will toss them in there anyway. Serve this with some buttered egg noodles and some steamed cabbage and carrots.
You can see what I mean here. I have found that the very simple act of writing it down makes it so much easier for me to decide what to make in order to have nothing go to waste.
If you have any sensational tips along this line, please do leave me a comment. I love to hear how others are managing to keep the grocery bill down and reduce the amount of food that they waste.
Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful day. Cheers.
~ Melanie ~
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