waste less food

I’ll never really be done with this goal. It’s a day to day thing. I have to keep opening the refridgerator, seeing what’s inside, and eating what needs to be eaten up. I have to continue to change my plans when my ingredients threaten to go bad on me ahead of schedule. Etc.

But honestly, I’m 99% better at this than I was when I undertook this goal. So good, in fact, that I think I’m going to join a CSA this summer (half share). I’ve wanted to do that for awhile, but worried that I would waste a lot of the produce. Now, I think I can avoid that. I think I can make good use of the vegetables that will arrive weekly.

I could’ve done worse, certainly. The only things left in the fridge are some half and half (it may not make it, but it IS ultrapasturized; we’ll see), some celery (crapshoot – might be fine or unusable), carrots (will last) and half an onion (will also probably last). Oh, and half a head of garlic in the cupboard will probably sprout, but it may remain usable.

NOW…since I have 3 weeks of eating other people’s food, I think I will try to minimize waste by avoiding overeating. NOT an easy task in this season, but I’ll try…

I am going away for three+ weeks, starting about 1.5 weeks from tomorrow. I bought a large amount of groceries today (as I always do – I like to make good use of my time and gasoline). My goal is to use up all the perishables in my refridgerator and cupboards before I leave, but leave enough unperishables that I can make myself a meal when I get back.

How’s that for a challenge?

(It’s not really that bad – I’ll find a way to freeze/preserve things if I can’t eat them up.)

Yesterday, I actually used up a plastic package of fresh herbs just before they went bad. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done that! I’m getting a lot better, I think, at keeping track of what I have and planning my meals around that.

I felt bad b/c my roommate had to throw away a whole package of chicken this week. She bought it and it sat in the fridge too long, finally going “off” (it was stinky – gah). I know it’s not my problem, but I thought once or twice this week of informing her that it would probably go off – I myself chuck all of my meat in the freezer unless it’s cured (like bacon) or unless I’m going to use it in the next 2 days. I just don’t know how to share this information without sounding bossy or just nosy (“maybe you should put that chicken in the freezer if you’re not going to use it right away”). Maybe I don’t have to – maybe she’s figured it out.

Another tip: when in doubt as to when you’ll eat it or use it, unless it’s fresh produce or dairy (and even cheese and butter and produce can be frozen in some circumstances, depending on how you want to use them), chuck it in the freezer! I’ve found this to be invaluable as a busy student – some nights I just don’t want to cook, and I usually have something already made that I can eat just hanging out in the freezer.

If your produce comes in a bunch and is held together with a rubber band, or several rubber bands, or a twist-tie, or something similar:

Take these off as soon as you get it home.

It seems like a small thing. But I have been doing this consistantly for awhile, and my green onions and kale and other items last quite a bit longer before going slimey.

Try it yourself.

I was on a roll with this goal until yesterday. I started a pot of Ethiopian lentil stew and then blithely put a pot of brown rice on the stove. Checked the brown rice halfway through, because I’m still not used to cooking on a gas stove and have had to add water several times…

WORMS. Dead worms (mealworms of some kind, I believe) had hatched in my brown rice and were floating at the top of the pot, well-cooked by this point. If I were more hardcore, I would have simply skimmed off the worms and continued to cook the rice, but I just couldn’t manage it. ICKY. I don’t mind insects at all as a group, but something about finding crawling things in my food really gives me the willies. So down the toilet the pot of rice went, and into the garbage went the rest of the bag. :( I checked to see if anything else in the pantry was infested (nothing I could see so far), and then put all the dry goods into the freezer for a time. That should kill off any remaining little buggers.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….

Aside from last night’s fiasco, I have been doing really well with this goal lately. Nothing usable, edible, or formerly edible has been thrown away so far. I’m finding that vigilance is key – I have to open the fridge every day (or every other day) and the pantry and LOOK at everything. This way, I can catch something that’s going off before it becomes slimey and unusable. If I forget about it, it’s toast (or rather, trash).

Somehow I managed to eat up all that food, or freeze it for a later date. My downfall is produce. I almost had to throw out some swiss chard, as it was drooping, but I decided to use it since I was going to cook it anyway. It was fine, tasted fine, although I did discard a few leaves that were slipping from droopy to slimey…

I think there are 2 keys here: 1. plan the meals and 2. be able to decide what to make from ingredients if you miscalculate and need to use things up in a different order.

I’m going shoppping again today. I THINK that I did ok with the plan, but who knows? We’ll see how it plays out.

I did it again – bought/made wayyy too much stuff. I’m deviating from my planned meals because I have things that must be used up. This is not a bad thing, really, I just need to be dilligent. For instance, today I’m going to make myself a BIG sandwich containing things that must be used up (chicken, avocado, hummus), plus a nice walnut/arugula salad (the arugula should have been used YESTERDAY). Perhaps I should freeze part of the leftover chicken – it is very nice and I would HATE to have it go bad on me. But it might if I don’t freeze it – there is a LOT.

Keep your fingers crossed. With some luck and care, I might be able to manage my abundant food supply without wasting any of it. What a luxurious problem to have, indeed.

For those who want to save money, or are interested in making really good soups etc., and who eat meat…

Chicken stock is the shiznit!

Let me explain. From one 4 lb. chicken, a few tired carrots and celery stalks, an onion, and a few pinches of herbs/spices (plus about 24 hours worth of waiting and a few short minutes of actual work), I got:

- 4 cups nicely cooked chicken, for use in chicken salad, soups, whatever.

- Approx. 3/4 c. chicken fat. Don’t squinch up your face! A little fat is good for you. This can be used for roasting potatoes (very tasty), or making delicous matzoh balls and/or dumplings. Jewish cooks in the know call it “schmaltz”.

- 3.5 qts. chicken stock. This is not the chicken broth that you buy in the store. That stuff has tons of salt, added starch, preservatives, and who knows what else. This stuff tastes of chicken and very little else. Not only is it the foundation of really good chicken soup (and other great soups), but it can be thrown in anywhere. Making rice? Use stock instead of water. Cooking some vegetables? Add a little stock. Gravy, sauces, you name it. Almost any chef will tell you that a good stock is a lovely thing to have around. You can freeze it and pull it out when you need it.

Plus, if you cost it out, you will see that it is much cheaper to make your own than to buy canned chicken broth.

I definitely got my money’s worth from this bird.

I did have to throw away about 1/2 a serving of tofu cubes and a quarter of a bunch of parsley today. The tofu was way too old, and the parsley went slimey all of a sudden.

I have a ton of greens sitting in my fridge – bags of salad, plus a bunch each of kale and chard. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just cook up the kale and chard right now. For one, they would take up less space. For another, cooked greens can be held a lot longer than uncooked greens.

Yeah, that’s what I’ll do!