Food Waste @ Home

[liuzhou]

While we have a topic over on the Restaurant Life section dealing with food waste in that context, it is specifically about waste in a catering context.

 

Huge amounts of food are wasted at home. This article from the Guardian

 

Britons throw away 1.4m edible bananas each day, figures show

 

is but one of many examples.

 

What do you do, if anything, to reduce waste in your home kitchen? Any tips worth passing on.

 

I regularly make banana bread from bananas which are visually past their best (taste-wise just coming to perfection). In fact, I buy bananas from the discard section of my local supermarket where they pile up anything that looks less than perfect and sell it for next to nothing.

 

That said, I still waste more than I would like to. I find that living alone doesn't help.

[patris]

Food waste is something I have done to a truly shameful degree over the years. I grocery shop weekly and often I would make grand plans involving lots of fresh fruit and veg, only to bin most of it when I failed to follow through. To address that, and at the same time work some interest and variety in my diet, I am giving Hello Fresh a try. Happily, this week my only food waste has been the woody ends of a few asparagus stalks.

[Okanagancook]

Good Topic!

 

Being the daughter of a woman who lived through the food restrictions in the UK during the war I was taught not to waste anything....if at all possible.

I have to say we throw almost no prepared food in the garbage.  I try not to make too much food that we have leftovers.   I detest leftovers.   Or, I will make full recipes with the intent of freezing portions...stuff that freezes well, like soups, dahl, pasta, stews, etc.   We usually have these as lunches.  Right now I have two balls of chapati dough leftover from an Indian dinner.....enough to make two 8 inch breads....it's flour and water!  Sheesh.

 

The food that does make it to the garbage is almost always veggies or fruit because I sometimes get carried away at the store!  Well, actually that kind of stuff goes into the compost.

  

Vegetable peelings, etc. are mostly kept in the freezer for making stock.  Parts unsuitable go to the compost.

 

All animal fat is saved and reused in the preparation of foods.

 

Extra buttermilk and cream is frozen in 4 oz portions.  Same goes for sauces left over from a meal.

 

If onions look like they are getting old, I will chop them up and freeze them rather than letting them get to the point of compost material.

 

[Anna N]

Yep.  We singletons are really challenged to avoid food waste while enjoying a varied diet.  Because I only occasionally am fortunate enough to get to a grocery store and choose my own ingredients I have a tendency to hugely over shop leading to ever more waste.  And placing an online grocery order also means that I over shop since I am paying a delivery charge which is the same whether I spend $40 or $140. 

I do not believe that I would be long satisfied with any sort of meal delivery system as I am always reading/buying cookbooks and trying new recipes. However I am going to try a service again just as a fun project. I do not think it will be any sort of answer to the problem of food waste in this house.  If anything it might add to it.

[liuzhou]

One of the many things I do like about living here is that no one blinks if I go to the local market and buy one tomato, for example. The only time they balked was when I tried to buy some herb in a small quantity and it didn't even register on their scales.

 

That said, I too get carried away especially by fruit which I just have to have! I just threw away half a pineapple I forgot was in the fridge.

 

Veg is also problematic.

 

Unfortunately, composting isn't an option in an apartment block. However, food waste is collected separately by the trash people (twice a day). Goes to China's huge population of pigs, I'm sure.

[dcarch]

Two tips:

 

1. check your refrigerator temperature. surveys have shown that many home refrigerator are way too warm. Food gets spoiled quickly.

 

2. Make fried rice more often. You can just about put anything into fried rice. All odds and ends.

 

dcarch

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I just scraped half a serving of mashed potato into the garbage.  I knew that I would never eat it.

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, dcarch said:

Make fried rice more often. You can just about put anything into fried rice. All odds and ends.

 

 

While I see where you are coming from, in my mind fried rice can be sublime if made well from prime, fresh ingredients.

Using it as a dumping ground for all and everything ain't happening in this house. It deserves more respect.

Edited May 15, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I have a bag in my freezer for bits of this and that for vegetable stock, which I add to until I get a couple of cups worth.

 

I freeze extra tomato sauce in a large-cube ice cube tray, then bag the cubes. Plain rice freezes well, and I freeze it in several sized packages for various uses -like small containers to add to soup.

 

I make pizza with small amounts of vegetables as toppings. Three mushrooms, a quarter onion, half a hot pepper, and some spinach leaves will make a very good pizza.

 

Sushi can be a good way to use up small amounts of salad vegetables like cucumber, carrot, green onion, some herbs, etc.

 

Leftover cooked foods can be incorporated into frittatas or quiche. (sauced pasta like baked ziti or lasagna is very good!)

 

Hash is also often overlooked by modern cooks.

 

If I have too much fruit, I try to make sorbet with it. Especially in summer when the fruit is really good. Opening the container 6 months later, in winter, can be an amazing experience.

[Tri2Cook]

More food goes to waste at my house than I'm happy to admit... and in all honesty, I'm not really making any great efforts to change that. It's not that it's a large amount of food going to waste, it's just me and my teenage daughter so I don't really buy a lot of food, but the percentage of what I do buy that ends up in the trash is higher than it probably should be.

[dcarch]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

While I see where you are coming from, in my mind fried rice can be sublime if made well from prime, fresh ingredients.

Using it as a dumping ground for all and everything ain't happening in this house. It deserves more respect.

 

 

Just like a symphony orchestra, in which all instruments are essential in the music that they play.  Fried rice is conceptually the same. All the ingredients used in a fried rice must be thoughtfully orchestrated.

 

The chef for the fried rice is the conductor, making sure all the ingredients are participating to produce a tasteful masterpiece in concert.

 

I totally agree with you. Fried rice is not a dumping ground for rotten food.

 

dcarch

[Anna N]

 I think if you are going to be the least bit adventurous in your eating habits and willing to try new ingredients and new preparations then a certain amount of waste must be expected. I think if we all do our best to keep waste to a minimum then we should be somewhat forgiving of our sins

[kayb]

The overripe bananas can be mashed into pulp and frozen if you don't want to make banana bread right at that time, and used later. Ditto avocados.

 

My mother used to keep a half-gallon plastic container in the freezer into which were scraped all the leftover cooked vegetables at the end of a meal that weren't enough to save for another full meal. When the container got full, it was time to make soup.

 

I've found my little $19.99 Aldi dehydrator has been well worth its cost in saving me from throwing out veggies; I dehydrate and bag them, toss them in the freezer, and use them later in soups or otherwise. A particularly good use for squash.

 

That said, one has to actually DO those things. My downfall is an uncertain schedule that varies widely (I have not cooked in two weeks, as I have been home very little of that two weeks). I at least have begun composting my veggies that go south on me.

 

[Darienne]

I'm not at all sure why...but we have very little throw-away in our family.  Two large dogs which are fed basically raw and human grade food help.  So a bit of leftover cooked potato might go into their breakfast.  

 

Any elderly vegetables get roasted and go into the freezer for enchiladas.  

 

I'd have to think about it for some time to figure out why we don't have waste.  Right now my brain is too tired. 

[Naftal]

12 hours ago, dcarch said:

Two tips:

 

1. check your refrigerator temperature. surveys have shown that many home refrigerator are way too warm. Food gets spoiled quickly.

 

2. Make fried rice more often. You can just about put anything into fried rice. All odds and ends.

 

dcarch

 

    I make fried rice daily. I add old tea leaves to it. Think Laphet Thoke, Burmese Tea Salad.

Congee is good too. You can put anything in that!

 

Edited May 15, 2017 by Naftal (log)

[Tri2Cook]

15 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

While I see where you are coming from, in my mind fried rice can be sublime if made well from prime, fresh ingredients.

Using it as a dumping ground for all and everything ain't happening in this house. It deserves more respect.

 

While it is no doubt true that the best fried rice can be made from fresh ingredients, some really good fried rice can result from using leftovers. I made Mongolian Beef Saturday night and served it with rice. On Sunday, I used the leftover rice and leftover Mongolian Beef to make fried rice for lunch and it was very tasty. In my personal opinion, it suffered not at all from being made from leftovers.

[cakewalk]

32 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

While it is no doubt true that the best fried rice can be made from fresh ingredients, some really good fried rice can result from using leftovers. I made Mongolian Beef Saturday night and served it with rice. On Sunday, I used the leftover rice and leftover Mongolian Beef to make fried rice for lunch and it was very tasty. In my personal opinion, it suffered not at all from being made from leftovers.

Not unlike a frittata. It can be made intentionally, with specific ingredients, or it can be made with leftovers. Delicious both ways, neither of which is disrespectful to the dish.

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

While it is no doubt true that the best fried rice can be made from fresh ingredients, some really good fried rice can result from using leftovers. I made Mongolian Beef Saturday night and served it with rice. On Sunday, I used the leftover rice and leftover Mongolian Beef to make fried rice for lunch and it was very tasty. In my personal opinion, it suffered not at all from being made from leftovers.

 

I'm sure it didn't. I often make fried rice using leftovers. My point is that I think they should be used judiciously rather than everything and anything being chucked in as seemed to be suggested.

[ChocoMom]

My hubby and I were just marveling over how little food waste we have now.   The chickens and turkeys eat darn near anything like veggie or fruit peels, apple cores, bread crumbs, or misplaced left overs. And now with the sun shining more---I am consistently getting eggs from my "girls".  (The droppings do wonders for the garden, too.)  After we eat eggs, I let the egg shells dry, crush them up and feed it back to the chickens, so they continue to get their grit and calcium. 

 

Im doing so much more pressure canning now, there isn't much at all that goes to any waste.  I'm quite pleased with how far we've come  . 

 

I've learned to render the fat off our beef, and use that for food preparation now too. 

[Darienne]

8 hours ago, ChocoMom said:

My hubby and I were just marveling over how little food waste we have now.   The chickens and turkeys eat darn near anything like veggie or fruit peels, apple cores, bread crumbs, or misplaced left overs. And now with the sun shining more---I am consistently getting eggs from my "girls".  (The droppings do wonders for the garden, too.)  After we eat eggs, I let the egg shells dry, crush them up and feed it back to the chickens, so they continue to get their grit and calcium. 

 

Im doing so much more pressure canning now, there isn't much at all that goes to any waste.  I'm quite pleased with how far we've come  . 

 

I've learned to render the fat off our beef, and use that for food preparation now too. 

Wow!  This is really something.  I wasn't counting peels and core and egg shells and coffee grounds.  And canning.  A rendering.  ChocoMom, I salute you. 

[dcarch]

I am 100% no waste.

All food stuff from the kitchen are used fully 100%. 

Any food that is not eaten is composted in the garden for next season's food. This include all fat, meat and bones. If you bury meat, fat, bones deep enough, critters will not dig them out. large bones are pulverized in my garden shredder and mixed with soil.

Even water from washing food are collected for watering plants.

 

dcarch 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Darienne said:

Wow!  This is really something.  I wasn't counting peels and core and egg shells and coffee grounds.  And canning.  A rendering.  ChocoMom, I salute you. 

 Somehow I don't consider stuff that I wouldn't eat anyway as food waste. It may be a waste of a useful resource if you have the facilities to make use of it.  I don't have any critters that I can feed any sort of human food to nor do I have a garden that would benefit from any of it. 

[Toliver]

20 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

While it is no doubt true that the best fried rice can be made from fresh ingredients, some really good fried rice can result from using leftovers...

Yes, this.

My mom took Chinese Food cooking lessons in the 70's and was told by the instructor that leftover rice is best used for fried rice. After that, whenever she made rice for dinner, she doubled the recipe so she would have leftovers for fried rice (or rice pudding!). Plus, you could dice up whatever else you had lingering in the refrigerator and toss that into the rice.

 

Since I prepare meals for one (myself), I have gotten out of the habit of buying salad fixings since I usually don't eat them up before they wilt//go bad. It made more economical sense for me to buy a prepared salad from the store/fast food restaurant and there would be no waste on my end.

[Darienne]

3 hours ago, dcarch said:

I am 100% no waste.

All food stuff from the kitchen are used fully 100%. 

Any food that is not eaten is composted in the garden for next season's food. This include all fat, meat and bones. If you bury meat, fat, bones deep enough, critters will not dig them out. large bones are pulverized in my garden shredder and mixed with soil.

Even water from washing food are collected for watering plants.

 

You, sir, are amazing.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

16 hours ago, dcarch said:

... large bones are pulverized in my garden shredder and mixed with soil.

 

Have you ever seen "Fargo"? If I am starting to irritate you in a discussion or something, please remind me not to piss you off! 

 

16 hours ago, dcarch said:

Even water from washing food are collected for watering plants.

 

How do you do this? 

 

I thought I was pretty green, but you have got me beat.