Food resolution
August 22, 2010
There will be no more waste.
Life’s been rather chaotic with the odd unexpected meal out, travel that comes up faster than expected, and a few weeks of poor meal timing led to a day when fridge clear-up was more than throwing out scraps gone off before we could eat them. We’re blessed with good food and the good fortune of never wondering where our next meal is coming from, I can’t stomach the thought of taking that for granted and wasting any more food through carelessness.
We’re now being much more careful about eating up leftovers within a day or two and stretching the ends of each batch of food creatively, not just by starting up a whole new meal.
There’s a chicken roasting in the oven now only because it was defrosted before weekend and before we brought home unexpected bounty from a BBQ on Saturday. The rest of this week, we’ll polish off the fresh roast bird and broccoli slaw mix, a variant on Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.
I’m planning more creative meals as well, to stoke appetites and make eating as fun as it used to be when we experimented more.
On the grocery front, I spent $50 today, stocking up on sale fish, which PiC is this very moment dealing out into smaller portions and freezing for later. I’m dating everything that goes into the freezer so we can easily rotate protein into the meal plans regularly. We also now have what would be a year’s supply of cereal, if he weren’t such a cereal glutton, for PiC, plenty of frozen veggies for the end of the week when we tend to run out of fresh, and a back-up chicken for roasting. We’re set for the next few weeks in a way that won’t have us throwing out heaps of wilted or food gone off.
Well-Heeled asked me a while back how I managed home-cooking so often but it was down to better planning and dedicating most of at least one weekend day to cooking more than any special Suzy Homemaker ability.
I’m also very lucky to have PiC who is generally fully capable and willing to do the Costco and other grocery runs with or without me, sous chefs happily, and puts up with any number of odd kitchen stocking requests. A full partner is invaluable in managing a kitchen and household!
Fortunately, I live within walking distance of a grocery store. I only go through the 10 items or less line 99%. I still have some waste-I can’t always use up some item when it’s just me. I still need to cut back on eating out.
this summer i’ve been awful. We go through cereal like crazy in these phases, because we both are willing to classify it (or maybe two bowls of it) as a meal, no matter what time of day.
Ug.
This post gives inspriation to plan better!
Since I’m a party of 1, it’s hard to not let some food go to waste. But I’ve noticed that my new roommates like to (drunkenly) eat some of my food! Maybe they don’t realize it’s mine? 😉 And I still do the occasional thing like have leftovers ready and then get invited for pizza with friends!
That sounds like our life. We made a batch and froze a batch of enchiladas this weekend.
I hate food waste so we try to have leftovers for lunch and make sure to use up odds and ends before they go bad. We used to have stir-fry or omelete or stew once a week to use up random things, but the kid isn’t crazy about such things so we don’t do it as often.
I’m the chef’s assistant in my household and hubby appreciates that I’m willing to shop for his ingredients too. I like being needed even if I don’t cook as often, lol. Good luck with your new system! We stopped having to throw out so much when I started bringing my own lunches.
Rambo won’t go grocery shopping which I’m happy about because I can figure out bargains, but I still detest it. I find that menu planning helps tremendously while making sure the meals are easy to put together. Neither one of us are big meat eaters so it’s easy to plan meals without meat sometimes I feel. And easy. 🙂