Simple Tips to Reduce Food Waste
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Second to the cost of our monthly mortgage, food takes up a considerable portion of our budget. I’m not mad about this, nor am I surprised at all. This makes the most sense because we are a family of 4 and we gotta eat to live. But, knowing this information about our budget makes food waste all that much more important for me to reduce. I know I can’t eliminate all of our food waste, but I can try my best to plan and make conscious choices that will help significantly reduce how much food we waste. When I became a stay-at-home mom a couple years ago, I made it a goal to figure out as many easy ways that I could reuse ingredients or preserve them for another time. Though my search for food waste reduction tips is never really over, here’s what I’ve been doing so far!
Bake Banana Bread - We’ve all done it before, let bananas sit until they are overripened and desirable to no one. Before having a family of my own, I would turn a blind eye as I threw them in the trash, but these days, I turn those brown bananas into banana bread or zucchini bread so quick! Not only is it a sweet treat I happen to really enjoy, quick breads freeze well and make a great addition to my breakfast rotation.
Make Guacamole - Avocados can be so unpredictable. If you are a fan of avocados, you know what I’m talking about. One day, they feel firm and not quite ready to eat. Then the next day, POOF, they are ready and you don’t know how long they will last until they are overripe. If you happen to have multiple avocados go ripe on you at the same time, but you just don’t have time to eat them all, the easiest thing to do is make guacamole. And I don’t know about you, but I can eat guacamole with a lot of things and never get tired of it!
Bake Tortilla Chips - After eating burritos, we always seem to have one or two leftover flour tortillas that we’re not sure what to do with. In most cases we’ve run out of all the fillings and there’s definitely not enough tortillas for everyone in the family. Instead of just letting the lone tortilla get stale in your pantry before throwing it out, you can cut it up into triangles and bake it into a small serving of tortilla chips!
Sourdough Discard Recipes - If you are a sourdough baker, you know just how much discard too easily adds up. Instead of throwing your discard away, start looking for some sourdough discard recipes. There are tons of easy discard recipes out there that will help you use up all of that extra sourdough starter. Some of my favorite discard recipes come from the This Jess Cooks blog or the Pantry Mama blog.
Make Bread Crumbs - I was never (and probably will never be) a fan of the ends of a loaf of bread. I usually just eat everything in between and waste the butt ends. But, I found that as long as the butt ends are still in good shape, instead of throwing them away, I can still turn them into breadcrumbs by putting them through a food processor, then lightly toasting the crumbs until they are light brown and crisp. I usually freeze a bag of crumbs, so I can later use them for making meatballs or fancying up a baked mac n cheese by topping it with a generous sprinkle of toasted bread crumbs at the tail end of baking! If you are in the market for a good food processor, I’ve been using my KitchenAid food processor for almost 10 years and I still think it does a wonderful job with evenly chopping or puréing ingredients.
Make Croutons - If you don’t really use bread crumbs all that much or you don’t have a food processor to turn stale bread into crumbs, you can always slice those pesky bread butts into cubes to make fresh croutons for salad! After slicing leftover bread into cubes, I drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle garlic salt, Italian seasoning and grated Parmesan to taste before toasting it for 13-15 minutes in an oven preheated to 325 degrees F.
Add Fruit to Smoothies - I love buying berries and grapes because they are so nutritious and equally as delicious. But, the price tag can get crazy and sometimes the shelf life is unfairly short. That’s why I like to check on our stash of fruit everyday and assess the situation. If our fruits start to look like they might start going bad in the next day or so, I make sure to wash and freeze them so that they can still be used as sweet ingredients to throw into our smoothies! If you are looking for a great smoothie blender, our family has always been happy with our Nutribullet.
Make Fried Rice - Making fried rice is a great way to use up leftover rice and just about any kind of protein. And I mean, you can use any protein, like leftover crab meat, bbq pork char siu, chicken, spam… pretty much anything. Fried rice also has a wonderful way of repurposing a hodgepodge of leftovers and magically becoming a refreshingly new dish. I’ve been making fried rice the Uncle Roger way for a few years, which was surprisingly super easy and it’s never steered me wrong. Here’s a quick video of his latest version of egg fried rice for reference. Now, all you need is a wok and you’re set! We have a HexClad wok and love it!
Regrow Green Onion - I know green onions are affordable, but isn’t it still awesome to know that you can squeeze out more life from a used green onion? Once you are done cooking with the green part, instead of throwing away the roots, you can stick them in a glass jar with a shallow amount of water and regrow the leaves for another use! Having seemingly endless amounts of green onion is amazing because green onions make a great garnish for so many dishes and are a common ingredient in Asian cuisine.
Freeze Baked Goods - Fresh baked goods are amazing, but they do start to dry out after spending a couple days on the counter. Rather than forcing yourself and your entire family to eat a whole tray of baked goods before they become stale, you can pace yourself, eat a healthy amount of carbs and freeze the rest. Toasting a frozen slice of bread revives it and its taste and texture still holds up. The best part about having a frozen stash of your favorite baked goods is if you get the craving for just one muffin on a random day, it is so easy to reheat one serving.
Learn to Meal Plan - If it wasn’t already obvious, meal planning will help you reduce food waste by making most of the ingredients that you buy more purposeful. It’s never too late to start and it definitely gets easier to do in time. If you are new to meal planning and need some tips and encouragement, you can check out my past blog posts, “Easy Meal Planning Tips,” and “How to Meal Plan in 5 Easy Steps.”
Whether your goal is to develop habits to help save money or to just reduce your waste in general, learning how to reduce food waste is never a bad idea. Coincidentally, I found that finding ways to reduce food waste has also helped me work on self-discipline, stay mindful as a consumer, and stretched my creativity. I’m sure there are so many other ways to reduce food waste and I’m excited to learn more, but these simple tips are a great place to start!
