Compost. We compost all food leftovers/scraps in our household. In Europe this is standard, just like recycling and trash removal.

Anonymous wrote:She is 18. I am the only one who is eating leftovers and this is not fair to me. Her dad and I before he died, used to own a bakery/restaurant, so we are used to buying in bulk. We have 2 freezers that are generally full. Leftovers get put in the freezer but are never eaten because she is always busy making the next thing and will not eat leftovers. Also, a lot of the leftovers are concoctions that contain carbs I cannot eat.

So this is the problem. You need to rethink your entire set-up. You do NOT need two freezers. You do not need to buy in bulk if your household has two people. Buying in bulk only saves money when you use up all the food!

She also needs to learn about budgeting, saving and investing, otherwise she's going to end up spending all her money and wondering why she's not accumulating wealth, despite her earnings. A malady a lot of posters on DCUM suffer from... like that recent thread of someone who earns 400K and is complaining they won't be able to retire early because they have two young children. Pure Princess Syndrome.

Don’t you have neighbors?

That is insane. Why do you let her do this?

Also, she needs to eat leftovers before she cooks something else.

I thought this would be about composting or something. I feed all my scraps to my chickens, but things can be reused. Leftover Mac and cheese can be made into Mac and cheese fritters, mashed potatoes into shepherd’s pie, etc. she has to learn to use all of what she cooks.

I'm a microbiologist. My parents throw food out all the time, because my father has OCD about potentially rotting food - he throws out anything that looks perfectly fine that's nominally expired, and anything that's not expired but looks "iffy". It's insane.

My household is wealthy, but throwing food out like this is not something I can countenance, for environmental reasons - it's a lot of energy spent on producing food that's not eaten (and pollution generated as a result). My children know better than to do that. We cook reasonable portions, and finish leftovers. I get very creative with using them up.

In this case, you need to be the parent and enforce some rules around food budget and quantities. There's no reason to double recipes when no one is eating leftovers - that's nuts

Yeah, this is insane. I think OP said it was a family of 3? So DD doesn't eat leftovers, OP can't eat these foods, and then there's another kid, who I assume isn't a teenage boy lol.

I wonder if this is some kind of anxiety about not having as much money as her friend or something, because that is *such* a weird argument to say that wasting food is ok. I almost want to give OP a pass to just padlock her bulk freezers and make her daughter buy her own ingredients out of her own budget, if other suggestions don't work.

Food waste is a real concern facing our planet. Just think of all the resources that go into producing those wasted pounds of ground beef!

In this case, you need to be the parent and enforce some rules around food budget and quantities. There's no reason to double recipes when no one is eating leftovers - that's nuts And while you're at it, I would encourage your daughter to educate herself about food waste and the impact it has globally.

As for her friend's family, their behavior is just some embarrassing, bougie flex. My ILs are self-made wealthy and they behave in the same obnoxious manner, constantly wasting food and refusing to eat any leftovers, as if that choice somehow makes them superior. One Thanksgiving I watched them struggle to stuff a still warm turkey into a garbage bag head for the trash. Eventually a 3rd person had to step in to get the job done and then they all stood there beaming with foolish pride about their actions. Truly vile and disgusting behavior!

She is 18. I am the only one who is eating leftovers and this is not fair to me. Her dad and I before he died, used to own a bakery/restaurant, so we are used to buying in bulk. We have 2 freezers that are generally full. Leftovers get put in the freezer but are never eaten because she is always busy making the next thing and will not eat leftovers. Also, a lot of the leftovers are concoctions that contain carbs I cannot eat.

How old is she?

For one thing, give her a budget. Maybe you can gamify it a bit to see how much a dollar will stretch.

Second is try to encourage her to eat leftovers. I didn't at that age either because everything seemed gross reheated in the microwave. Doesn't she ever make dishes that are so good she can't wait to eat the rest tomorrow? Teach her how to reheat in the same method in which it was prepared (in a pan, the oven, etc, not microwave).

Third is teach her how to be creative with what's left. Maybe introduce her to the meal prep reddit. Again, make it kind of a game. If she's making meatballs and has meat left over, teach her to cook it with taco spices and store it to make tacos. Teach her to grill up some chicken that can be used during the week for various dishes like pasta or wraps. Basically it's not leftovers, it's a pré prepared ingredient. The bonus is that you can have her separate out the vegetables and meats so you can eat those, and then she can prepare them with her starches that you can't eat (pasta salad, paella, etc).

Freeze leftovers. Don't overbuy.

She wont eat leftovers, can't the rest of the family? I would never, ever, ever throw away 1.5 lbs of ground beef just because it happened to get cooked. What is wrong with you?

You need to make rules. Who is buying all the food? Stop buying the ingredients to make desserts. Only buy as much macaroni as you know you’ll eat. Same with meat. Take control.

Op here, I forgot to add that she will not eat leftovers!

I do not like wasting food. I was raised to be a good steward of what was given to me. My DD loves to cook and wastes a tremendous amount of food. A package containing a pound and a half of ground meat will feed the 3 of us, usually with leftovers. She always insists on using two packages which is 3 pounds, and we always end up throwing a lot away. She'll cook a pound of beans and we end up throwing the other pound away. Macaroni and cheese can be made with a half pound of macaroni, but she always makes a full pound and we end up throwing the rest away, etc. No matter what she is cooking, it is always too much and a lot goes to waste. I talk to her about this over and over again. She now wants to argue that it is okay to waste food because we have money to buy more.

She has it in her mind somehow that her friend's mom wastes food all the time with no repercussions, so what is the big deal. Her friend and her mom go out to lunch and dinner all the time, take a few bites of their food and leave it, never taking home leftovers. My daughter thinks I equate wasting food with a scarcity mentality which is why we do not have as much money as her friend's family. I am a single mom. Her friend comes from a two-parent household.

As I said, my daughter loves to cook and is always making new dishes. Many don't turn out right and go to waste. Or, she might go on a kick of making lots of desserts. I have diabetes and cannot eat these desserts she makes with sugar, I also can rarely eat the foods she makes with a bunch of carbs, so all of these end up in the trash. Weight is an issue with her. I keep mine under control. I am typically not even home when she begins to cook. We spend about $1600 a month on food and toiletries and always have plenty, but I am sick and tired of the waste! How do I convey to her that wasting food to this extent is a terrible thing and wasting food has nothing to do with a scarcity mindset?