My husband cooked up some meat that, according to the bag, has been in our freezer for a long time. Whoops. Stir fry for dinner was tasty anyway.

I made a tomato, cream, and lentil soup to use up the half bag of red lentils in my cupboard and some of a leftover container of cream. I found it very disappointing. DH didn't dislike it so he can finish it off for lunch.

Big emptying of multiple fridge containers making a lunch salad this morning: the end of a huge clamshell of greens, part of a bag of spinach I'd bought for a soup I never made, the end of a batch of gochujang vinaigrette, the other half of a can of tuna, and the end of a small batch of pickled onions.

And yet our fridge and freezer still seem fairly full. The problem is that condiments and drinks take up more than half.

Anonymous wrote:Sweet potatoes (uncooked) lurking in my pantry, so I made soup with ginger.

Good one.

Anonymous wrote:Potatoes I roasted them. Ive been using everything up trying not to buy anything including tolieties in the linen closet. Everything else s being used. Before I buy anything I see if i have a substitute or something else will work.

This is what i need to do.

Anonymous wrote:Veggie soups are great for this.

+1

Veggie soups are great for this.

I make two lists and post them on the fridge door. My frig and freezer are so overpacked with convenience foods like condiments, vegetables and protein bread its hard to see what I have.

1. Fridge: Already prepared foods that can be warmed up. Plus vegetables and fruits.

2. Freezer: Prepared foods on hand.

It's helped me emormously to cut down on waste plus convenient for the family to see what's available.

I also store all the prepared foods in labeledclear containers.

Sweet potatoes (uncooked) lurking in my pantry, so I made soup with ginger.

I had leftover salmon so made a delicious salmon cake for lunch and then sautéed some wilting spinach to have under it.

I have some leftover garlic chicken that I’m planning to chop up to throw into quesadillas.

Vegetable barley soup uses up pretty much anything. I use the better than bullion vegetable stuff (which lasts forever) and just throw in whatever I have.

And try to freeze fruit before it goes really bad and you can always throw it into smoothies or make homemade daiquiris.

Potatoes I roasted them. Ive been using everything up trying not to buy anything including tolieties in the linen closet. Everything else s being used. Before I buy anything I see if i have a substitute or something else will work.

Anonymous wrote:Japanese curry: used up old potatoes, carrots, celery, and chicken meat that was on its way out.

I tried the trick of adding a ripe apple and it was great.

I made fried rice with left over roast chicken, frozen peas, onion, diced carrots and egg. It came out quite good

Japanese curry: used up old potatoes, carrots, celery, and chicken meat that was on its way out.

Anonymous wrote:Ever since we started eating more cooked vegetables and not salads, waste has gone way down. No more moldy, rotting, brown greens. Frozen veggies also reduce waste.

This is helpful! Thanks. I have definitely started buying more frozen veggies myself.

Ever since we started eating more cooked vegetables and not salads, waste has gone way down. No more moldy, rotting, brown greens. Frozen veggies also reduce waste.

I'm trying to get a lot better about using everything I buy, in an attempt to eliminate food waste completely in our house.

There was a shepherd's pie recipe linked in the NYT daily email today and it looked good and I realized this evening that I had both ground beef and some potatoes I needed to use up pretty soon. So I made the recipe, but just with ground beef which is what I had. Used dried herbs instead of fresh as I didn't want to go buy anything specifically for this.

Are you trying to use anything in particular up?

Any advice on things that have helped you eliminate food waste?