Take leftovers for lunch.
Eat dinner food for breakfast.
Freeze what you can.

Agree with the other overarching suggestions re: meal planning and shopping more frequently. I'd say the things most likely to go to waste in our house are lunch meat and greens - my kids are hot and cold on sandwiches in their lunch, and bagged kale/spinach don't always keep as long as the date stamp would suggest.

I have a food saver and rely heavily on it for freezing leftovers we do not eat. I give zero F's if my family wants to eat leftovers or not. They can eat what I put on the table and not complain.

I regularly "eat down the fridge" and make odd concoctions to finish stuff out. Sometimes I make someting really great. However mostly it ends up being some version of fried rice.

Wash and fruits, vegetables and herbs before putting them in the fridge so they are easy to grab when needed.

MEAL PLAN.

I make:
--Greek yogurt before extra milk goes sour,
--croutons with leftover bread,
--fried rice with leftover rice,
--homemade chicken broth with carrots, celery, onions when they get old using frozen raw chicken bones from whole chicken I cut up or thighs I debone.
--frittata with leftover vegetables, and
--Scottish potato scones with leftover mashed potatoes.

Meal plan. Compost veg and fruit scraps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest thing is mostly using glass food storage containers, plus regularly spending on new tupperware. Way cheaper than wasting food.

I like leftovers, and I am happy to pack up whatever the kids leave on their plates and eat it the next day for lunch. We don't make the kids finish if they're not hungry; we just try to learn and always adjust portion sizes.

We also sometimes have "weird" dinners to use up ingredients. Fish tacos with asparagus and blackberries is better than risking that the fruits and veggies go bad.

This is so nasty.

The blackberries aren't in the fish tacos, right? Because that would definitely be your lunch tomorrow.

When my kid was little he got the notion he wanted to sometimes have dinners that would have a lot of different items but small dishes. I guess the universe had put tapas in his head even though he was 3 and mostly watched Barney. So we'd do that with leftovers.

Anyone remember the former host of The Splendid Table who would come up with a dish to use random items in people's fridges?

I use a lot of the ideas I've seen here--freezing even small quantities of things like, say, tomato paste if using the whole container would be too much. Chopped onions--just as they are works for soups, cooking for a short time in butter or oil to better preserve texture for other things. Chopped fresh herbs too. Vegetable scraps go in a ziplock bag i the freezer and make some stock when the bag is full (then compost pile). I'll go so far as to use some liquid to swish out the remains of a can of tomato puree or similar items if they are going in a soup, stew, or sauce.

I have a naan bread recipe that calls for half an egg. Yes, I freeze the other half.

I like to use parts of a rotisserie chicken to make pot pie, which uses up small amounts of vegetables (I bake it in my cheesecake pan so it's a deep dish pot pie.) Always use skin, bones, wing tips of chicken for stock. I miss the days of bone in roasts because that was how I always made soup stock--now I have to buy soup bones that are crazy expensive.

If I have cheese that is starting to develop the first signs of mold I cut that part away, cut off what I think I can use within a few days, and freeze the rest. It will work for dishes where the cheese is cooked. I don't buy grated cheese except for large bags of grated (not fine grated) Parmesan from costco and grated cheese is particular susceptible to spreading mold so I keep an eye on it and freeze if it is starting to turn.

Fruit can be cut up and frozen for smoothies.

I have a freezer for major storage but keep the bits of frozen items in a drawer in the kitchen freezer. When I go in there to find a small container of stock I make a mental note of what else is hanging out in there, use it if I can.

Last thing I do is to note items that need to get used up and if I can't think of a dish google the items to see what comes up as recipes. I've stumbled on some great recipes that way.

If milk starts to sour, it's time to make waffles.

I rarely waste any food in our household. I shop 1-2 a week for groceries. The fresh fruits/vegetables are stored in a cool/cold place and used throught the week. I constantly check refrigerator to see what I can do with open food if there is any. Check pantry and see what else I can use that is near expiration. I know what my family can eat in a week, so I don't buy more than I need to.

Anonymous wrote:Every week or so we have a "fridge clean out meal" -- basically eat all of the tiny bits of leftovers and use up a bunch of veggies that are about to go in a frittata.

We do this as well. Sometimes a few times a week for lunch or dinner. Just divvy up the leftovers. I also save random bits of veggies and use them with whatever is in the fridge on Sunday for a soup that I eat for lunch the following week. No soup recipe needed, I'm a good cook so I survey what's available and go on vibes.

1. We look in the fridge and plan meals based on what needs to be eaten.
2. We have an hankering for a meal, buy stuff specifically for that meal in reasonable proportions.
3. We get creative with leftovers, that are sometimes eaten in completely different dishes. Curry is great for leftovers!

There are certain articles of produce that I don't buy, or rarely buy, because they spoil too quickly.

No to spinach, yes to kale. No to romaine, yes to cabbage. Asparagus only if it's on the menu for that day or the next; brussels sprouts every week. You get the idea.

I also check fruit very carefully, and most days I'll make an announcement about what needs to be used up so it can be given as kids' snacks. "I'm pushing the blackberries," etc.

Like others, we meal planning.

Make things that my spoil sooner first.

Anonymous wrote:The biggest thing is mostly using glass food storage containers, plus regularly spending on new tupperware. Way cheaper than wasting food.

I like leftovers, and I am happy to pack up whatever the kids leave on their plates and eat it the next day for lunch. We don't make the kids finish if they're not hungry; we just try to learn and always adjust portion sizes.

We also sometimes have "weird" dinners to use up ingredients. Fish tacos with asparagus and blackberries is better than risking that the fruits and veggies go bad.

This is so nasty.

Meal Planning
Grocery list - no wandering
Leftovers for lunch
Big amount of leftovers gets frozen and eaten on "clean out the freezer" night. So one person will have chili, another will have gumbo, etc.

Anonymous wrote:PLANNING. We make a meal plan every week. We inventory the fridge beforehand, to see what needs to be used up, and incorporate that into the plan. We buy what we need for the meals on the plan. Leftovers for lunch is part of the plan. Very satisfying to get to the end of the week and have the fridge nearly bare.

My mom goes to the grocery store almost every day, buys whatever looks good/ strikes her fancy, and then throws half of it away a month and a lot of mold later. She's incapable of making a food plan, and wastes SO much. Drives me batty.

I'm also a meal planner. Makes a big difference.