We’ve all been there. We buy groceries with every intention to make this meal or that. And then we don’t and some of the food we bought goes bad.
But every time we throw out food, we are literally throwing out our hard-earned cash.
If I told you there’s a way to save over $100 a month on groceries, would you be interested?
According to the National Zero Waste Council’s research on household food waste in Canada, almost 2.3 million tonnes of edible food is wasted each year, costing Canadians more than $20 billion. That’s about $1,300 per household each year.
What can we do about it?
- Create a meal plan.
- Take an inventory of what you have on hand and build your meal plan from that. Check your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.Always include a plan to use up leftovers. Designate a supper for a leftover buffet or portion leftovers into containers for lunches.Make a list of things you need and stick to it.Check the flyers for sales.
- Only buy the amount of fresh produce you can eat in a week. Have frozen on hand in case you run out before your next grocery shopping.
- Rotate product in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer using the first in, first out method.
- Store leftovers safely and freeze them if you’re not going to eat them in a day or two.
- Feed your garden with your own compost.
- Expiry dates tell the last day the product is safe to consume.
- Best before dates tell you the food may lose some freshness, taste or nutrients but the food will still be safe to eat after this date. Assess the food for any spoilage before consuming.
- Eggs – Usually eggs will be good to eat past the best before date. But how can you know for sure? Take a tall glass of water and put the egg in it. If it sinks, it is good; if it floats, it is bad.
What do you do if your food is going to spoil before you can eat it?
You can freeze almost anything. The quality might not be 100 per cent after, but it’s better than throwing it out. Always use freezer bags to help prevent freezer burn and mark the content, the date and the pre-portioned amount on the bag.
- Produce
- Bananas – peel, put in a freezer bag and freeze. Three per bag makes one cup of mashed bananas, exactly what a banana bread or muffin recipe requires.
- Bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, zucchini – wash, cut and freeze to use in soups, stews and sauces later. I use small freezer bags to pre-portion for recipes.
- Potatoes – Boil and mash but keep plain. Portion into freezer bags. When needed, reheat and add butter, milk, sour cream as you normally would before serving.
- Fruit – wash, cut and dry on a towel. Then freeze to use in smoothies, desserts, jams and jellies.
- Bread – cut into cubes and dry in the oven at 250°F for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. When completely cool, use your food processor to make into coarse crumbs. Store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Several recipes call for breadcrumbs and it’s so convenient to have some on hand. These will store indefinitely.
- Pasta – freeze plain, cooked pasta. To reheat, add to boiling water for a couple minutes.
- Meat – When you buy large packages of meat, divide into appropriate portions before freezing. Or cook large packages of hamburger and chicken breasts. Then portion it into freezer bags to make weekday meal prep faster.
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