Wasting food usually sends a shrill up my spine. I’ve been told that this sensation stems from my family in Spain whom had no other choice but to save scraps and ends to extend a meal from one to the next.
Praise God that I don’t have to think about saving food to ration, but instead I avoid waste to make a slight dent in the staggering statistic that in the United States we waste 40% of our food. Did you know that?
That food is not just all wasted on our plates and refrigerators, but instead, starts in the fields, in storage and transport, and in the preparation and selling of it. It’s a huge loss especially to think that 2 billion people could be fed for a year with the amount the USA alone wastes each year.
We often talk about feeding the world but maybe, just maybe, we could actually start doing that by making a few simple changes at home to avoid waste. Hey, you never know.
Humble Tips to Avoid Wasting Food
1. Stock Bucket
You often hear of a compost bucket but how about a stock bucket. I have a bowl just like the one above that I pull out when I’m prepping meals. I use it to toss in all of my ends and bits of vegetables that I’d like to save. I save all of my carrot peels, potato peels, ends and bits of celery, fennel, and onions (even the peels). Once I’m done prepping I throw them into a big ziplock bag and freeze them to use in homemade broth. These bits and scraps make a rich and flavorful vegetable broth.
2. Menuplan
Key to making use of all your fruits and vegetables is to menu plan for the week. Whether you shop specifically for meals that you’ve planned for or as I do, grow and shop for seasonal vegetables and then plan my meals around them, when you have a plan in place, there’s less room for waste.
As my gift to you, when you sign up for my email updates, you’ll receive my eBook, a Month of Meals from Humble Kitchen to Yours absolutely free. With shopping lists included, that should give you a great start to menu planning.
3. A Little Mold Never Hurt Anyone
I’ll never forget staying with my Tita’s in Spain one year. It was 2007 – we had just finished supper when my Tita Dora asked me to go get some oranges out of the pantry for dessert. I happily jotted out of my chair and excitedly hurried to their pantry which as of today still lives in my dreams. It’s a large walk in closet that holds bottles of olive oil, wine, cans of sardines, mussels in escabeche, and everything real a pantry can hold. They even have cured Spanish chorizo sausages hanging from a top and to a girl that’s been enamored with food her entire life, it’s a haven of delicacy.
So when I rushed over to their pantry, I was fully expecting to find brilliantly shining oranges, plump and juicy.
Instead, I found a box of oranges half moldy – similar to that picture above.
My face dropped and I was saddened to have to report back that the oranges were no good. Instead, my Tita’s laughed at me and told me a little mold never hurt anyone. They quickly showed me that the mold was on the surface then cut it out and ate the fruit inside.
Since that day I’ve learned to cut and chop off pieces of good fruit that would otherwise go wasted. I throw the moldy pieces into my compost bucket and we eat the rest.
4. Chop up vegetables into soups, stews and everything else
A good way to use up vegetables that would otherwise be forgotten is to not be afraid to chop them up and add them to all of your meals throughout the week. Really, you can throw vegetables into any kind of dish. I like to add bits and pieces into soups, stews, chili, even my meatloaf (a recipe I’ll share soon).
These are just tips from My Humble Kitchen that I use on a regular basis.
Do you have any tips to avoiding waste in your kitchen? Please share them with us in the comments below.
I have started saving the veggie scraps to make broth as you suggested. I used to give them all to my chickens, but really wanted to utilize them towards my family’s health more. I stumbled across your website 2-3 weeks ago and ta-da! Veggie broth. Thanks for sharing! With 3 little ones, a 4th on the way and a tight budget, I appreciate something as simple as veggie broth to stretch a meal and make as little waste as possible.
That’s great, Melanie! I’ve been starting to save a lot more of my scraps in my stock bucket now that the colder season is upon us. I have to make some veggie broth soon 😀
Hi Diana,
Thank you for your post today. It’s a great topic. For years I thought I was pretty good at saving scraps and onions skins to make stock, adding them to saved giblets, backs, carcasses etc in the freezer. Not long ago you taught me via a post that I could save more so I amped it up and I am so glad! I realized I was wasting valuable whole foods. And who am I to waste? That alone was a valuable lesson.
I like the idea of the stock bucket. So simple. So smart. The other suggestions are ones I use fairly often so it’s nice to know I’m on track-and I can vouch for them all, esp. menu planning! That being said, there’s been room for improvement and pushing through the tiredness of my evenings to do better b/c being human, I’ve wasted more than I am comfortable with. Makes me sad-and frustrated. I feel inspired now. Thank you! I wish I could go home right now and blanch and freeze that huge bag of kale I harvested from my CSA on Sunday. Tonight! I promise. There. I put it in writing.
Oh, and the pickling thing with stems and onions? Wow! What an idea!
Always the best to you and yours,
Joan
I totally understand, Joan. Right now I still have tomatoes, tomatillos, and apples to preserve. I just haven’t had the time to do it so I’m just hoping I can get to it soon before it sees the compost pile! Thanks for stopping by 😀
When I cut up a whole chicken, I save the odd pieces. The wing tips, back, neck, extra skin from thigh, and even the breast bone when I butterfly one for the grill. Those get put in the freezer. I put them into individual bags, then double bag them together in a gallon freezer bag. A couple times of year, I put them all into the stock pot and make up a huge batch. I break up the backs a bit to release all the marrow, and slow simmer for several hours to really get all the nutrition from the bones. Then I pressure can it. I use the recipe in Ball. As for the innards. I usually toss them into a small saucepan, and cook them up, and serve them to the cat. By doing this, I’m less likely to have a stinky trash too. Oh…. and the cat gets all those little pieces of meat from the bones cooked in the stock too. She eats pretty well for a few days. : ) I began doing this yeas ago when we had little money to work with. Also, I was trying to increase our calcium intake. Turns out, it tastes so much better than a can of stock, that I still do it today.
correction…. I use my dutch oven to simmer the stock down. Some might consider a stock pot to be a canning pot. That would TRUELY be alot of stock!
That’s great! I need to learn how to pressure can. I’d like to start doing that especially when I’m able to have a larger garden than I have now.
Thanks, I enjoyed your suggestions for saving food….My celery use to waste in my frig after I using a portion….Now, I chopped the rest and freeze it for soups or stew.
I also, grew up in Spain and, you are right, we do not waste anything!….and we were not allowed to throw away food from our plates
Maria, that’s great to hear! What part of Spain?
What did you do with the food on your plates? My kids never eat the same amount two meals in a row, so I am always throwing out plates of food. I feel bad about it but don’t know what else to do.
Anna, I’ve read that a good meal for a child is a tbls of each dish for each age. So, for my five year old, I try to AT LEASE serve him 5 tbls of every component of my meal. So 5 tbls meat, 5tbls veg, 5tbls starch. Sometimes they eat more than that but I don’t like them to eat less than that. So at my home, I serve so that it’s about that and they have to eat all of their meal or I send them to bed. That’s how we work it and so I hardly waste food from their plates. That ircks me as well 😉
I use my pressure COOKER (not the bigger pressure canner) to make stock with chicken/rabbit or beef bones. It’s much faster than boiling away on the stove so a bit more economical! A trick is to add a glug or two of organic apple cider vinegar, which really helps leach the calcium and other nutrients from the bones. My stock sets up dark golden yellow and will hold a spoon straight up!
Btw I’m listing chicken/rabbit together because I mix those bones – rabbit is a very mild but also very nutritious meat, and the flavor is very comparable to chicken.
Thanks for the tips, TJ! A pressure cooker is on my list as well 😀 I’m glad to hear it gels nice for you in there.
Canning stock is the simplest thing to do. Just ladle hot stock into quart size jars and process them (according to the directions of your cooker) 25 mins. It’s definitely not a science and it saves me a lot of freezer room since I can now store it in my pantry. I have a 10 qt. pressure cooker that I use to can veg’s and chicken stock and also use for cooking purposes. It fits three quart-size jars snugly. As far as making the stock, I actually read somewhere a while ago that you can make it in the crock pot overnight and I think that’s the best and most hands-off, practical, and pretty economical way to make it. I started doing it that way a year ago and never looked back. I have a large 7 qt. slow cooker that can fit the bones of two whole chickens or even a turkey. You fill it up to the very top minus 1/4 inch or so, cover, and turn it on low before you go to bed. The next day you’ll wake up with the best chicken soup aroma EVER!! It’s so comforting! Then you just let it cool off in the morning, drain it, and do whatever you want to do with it.
That is interesting about moldy fruits. When I was young, my mother did the same. As an adult I have read several warnings about the health hazards of eating food that has had the moldy parts cut off or even was in the same package as moldy stuff, and now I am quite confused. I know a few people who save the “good parts” and a few who won’t touch it. Has anyone ever actually gotten sick from eating food with mold?
Anna, I just think of the centuries of people that did this traditionally. I think we live in a society today that is too concerned with pasteurizing and eliminating every single bit of bacteria possible. My family has never run into problems, but, I’m not a professional either 😉
I am very careful about moldy fruits etc because both my daughter and I are allergic to penicillin. What I have learned is that the harder the fruit or vegetable the less deep into the flesh the mold is able to travel, so softer fruits (like berries) will have mold growing deeper into the flesh. ALSO, I have found that I am extremely sensitive to moldy food items in the house. I can tell when a loaf of bread has started getting moldy or if there is a moldy veggie or fruit in the basket because my sinuses go crazy. I don’t think I could live with a basket of half moldy fruit in the house. Although, I am not above cutting off “bad spots” if there is usable food left to be salvaged : )
Wow! Didn’t know chickens could eat moldy foods!
I’ve heard of people giving leftover foodsto chickenslike spaghetti which seems odd to me. Didn’t seem like it was a good idea to feed them processed foods like the pasta. Any guidelines on that?
Sheree, I don’t give my chickens moldy food. As far as pasta, the pasta I use is organic and I do give that to them if I have leftovers.
Are there any vegetable scraps you wouldn’t include in your stock. We eat a lot of beets and broccoli, but I wasn’t sure if these would work in the stock or adversely affect the flavor.
Thanks so much! I LOVE your blog!
Thanks, Shio! Yeah, I wouldn’t use broccoli or beets. They are pretty strong in flavor. More neutral veggies are best. Things like carrots, onions, celery, fennel, etc.. Hope that helps a bit!