The Sweet Life On A Budget

Food Waste Check In Recently I started to think about how much food we are wasting in America.  I noticed that my own refrigerator was packed with food and when I returned from my holiday, I had to throw away a lot of food.  This prompted me to read an article by Brad Pumer on food waste in America. Wow! We waste $165 billion in food each year. A lot of this is out of my control- restaurants, grocery stores, food production, and farmer contribute most of this number, but I can control my own little space in this world.  According to Brad, American household throw away between 14% and 25% of what they buy. I am starting with accountability. Okay- I am shaming myself into fixing this problem. Failures: Refrigerator Waste Successes: Made Banana Muffins out of overly ripe bananas Picked through the lettuce and created a side salad for Pizza Night Used leftovers from volunteer event and pasta night for two meals this week...

Kitchen Waste I am so embarrassed.   Before I traveled this holiday season, I had great ideas and plans to eliminate food waste while I was gone.   However, I got busy and none of my ideas were executed, so the amount of food waste was incredible. How Sad. My husband gifted me by cleaning out the refrigerator (thus no pictures) and I am starting again on my journey to eliminate food waste from my kitchen or at least minimize it.   I took stock of what perishable ingredients I have on hand and started to plan out what to eat for breakfasts, lunch and dinner.  In addition, I took stock of what I had in my pantry and freezer. WOW! I have a lot of food on hand. It looks like I am going to engage in a low spend month to get my pantry, freezer and refrigerator under control.   Check back next Wednesday and see what we ate for dinners this week and how much we ended up spending for groceries.