And we're not immune in our home. Cooking specialty dishes, coupled with lousy weather, meant far more cans, packages and normally compostable items going into our trash can the last few weeks.
For one week, in our post-Christmas haze, I focused my attention on eliminating much of the food waste in our own home, to see how much unnecessary food waste we could stop among us four. What I found is it's a lot harder to keep on track without a plan.
On typical weeks, we have at least humble attempts at meal plans, but with a fridge half-full with Christmas dinner leftovers and a stomach bug floating through our home, our plans went by the wayside. Instead of planned meals, we had humble fixings, turning instead to simple sandwiches to use up extra meats and breads, cheese and crackers, or other small-plate meals. We did a lot less heavy cooking (fine by me) but often failed to remember to make our meals balanced. It's too easy to forgo a veggie dish if you don't have sliced veggies in hand in the fridge and everything else is a 2-minute prep time.
But the self-imposed pox on food waste made for interesting meal options, too. My leftover eggs from baking, garlic chive butter from Christmas meals, and some sad-looking shitakes and green onions made for a fabulous morning omelet for one. Our leftover veggies made for good low-mein and stirfries, and this morning we're using the last of our breads and eggs for French toast. Our trimmings we redoubled our efforts in piling back on our compost pile, and we made no processed goods.
In all, a week after Christmas, our only things tossed were some gravy, a small bit of roast beef, a bit of cranberry sauce that my kids eschewed, a small plate of leftovers my husband had fixed for work then forgotten (a miscommunication for us both), and the cheesy corn dip from a New Year's Eve party that had to be tossed due to being out for six hours.
I don't believe you can completely eliminate food waste, but you can certainly considerably reduce what ends up in your trash can. It will take a little more planning but well worth it. If it saves me money, saves me time, saves landfill space and saves resources that could be used to feed others, what's not to like?
***
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you
can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival
participants:
(This list will be live and updated by afternoon January 10 with all
the carnival links.)
- Make your own
moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips
up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer. - Cold Water Only — Brittany at
The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot
water to wash laundry. - Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of
forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides
to take the plunge with family cloth. - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day
— Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about
decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She
takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and
recycling every day. - Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren
at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper
products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she
feels. - Craftily Parenting
— Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting
makes her a better parent. - Changes — Laura at Pug in the
Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she
wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life! - Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to
Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries
to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of
Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected. - My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at
City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting
progression all the way to trying raw milk. - mama's new little friend. — Sarah at
Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period,"
and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product! - Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry
soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy
shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works
better than the store-bought chemicals! - Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from
Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the
oil-cleansing method. - I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's
Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did
them all. - 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family
— The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday
junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and
souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an
explanation of macrobiotics. - Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at
Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for
her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results. - Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution
— Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she
decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over
to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back! - Going Raw (for a
while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing
Mom shares her family's experience with raw food. - Do we get to eat gluten
today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has
been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in
his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure. - Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the
balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie. - Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather
than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring
herself to do … - Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
- Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
- Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the
future. - Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
- Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
- Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her
newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity. - The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
- Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
- Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
- My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
- Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
- My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
- My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
- Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
- Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
- All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
- Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
- Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been
hanging around the kitchen for too long. - Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
- Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
- From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
- From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
- Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she
didn't even realize it was happening. - Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will
be, but she's having fun anyway. - Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
- My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
- OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
- Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
- Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the
world of no 'poo. - My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning —
Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.
5 comments:
It's amazing how much food I used to throw away! Luckily I'm married to someone who will eat all sorts of leftovers for lunch! Even so, it seems we always have some vegetables that go bad by the end of the week. I'll certainly keep your omelette idea in mind!
You can also freeze the leftovers, and when you have enough toss in a crock pot with chicken bones (or just veggies if you'd like) and water to make stock.
I find the same thing - when I'm making easy meals like sandwiches, etc., I often forget to make it a balanced meal. I need more fresh veggies in the house! But good for you for finding creative ways to use up the rest of your food - the omelet is a great idea :)
That's pretty amazing! I'm always ashamed at how much we let go to waste. I like the idea of prioritizing using it all up.
It always blows my mind how much "kitchen garbage" we have at the end of the week. I try really hard to repurpose leftover food which often times means feeding it to my animals (when appropriate) or freezing it for another time. Glad to see that you are noticing your waste and making strides to remedy it!
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