Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

[Ima saver]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

My husband is the picky one and he won't eat frozen anything. We don't throw out much in food cause we have an outside dog that will eat anything. I only use the freezer for ice cubes and low carb ice cream bars.

[shelbylovesmelby]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I doubt it! I have a dog also that will eat anything & everything. dd & I always have left overs for lunch. Dh isn't always a fan of left overs, but thats how he is. Kitchen scraps & or produce thats going bad always gets composted.

[Ima saver]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I do pour a lot of milk down the drain. I have a small container now that is full and needs to be tossed.

[frugalfarmwife]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

We don't use much milk so as soon as I get it home I separate it out into two cup amounts in cottage cheese containers and freeze, no waste that way.

We eat leftovers, I cook large amounts and freeze portions, we grow a garden and freeze for the winter, we raise our own beef and not an ounce gets wasted! I buy bread at the thrift store and freeze.

The ONLY waste here is the occasional bread crust and crumbs in the bottom of chip/pretzel bags and those go to the dogs

I'd be suprised if we wasted 10 pounds a year, let alone 400 but I bet the inlaws make up for us with their pickiness and their kids pickiness!

kj

[wummaker]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

Hi, my first post on this site so I don't know if its been mentioned before, but...

I made a surprising discovery a few years ago when I bought 2 ionizers [in my case surroud air xj2000] and put one in the kitchen over the food preparation area.
After about 3 months I suddenly realized that food going off in the fridge [ which used to be a regular and rapid occurence] had stopped.
The ionizer was cleaning the air of mold spores and bacteria and nothing was going bad. I even ate leftover chicken after almost 3 weeks in the fridge and it was fine!!


So I think it paid for itself pretty quickly in terms of food saved, and it uses 6watts of power.

Hope that helps y'all

Wummaker

[Ima saver]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

Well, that is interesting. I don't like fruit or vegetables, so nothing like that gets tossed. My husband takes left overs every day for lunch. We do give a lot of leftovers to our outside dog, usually when we have something big, like ham or turkey. After a week or so, we just get tired of it. I have never thought of freezing milk, sure it is safe? I might do that so I don't throw it away. We don't drink it, just need a little for stuff like mac and cheese.

[funnyvalentine]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I don't throw out much of anything; I buy milk in tiny containers cause only my boyfriend will drink it (even my cats hate it). I freeze a lot of things in small size batches so I can defrost enough for either me or him or both of us....

[Tightwad Kitty]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

normally I would be lucky if throw out 100 pounds of food a year, but if I think it's bad or mouldy then I have to throw it out. I did throw two freezers full of food when we lost power with storms here for days twice! I would say that figure would include all your huricane losts in food as well if it's a national total?

[getforfree]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I try to finish the food before it expires or goes bad. If we have vegetables that started going bad, I make lots of salad and less of everything else. If the salad doesn' get eaten that day, it goes in tomorrows soup.

If we have something that neares the expiration date, I try to cook something from it, but not cook too much because if it doesn't get eaten within like 3 days, it might be thrown away. If I notice that we have lots of soup from yesterday, I try not to cook anything else, or cook small amount of the other thing.

[elcheapo]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

The freezer is my best friend so I try not to waste anything,

[asha]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I used to throw away a lot of food. not ime to cook it and also over-ambitious in what I thought I might cook.
Now, I have a repetoire of 4 -5 simple healthy and very tasty meals and I cook them and shop for them.

The emals may well change but at the moment that is working for me.

[starving_student]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I know we throw out a lot. My biggest problem is milk and bread. There are just two of us and we hardly ever use those two items, but once in a while we need milk for a receipe.
I never throw meat out . If we don't eat it, I give it to the dog.

1) Use powedered milk for recipe. It is also possible to buy milk in can or in tetrapack which last foreever

2) make sure that the meat is well cooked prior to feed it to the dog.

[starving_student]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

We don't cook that much and we have very simple dinners. One piece of meat and something else. If I make a baked potato, my husband eats half of it. When we have meat, we have one piece usually. Since being on a low carb diet, we have really cut down and don't miss it. I buy the smallest thing of milk I can, an d still wind up throwing out most of it. I throw the bread out into the yard by the creek. Something eats it!!

--> bread can be stored in the freezer then you put in in the toaster and can't taste the difference. Dry bread can be use to do french bread or bread crumb

[starving_student]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

I don't trust milk very long after it's been open... 3 days tops, I can't stand sour milk. Sometimes we drink a gallon in a day and sometimes go a couple days without any milk.

Sour milk can do great muffin....

[flash]

Re: Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

EVERYTHING can go into muffins! soups, muffins, salads, casseroles...I'm really working on this one. So far only two tosses this year...but summer is the hardest with all the produce to use or lose...I LOVE my freezer!