Reducing Food Waste
The fridge needed a good cleaning.
Thankfully, I did better at keeping up with it than I had in the past.
But, I still threw out an embarrassing amount of food.
But, I still threw out an embarrassing amount of food.
It really got me thinking about my grocery spending and food waste.
I realized that I buy too much food, and too many "foods with broken promises."
These are foods that I buy because I have some fantasy that I am going to make something special, and I never get around to it.
These are foods I impulse buy on clearance because they're cheap and good for me, but they are ultimately extras that I never get around to eating.
These are foods I purchase with high hopes that my kiddos will eat them despite knowing deep down that I will shun the food and it'll go to waste.
So, I started this week's grocery shopping with some new thoughts and considerations.
One simple change (something I used to do in the past but since forgotten about) was purchasing boiler onions.
It started today when onions were on sale at the local store. Such a good price! I walked up to the pile and noticed how large they all were.
I dug through the bin looking for the smallest available but even those I knew I'd only use half of at a time. The other half tends to go to waste.
My children do not like bits of onion in their food.
I tend to season with onion powder.
But sometimes I need a bit of onion.
But almost never do I need an entire large onion, no matter how good a deal a 3 lb bag of them are!
It was then that I remembered what I used to do back in my early days of marriage.
I bought boiler onions.
These little onions are the perfect size for any dish that requires onion and not onion powder. And if I need more, I just simple chop up another bulb.
No more finding shriveled, blackened onions in the bottom of the onion basket.
No more throwing out half an onion because I couldn't use it right away.
(I tried freezing onions before....another big waste for me.)
It isn't saving money if you are just throwing the deal away.
I realized that I buy too much food, and too many "foods with broken promises."
These are foods that I buy because I have some fantasy that I am going to make something special, and I never get around to it.
These are foods I impulse buy on clearance because they're cheap and good for me, but they are ultimately extras that I never get around to eating.
These are foods I purchase with high hopes that my kiddos will eat them despite knowing deep down that I will shun the food and it'll go to waste.
So, I started this week's grocery shopping with some new thoughts and considerations.
One simple change (something I used to do in the past but since forgotten about) was purchasing boiler onions.
It started today when onions were on sale at the local store. Such a good price! I walked up to the pile and noticed how large they all were.
I dug through the bin looking for the smallest available but even those I knew I'd only use half of at a time. The other half tends to go to waste.
My children do not like bits of onion in their food.
I tend to season with onion powder.
But sometimes I need a bit of onion.
But almost never do I need an entire large onion, no matter how good a deal a 3 lb bag of them are!
It was then that I remembered what I used to do back in my early days of marriage.
I bought boiler onions.
These little onions are the perfect size for any dish that requires onion and not onion powder. And if I need more, I just simple chop up another bulb.
No more finding shriveled, blackened onions in the bottom of the onion basket.
No more throwing out half an onion because I couldn't use it right away.
(I tried freezing onions before....another big waste for me.)
It isn't saving money if you are just throwing the deal away.
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