This may not interest many people, but I have just come to a very sobering realization: I waste a lot of food.
Today, on the way home from work, I stopped at the local grocer to get something for dinner. I also needed milk and eggs. So there I was. I spent around $30, which included a salad from the salad bar in the store. On the way home I remembered how much left over food and pieces of vegetables I had in my fridge already.
They were just sitting there getting moldy. Leftover chicken and stir fry, pesto, some broccoli, leftover rice, over half of a cucumber, a small piece of cheese. I threw out an entire grocery bag of food. The same amount of food I had just picked up at the grocery store.
THIRTY. DOLLARS. IN. THE GARBAGE.
I could buy a lot (sorta) with $30. Moreover, I could do a lot (definitely) with all the other $30 from bags of food that I’ve surely thrown out since I moved into my own apartment. There has got to be a way around this. I know there is.
My plan:
WASTE LESS. Buy only what I know I will eat. It doesn’t matter if it’s healthy or not, but I have to vow to eat it, as opposed to buying it, eating a bit, then getting lazy and eating out every day after that.
It means taking a lunch to work. It means taking my extra food to share at work. Whatever. I just cannot stand to see more food go in the garbage. It’s redonk.
So - in case you’re wondering - this is what I bought tonight and how I [plan to consume it]:
1 avocado
[I already ate this! I made an avocado melt with half and added the other half to half of the salad I bought.]- 8 eggs.
[I’ll boil these for breakfast mostly - so four mornings, give or take.] - 1 litre of skim milk.
[Already put a big dent in that with dinner. I loves my milk!] - Havarti cheese
[Cut up in pieces and bring for lunch/3 o’clock hunger attack at work.] - Old Cheddar cheese
[I put this on stuff. Pasta, etc. I also cut a piece off for a snack once in a while. Thankfully cheese has a decent fridge-life.] - 1 tomato
[Tomatoes are the worst for me. I always eat some of one and then it’ll just sit there. This one I will try to eat up, maybe in a tomato salad with some of that Havarti.] - 6 english muffins
[I ate one tonight as part of the avocado melt (wouldn’t recommend that, BTW); I will eat the others for breakfast(s) along with my eggs or alone when I run out of eggs.] - 7 Small Yukon Gold Potatoes
[I LOVE potatoes, but never make them. This week I will have them for dinner and pick up a piece of salmon or something to go along with them. I purposely didn’t buy the salmon yet, because I want to buy it fresh the day I will eat it - that way I won’t waste it! Plus it’ll taste better.] - Small (but really not that small) salad from the Salad Bar
[These are awesome. They pack a lot of punch and I can pick what I want from a smorgasbord of wicked stuff. Really, they can do two meals. So I ate half for dinner and because I didn’t get any dressing on it, I can take it for lunch tomorrow without it being too soggy and gross.]
Waste Less December is underway!
Updates will be forthcoming.
