Preventing Wasted Food

I said in my post on Ugly Produce that I would talk about ways to prevent wasting food, and here’s an installment on that promise. There are so many ways! But considering how much food waste hits our landfills, it’s obvious that we aren’t all using those ways to their fullest.

One of the easiest methods to reduce food waste is by freezing, and while it’s helpful to put leftovers in the freezer if you know they won’t get finished before their “use-by” date, you can plan to use your freezer and manage it so you save more money and waste even less. I’m not talking about Sunday marathon cooking, either. Some can do that, but I’ve never been able to maximize my work on a Sunday. There are other places to be and it’s supposed to be a day of rest. I’ve already used up my Saturday on chores and shopping and so on.

So, when you’re planning your meals, standing in front of the fridge and hearing your spouse say, “You’re letting all the cold out!” look around while you’re poking around in there to see what you really have. Open the drawers, look in the back, and know what’s actually in there. Plan for its use and if necessary to prevent impending spoilage, cook something extra with dinner that night. Then, freeze it. Not only will you have prevented throwing good food away, you’ll have saved time cooking a future meal. When you are thinking you’ll be standing with the fridge door open again, just open the freezer door instead and heat that something up instead.

Once you get the hang of this process, you’ll be better able to use up those fresh but perishable foods better, which will save you plenty. It’s better for you, and it’s better for our earth. If you have a separate freezer, it’s worth doing often – just have two burners going when you’d only have one. Two skillet meals, with one headed for the freezer. Obviously, you could also cook twice as much at once and freeze half, but that requires planning and I’m more describing how to handle unexpected excess food. Planning isn’t my strongest suit!

Make sure you label each container with the contents and the date. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thawed something out just to discover that wasn’t chili, after all. Maybe it was Midwestern goulash. Well, that’s tasty, too…

All good reasons to have that garage freezer!

Thrifty Recipe of the Day:

Ground Beef and Cabbage

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  Photo by Angele J on Pexels.com

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 small head cabbage, chopped into 1″ pieces
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes with juice, chopped
• V-8, tomato juice, water, or combination of these, as needed and to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a 12″ skillet, brown ground beef with onions and celery. Drain well in a colander set in a bowl. Press with the back of a spoon to remove more fat and return to skillet. If you are concerned about fat and/or calories, you can rinse the mixture with a cup or two of boiling water over the bowl before returning it to a paper-towel wipes skillet. Never put grease down your drain.

Add chopped cabbage and stewed tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered loosely until cabbage is tender, 35-45 minutes, adding V-8, tomato juice, or water as needed – it should not have excess liquid when done, but don’t let it simmer dry – you can always add a tablespoon or two of butter at the end of cooking to thicken a little liquid a tiny bit if needed. Or, you can simply leave the excess liquid in the skillet. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some links in the post above may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on a link and purchase an item, I may receive a small commission from the sale, but the price is the same for you. I disclose this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Ugly Produce

Having been an Army Food Service officer, I know what’s in food. And yes, I have a bit of a love affair with it! Sometimes, that is unfortunate, as my scale will attest.

That said, in recent years, there’s been a move to find better uses for food that would otherwise go to waste. Consider these USDA estimates: in 2010, food loss and waste at the retail and consumer levels was 31 percent of the food supply, equaling 133 billion pounds and almost $162 billion (Source: https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs).

So how can you make even a tiny difference? Do you even care?

There are a number of ways besides using up more of your leftovers. I’ll cover some of them in the next few posts. But first, let me introduce you to Ugly Produce.  Disclosure:  some links included are referral links and could earn me a sharing bonus.  You can consider ugly produce to be that which is certainly edible, tasty, and healthy, but for whatever reason, isn’t saleable under current grocery models.  Such as, apples with a tiny bruise, too-small sweet potatoes, celery with leaves beginning to dry out, and so on, or even perfect but surplus tomatoes are normally tossed instead of offered for sale, as customers simply won’t or can’t buy them.

I’m a subscriber to a service from Imperfect Foods, which launched in 2015 with the desire to put to good use produce that is perfectly healthy, but that would otherwise be thrown out, such as under- or over-sized, misshapen, scarred, mildly bruised, off-color, package-changed, or short-coded(close to its sell-by date).  Or any other reason that doesn’t affect its goodness, including simple surplus.  This group takes in food that would otherwise go to waste (as well as some first quality food and non-food items for customer convenience) and packages it according to weekly or bi-weekly orders placed by Saturday afternoons (at least in my location) to deliver the following week as requested to their clientele.  Delivery – which costs $8.99 – for me is normally on Tuesdays, but if there is a delay, I’m notified by text, email, and on my online account page. You can allow them to choose, or you can shop from what is available, or choose a combination of both – complete customization. Prices are generally pretty competitive, and there is a minimum order of $45.00.  Be aware that your cart will be prestocked.

The site provides you a running tally on the pounds of food you’ve saved from a lesser outcome, gallons of water saved, and pounds of carbon dioxide saved by your orders. Fun stats to watch!

Interestingly, they also have agreements with copackers for “upcycling.” One of my favorite items(made by FancyPants Bakery): Imperfect Foods Upcycled Vanilla Oatmilk Cookies. Not the cheapest little cookie on the market, but made with wholesome ingredients like oat milk pulp, a healthy by-product from the oat milk industry, and exhausted vanilla beans, leftovers from the production of vanilla extract and the like. They’re non-GMO, nut-free, and allergy friendly. There are other flavors, but this is by far my most preferred. Yep – I know they aren’t really produce nor diet-conscious, but they are good!

Depending on where you live, you might even be able to send your boxes, cushion liners, insulating bags, and/or reusable cold gel wraps to a contracted recycler. The boxes include a cushion made of mostly paper and vegetable starch. Gel packs can be returned in some cities, or of course you can refreeze them for your own use. If marked “Drain Safe,” you can simply poke a hole in the bag and pour it down the drain and recycle the outer packaging.  If not drain safe, poke the hole and empty into your trash before sending it off.  Print the postage-paid label from the site.

I have had some packing issues, such as squashed tomatoes and (many) broken carrots, that would have been prevented with better attention to packing detail, but for the most part, items arrive fresh and in good shape, with the cold pack usually still quite cold except in the worst of summer heat.  I’ve not had difficulties severe enough to cause me to stop my participation.  I’ve learned what I can order and expect to arrive safely.  However, I don’t recommend ordering heat-sensitive items when the weather is overly hot, as the gel packs don’t last.  The company is very willing to make good on anything not arriving in good condition, but it’s a minor hassle and you’ll need to rearrange your plans for meals if something isn’t worthy of use.  You can have a look at Imperfect Foods and save $20 here:  http://imprfct.us/v/robin_7985

The other large player in this genre is Misfits Market, which is reasonably-priced at a current $22 and up plus shipping and applicable taxes, but they don’t allow you to see what’s available until you check out and are committed.  They deliver to 38 states and D.C. for a flat rate of $5.50 as of this date.  You can minimally customize some of your box from their limited availability.  While they don’t offer the extensive selection of Imperfect Foods, their offerings are different and interesting.  Overall, they are otherwise similar to Imperfect Foods, other than their selecting your options mostly for you.  Sometimes, it’s interesting to end up with something you haven’t tried before and have to use.  I’ve learned to enjoy fennel, kale, and chard this way; they are tasty!  Check them out and save $15 on your first order here:  https://www.misfitsmarket.com/?promo=COOKWME-UF6HWTELXTM

Limited in scope but worth mentioning is Hungry Harvest, which delivers in Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, Greater Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, Northern Delaware, South Florida, The Triangle Area in North Carolina & the Detroit Metro Area.  Since I don’t live in one of those places, I have no experience to describe.

Please be aware that I am not including organizations with extremely limited delivery areas.  You should Google “produce delivery services in” and add your zip code or your city and state and see what comes up.  There are many others in the United States and elsewhere.  All of them may or may not use Ugly Produce, but will ship to your home, preventing your having to search through pawed over produce and possibly offer other grocery items, saving you time, gas, and effort.  Maybe even money!

 

Thrifty Tip of the Day:  Use Ugly Produce options to try something new.  I hated kale, which I’d only been served raw, until I cooked it with chopped bacon and onions.  Now, I buy it often, and it’s an inexpensive side and healthy!  Well, maybe less so with the bacon…

In recent years, there’s been a move to find better uses for food that would otherwise go to waste. This is my delivery from Imperfect Foods on March 26th.