S/O cleaning your fridge - do you waste a lot of food?

[popmom]

 

21 hours ago, SereneHome said:

We are not either.

I tried to do a good job at keeping inventory, but I never stick with it. Both, freezer and pantry. I feel like writing down stuff in the fridge is a waste of time....like I should be able to take a look and just see what's there.

This is me. I need to take inventory. A fridge inventory would actually be a good help to me because we have 2 full sized refrigerators (one is in the basement with the deep freeze) 

17 hours ago, MissLemon said:

My problem is wasting veggies because I over-buy.  I feed them to the chickens when they are past their prime, so they aren't totally wasted.  But still...I don't need to be spending money on squash or grapes just for the hens.   

I've gotten a lot better about food waste during the pandemic.  I meal plan and prep for 3 days in advance, and then on day 4 I go through the fridge to make a plan for any remaining leftovers.  My husband doesn't really like leftovers and can be really picky, but I kind of told him that he was going to have to get over it because the grocery stores were not always well stocked.  

I have found that the "green bags" are totally worth the price because my produce stays edible for drastically longer than without them. I had a big bag of kale and another bag of spinach in my fridge before we went out of town for a week. They'd already been in my fridge awhile, so I fully expected to have to toss it all to the worms when we got home. I was pleasantly surprised that my kale is perfect and at least half of the spinach was salvageable. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by popmom

[SereneHome]

10 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

I don't end up throwing very much out. The strategies that I've found to help are:

• Making dinner from whatever's on hand and perishable. If that's clementines and chicken thighs, cook the chicken in the clementines and maybe throw on some toasted almonds or something, it'll be fine.
• Having a bunch of go-to dishes that use up random leftovers. Soups, stir fries, fajitas, rice pudding, a basic tea bread base that I can jam in zuchinni or slightly overripe banana or half a can of pumpkin or whatever.
• Having a husband and 2 (out of 3) kids who are happy to eat dinner leftovers for lunch so long as I pack them away attractively arranged in a *clearly visible* glass container in the fridge.
• Buying and stowing away fresh stuff in 2 categories: "needs to be eaten quickly" vs "will hold on for 5+ days."  I've gotten a LOT better on this point since COVID, where I'm only getting fresh stuff every 14+ days.
• Not being overly fastidious about *slightly* wilted produce or *slightly* past "best by" dates. I throw slightly soft tomatoes into cooked dishes, cut the brown spots off apples and throw them into baked goods, don't worry for one second if the dried pasta or mustard is a little past "best by" date. YMMV but I haven't killed anybody yet. (I don't do this with meat.)

As long as something passes the smell and slime test, I am usually good.  But I never know if produce that is going bad would be ok to put in soups or something. I always wonder if it will give us upset stomach or something....

[marbel]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

When I have baked, I immediately freeze half the loaf, in two portions. Since my home baked bread contains no preservatives, it gets moldy fast otherwise (lots of spores here). 

I actually prefer slicing the fresh bread into single slices, then wrapping and freezing all but what we will use in a day or two, and taking slices out as needed. My husband - who is the one who makes the bread - does freeze half as you do. We still sometimes end up with a some at the end, particularly if we've had a few days when we've, say, eaten more tortillas than "regular" bread, or other various reasons.  But yes, freezing half definitely cuts down on the waste!

Edited October 23, 2020 by marbel

[marbel]

Another thing I did before the biggest eater when off to college was to have "leftover extravaganza" meals where I point out what there was, and people ate what they wanted of those offerings. 

And we love quesadillas and burritos which can absorb all sorts of leftovers.  

[Junie]

We have leftovers for a meal at least once a week, usually twice.  We pull all of the dishes out of the fridge, open them up on the counter, and send everybody through one at a time to pick what they want.

[Carol in Cal.]

3 hours ago, regentrude said:

When I have baked, I immediately freeze half the loaf, in two portions. Since my home baked bread contains no preservatives, it gets moldy fast otherwise (lots of spores here). 

My sourdough rounds recipe makes two loaves. I’ve learned that freezing the proofed dough for the second loaf preserves it beautifully.  When I’m ready to bake it I just put it in the fridge to thaw, and then round it and let it rest a couple times before rounding it and letting it rise in the basement (cool) as usual, and then bake as normal.  It is indistinguishable from the original loaf.  (Freezing the baked bread or refrigerating the dough do not give as good results.)

[Corraleno]

13 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

My sourdough rounds recipe makes two loaves. I’ve learned that freezing the proofed dough for the second loaf preserves it beautifully.  When I’m ready to bake it I just put it in the fridge to thaw, and then round it and let it rest a couple times before rounding it and letting it rise in the basement (cool) as usual, and then bake as normal.  It is indistinguishable from the original loaf.  (Freezing the baked bread or refrigerating the dough do not give as good results.)

So you do the stretch & folds and bulk rise as one batch, and then divide the dough in two, freeze half, and then shape and bake the other half? Or do you divide it earlier? About how long does it take to thaw in the fridge? I'd love to try this!

[Carol in Cal.]

39 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

So you do the stretch & folds and bulk rise as one batch, and then divide the dough in two, freeze half, and then shape and bake the other half? Or do you divide it earlier? About how long does it take to thaw in the fridge? I'd love to try this!

Yes, exactly.  
I thaw it for 12-24 hours in the fridge so that it thaws and kind of relaxes.  If you leave it in the fridge too long, it starts to grow and oozes around in the manner of a monster.  Plus it takes on a more alcoholic flavor than I want after a week in the fridge.  That's why I decided to try the freezer.  I bake each loaf in a 3 quart covered cast iron Dutch oven that is preheated to 500.  20 minutes covered, turn down to 450, 10-15 more minutes covered, uncover, 20-35 minutes more, assessing doneness visually.  The hardest part for me is waiting to cut into it after taking it out.  An hour!  That's so hard!

[StillStanding]

No. I grew up with grandparents who went hungry during the Spanish Civil war, and I was taught to eat everything on my plate and not waste food in general. I have about 18 meals I recycle through (makes shopping and cooking) easy, and although I have a loose weekly meal plan I always check the refrigerator to see what needs to be used first. 

Leftovers are next day's breakfast or lunch, or if I have a lot of leftovers it becomes supper for the whole family.