Make your food last longer…
In Habit #11 we learned how to prevent overbuying food. Habit #12 is about how to make the food you buy last longer so you don’t throw as much out.
4 Tips to using your food better:
Expiration Dates
Don’t live and die by expiration dates. They are useful to help you prioritize the foods you should eat first, but you don’t have to throw something out the day it reaches its “expiration”.
Humans are innately capable of detecting bad food. It’s in our DNA. Use your eyes to look for mold and use you nose to tell if something’s gone bad. I’ve been following this rule for over 10 years and have yet to get sick from eating spoiled food.
Fridge Organization
It turns out that we are not innately good at organizing the food in our refrigerators. Luckily it’s not that hard to learn and it can make a big impact on how much food you save. You can dig deeper into this topic on ThinkEatSave, but here’s the basics:
Develop a habit of organizing the ol’ icebox. As mentioned in tip #11, take an inventory before you shop. When you’re doing that, move the stuff that’s going to expire the soonest to the front. When you bring your new groceries home place them behind the existing food (and the leftovers!).
This will prevent you from finding old moldy sandwiches during your spring cleaning because it’ll prevent you from leap frogging food. Instead of chowing the food you just bought from the store, check the fridge first to see if there is something there you can use first.
The Freezer
You can freeze and revive just about anything. Don’t be afraid! My stepmom even freezes whole gallons of milk after a Costco run. Does that sound crazy? One time when I was living in Alaska I froze 12 California burritos from San Diego and took them back with me… they were a big hit.
Katherine Martinko gives some good tips for freezing food in her article on TreeHugger.com if you want to dig deeper.
Leftovers
Eat em. Nuff said… Save time, save money, save food. ⌚+💸+🍕=👍
Your Action Items
- Remember that you don’t have to live and die by expiration dates; use your eyes and nose (and common sense).
- Get in the habit of organizing your fridge so food doesn’t get pushed to the back and neglected.
- Try freezing more stuff instead of letting it go bad in the fridge.
- Eat your leftovers!
Just Eat It:
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<< #11 Stop Food Waste from the Source
Resources:
This post summarizes the jaw dropping facts about food waste in the US and includes Jon Oliver’s rant on the issue which is a must see!
Katherine Martinko gives some good tips for freezing food in her article on TreeHugger.com.
This advice about how to organize your refrigerator from Think.Eat.Save is a quick read that can help you optimize the way you manage your fridge space.
Freezing is so so handy….I even freeze feta cheese as I use it so rarely