Your Most Expensive Food Is the Food You Waste

People complain about the high price of food in restaurants, especially those places that source prized, fresh, local products for their menus. Ed and I hear complaints about the price of produce at farmers markets compared to supermarket sale prices or places that sell overstock and remainder clearance fruit and vegetables. But, in reality, the most expensive food most of us buy is the food we throw away.

Tip: A quick stir-fry, like this cashew chicken, can prevent wasted food by using up the bits and pieces in you refrigerator.

Wasted Food vs Food Waste

A lot is being written these days about food waste. We need to rethink that term. Food waste, to us, is the potato peels, apple cores, trimmed fat, and onion skins left when we finish preparing a meal. Many of those item can be turned into compost and some of what you are tossing can become a new menu item with the right recipe. We'll have more resources for doing this in upcoming posts. 

Wasted food, on the other hand, is the avocado that became overripe and was tossed because I bought too many. It’s the leftover chicken that sat long enough in the refrigerator for us to question its food safety. It’s the moldy orange or rotten peach in the fruit bowl. We’ve taken aim at this wasted food in our personal campaign to get the most value out of our food dollars.

Tip: We hard boil any older eggs whenever we buy a new carton. Those ready-to-go eggs help us turn a bit of leftover potato salad into a well-balanced lunch.

Vacation Lessons

If you are at all like us, you shop with greater care in the weeks before a trip because you have a set deadline to use up all the fresh food you buy.

Tip: Some toasted bread cubes, a ready-to-use avocado, and a drizzle of good olive oil can turn take-out gazpacho into a favorite meal.

Before and during a recent visit to Provincetown, Ed and I restricted our shopping list to those things we could use up in a few days. We bought food one or two meals at a time. When we extended our stay in P-town, we continued to follow that pattern. The result was that we had very little wasted food as we packed to return to Boston.

Since we’ve been home, I’ve followed that same rule. Each day I think about what I have on hand and only add staples that will soon run out and items I need for the next few meals to my shopping list. Try it and see how much less food you waste. 

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino