Food Waste in the Western World...including our house.

Food Wasting has become a bit of an obsession for me, as of late. Our weekly grocery budget is insane-o and, yet, we have on more than one occasion found ourselves composting mounds of food at the end of a week. Why? Why? Why? It makes me (and Jamie) totally crazy......

I think for the most part it comes down to time and planning. We pack our fridge full of healthy, local, organic produce, meat and dairy with a brain full of recipes and imaginative dinner ideas. Then one night I'm running late from work, and another night I'm exhausted after swimming lessons....and all of a sudden two+ veggie/protein packed meals have been replaced with popcorn & carrot sticks or eggs on toast. C'est la vie, je suppose.



That being said, the thought of chucking out perfectly good food still makes me feel awful.....and it's not just happening in this house!

What a disturbing irony! Good edible food thrown away while the world accelerates towards a food crisis of massive proportions.

India recently halted the export of non-basmati rice to ensure its poor can eat. Meanwhile, every month, residents in the city of Toronto, Canada, toss out 17.5 million kilograms of food. Images of green bins overflowing with food waste stand in stark contrast to media images of riots and food shortages around the world.

Food waste is pervasive in western society. A recent British study determined that about one-third of food purchased in the UK is thrown out every year. This equates to £10bn (about CDN$19.5 billion). A 1997 U.S. study found that 27 per cent of edible food is never eaten. In Toronto, the picture is not all that different: single-family households produce an average of 275 kilograms of food waste each year. Twenty-five per cent of this food goes inappropriately into the garbage (as opposed to the green bin) where city taxpayers pay nearly $10 million a year for its disposal. Most of it edible. Much of it still in its original packaging. -World Vision


[www.treehugger.com]

Crazy business!

So I'm taking steps to reduce food waste in this house, and just by chance the entire household is running more smoothly and I am a much happier mama!
[I think that's called a win-win...win situation, no?!]

Here's what we're doing:
1. Meal Planning: I've always been pretty good at this. I plan meals, shop for only what I feel I need and then do my best to stick to the plan. It's helps to save time and money....but doesn't always reduce food waste as much as I'd like. Here's how I am making the plan better....

• I only plan for 4 meals a week (I used to plan for 6). This way, when life gets in the way we don't feel bad about make-shift dinners or ordering take-out once in a while. We aren't leave food to rot. I also plan for leftovers from those four meals so that, hopefully, in a pinch we have healthy leftovers to eat.
• I am using the Sunday planners I wrote about HERE.
  
  
  
  This one in particular, from olliebird.com is a favorite.
• I have several week long menu plans that I rotate. They are kept in a magnetic plastic display cover on the side of the fridge. On grocery day, I choose one, buy the food I need and then have it on display for all to see. This also helps Jamie keep track of what groceries we need for what meals (so we aren't missing ingredients mid-week!) AND allows him to take over dinner prep when I am running late/busy. Very helpful!

{Another great idea: frame a large one of these menu planners in an ikea frame, hang on the wall like art and then use dry-erase markers to fill in your menu. The following week: wipe away and start over!}

2. Stacking My Sundays. I know I've written about Maria Menounos before, but here it goes again: her book [The Every Girl's Guide to Life] has totally encouraged me to get organized, reducing the amount of wasted time in my week. One of her big suggestions is to stack your errands. This involves setting aside a day/half-day to run all of your errands, pay bills, etc in a particular order that reduces time-wastage (word?).





I've always done this...I just didn't have a word for it! Now I'm more conscious of how I attack weekly household errands and food prep has become a big part of my Stacked Sunday.

I do all of my grocery shopping on Sunday and then set aside two hours, right before dinner, to clear out the fridge, use up food that's on it's way out and prep food for the following week.

• I roast un-used tomatoes with olive oil and garlic and then add them to soups, pastas and sandwiches the following week.
• I chopped unused veggies so that they can easily be added to stir-frys, salads or broth.
• I roast one piece of meat: an organic chicken or piece of beef, slice it up have it in the fridge.
• I take the bones from the meat and make broth, which I keep in the fridge for cooking that week or chuck it the freezer for future use.
• I make big batches of veggie purees once or twice a month and freeze them in small batches....I feed these to the baby and add them to our food, Jessica Seinfeld-style, as a way to sneak more vegetables into Winnie's diet.
• Overripe fruit is frozen for smoothies or slow cooked into a compote for oatmeal or as desert.

By 5:30pm on Sunday I have the errands for the week finished, food prepped for easy week-night meals, NO food wasted and dinner on the table. It's an amazing way greet Monday morning!

Happy Monday everyone!