Easy Ideas to become a Zero Food Waste Family

I share ten easy ideas to become a zero food waste family.

We are a family of four and live off of a single income. My goal every week is to stretch our food budget. I try and use up everything that we had purchased from the store. I hate to throw away food because that means we threw away money.

Whenever food gets thrown away, I imagine dollar bills being thrown away.

I also love being creative with the meals that we make. Want to spice up your meals? Try using up left over food item from your refrigerator. You would be amazed at what you can come up with.

Zero Food Waste Ideas

These ten ideas involve a bit of planning and creativity. But should be helpful for anyone looking to reduce food waste in their home.

1. Meal Plan

Let’s talk about one most obvious idea first to try to have zero food waste; meal planning. I know this is very obvious but often an overlooked idea. If you have a plan for what you will be eating then you will be less likely to waste the food.

I suggest brainstorming a list of meals you like from breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. When meal planning you can easily pick out some meals. Need more guidance with how to meal plan? Check out: How to Meal Plan for the week for beginners and Meal Planning for People who Hate to Meal Plan.

2. Cook from scratch

My second idea is to continue to or start to cook meals from scratch. I have found that I am less likely to toss out food if it’s made from scratch. Plus I love the sense of pride I feel with cooking meals from scratch. It makes me feel like a super star.

3. Reuse same ingredients for multiple meals

The next idea is to reuse the same ingredients for multiple meals throughout the week. I first heard about this concept from the cookbook Cook Once, Eat All Week. This is absolutely brilliant! The author Cassy gives you three dinners that uses the same protein, carb, and vegetables. I now use this concept when I meal plan.

Last week we wanted to use chicken breast. So I used chicken breast for five different dinners: White Chicken Chili, Zesty Buffalo Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli, Greek Goddess Salad with Chicken, BBQ Chicken Pizza, and Chicken Fried Rice. I always love to end the week with fried rice. Why? Because I can throw in whatever left over produce we have into the rice; delicious and nothing wasted.

4. Eat leftovers

The third tip is another obvious one but a great idea none the less. Plan for a few leftover meal days. For us we like to eat dinner leftovers for lunch the next day. This makes it super easy to plan for lunch.

5. Avoid specialty ingredients

The next tip is to avoid buying specialty ingredients that will only be used for one meal. To give an example, I needed pumpkin spice to make pumpkin pie. However I could not bring myself to purchase a $5 spice that I would only use one time. Instead I searched online for a homemade pumpkin spice recipe. It turned out we already had all of the spices at home to make our own. Problem solved. We saved money and food.

6. Well Organized Food Storage

My next idea is to have your food storage well organized. We kept losing items in the back of our pantry. Food would go stale before we could get to it. So I worked on organizing our pantry. For this I used left over containers from a previous project to help contain the mess. Now we have less food waste.

7. Rethink ingredients before they go bad

Last week we had some Granny Smith apples that were going bad. So I decided to make some yummy and delicious homemade apple pie. What can I say? I love dessert. If you know something is about to go bad then search for a unique way to use up the food items.

8. Freeze for later

Another way to preserve food before it goes bad is to freeze for later. I often will do this with produce that might be going bad. Last week we had some corn that wasn’t going to last. So I placed it in a freezer safe container. I plan on using the corn in a soup soon.

9. Give away for FREE

The next tip is to give unspoiled food away before it spoils. I will put up the item for FREE online for people in our local community to pick up. I have done this a few times and every single time someone has picked up the item.

10. Compost

The final tip is to compost scrap pieces of food. Luckily in our area we are able to place select food items in the green waste. But if that isn’t an option for you, maybe try your hand at creating compost in you backyard. I have a few resources for you below: Composting at Home and How to Compost at Home.

Don’t want to compost? Then try making homemade vegetable stock from your vegetable off cuttings.

Do you cook with bacon? Use the bacon grease in your cast iron pan for added seasoning.

Are you always able to have zero food waste?

No, we are not able to have zero food waste 100% of the time. We do have young children that occasionally (okay well if I’m being honest they will often) throw food on the ground. Or sometimes our one year old likes to get into the flour and toss it around. Yes this has happened not once but twice. I’m looking at you little one! 🙂 But we strive to have a minimal amount of food waste every single week.

What ideas are you hoping to try? What other ideas do you have for zero food waste?

Watch, Easy Ideas to become a Zero Food Waste family.

What others are reading…

How to Meal Plan for the week for beginners

Meal Planning for People who Hate to Meal Plan

7 Free Ways to Reduce Impulse Buying

I want to cheer you on with a simple everyday routine that helps make life easier. Why? So you can focus on what is most important to you. Thank you so much for stopping by! To discover more about my family and I, go HERE.

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