wasting $ and food

denisec26

ok something needs to change here..i just thew away 5 (shopping bags, the ones they put your groceries in at the store).
FIVE! that is horrible..i hate throwing away food..and money..since i dont have any to begin with.lol

the stuff was either expired or has been sitting in my pantry and hasnt been used etc.

when i go shopping..what i used to do was buy stuff that me and my bf would eat. he eats seafood..i dont. I eat meat..he doesnt. but the problem was is that im trying to eat healthy so buying a bunch of frozen dinners isent a good idea so i stopped and then never had anything to eat in the house. I can only eat grilled chicken so much.


so what i started doing is planning meals, getting the recipes, then only buying what i need for those meals..which was still expensive but at least i knew i was cooking dinner and eating healthy..but even doing that..i bought whole wheat tortillas- i used 2. an dthen they went bad. im not gonna eat the same meal 5 days in a row. so in the garbage they went.

i need help. Im gonna list what I DONT EAT, cause im picky and maybe someone can give me some recipe ideas? so that i can plan more meals, buy food for that stuff and actually use it..instead of wasting so much food..

also, how does everyone eat fresh food and veggies and they dont go bad? i only get small amounts and even still they go bad in like 2 days..i cant eat a bag of grapes by myself in 2 days. and i want to eat more fresh food..but then i spend ALOT of money i shouldnt be spending for a weeks worth of food and then half of it goes bad.

ok so.
i eat alot of chicken
steak once in a while
sometimes ground turkey but have no good recipes for it.

i dont eat any seafood. and like i said my bf does and he doesnt eat meat.so much fun trying to cook dinner.
i dont eat- any melons, bananas, pears,( i love grapes and berries)
i pretty much hate all yogurt
onions
spicy food
peppers
and i know theres more but i cant think of any.

julwills

Try freezing a lot of your food. I know when I open a bag of tortillas and only use a few I put them in a sealed package and freeze them. Same with grapes and berries, they're definitely yummy frozen too! Our freezer has way more stuff in it than our fridge because all of our meat gets frozen (we don't eat it quickly enough to leave it in the fridge) and we also freeze a lot of our fruit if we don't eat it quickly enough.

monica208

Browse skinnytaste.com for healthy meal ideas

melsinct

I never waste food. I am the person who freezes chicken bones to make stock later so I don't waste a scrap. This is what I do:

Friday or Saturday morning: Sit down with the husband and meal plan. We plan dinners for one week (Saturday through the next Friday) as well as lunches during the week at work. We plan the main course, any sides, EVERYTHING. I then shop on Saturdays for the week. By the following Friday there isn't that much perishable food in the house since we ate it all.

It sounds like we are hyper-organized but it isn't much work. Plus it isn't like we must eat tacos on Sunday, chicken on Monday...there are seven meals laid out to be eaten in any order we choose. It works because I always know what my meal calorie count will be ahead of time and I never waste food.

heididormanen

I agree.. sit down.. plan the menu.. maybe you can plan it better and more in synch with eachother and just swap out the proteins.. so for example tacos.. you have meat ones and he can have fish.. same ingredients.. you could also do that with stir fry or anything really.. and freeze!!! We freeze stuff in individual containers, and just about anything will freeze. Then you can have quick easy meals that are healthy whenever you want.

thinkym

I have a couple ideas. As someone who is always on the go, dinners needs to be quick, easy and health. I also hate throwing food away. I try spending a little extra time after grocery shopping splitting up packs of meat and such. I make sure that they are just enough for one meal. This way when I do cook, there isn't a ton of leftovers, maybe enough for lunch the next day. I also try to find many cooking ideas using the same or similar ingredients. For example, I love Mexican food, so I might make tacos one night with ground turkey, then the next night I use ground turkey for a Mexican casserole. If I make a dish that’s bigger then one serving for a meal, I freeze it- dinner next week. I also started buying smaller quantities of food buy making list so I didn't repeat buy foods I already had at home. I'd rather run back to the grocery store and buy more then throw out food and money.

Here's a few websites that I found recipes for food that I love. (I only eat chicken and ground turkey)

www.hungrygirl.com

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/cook-yourself-thin/recipes

rmqt

Agreed! Planning is the bestest way to save $$. We plan on cooking extra and using the leftovers in another meal that week. for example, we had hot beef sandwiches from leftover roast beef, and tonight's extra roasted chicken goes in chicken and noodle soup tomorrow.

denisec26

thanks so much, when it comes to freezing, what are the basics? do u freeze everything, or cook what u are gonna eat then freeze it so u have it ready, how do u defrost it? and is there a timeline for foods? meat i knowu can freeze for a while but what about other stuff?

SueInAz

This wasn't covered yet, so I just wanted to point out that ground turkey can be used in just about any recipe that calls for ground beef. Chili, for example, is great with ground turkey.

rmqt

Freezing food: I do it both ways for meat, fresh and frozen. Split up large meat packs as soon as you get home, wrap the meat in plastic wrap in 'recipe' portions, then put in freezer bags. I freeze cooked meat frequently for no-brainer dinners, just pull them out in the morning and let thaw in the fridge. I wouldn't recommend freezing cooked veggies, they'll usually get mushy. I freeze soups in ziplock containers for lunches at work, and often freeze brown rice because it takes so darn long to cook.

denisec26

i usually tend to buy frozen veggies that steam in the bag, i think im gonna start seperating the meat into smaller bags and freeze leftover meals, cause if the fridge they usually go bad.

any recipe ideas?

also, i wish i could do chilli and soup but im in fl..its already in th ehigh 80's here, i cant bear to eat hot foods like soup. haha

jdavis193

Taste of home has great recipes you can search by healthy low sodium budget healthy meals.. It's great. I get most of mine from there.

poisongirl6485

I freeze almost everything from cream cheese to lunch meat. sounds weird but it is fine once it thaws. The cream cheese texture is slightly different after it's frozen, but I don't use it on bread or anything, I throw it in the crockpot for meals, so it melts in fine.

ivyjbres

.also, how does everyone eat fresh food and veggies and they dont go bad? i only get small amounts and even still they go bad in like 2 days..i cant eat a bag of grapes by myself in 2 days. and i want to eat more fresh food..but then i spend ALOT of money i shouldnt be spending for a weeks worth of food and then half of it goes bad.

Do you always do your shopping at the same store? Or do you shop at different places. Sometimes, for whatever reason, one particular store will not have good produce. We have one of those here where I live, you just can't buy produce there. If you shop st several stores and the same thing happens, something's wrong with your kitchen that's making your produce go bad.

heathersmilez

Freezing beans was the most helpful tip I ever received.

You don't want to eat chickpeas and black beans for days on end so I use what I need for the meal whether it be ½ cup or 1 cup then freeze the remainder. To thaw, I just run warm/hot water over them in a strainer. I also freeze the remainder of canned diced tomatoes and strawberries and banana. I clean and dice the fruit then freeze them for my protein smoothies. This means when strawberries are $1 like they are this week, I can go nuts and nothing will be wasted. Yes, bananas keep in a freezer FOREVER! I bought 16 bananas and they lasted me about 6 months.

heathersmilez

.also, how does everyone eat fresh food and veggies and they dont go bad? i only get small amounts and even still they go bad in like 2 days..i cant eat a bag of grapes by myself in 2 days. and i want to eat more fresh food..but then i spend ALOT of money i shouldnt be spending for a weeks worth of food and then half of it goes bad.

Do you always do your shopping at the same store? Or do you shop at different places. Sometimes, for whatever reason, one particular store will not have good produce. We have one of those here where I live, you just can't buy produce there. If you shop st several stores and the same thing happens, something's wrong with your kitchen that's making your produce go bad.

Yea 2 days is pretty weird. My fruit and veggies can last at least 2 weeks in my fridge. I keep them in the crisper drawer and they stay excellent for a long time. I should eat them faster though b/c their vitamin/nutritional content is reduced the longer they age.

nickscutie

I plan almost all my meals, and I try to waste as little as possible and am usually successful. I keep all my bread, english muffins, tortillas in the fridge and they last a good few weeks in there. I also store all my vegetables in sealed plastic ziploc bags in the produce drawers, if they were fresh when I bought them, they last at least a week like that. Certain fruits you should keep on the counter and eat as they ripen, and others I keep in the fridge but don;t wash until I am ready to eat them - such a berries. For grapes, when I get home from the store, i pick them all off the vine, wash them and store them in the fridge in a bowl - last me a good few days, up to a week. For all fresh stuff, I only buy what I think I will need for that week, and if I have leftover bananas - i make some muffins and then freeze them.

You also have to learn to look at what you have left in the house and plan meals around that. If I have a bunch of english muffins or some leftover cinnamon bread I know I need to incorporate that into my breakfast. If I bought a lot of fruit, I have to choose to eat that as a snack over other non perishable stuff I have that will last. If I buy feta cheese for something and don;t use it all, I look for a recipe where I can use the rest next week- or throw it into some eggs or a salad. If I have a ton of canned tomatoes I make some pasta sauce or a chili - double batch for freezing. You just need to look at what you have and figure out how to use it up before you buy more stuff. Be creative! I created an egg, cheese and mashed black beans with salsa sandwich on an english muffin when I had extra black beans from dinner one night. It made for a great breakfast and i make it all the time now.

nehtaeh

You could make salad type things where you can put your own meat on it - you can use chicken or stead and hubby can have his shrimp/fish or whatever. You can also just grill the meat and have the sides be whatever sounds good or that you have on hand - that way you can each grill whatever meat you want.

For the freezing, separate whatever it is in portion sizes. If you buy 5 pounds of ground turkey, separate into pounds and freeze. If you buy a thing of tortillas, put two in a bag to pull out later.

I don't know how long things stay in the freezer for but I'm sure someone's got an idea, or maybe google it. You can put the date you put in the freezer on it and even the date it should be pitched if its still in there. That takes any guess work out of it.

Cathy92

I have a problem too with fresh fruit and veggies. Lettuce starts rotting after 4-4 days..I always read expiry dates. I also cook for 2 people and it's hard sometimes. If I know, that the two of us can't eat the fresh stuff, I invite people over to share it. Also, I've learned never to buy fresh stuff at CostCo. Doesn't work for me.
Another issue I have, is that I like to buy packaged sliced turkey( with the nutition on the package) for sandwiches. I'm the only one that eats it though and because I ration it out, I can't seem to buy a small enough amount. It seems like I have to buy just a few slices at the deli or it expires. Good luck.
I guess we have to shop every 3 days to keep a healthy supply of fruits and veggies.

MsKittyCAT

I do love my crockpot and when I cook something I portion it out into one serving size meal containers. Some go in the fridge and some go in the freezer.

Grapes and berries can be frozen in individual portions too. In the summer they are good frozen and sometimes I drop them in my drinks in place of ice.

Lexie71

I bought a food sealer and I'm so glad I spent the money. I live alone so fresh foods go bad too quickly for me to finish them. With the food saver I can cut up fresh vegetables and seal them in individual servings and they last a lot longer. For example, I love green peppers....I can slice them and seal them and enjoy them for a week or more after they've been cut and cleaned. I also make vegetable soups in the crock pot, then freeze them in individual bowls. Then I pop the frozen soup out of the bowl and seal it. When I'm ready to eat it I just put it back in the same bowl and microwave. I can make whole salads, then put a damp paper towel over it and seal it and have a fresh salad every day that has already been cut up. With things like tomato sauce I freeze it in ice cube trays and seal a few cubes at a time. When I need sauce I just cut one open and heat it. I don't like to cook so I do a lot of crock pot and freeze meals.