Thursday, August 25, 2011

Waste Not, Want Not

God and all his people know I don’t like leftovers.  Except chili.  And Uncle Jim’s lasagna.  I try not to make more food than what will be eaten in one sitting.  Admittedly, sometimes I pack my husband’s  lunch only so I can make sure someone besides me is taking care of those leftovers.   But, for those leftovers we do end up with, the ones I dutifully put in the fridge, if the human garbage disposal known as my husband refuses to eat them chances are, they get trashed.  Sadly, we throw things away that have gone bad because we simply didn’t eat them fast enough more than I care to admit. 

I’m sort of losing sleep about the amount of food we are wasting.  Not only it is KILLING the world, but it’s not so great for our budget either.  This whole panic was spurred by the fact that we returned from a vacation on Monday and I threw out 2/3 of what was in the fridge.  And there was still plenty left to eat.  I felt pretty ashamed.  We had house guests prior to leaving on vacation and may have over-bought in anticipation of their stay.  Or just over-bought in general over the course of a couple weeks (read: months).  And went out to eat more than expected.  I’m full of excuses, huh (such a subtle pun I have to point it out)? Anyway, I can’t peacefully sleep at night if I continue to throw away food excessive amounts of food. 

How can I stop the madness?  How can I cleverly waste less food?  Do I simply have to suck it up and eat more leftovers?   Never eat out again?  

I don’t have the perfect answer….YET.

But, I do have the ability to try to do better.  I’m a superb try-er (and modest to boot).   So, I’ll try to buy less.  I’ll try to cook what’s going to go bad first.  I’ll try to be more creative in the kitchen so I use up the orphan foods.  We’ll see what happens. 

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