Today's tip comes from a question my friend, Liz, had. She cooks for either one or two people and finds that a lot of food goes to waste because she can't get to all of it in time. Due to that, she ends up going out to dinner a lot. Here's the first thing that has been helpful to me, but I will be posting a few more cooking tips after this.
Plain and simple, put food in your freezer that you are not going to use before it goes bad.
My Story: Most of us have been there. We buy food for a meal, make the meal, and then watch as the leftovers get moldy. To combate this, I have gotten really good at filling my freezer. After the meal, I put individual servings in different tupperwares and put them in the fridge. If they haven't been eaten after a few days, I throw them in the freezer. Then you have meals ready to eat when you have a busy night and no food goes to waste. Also, if you have bulk items left after the meal (i.e. pasta sauce, bread, gravy, etc.) you can put those in the freezer as well for a later date.
Go Green: Unless you have a compost for those moldy meals, this way you end up wasting less! Also, you run to the store less for food.
Problems: The number one thing I have found is that sometimes the leftovers don't always get eaten when they have been frozen. Somethings they don't freeze well, or never sound appetizing again. Thus, I have started to only freeze things that I know I or my husband will eat again. Also, we tend to fill up our freezer after a couple of weeks of this. We then have to eat leftovers until we free up some space.
Cindi, I can't tell you how helpful this is. I NEVER freeze anything, largely because I share 1 freezer with 4 other people! But, I found a bunch of chicken on major sale and froze it, and now have dinner for the next week and a half! I'm also freezing sauces that I don't use all of, and feel much better about not tossing them down the drain. Thanks for reminding me of the usefulness of the good old freezer!
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