On Food Costs (Waste)

So, it's been nearly 2 months, and I'm sorry. I was plagued by boredom, headaches, and more pressing concerns. Pity that. Anyway, I'm going to finish up my theme, and move onward, and hopefully, more continually.

At any rate, I've been thinking a lot about waste lately. According to the October 2008 issue of Eating Well, which cites the EPA, "Americans throw away 96 billion pounds of food waste each year, from home and commercial establishments." Exactly how much of that is from homes, I don't know, but we can assume that at least a quarter of it is. The article in Eating Well discusses how some colleges are attempting to curb food waste by eliminating trays, thus making students take what they intend to eat in their hands, rather than cramming bits of everything onto a tray. Doing so can apparently reduce daily food waste by 44% and save hundreds of gallons of water. Awesome, but how to reproduce that in our homes?

Well, there are some obvious options for reducing how much food we throw away: only buy food we're going to eat, only prepare enough food for the number of people eating, eat left overs etc... But I have some potentially creative ideas as well that I'd like to throw out there.

1) Once, when I was working at a law firm in college, one of the secretaries was sharing how she had lost weight. Her plan had been very similar to the trayless food service plan. Instead of portioning her food on a dinner plate, she served herself on a salad plate. Less food would fit on the plate, but she still could clean the plate. She tricked her eye, which really is some great advice. All of our senses contribute to hunger, and relying too heavily on some of them (in my case, taste, in the case of others, sight) can cause us to pile more food on our plates than we can eat. If there's less food on our plates, there's less to toss afterwards (or less to gorge on), which is good for all aspects of the problem. Think of this as the "reduce" part of the equation.

2) I like to cook with stock, and I usually avoid store-bought vegetable stock, because it has an odor. However, I don't always have the patience to make chicken stock, which involves carcasses etc... So, I saved all the odd ends of my vegetables in freezer bags, and when I had a baking sheet's worth of them, I made stock. Because it was made from vegetables I would actually eat, and because I could control the seasoning, it smelled, and tasted delicious, and it froze easily to be reused. Reusing not only reduces your food costs by allowing you to cheaply make something that would otherwise have to be purchased, but it gives you control over what you put into your food, always a good choice.

How I make Vegetable Stock
First, I clean and wash all my vegetables carefully to remove any chemical residues. I use any vegetables for stock, mushrooms, cucumbers, scallions, etc.... Then, as I chop the ends off, or peel the vegetables, I place the ends and peels in a freezer bag and wait. I wait until I have one or two bags full, and then place the ends on a baking sheet, and roast them at 400 with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Once they're lovely and brown, I put them in a stock pot filled with water, and add any herbs that appeal to me and bring it to a boil. After it boils, I let it simmer for a while, about an hour or so, then cool it, strain it, and freeze it in smaller containers.

Another way to apply this concept is with shrimp shells. Simply freeze them after you've peeled the shrimp, and boil them with seasonings if you ever need seafood stock. Be sure to strain carefully!

3)Of course, the third leg of this trifecta is recycle, and the best way to recycle food is to compost. If you have a yard, composting is fairly easy. The EPA has lots of information about composting, including what should and should not be composted, how to create a compost pile, and the environmental benefits of composting. If you live indoors, you can use the EPA's suggestions for indoor composting at the link about creating a compost pile, or use the apparently odorless indoor worm composting tips found here and elsewhere on the web.

The frightening thing about the 96 billion pounds of food waste mentioned above is that most of it probably ends up in landfills, where it does not decompose, or at least not very readily. When we can take relatively small steps to ensure that we contribute less to landfills, we can save our waistlines, our wallets and our environment. Imagine: by wasting less food, we can be healthier in so many ways. Most of this is very easy, and takes very little time. These are all steps I've taken in one measure or another while working full time. Being responsible and less wasteful is not the huge time commitment it is made out to be. It's just a choice that has to be made.