Meal Planning to Reduce Food Waste
We all start the year off with big dreams and impressive goals. One of mine for 2021 is that I’d like to throw less food out. Did you know nearly 40% of the US food supply is wasted each year? I definitely end up tossing my fair share which is not good for anyone. So I hope that this year by adjusting the way I meal plan…I can waste significantly less food. Check out my new plan below.
So how do I plan food out for the week? We typically eat at home Monday-Friday for dinner and then order in (Covid) or go eat at one of our parents’ houses on the weekend. For breakfast and lunch we have some staples that we rotate through and so I don’t really plan those out in advance. Just make sure we are stocked up on the things we like.
That leaves me with planning about 5 dinners a week. We eat just about everything and so I’ll usually start by finding one of each of these recipes to try for the week:
– Beef or Pork
– Chicken
– Pasta/Vegetarian
– Fish
– Pizza or something else fun!
I will usually pick two or three recipes that I’ve made before and one or two recipes to try that are new.
Here’s how I’m adjusting what I do for the new year:
Instead of picking the order in advance or letting my husband choose from a list each day, I’m figuring out the order when I get back from the grocery store.
For instance, I bought salmon, beef, pizza dough and chicken tenders this week. I see the the salmon is going to go bad first followed by the chicken, pizza dough and the beef is good for a while. So that’s the order we will be eating them in! Then I do the same for my veggies. I know that broccoli is gonna last a while in the fridge while my pre-cut brussell sprouts may not fair so well.
I am also trying to organize my fridge in a way that I know what needs to be used up next. Trying to keep leftovers front and center so I know to either eat them up or throw them in the freezer.
I’m hoping this new plan will lead to less food waste because I won’t realize at the end of the week that the chicken has gone bad and my cheese is fuzzy.
What are some ways you food plan?
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