I try, I really do, but I am still ashamed about how much food we waste. It seems as if bananas turn brown the moment they enter my house. Things get lost in the refrigerator, or I open a new package of pita bread only to discover a half used package already open.

I thought I was being smart by grocery shopping every two weeks. But now I have to think that having less quickly perishable food in the house would be a better thing. If I only had two oranges, instead of buying six, there is a much better chance we would eat them all before any went bad, right? So maybe I am better off shopping at least once a week and buying smaller amounts.

I have to do something differently. My freezer is stuffed full of banana bread...

__________________
I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them

I struggle with this same issue!!!! I would love to find a good system for this. I feel so wasteful!!! PLEASE offer us some suggestions.

I find that this happens to me too!! I am always finding something that i could have and should have eaten but just forgot about.

I am trying very hard this year to not make leftover food unless I know we will eat it right away. I would do better if I could buy bread/produce weekly, but I find myself unmotivated to drag the kids to the grocery if I don't have to since shopping with them has been a struggle lately and DH has been away.

I can eat bannana bread for the rest of the year with our waste from banannas alone

I'd love to hear some ways you all keep your fridge organized so this doesn't happen- or is weekly shopping the way to go??

This is the only area I am actually good at, other than that I am an unorganised mess. I'm kind of obsessed with food and healthy cooking, so I buy quite a bit. I shop weekly for the basics (bread, milk, eggs, fresh produce) and biweekly for the stuff in the middle isles.

My trick with bananas, buy half of them yellow and half green, by the time you finish the ripe ones, the other ones will be ready. Really ripe bananas are also really good in smoothies for breakfast. As for apples and oranges, we just go through them. I only allow a fruit snack after school. That way if they don't do well eating their dinner, I at least know they ate something good for them.

If you find that your bread is getting old, either stick it in the food processor for bread crumbs then freeze them or make a big batch of french toast and freeze some for an easy breakfast.

Keep your freshest things toward the front of the cupboard. Bread stays fresher in the refridgerator, especially in the summer.

Plan meals around your fresh produce first and toward the end of the week use your frozen ones.

My dh comes home for lunch every day (ugh!), so I plan leftovers for lunch. I also make a big pot of soup every week. That uses up pretty much anything that I don't think will get used meat or veggie wise.

Today I used leftover rice in my tomatoe soup, it was good (also good with frozen raviolis).

I rarely throw anything away.

I think it's just a matter of looking to see what you have before you cook another big meal. There is nothing easier than leftover night served buffet style.

__________________
The mighty oak started out as a nut that held its ground.

My recommendation is to write down a weekly menu - all three meals including snacks and drinks. Before going to the store, inventory the food that is already in the house. Purchase only the items you need according to your menu - nothing more. You might even decide to adjust the menu according to what you have on hand (using pita bread instead of sliced bread for Tuesdays lunch sandwich, for instance.) A few weeks of this kind of discipline will get you back on track.

BTW, I did a banana test. Bananas last longer when they are left attached to the bunch. It isn't our imagination that the last banana goes bad quickly.

Of course, never refrigerate bananas or oranges. I love apples fresh out of the crisper, though. I do refrigerate my bread. It lasts so much longer that way.

And one last word about bananas ... the people who live in the regions where bananas are grown find it fascinating that American eat yellow bananas. A banana truly isn't ripe until the entire thing is brown. Yeah, I know ... I still eat under-ripe yellow bananas. It is an interesting point of view, though.

__________________
"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

UGH we struggle with this. Or, I should say * I * struggle with this. DH eats anything and everything, but because I'm the designated cook in the house, if vegetables go bad (which they constantly do) it's MY fault. I am forever being guilted to death about this. He's very passive-aggressive with this... he'll huff and puff while looking in the fridge and toss things that have gone bad. He's a martyr regarding leftovers... "Well if NO ONE ELSE will eat this I guess I HAVE TO..." Oh good grief.

I do try, and I think I've gotten better. Although, I have a butternut squash on my counter just begging to rot... it's been there since Thanksgiving OOF!!

Once I left a watermelon on the counter for several months... it became part of our decor! Finally, I picked it up and heard liquid inside... it had liquified! Oh goodness. Yeah, I have problems with this. And I can't tell you how many cantaloupes have met their fates on my countertops....

__________________
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

I feel you guyes. As crazy as this my sound I out notes up in the kitchen. So dh knows what need to be eaten. I freeze stuff to. so now when I need sides i just pull them out of the freezer.

One of my dh's biggest pet peaves is throwing away food. About twice a week, we do a "fend for yourself night". My kids are older so they get this and sometimes they like it and sometimes they don't. Basically, fend for yourself night is leftovers, and whoever gets to the fridge first gets first pick, and so on...then you warm it up or whatever, and we all know that the fridge has to be pretty much empty by the time we are done. This can be fun, depending on what is in the fridge. It is so funny because my dd (11) knows that if I haven't started dinner by 6 it is a "fend for yourself night" and she gets right to the fridge to get first pick..LOL. Plus this gives me a break from having to cook 7 nights a week...LOL.

__________________
Stacey

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls. ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I will freeze leftovers when I know that we won't get to them soon enough. This way we have an easy meal down the road.

I also freeze bananas when they get a little to brown. I save them up to make banana bread. My 2 yr old loves muffins - pretty healthy treat and uses up food.

I will also buy up veggies - like red/orange peppers and slice them up and freeze them on a cookie sheet and then after they are frozen they go in a ziploc. This way they are ready to go in pizza, chinese or whatever else I come up with. I don't have to worry about them going bad in my veggie drawer!

I agree with take an inventory of what you have make a weekly menu using what you have and only buy what you need.
Also what I do is grocery day I clean out the fridge before I put anything else in.
I cuboards are pretty bare come grocery day.

__________________
"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous