Waste Not, Want Not

 If you use something wisely, sparingly, and completely, it will be less likely that you find yourself in need of anything.

When I was a working mom, I often shopped with good intentions.  Those good intentions didn't include convenience meal items.  No.  I bought lots of produce and fruits and meats.  I was going to serve my family a nutritionally sound meal every single day.  Only I didn't.  Usually, it sat in the fridge until a night came along that I thought I might actually prepare it and then I'd find it had spoiled.  The truth was, I needed help the convenience meals would have given me at the time.  With a 45- minute commute each evening, unpredictable hours, and the lack of fast-food places anywhere nearby, it would have been a great help to have a few frozen entrees or frozen vegetables on hand.  But not I.  Oh no.  Instead, I bought whole foods to prepare for my family.  

I remember clearly the Saturday I sat down with a trash can and emptied out the contents of the fridge.  As item after item went into the trash can and filled it, that was the moment it hit me hard that every item represented a sum of money I'd spent on food we'd never eat.  

I vowed then and there I'd change my ways.  I learned that some seasons of life require grace, and a convenience meal here and there was a savings over spoiled, uneaten foodstuffs. 

When I became a stay-at-home mom, I didn't completely eliminate food waste though I did eliminate most convenience items. Almost all of that waste was my fault.  I'd carelessly purchased too much of an item that I then improperly stored, or it was showing signs of age when I bought it.  It was cheap. I could use it up!  But if I let it slip my mind...well, more waste.  We had a large family and a very small fridge.  Things got buried in there and were hard to see.   Eventually I learned to purchase what would fit my fridge.  'Tis far better to shop more often and have less spoilage...

 Leftovers were notorious for spoiling because no one wanted them a second time around.  It was during these days that I began to learn the art of the 'Leftover Makeover', the tag I used when I shared a recipe on my blog that was created from leftovers of other meals and later I featured many of these sorts of makeovers under a Gathered Fragments post. 

Let's fast forward a few years and return briefly to the pandemic.  With items unavailable and our never being sure when we might get to the store once again, or if we'd even be allowed to go, it was imperative that we buy what we could when we were out, as well as to use what we had at home wisely.  Not a lot has changed over the past two years.  We might be going to the grocery more frequently, but we don't know what we'll find when we arrive nor how much it might cost when we do find it.  Admittedly we're not seeing a lot of outages here, nor a lot of huge jumps in prices lately, but prices are creeping ever so slowly upwards.  Fourth of July and Labor Day sales were rather abysmal. 

I've found authors like Tamar Adler, vloggers like Jessica at ThreeRiversHomestead, chefs like Jacques Pepin who truly do use all the food.  Broccoli stems, beet leaves, fruit peels, wilted lettuce leaves, things that I had long ago determined were acceptable waste suddenly had food value for me and my family.  It changed the way I looked at food.  I began to recall the truly lean years of my life and how I stretched small amounts of meat and used beans and baked goods to extend the nutritional value of meals.  Now I had additional weapons to stretch meals still further.  It's decreased waste even more...but only when I remember to employ those methods and to truly use those items instead of just saving them! 

This past week, I went through my food supplies and looked specifically for foods that we have not used as I thought we might.  I have a few expired canned and packaged items that aren't spoiled.  Those items are not sitting front and center of my freezer or kitchen cabinet, and I've made out menus and lists including those items.  There will be no waste unless an item is spoiled.  I've had some good ideas, I think.  I have quite a supply of instant oatmeal I was given.  I've split it with Bess because her household will eat it.  I've a recipe for an oat flour cookie that I think would taste really good made with instant oatmeal that has been blended.  After all, instant oatmeal is just blended a little to make it more soluble and quicker to absorb liquid.

If you truly want to eliminate food waste in your home, you MUST be intentional.   Saving food is awesome.  Saving food with a plan on how to use that food is what really makes it all work.

When you make up your mind to reduce waste in your home, it has a way of bleeding over from the food department to the paper goods, cleaning, laundry and personal care items, and from there to water, electricity, gasoline, clothing and furnishings.    

There is always that little bit more that can be done.  To take good care of what you own means to ensure that it's cleaned as needed and that the cleaning is done properly.  It means you learn to make repairs, to do routine maintenance items or reserve cash to pay for them.  

Soap, water, fresh air, and sunshine go a long way toward healing the body and cleaning the home.  They are inexpensive (soap) and readily available.  Elbow grease is always free.  Don't discount what you have that can be useful.  And while you're employing that elbow grease, you'll be building muscles.  It really is a full circle sort of thing!

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