Friday, January 22, 2010
Good advice / Retail Stop Shopping Challenge
Posted by Nicki Wood on Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 7:02 AM
Most Americans make weekly trips to the supermarket, with "fill-in" trips to specialty places or nearby markets for the basics. You buy a little here, a little there, and soon enough, pantry and freezer are full.
After a study found that the average Scottish family throws away more than $800 of food a year and that British families spend $,1000 on wasted food, Britain began a nationwide campaign in December, called Love Food Hate Waste, to buy less and throw away less food. If everyone wasted less food, one in four cars on the road could be eliminated, campaigners estimate.
Similarly, eGullet, a site for serious food and cooking enthusiasts, has held two Don't Shop Now weeks to encourage members and visitors to end stockpiling, buy what you need, and use it up. Because when food sits in the pantry and fridge for months, its "sell by" date approaches. And when that happens, it's far likelier to be thrown into the trash.
(That was also the finding of the British survey. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign includes an effort to educate consumers on the differences between "sell by," "use by," and "expiration" dates that's worth looking at.)
At the end of eGullet's week without shopping, one participant wrote,"I hadn't bought any new groceries -- and, lo and behold, no harm had befallen my family. My refrigerator, freezer and pantry, I realized, had been overflowing with edible food. Why had I been saving all this stuff, I wondered, when I could have been eating it?
We're doing this now at our house, and it's making for some pretty unusual meals -- rumaki made with chinese sausage, turkey bacon and the year-old can of water chestnuts. Tomorrow night's thawed chicken thighs will be done in blueberry sauvignon syrup, and served with ... hmmm... maybe rice noodles in satay sauce from a jar. Stir-fried frozen green beans with Quorn may have to wait until another night.
If you want to join me in what commenter claudia once termed "eating down the house," start on a Monday and report back on this thread. For tips, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website and the comments on the eGullet "Don't Shop Now" threads.
Comments (11)
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I like how when Home-Ec101.com sets their weekly menu, they always declare one night to be for CORN. (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)
We could all probably stand to do that a little more often. How's that tub of miso paste working for you, Nicki?
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I think that may be the one advantage to the tiny pantry in my house. Other than staples like oil, sugar, flour, salt, vinegar, type stuff, I shop for my food the day I am going to cook and eat it.
The bbq rubs and sauces must be reproducing- that is the only explanation for the state of my pantry and refrigerator.
I shop for my food the day I am going to cook and eat it.
That sounds like a tremendous waste of time & resources.
Tobin,
When you drive past the goddam Publix every single day of the week, where exactly is the carbon offset you imagine. You save 200 yards of driving into and out of the lot?
In my household there is a solitary meat eater. 90% of the food that goes bad is vegetable stuff. It goes right onto the compost. Reuse Recycle Regurgitate.
we call it Kitchen Close Out or Refridgerator Close Outamong my group...and when you're moving, believe me, it's all about cleaning things out! it's amazing what gets buried in the freezer...
Ornomouse, if I'm reading this thread right, you and Tobin might be on the same page, carbon footprint-wise.
As for the reproducing barbecue sauces and rubs, yeah, in my house, it's pickles. We're going to have to have an all-pickle meal to use them all up. Fortunately, I found a great recipe for dill pickle soup in the last issue of Simple Cooking.
Out of sheer desperation I started a freezer log. I bought a small notebook which I keep right on the kitchen counter. I made categories for fruit, meat, veg, etc and on each page wrote in pencil what was there. As I take something out or put something in, I erase or add whatever it is.
It sounds like a lot of work and it took an afternoon to empty the freezer, inventory everything and to set it up, but now it works great and takes very little time to keep current. It was such a success I started a pantry log. I consult the logs before I go shopping.
There's an App for that: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=271929&expand=false
