Know what it costs
The USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the American food supply goes uneaten, and a large share of that loss happens in home kitchens. For a household it adds up to hundreds of dollars a year, most of it in produce, dairy, bread and leftovers that were bought or cooked with good intentions. The cure is mostly a matter of seeing what you have.
Make the old food visible
Set aside one shelf or one clear bin in the refrigerator and label it "eat first." Into it go the half onion, the open yogurt, the leftovers from Tuesday and anything within a day or two of its limit. Look there before you cook anything new. Then schedule one clean-out meal a week, ideally the night before you shop. Fried rice, frittata, soup, quesadillas and pasta will absorb almost any combination of odds and ends.
Store produce so it lasts
- Stand soft herbs and asparagus upright in a jar with an inch of water, like cut flowers, and refrigerate them.
- Wash and dry salad greens, then store them in a container lined with a paper towel to absorb moisture.
- Revive limp carrots, celery and radishes by soaking them in cold water for half an hour.
- Buy bananas and avocados at mixed stages of ripeness so they do not all peak on the same day.
Use the freezer as a pause button
Almost anything can be stopped in time before it turns. Freeze bread sliced. Peel overripe bananas and freeze them for smoothies or banana bread. Freeze cooked rice, grated cheese, extra stock and the last cup of pasta sauce. Keep a gallon bag in the freezer for onion ends, carrot peels, celery tops, mushroom stems and herb stems, and simmer it into stock when it fills. Leave out cabbage and broccoli trimmings, which turn stock bitter.
Eat the whole thing
Broccoli stems, peeled and sliced, cook like the florets. Beet greens and radish tops can be sauteed like spinach. Stale bread becomes croutons or breadcrumbs, and a squeezed lemon still has zest worth grating. Anything moldy, slimy or foul-smelling goes out without debate. Whatever truly cannot be eaten can often be composted. Many cities now collect food scraps at the curb, so check your sanitation department's site.
Tip For two weeks, keep a list on the refrigerator of everything you throw away. The pattern is usually obvious by the end, and the fix is often as simple as buying one bag of salad instead of two.
