Cooking has long been a healthy and enjoyable way to feed your family, yet the rising cost of groceries is stressing many home cooks’ budgets. These secrets for cooking without food waste can help you get more out of your food budget while still making tasty and nutritious meals.
The cost of cooking waste in 2024
The cost of food has spiked sharply in recent years, and many households have been looking for new ways to cut their grocery budgets. Cooking food at home remains one of the most affordable ways to feed a family, but it can still be expensive.
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, the price of groceries has increased 25% on average over the past four years. Despite these high prices, a 2023 study showed that the average household throws out over a quarter of the food purchased. This translates into approximately $1,000 of uneaten food per year for a family of four.
Reducing waste when cooking can cut your grocery bill by as much as 25%. This can almost entirely offset the increase in costs without requiring you to cut out favorite ingredients like fresh produce, organic products, meats and snacks. With Stop Food Waste Day happening globally on April 24, 2024, this is the right time to learn how to limit waste in your home.
Plan meals and shopping around ingredients
Whether you cook every meal of the week at home or just a couple, planning what dishes you will make in advance can help you cook waste free. Planning ahead provides an opportunity to coordinate recipes to use up all the ingredients on your shopping list.
Many recipes require ingredients in smaller portions than you can buy at the store. For instance, you may buy an entire bunch of spinach but only need a few handfuls. You might need a few cups of broth, but have to buy an entire carton. After you use what is necessary for your recipe, the rest could go to waste.
Pick recipes that use the same ingredients. For example, if you plan on making pita bread wraps for one meal, consider making a pita pizza for another meal to use up the rest of the bread. You can also use extra vegetables from a dinner of meat and veggies in a soup or pasta.
Look at what you already have on hand and choose recipes that will use up items in your fridge or pantry to avoid buying more. Lastly, consider your schedule for the coming week. If you’ll be eating out more, plan on cooking fewer meals so that you’re not buying extra groceries that will go to waste.
Get creative with leftovers and food scraps
Another secret for reducing the amount of food you throw away from home cooking is making an effort to use up the food you already have. This can include eating leftovers, finding new ways to use up food scraps and more.
Experiment with different flavors and serving styles
You can make leftovers more exciting by mixing up the flavor profiles or how you serve them. Spices are an affordable way to bring a lot of flavor to a dish. By using different spices, you can even turn similar ingredients into entirely different dishes from a variety of cuisines.
If you cook up a plain meal in advance, you can then add different spices to individual portions throughout the week. As you’re eating leftovers, this can make each serving feel new. It is also a nice way to cater to different palates.
You can also change the way you serve leftovers, such as adding leftover meat and veggies to a sandwich or wrap. Different presentations will help vary leftovers and can help cover up the texture of reheated foods.
Make recipes that use up scraps
There are many ways you can use up the last bits of produce and other grocery items. Some recipes can even help you replace things you might otherwise buy at the store with homemade versions, further cutting your grocery costs.
Making green juice from leftover green vegetables and fruits like celery, kale, cucumber and grapes is a great way to make a nutritious drink and use up produce. You can save vegetable scraps in the freezer and simmer them in water for several hours to make rich, homemade broth. Alternatively, toss leftover veggies into soups, casseroles and other dishes to use them up.
Stretch the shelf life of favorite foods
Keeping the foods you buy and cook safely edible and delicious for as long as possible will reduce the amount you have to throw away. Proper storage of ingredients and prepared foods will maximize the shelf life.
Use airtight containers
Exposure to particles in the air, like bacteria and mold spores, as well as moisture, hastens the decomposition process for fruits and vegetables, meats, breads and other ingredients. Airtight storage can extend the life of produce by several days and make dried goods such as rice and beans last almost indefinitely. Similar storage for leftovers is also essential for food safety and freshness.
Keep things cool
Storing items in your fridge can keep food safe for several days and many frozen items will still be good up to four months later, depending on the item. However, refrigeration and freezing can change the taste and texture of some foods, so you may need to experiment with how you use things like frozen vegetables and season frozen leftovers.
Avoid letting ingredients sit at room temperature
When cooking, keep items you will not be using for that day’s dish in the refrigerator. Extra time at room temperature significantly shortens the shelf life of dairy products and meats.
Buy and cook foods with a long shelf life
Dried, jarred and canned goods can be the basis for a range of healthy meals and snacks, like tomato sauce with pasta or peanut butter granola. Their longer shelf life gives your family more time to consume the food before it goes bad.
Wrapping Up
While you can always donate unopened packaged goods and compost past-its-prime produce to help offset the environmental impact of food waste, a few changes to your cooking can help you use up food and lend financial relief.
Whether you want to reduce food waste in honor of Stop Food Waste Day or are looking for long-term solutions to save on groceries, a few changes to your routine can help you achieve waste-free cooking. This way, you can continue to make high-quality food for your family without going over budget.
Sharon Rhodes is the creative force behind the food blog The Honour System. Passionate about all things homemade, Sharon is a seasoned recipe curator focused on making healthier cooking and baking accessible to all.