Cooking can come easy to some, but for most it can be quite a bit of work when you want to make the perfect meal that taste good at the same time. When thinking of what to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner many find it easiest to go out to eat, pick up food to go, or eat some leftovers in the fridge. But what does this mean for all those groceries you bought last weekend? thinking you were finally going to use that one recipe you found in one of ten cooking books you own.

I think the key to reducing your food waste is to meal prep, plan, and actually execute a good tasting meal you made yourself. In the meal prep and planning stages I would encourage you to explore different ways to use a certain type of food. Such as, cauliflower that you can eat as a rice base or a steam veggie, fruit for a smoothie, breakfast, or salad and something as simple as eggs that in the end can just be boiled and saved for a longer period of time.

The Los Angeles Times, recently posted a article titled, “Reducing food waste is virtuous and delicious with 10 recipes” that discussed this very issue and provided a link that shows people like you and me a few recipes on how to put your kitchen scraps to better use. A major problem that contributes to food waste is forgetting to use what you have in your fridge and pantry. So knowing how to cook and not give up on the foods with “sell by” dates expired, actually trying to cook them is the best step. And personally if it taste good/smells good, it is fine to eat.

So what to do right now? First evaluate the foods that are easily perishable and decide weather you should freeze them or get to cooking. If you’re not sure on how to freeze certain foods I will link a photo I found on Pinterest that directs you on how to freeze certain foods. But if you’re ready to cook then I’ve also provided the link to the recipes that the Los Angeles Times talks about right below. For more ideas simply googling or dusting off your old cook books would be the best step. For more information follow us on our social media platforms and be apart of putting a stop to food waste.

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-reducing-food-waste-recipes-20150408-story.html