Life without Food Waste

Okay people, let's talk food waste.  We all do it, and it sucks. You are literally throwing away money and it's not a great feeling. In fact, the average Canadian household throws out about $1,100 in food per year, not to mention the waste and carbon footprint associated. We have been actively trying to reduce our food waste in our household for a long time. I have found a couple of tricks that are easy, and make a huge difference, so I thought I would share!

Hack #1

Meal prep!  I'm an avid meal prepper and have been for years.  I sit down every Sunday, jot a list of meals, and then head to bulk barn and the grocery store.  Meal prepping is great because it gives you a plan at the store, and really reduces your waste if you're buying specific things to get you through the week. 

There are tons of apps to assist (take a peek at this post by the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/20/seven-of-the-best-to-do-list-apps) but we just use Notes on our phone.

The biggest benefit of meal planning and prepping is you don't have to have the constant question of, what should we do for dinner? because it's already planned. I typically prep heavily on Sundays, which makes the chaotic week ahead much easier to manage! 

One of my go to's lately is falafel because you can play around with the ingredients and use up whatever you need to in your fridge. Plus it's healthy, plant-based, and super delicious.

The staples in my recipe are always onion, garlic, cumin, chickpeas, but I also add peppers, celery, carrots, whatever I need to use up.  Super flexible recipe, but here is a great one to get you started https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-vegan-falafel/.  Minimalist Baker is a great go-to for easy plant-based dishes, highly recommend them!

Hack #2

Soup! I love making soup because its the perfect way to use up scraps of leftovers and veggies in your fridge, plus soup always makes a great lunch on the go.  There is nothing to this, take whatever leftover meat you have (or go meatless!), chop up a bunch of veggies, throw it in a pot with some stock and you have lunches all week. 

A couple of staples in every one of my soups are farrow (it's like rice but keeps its firmness in soup) and sweet potato (I just love the texture it provides), but otherwise, we switch up the broth to be tomato-based, chicken-based, beef-based, the options are endless. 

A few other ingredient options to try out (all available zero waste at bulk barn) are: 

• Mung beans (anti-aging, how cool is that?! because of the copper in them, and super high in fiber)
• Lentils (because we grow them like crazy in Canada and they are healthy and delicious)

Keep these two hacks in mind as we head into a new week.  These are easy changes that you can implement right now, that will make a huge impact on the amount of food your household is throwing away!

Thanks for reading!

Michelle