Food leftovers

I am reading an article in the November 2016 issue of 5280 magazine on food waste.  The article covers a variety of topics associated with food waste in the U.S. and I will likely write more than one blog post inspired by the article. For today, I will start with the statement that according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), households in the U.S. throw away 25% of the food they buy.  Throwing away the food you buy wastes all the resources used to produce, prepare, and transport the food, in addition to being a big waste of your money.  Also, the wasted food produces methane when it decomposes in the landfill.  There are many reasons to reduce the amount of food wasted after you bring it home. Today we’ll focus on leftovers because they can be a big contribution to the volume of wasted food.  Some ideas that work for me:

1. I keep leftovers in clear containers.  We have found that if we cannot tell what is inside a container, we tend to ignore it rather than open it to see what’s inside every time we look through the refrigerator.  If we do take the time to look through a bunch of closed containers, the refrigerator door stays open a lot longer.  
2. I plan ahead for how I will use leftovers.  If I have enough leftovers for two meals, I don’t buy additional food for two more meals.  Many types of leftovers can be incorporated into a new meal.  For example, leftover roasted chicken can be added to sandwiches, a casserole or soup the next day.  An advance plan helps me have the ingredients I need need for a leftover’s second life.  
3. I freeze many leftovers to use later for lunches or a quick supper when I don’t have time to cook.  I love having the easy meals available.  This means I have to manage the items in my freezer though, so that the containers don’t get lost in the back and get old.  Labeling is important, and I include the date as well as the name of the leftover in the container.  ​