memes

This is probably intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but meal planning is the answer. Block off some time (Sunday evenings are popular), to figure out all your meals for the week, make a list of everything you need to make all the dishes on the menu, go to the store and buy all that stuff and nothing else, make ahead and freeze any meals that you can and do any prep work ahead of time that you can.

Viola: intentional eating, less waste, and always something on hand to eat.

It changed my life in a lot of positive ways.

I solved this by planning out all my dinners for the week and then buying only what I needed for those plus topping up any thing I need for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Any perishables get used because i mostly only have what I've planned for that week. I can recommend Recipe Tin Eats as a good resource for easy to cook meals.

Do y'all need some recipes for simple and quick homemade meals? These are for one person or 2 meals.

• Potato - get the gold/yellow kind. Nuke for 5 minutes and top with whatever. If you want to spend 5 more minutes, put butter in a pan, smash it and cook on upper low for 4 or 5 more minutes with scallions, cheese, or whatever. If it's too dry, add milk.
• Frozen hamburger-put it in a large skillet with cut veggies over butter. Add herbs and/or onion flakes to taste. Let cook on medium heat with the lid on for 20 minutes. Add water and break up the meat, let cook for 10 more minutes with the lid off.
• Fresh or frozen chicken in the air fryer. Take a cup of flour and add some salt, garlic and/or any other herbs that sound good. Sometimes I add oregano or basil. Shake the 4 pieces in the flour. Air fry for 30 minutes (fresh) and 40 minutes (frozen). Take out and brush on butter. If there is flour left over, sprinkle on if necessary. Cook another 20 minutes (fresh) or 30 minutes frozen. This one is more easy than quick.

There are tons more, but I'm hungry and need to eat now.

I found that visitng shop frequently and buying a little each time helps with this. Also, knowing what you have and planning what to cook with stock in mind. Also, one might find better to buy at small grocery stores (turkish in my area). These have ability to buy as an example 10 or less potatoes instead of fixed 2.5kg of potatoes. That way you're not bound to swiftly eat potatoes before they rot.

My SO has ADHD and used to do this. I just cook for the both of us now so it's less food waste. The only issue is sometimes he doesn't like what I make :/

A slow cooker helps. You can use random ingredients before they go bad easily enough, and you will have left overs so cooking one time results in not having to cook for multiple meals.

This is actually a real issue for a lot of people. The solution that I found is that you should sit down and write out a meal plan for the upcoming week. Like actually sit down and plan out your every meal and include snacks as well. Then write down the things you need to buy for those meals and snacks. Make sure you only put down things that you actually like eating.

When you go shopping take that list with you, and only buy the things you wrote on there and only buy amounts for the meals you're planning for. If by the end of the week, you bought too much, then that means there are meals in your planner that you don't really like. From there, you can refine your list and make improvements every week.

I buy stuff that lasts. For bread, I find that rye takes weeks longer than white or wheat to start going bad, and bagels last ages too. I make smoothies with mostly frozen fruit. For dinner stuff, if I'm not feeling like cooking I either buy things I'm going to eat in the next few days or I get these sealed precooked things from Aldi that are great and keep well. Coconut milk also tends to keep better than cow milk and lately I've realized I greatly prefer it.

About the only things that are super perishable that I keep around are bananas and avocados, and I just tend to eat these a lot. I also keep spinach or kale around for my smoothies, but I rebag them into separate smaller bags as soon as I get them. If my bananas are getting overripe, they get frozen for smoothies.

I also tend to buy canned soups, which last ages.

When I was cooking regularly I'd make a lot of chilis and pasta sauces. They're good to freeze and they keep well on their own. Chili is arguably better after freezing and having more time to develop.

You can definitely eat pretty healthy and keep plenty of food in the house without constantly chasing waste.

Planning.

Buy empty deli containers and food prep at least half the meals for the week.

Clean up fridge on day off, note overstock and old stock

Plan meals for the week using the over/old stock.

Use the pickup service at the market instead of shopping so you don't buy stupid things.

When you buy raw meat, cook it within two days, even if you're just going put it back into containers, it'll last far longer.

Start with just one recipe. When I first was getting into cooking I was buying too much making it overwhelming to open the fridge and decide what to cook. As someone else mention shoot for having leftovers. One recipe scaled for 3-4 meals that you can split into containers and throw in the microwave when you are hungry.

My problem isn't that I don't use what I buy, the problem is that I buy too much. Like the recipe I need calls for one stalk of celery, but I can only buy an entire celery plant, like 11 stalks in a bundle because that's all the store offers. What do I do with the remaining 10 stalks?

Please don't waste food.

Stop buying so much food then.

Only buy stuff you're excited to eat

Go to store every day and only buy what I will start using that day.

Eventually, I extended the time, but I had to learn what I will actually use.

1. Get a big freezer. It's really surprising how much delicious stuff you can make just from frozen stuff that can last you forever. Frozen food is also often more fresh and with microwave and air fryer the prep of anything frozen is actually not very difficult.
2. Outsource as much as possible. Often it's really hard to outcompete efficient kitchens. I don't mean order Uber eats or something but there's likely a place in your vicinity that does food prep where you can take your food containers and stock up for 2-3 days. You can even freeze some dishes.

Wife and I really did the math because we feared of becoming lazy and it makes absolutely zero economic sense to cook everything at home right now unless you want to treat yourself or live in a very economically unusual places where #2 is not accessible.

I only wish I could buy half loaves of the breads I like.

I can't get through a whole loaf alone to save my life unless I eat the same thing for 3 meals a day and I'd prefer not to.

Freeze your fresh bread and only defrost the amount that you're going to eat.