8 Ways to Lessen Food Waste with Your Kids at Home
With food cost rising knowing how to lessen food waste with your kids at home can be essential to saving you money, time, and energy in the kitchen.
It's no surprise that food waste can become a problem at home when your feeding kids because they tend to be eating all the time, yet also wasting simultaneously.
This is the paradox of feeding kids.
Luckily, with these simple kitchen tips to lessen food waste with your kids at home you can begin gaining control over the amount of food waste your home accumulates on a regular basis.
What Can You Do to Reduce the Amount of Food Waste in Your Home?
To reduce the amount of food waste in your home you have to bring awareness and intention into the kitchen.
By simply paying more attention to the food that is being wasted you can gain a better insight into the everyday practices that are leading to more waste in your home.
With 8 simple kitchen tips you can begin to waste less food at home easily even when your feeding kids.
#1 Small Shopping Trips
With smaller shopping trips you will avoid purchasing more food than your family can actually consume.
It is easy to go to the store an buy a ton of fresh produce, but this more often than not leads to having more food on hand than gets consumed and it is a great culprit towards creating unnecessary food waste.
By simply splitting your grocery run into two small trips you can have fresh produce on hand without being overwhelmed by having too much spoiling on your counter top before you get a chance to use it.
#2 Take Advantage of Frozen Foods
When your feeding kids having foods that are preserved on hand can be a life saver and will greatly reduce the amount of food waste generated.
By simply substituting a few ingredients for frozen substitutes you can still have those ingredients on hand without the pressure of using then in the next few days.
Things like frozen mixed fruits or vegetables, peppers and onions fajita mix, and green peas can be a great way to be able to use these ingredients without having to worry about waste because you can use just the amount you need and store the rest for later.
#3 Less is More
When feeding kids one of the golden rules is to give them less not more.
Of course they are more than welcome to have seconds or thirds if they are still hungry, but starting off with a smaller portion size will greatly reduce the amount of food your wasting.
By developing a feel of how much your child actually eats you can give them just the right amount to reduce the amount of food your wasting at home.
#4 Throw Out Your Meal Plan
Meal plans can be great, but life happens and next thing you know you have a handful of produce that is about to spoil this is when you have to throw the meal plan out.
Instead, plan your meals for the day depending on what produce needs to get used first.
With this simple mindset you can create meals based on the state of your produce, which will make a big impact to the amount of food being wasted.
One ingredient perfect to have on hand when you have produce to use is rice, which is so versatile you can easily pair it with a variety of ingredients to create tasty dishes.
#5 Use Citrus Peels for Home Cleaning
Kids tend to love citrus fruits like oranges, but don't let those peels go to waste.
Instead, use them to infuse vinegar for creating your own natural cleaning spray or create a simmer pot to make your home smell good naturally.
#6 Repurpose Leftovers into New Recipes
Get better about repurposing leftovers to reduce waste.
By turning left overs into delicious new meals you will be able to have a big impact on the amount food being wasted plus save time and energy in the kitchen.
Repurposing leftovers can cut down on the amount of food being wasted, but it can also save you time in the kitchen when you already have cooked ingredients prepped to work with.
Begin getting more creative in the kitchen and use left overs wisely to get the most bang for your buck.
#7 Start a Small Backyard Garden
Having a backyard garden is a great way to reduce food waste because not only can you grow your own produce to pick from, but you can also begin a compost pile in your garden.
By having a small backyard garden you can repurpose food waste into generating healthy new soil for your garden.
Food waste is going to happen in any household that has kids, but by having a small garden you can have fresh vegetables on hand to cook with and repurpose food waste into new soil.
#8 Save Vegetable Scraps to Make Broths
Create nutrient rich broths from your vegetable scraps.
By simply gathering washed vegetable scraps and bring them to a gentle boil you can cook, cool, and freeze vegetable stock to have on hand for making delicious soups.
Creative Ways to Reduce Food Waste
Reducing food waste at home is possible in a number of creative ways when your feeding kids and it all begins with awareness.
By using these creative ways to reduce food waste you can begin brining more awareness to the practices contributing to generating more food waste than necessary.
With this new awareness you will reduce food waste in your household and also discover even more creative ways to lessen food waste with simple everyday practices that will save you money, time, and energy in the kitchen.
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