Читать книгу Zero Waste Cooking For Dummies - Rosanne Rust - Страница 54

We’ve all thrown away food. Life gets busy, and sometimes we just go through our daily routine without a second thought. Still, you picked up this book because you’re at least a little concerned about wasting food and its toll not only on your budget but also on the environment. It’s perfectly okay to start small.

The first step to zero waste cooking is to think about what your current food waste habits look like. The following list helps send you in the right direction.

 Think about what is in your refrigerator and pantry right now — or heck, go look! Are there items shoved to the back that you forgot about? Do you have stockpiles of certain items, more than you’re likely to use in the next few weeks?

 Think about how often you dine out. Do you order more than you need? Are you bringing leftovers home? Are you making good use of your leftovers or forgetting that they’re in the fridge?

 Think about the types of foods you routinely have on your shopping list and bring home. Do you know what you’re going to do with each item you buy? Do you commonly buy specialty items that you use for only one or two recipes? Are there food items that you often buy but don’t finish before they expire?

 Think about how you decide what meals and snacks to prepare each week. Do you pick recipes that have ingredients in common so you have fewer items to buy? Do you consider what leftovers certain meals will provide for use later in the week?

 Think about your trips to the grocery store. Do you make a detailed grocery list before you go, or do you wing it when you get there, buying whatever sounds good in the moment?

 Think about how you store food items. Are you storing foods in a manner that preserves them longer? Do you utilize your freezer? Are you using reusable containers, or do you consistently buy, use, and throw away single-use items?

 Think about your cooking habits. Do you find cooking to be a chore? Do you try to save yourself some time and hassle by prepping batches of certain foods in advance?

 Think about how you determine whether a food item is still fresh or good to use. Do you decide whether to keep or pitch something solely by the date on the box, bag, or can? Are you open to eating or cooking with produce that’s no longer picture perfect?

 Think about what you put in your trash can. Does it fill up quickly with food packaging? Do you thrown away all food scraps, or do you compost?

Creating and implementing a plan for how you buy, use, and store food will help reduce what goes into your garbage can and, ultimately, the landfill.

It’s easy to think that the small changes you make aren’t impacting the great big earth, but they can! Imagine if 20 percent of U.S. households — that’s about 24 million households — adopted just a few of the strategies suggested in this book. I’d say that’s impactful!