10 Hacks to REDUCE FOOD WASTE & Save Money

By Joanna 19/02/2018 In
Knowledge
Nutritional Tips

According to the Food & Agriculture Organization, roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year, that’s approximately 1.3 billion tonnes.

I’m sure all of us have thrown away rotten vegetables, expired products or leftovers. Reducing food waste does not only save the environment but it also helps you to save lots of money and time in the long run. How can we play our part? I’m going to share with you 10 really simple food hacks to reduce food waste and SAVE money.

1) Freeze Ripe Fruits

Instead of allowing those fresh fruits to rot, you can prolong their lives by slicing them up, place into ziplock bags and freeze them up. They will keep well in the freezer for months. This process will  also help retain the nutrients in the fruits.

Frozen fruits can be blended to make fruit smoothies, nice-cream and they can even be added into baked goods to make healthier cakes and muffins.

By knowing this trick, you can even save money by purchasing discounted fruits and even vegetables, which are about to go off when you do your grocery shopping.

2) Save the Bones & Leftover Vegetables

Instead of throwing away bones or forgetting your leftover vegetables, cook them! You can use them and make a really tasteful bowl of soup without any added stocks or preservatives.

Simple place the unwanted bones and pieces of vegetables into a pot and allow all the ingredients to slowly simmer for 30 – 45 minutes.

Natural bone broth promotes healing to the body such as protecting the joints, increasing bone strength and it’s good for the gut. This is an ancient remedy, which has been used by many cultures.

You can even cube the stock and add into your cooking later on for extra flavours.

3) Turn extra veggies into vegetable soup

Another thing you can you do with the leftover vegetables is to mix them all together and make creamy vegetable soup puree. This dish can be eaten on its own or you can even use it as a sauce for your pasta and meat dishes.

Now if you hate eating your vegetables, this is also a really great way to meet your 5-a-day within feeling like you have to chew on the vegetables. You can even make them in bulk, freeze it up and consume later.

4) Pickle Your Vegetables

Another great way to prolong the life of vegetables is to turn them into pickles. For instance, slice up cabbage and turn it into saurkeurt. Fermented vegetables will keep for many months if stored in an airtight container at the right temperature.

Fermented vegetables make nutrients more readily available, they promote a healthy gut and contains probiotics. Since 70 – 80% of the immune system lies in the gut, having a healthy gut is extremely important and may even help you lose weight.

5) Turn Stale Bread into Croutons

Is your bread getting stale? Instead of throwing them out, why not slice them into small cubes, brush with a little bit of butter, sprinkle with garlic salt and bake them to make yourself some croutons. These croutons will keep for a long time in an airtight container and they go perfectly in your soups or salads!

6) Freeze Extra Herbs in Ice Cubes

Don’t know what to do what that huge bunch of herbs? Easy, chop them up, place into ice cube trays, add some water or oil and freeze them to make herb cubes. You can even do this to your fruits and use them to make infused water.

7) Use Lemon Peels to Make Infused Water

If you’re someone who squeezes fresh lemon or orange juice and discard the peels, well next time, save the peels because that’s where most of the essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes are.

Simple infuse into your water or tea and gain to gain the benefits, plus it is very refreshing and delicious. Drinking this on regular basis will help flush out toxins from the body.

8) Egg Shells

For all the dog lovers, here’s a remedy you must know! I like to save my eggshells and let them dry out. Then simple use a grinder and grind the shells into fine powder.

Should one of my dogs get diarrhea, I’ll just sprinkle a couple teaspoons of the eggshell powder on their food and the diarrhea goes away.

9) Turn leftovers into a One-Pot Dish

Cooked way too much for dinner? Don’t throw the leftovers. Turn those little bits of leftovers into a one-pot dish by mixing everything together and take it to work for lunch!

Be daring and experiment because hey, you might just create a new dish that taste delicious!

10) Use a Spray Bottle for Your Oil

And the final hack is something I practice often. Instead of roughly estimating and pouring oil directly from the bottle onto the pan, and having too much oil just to coat the pan for cooking, transfer the cooking oil into a spray bottle.

Using a spray bottle will help you to reduce on your calorie intake, as you’ll tend to use a lesser amount. This will make your food less greasy, reducing the fat intake in your diet, which can help you to lose weight.  

 

So the next time you want to throw food out of your fridge, apply these simple food hacks to reduce on your food waste, save money and also to eat healthier. Hey, we should all play our part to reduce food wastage while making a difference to the environment. What other food hacks to do you practice? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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