Leftovers

I was wondering how people keep from wasting a lot of food.  I get the smallest container of whatever but end up throwing half of it away.  Like, I love Kelly's idea of the ricotta cheese and sauce, but I keep having to throw away half the container because I can't use it fast enough.  I guess I could eat it for every meal, but what fun is that?  What things can be frozen?  Any suggestions?

 Freezing things in small containers, so you can just take out the amount you need at a time is a great idea. I google something if I'm not sure it can be frozen. I did, in the beginning, end up eating a lot of the same items days in a row, and I agree that it can be boring, but I just stuck with it because I knew it was good food, and I do hate waste.  When you are making your food, try to keep in mind whether it can be frozen or not. That helps for reducing waste too.  Good Housekeeping has a good section on what foods may be frozen or not and Martha Stewart's site does as well. 

First, the caveat that this will become less of a problem as time wears on. You'll be able to eat more down the line.

I personally am a big fan of knowing eight million ways to make a single ingredient.

Take tuna for example. There's tuna salad, tuna casserole, I do a tuna melt ramekin, tuna cakes.

Or your example of ricotta. You can use it to make pancakes (see Eggface's site for good recipes), lasagna bake, you can put it into scrambled eggs, you add it to dips.

My way of not wasting food is to buy the containers of food and figure out as many different ways to prepare them as possible so as not to get bored with the one ingredient.

Nik has some great suggestions.

I live in a house of 4 growing boys so there isn't much wasting of food at my house.  They wille at pretty much anything I put in front of them.


Sarah

Thanks Nik, great idea!  My husband ususally does the shopping, but he doesn't buy healthy food, so I shop for myself now.  Still trying to figure things out. 

I have done the ricotta and sauce thing in little ramekins, the extra ramekins go in the freezer and then pop right into the oven to reheat. 
One of my favorite ways to use ricotta is to mix it with herbs and an egg and then cook it with zucchini with  a little mozzarella and paremesan on top.  I either use a few slices in a ramekin or slice it in half lenghwise and make a little boat out of it to hold the cheese.  Sometimes I add some chopped sun dried tomatoes....I just have fun with whatever I have going in the fridge....sometimes it's spinach, sometimes it's eggplant....it just depends.  
I agree, don't buy really big containers of anything, but once you free yourself to be creative it can be fun.  Afterall, if you try something new and it's a failure....what's the big deal, you've wasted a half cup of ricotta...not like burning a $75.00 roast!!
Good luck figuring out what you can freeze and what you can't, trial and error works best.
Sara in Maui

I make up stuff and put it in one cup containers and freeze it (1/2 cup when I was at your stage).  I just grab and go!

 I have the same issue, but since Ii cook for one person (and I hate to cook much these days), even finding 20 different recipes for a particular ingredient just means making a BUNCH of different things that I would throw away part of... and I find that I don't like the way freezing many things changes the taste or texture.

I take advantage of having a Foodsaver vacuum sealer.  I can cook up something, break it down into small portions, seal the portions, and then refrigerate them for several weeks without them going bad... So I can spread it over that period of time instead of having to eat it six times in a week.  I had the unit before I had surgery,  it it has been worth it's weight in gold since then!

Lora

I have the same problem. I bought a jar of pasta sauce and used it for a couple of different things but I think I ended up using maybe a cup over a couple of days.. then having to throw the rest out. I should have planned ahead and frozen the remainder. Even then I have trouble using stuff that's in the freezer. I think my problem is that I'm just lazy when it comes to food and cooking. lol

my problem with freezing stuff is always forgetting to take it out early enough to defrost! usually when i buy meat i'll seperate it all out as soon as i buy it and then freeze the rest of the portions i'm not gonna use right away in seperate baggies so that i can just grab what i need