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Today we're focusing on cooking the right amount of food for the meals you want to prepare. Tailoring recipes to make more or less food and getting creative with food you have to buy in prepackaged amounts will help ensure you fill bellies instead of the compost bin.
Scaling recipes
As you plan meals and looks at recipes, consider how many people you’re feeding, how hungry you are, and how many times you’re willing to eat a meal as leftovers in the next week.
Using a portion planner will help you plan the right amount of food for your household. Try the Guest-imator from Save the Food or the portion calculator from Love Food Hate Waste.
You’re likely familiar with doubling a recipe, but you might not think to make them smaller. If you have a small household or if you’re experimenting with a new recipe, scale down the recipe and make a smaller batch first in case you don’t like it or something goes wrong. Learn about scaling any recipe to be a small batch recipe from I am a Food Blog.
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Local Chef Christopher Loew, Community Engagement Director and District Manager at Taher Inc., shared tips about using up fresh fruits and vegetables that you might have a hard time using up when they come in prepackaged amounts.
- Use extra herbs and their soft stems (like basil or cilantro) in soups or sauces. Avoid stringiness by mincing the stems before blending.
- Buy more time to use fresh berries by simmering them on the stove with sugar to make a delicious simple sauce that will last in the fridge or freezer without canning.
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Quick pickle flexible amounts of just about anything, including carrots, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms and more for a hassle-free way to buy yourself time to eat them.
Cook only as much as you will eat by choosing these actions in the cooking category:
- Cook just enough
- Taste test trial
Stop Food Waste Challenge tips
The points you earn throughout the challenge contribute to your overall individual and team score. Earn points by checking in to your dashboard, marking actions as complete, recruiting new participants, responding to reflection questions, or posting to your team feed or the general feed!
Points demonstrate your engagement and provide a measure for friendly competition, plus you can earn a chance to win a prize!*
Let’s congratulate these teams that are doing a great job at earning points together:
- City of Brooklyn Park
- Hennepin County employees
- City of Bloomington Food Waste Busters
- Food Solutions for Climate
- Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy
*Ramsey County and Washington County employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to receive a prize.
Baytown Township
Here’s what Stop Food Waste Challenge partner, Baytown Township, had to say about why they care about preventing food waste:
"Baytown Township promotes 'Keeping Baytown Township Beautiful and Supporting our Community', which means recycling, keeping our town roads clear of debris and picking up after their animals when walking. Our residents are encouraged to recycle and information is provided to assist with their endeavors for a safe and healthy environment."
City of North St. Paul
Here’s what Stop Food Waste Challenge partner, the City of North St. Paul, had to say about why they care about preventing food waste:
"The City of North St. Paul is interested in being a Stop Food Waste Challenge partner because our residents are among the first participants in Ramsey & Washington County's Food Scraps Pickup Program. Whether participants of the program or not, this challenge would help our residents take an in-depth look at what happens to the food they buy and take practical actions to prevent food from going to waste by improving skills in cooking, planning, shopping and storing food."
City of Woodbury
Here’s what Stop Food Waste Challenge partner, the City of Woodbury, had to say about why they care about preventing food waste:
"Taking action to reduce food waste is an important component for creating a resilient food systems circular economy."
Wednesday, August 2: Get to know what you throw
Friday, August 4: Meal planning to waste less and save more
Monday, August 7: Keeping track of the food you buy
Wednesday, August 9: Lower your "foodprint"
Friday, August 11: Creating a grocery list and sticking to it
Monday, August 14: Buying just what you need
Wednesday, August 16: Cooking creatively
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