Day 1: Lentils with cilantro lime vinaigrette, Frozen fruit smoothie
Day 2: Shrimp, orange, and spinach pasta salad
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Microgreens salad
Day 4: Braised red cabbage with bacon and apples, Corn muffins (frozen supply)
Day 5: Grilled brats with sauerkraut (hold the bun), Roasted potatoes
Day 6: Stone soup (from frozen supply)
Day 7: Egg scramble with leftover veggies, Pancakes
Notes: Kids and Food Waste
Wow has it been six weeks already?!? I’ve been running a miniseries on how to reduce personal food waste and we are entering the last week. Just a reminder that this is now the number one way that you can individually help reduce greenhouse gases. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the average person trashes more than 400 pounds of food per year. That is a waste of resources, a major source of pollution, and a drain to your pocketbook. Let’s stop this!
So far in this series, I have covered meal planning, embracing ugly produce, how to eat ALL of your food, using food scraps, and eating out. For the last week, I am tackling food waste and kids. Here are some tips that I personally use to make sure my kids don’t waste food.
(NOTE: this is a work in progress. If you have kids, you know that food is a sticky subject. There are varying levels of pickiness and appetites, not to mention budding personalities! There is always something we can take away and use, but give yourself grace if you find your attempts are not working. Just switch tactics and try again.)
Stick with small portions: The level of appetite in a child is constantly changing. So are taste preferences! Start out serving just one or two bites for toddlers and a small scoop for older kids, especially if you are introducing a new food. You can always serve up seconds. Remember, it can take up to 15 tries of a new food to get a child used to the flavor and decide they like it.
Have your child bring home leftovers: Send your kid with reusable containers to school or daycare and ask that they bring home the leftovers. This way you can better gauge how much they are eating and if you should change up how lunches are packed. The great thing is that the leftovers double as an afterschool snack. In fact, the rule in my house is that you finish your lunch before you head to the cupboards after school.
Put a clean mat under highchairs: We all know that babies and toddlers love to throw things off their highchair. Food fights are so fun! Put a clean mat under the chair so you can feel comfortable collecting and trying again with that food. No ten second rule here. If you happen to have a dog, this probably doesn’t matter, as you have a living vacuum cleaner!
Skip the kid’s menu when eating out: Kid’s menus are designed to serve foods that this age group will enjoy, but in smaller portions. However I have found that the foods often are not very healthy, and my kids still don’t eat all the food. What they really want from the kid’s meal is the freebee toy or the coloring sheets. In a sit down restaurant you can request those without the kid’s meal. For my littlest kid I don’t order any food at all when we are eating out and instead they share food from everyone else’s plates. Sometimes I also use the appetizer menu, tapas work well too. These are smaller portions and often healthier foods.
Don’t of have kids? No problem! Here is one more tip to stop your own personal food waste: If you are not going to eat your food, get it to someone who will. How is it that there are people who are hungry and malnourished, but yet we are throwing so much food away?!? Make it a habit to go thru your cupboards and freezer. Find the foods that are nearing expiration and you know you won’t eat. Once a month make a trip to the local food pantry to drop off your surplus. You will feel good about helping others and save a can or two from the trash.
I could go on and on about food waste. We didn’t even touch the system problems, waste on farms, behind the scenes waste in restaurants, or waste in grocery stores. The truth is that there is so much waste, our opportunities to help the problem are endless. I hope you learned a thing or two over the past 6 weeks. Feel free to drop your own tips in the comments.
More food waste resources:
- How to Meal Plan
- Home Composting 101
- Wasted: How America is Losing up to 40 Percent of Its Food From Farm to Fork to Landfill (NRDC report)
