There you are in your kitchen, the clock says 6:47 pm You need to eat, so you look in the fridge to inspect the contents. After a few minutes of purging a lot of spoiled and questionable food, the prospects for a fresh dinner look dim.
Cooking for one person has its own unique situations, especially if you’re single. One of the most frustrating situations singles face when cooking for themselves is food spoilage. Many foods go bad faster than a single person can consume them.
Discover 3 tips to reduce the amount of food dollars you simply throw away.
Buy quality over quantity:
With marketing popularizing ‘bigger is better’, singles often get caught up in the shopping frenzy as well. Singles falsely justify such a large purchase as a good deal, but for whom? Remember that you are filling one stomach, not four. Even if you have a long lifespan, where will you reside in your home?
Make the bulk section of your grocery store your new hangout. You can buy as little as you need. Flours, oats, sugar, nuts, dried fruit, all can be had in custom amounts. Pack it, weigh it and that’s it.
The same goes for the charcuterie. Ignore everyone else who buys by the pound and order by the serving. I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich once, so I just ordered 3 slices of high quality creamy American cheese. My cost was 37 cents!
Buy the best dairy you can afford in smaller amounts if you use dairy. Try a local farmer’s market and buy directly from the dairy farmer. Drinking or using farm fresh milk is unforgettably delicious. Ditch the half-gallon ice cream sale and buy the little pint-sized containers that taste delicious. If you bought a half gallon of ice cream for yourself, whose body will it all end up in?
Top with large bags of fruits (apples, pears, oranges) and vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions). I have found that products sold in bags are not as good as loose products. Unless you’re going to eat a lot of these, they’ll turn soft or brown before you know it. Instead, select individual pieces, giving you freedom to choose quantity, size, ripeness, and better variety.
Dry food stays dry, cold food stays cold:
Proper food storage preserves and extends the shelf life of food. It also makes it safe to eat. Air, humidity, heat and excessive light are to blame for food spoilage. Since food in a one-person kitchen may not consume as quickly as in a family kitchen, it’s important to remember the basics of practical food storage.
Prevent boxed dry goods from spoiling by clamping the bags shut with small metal clips. Close the flaps on the cardboard boxes. Although all this may seem like common sense, it is not always practiced. Excessive light levels also help to break down foods, such as olive oils that are often sold in dark colored bottles.
Meat, poultry, and seafood should remain cold until ready to eat or cook. Because these foods are naturally moist, the added heat turns them into a microbial breeding ground. If the meat is frozen, thaw it covered in the refrigerator. When you need to quickly thaw frozen meats, thaw them on the proper setting in your microwave.
Buy basic ingredients = more meals = money saved:
When you’re cooking for just one person, most people rely too much on processed and prepared foods. There will always be those moments when there is not enough time when you need a quick meal. When you go to the grocery store, try to load your grocery cart with basic whole foods.
Foods that are less processed tend to have a greater ability to be used in multiple ways. These foods overlap meals by serving as ingredients in multiple meals. For example, take foods based on apples. You can buy some apples, a jar of applesauce, or a frozen baked apple. An apple pie would be deliciously delicious, but that’s all it will be: a pie. Applesauce can be eaten as a side dish, dessert, or even as a fat substitute for low-fat baking. The last option gives you the most food shapes, whole apples.
Select from the various types of apples at your local grocery store or farm stand, and in each of those apples are as many possible foods: pork chops with apples, an apple slice on a ham sandwich, baked apples, pie apple, caramelized apple, homemade applesauce (ridiculously easy), cinnamon apples on top of pancakes, multiple forms of salads, and of course, eaten as-is in the middle.
Using staple whole foods dramatically reduces food waste due to the number of ways to use the food. In the end, you throw less money away. You save money buying whole and natural foods. Generally, the more processed the food, the higher the cost per pound. An added benefit of using staple whole foods is that they won’t have any artificial ingredients and will contain all the palatable goodness nature intended.
Cooking for one person does not mean throwing away a lot of wasted food if you consider different strategies. Remembering these three tips will help you waste less food due to spoilage, give you a greater variety of food options, and save you money. First, focus on quality over quantity. Practice the best food storage methods to get the most out of your food. Lastly, if you buy whole, natural foods that overlap many meals, you reduce spoilage.