Confessions of a Food Waster

I'm finding I have less and less tolerance for myself when it comes to wasting food. It makes me feel guilty and disgusted on so many levels. Mainly because 1) there really are people starving around the world, 2) it's beyond bad for the environment and 3) I might as well skip the trip Kroger and throw our money directly in the trash.

The picture above is from the most recent (and worse than usual) offensive refridgerator clearing. It happened last Sunday in the wake of two weeks full of glutonous holiday binging. In our lame defense, we ate leftovers for lunch at least three days in a row - but it barely made a dent.

And so it went into the garbage. Nothing I can do about it now...but I can certainly channel my shame into doing better.

The first step is figuring out where we go wrong in the first place:

• One article I consulted said to make and stick to a grocery list so you don't buy what you don't need. Good advice - but since I'm a compulsive list maker, we've already got that one covered.
• Ost's second point hits a little closer to home. She suggests taking a pen to the list to cross off what you really don't need. Our problem isn't so much that we buy snacks or goodies that we don't need, it's more that I often plan an extra meal each week that never gets cooked because Matt's climbing night changes or I make last-minute plans to meet a friend for dinner.
  
• On another handy checklist, Jonathan Bloom of wastedfood.com. states the obvious that bears repeating: Eat your leftovers. Matt and I are guilty as charged...there's a gladware container of leftover edamame expiring in our refridgerator as we speak.
  
• Here's another one from Bloom's list that we struggle with: Don't confuse sell by/use by dates. I throw dozens of eggs away because I don't know how long they keep after the date on the carton. And, do they last longer when they're hard boiled?
  

Ok, I feel like we're getting somewhere...this quick little review of our shopping/eating habits has left me with a couple key takeaways for trimming our waste:

1. Plan an extra day of eating leftovers into the weekly menu. This will do double duty for reducing waste because I won't buy the extra groceries AND we'll finish off more leftovers from other meals.
   
2. Before I throw more eggs (or anything else) away, make sure I'm not ditching them prematurely. Omlettes or egg salad make perfect leftover night dinners.
   

Help me out...what do you do to avoid throwing out half of your refridgerator?