Zero Food Waste......

Have you all seen the latest "food movement"? There are SO many bloggers out there following the zero food waste philosophy. I read a blog a few weeks ago and I found it very interesting. Our grocery budget is getting out of hand ($1,000 a month for the 8 of us) and I was getting so sick to my stomach thinking about all the food we were wasting per week. So I thought I would give it a go...after all nothing ventured nothing gained. 

So last week I decided to get all prepped. I cleaned out my fridge of all  leftovers that were too old to eat,  all expired foods, and organized everything so things would stop getting lost. Then I cleaned out the freezers and defrosted them. All mystery foods were tossed and as well as anything that had been in there for more than a year or had freezer burn. Once everything was organized and clean I went through and made a meal plan using the foods I had on hand.

The results?

The fridge...only leftovers left are from tonight's dinner and will be eaten for lunch tomorrow. I did over buy on the milk front as I have a gallon of milk that I am really going to have to push to use by the expiration date.....pudding anyone?!

 Freezer #1 Mostly veggies and bread products....

 Freezer #2.... just bread and beans. This is my "bulk cooking freezer". I am considering selling it but it does come in handy when I make 3 months of freezer meals at a time.

 Freezer #3 (yes I have a lot of freezers). Meat and Veg....I know some crab legs are getting pulled out of there this weekend for an at home date night!

 Our food waste this week..........some poor carrots didn't make it. My oldest daughter, 9 yrs old, is in love with carrots and just puts the open bag in without sealing it. Seems some carrots fell out of the bag and behind the milk. We had a talk about putting the carrots in a ziplock bag before putting them in the fridge.

The meal plan is set for this coming week and I am going shopping tomorrow. I am planning on cleaning out the door of the fridge with this weeks menu. We shall see how I do!