A product that really does extend the life of fresh produce is Tupperware's FridgeSmart line. There are several sets and individual pieces available on Amazon: When I've followed the venting instructions, I've had cilantro last for a couple of weeks, and celery for a couple of months!

Excellent advice, we freeze! all the time. even a small amount of stew in the freezer is the beginning of a great shepherds pie! c

One trick I learned is to put some produce at eye level instead of hiding it in the drawer. Then rotate it. Composting is one of the best things I ever did and it's easy to do. Last suggestion, buy pyrex or other glassware instead of plastic. It's fun to use and won't leak endocrine disruptors into your food.

I put a small plastic tray on the top shelf of the fridge. It's called The Triage Box. If it's there, count on using it. It currently holds the last of the blueberries, leftover sliced strawberries, the last of the berry coulis, simple syrup that won't go bad soon but I know I'll forget, and the last of the red miso that should get used before it dries up. I just realized I have tamarind paste and olivada that need to find their way to that box, stat.

FreshPaper by Fenugreen seems to help extend produce life. I've used it in the produce drawer and directly under non-refridgerated produce. Hasn't been easy to find though.

I often turn leftovers into new meals...leftover taco-fixings become omelets or breakfast burritos the next morning. Leftover beef or pork roast becomes chopped bbq or stew the next day. Small portions of meats or cheeses get added into new casseroles, fritters, empanadas or stuffed into homemade biscuits. Leftover pasta becomes baked ziti or spaghetti pie the next day. Leftover roasted veggies make great soups and pot pies.

I am usually pretty good about not letting food go to waste and oftentimes, will "take one for the team" just in the interest of using/eating up the leftovers. But, I love the idea of the "triage" box- that will encourage my husband in using up those items and not just having it all fall on me. I also second the Tupperware Fridge Smart line. I was given those as a gift quite a few Christmas' ago and they really do prolong the life of fresh fruits and vegetables. Love those things.

I really like the idea of sharing with a friend when you make a lot of something. I don't do that enough.

Don't overbuy to begin with. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach ... or at least bigger than my capacity to actually cook everything. I stopped wasting so much food when I started getting a small organic produce box once a week. My goal is to try to finish everything in the box so I get my veggies; but if not, prep it and freeze it for later. I don't always succeed but basing my other grocery store purchases on what comes in the box instead of just going to the store & buying has made a big difference.

We're usually pretty good by eating our leftovers, freezing and re-purposing. But man, I cleaned out the fridge last week and cringed at all that was tossed. In our defense, I'd gone back to work, had a birthday, we'd had some family issues....but still! When things make their way to the back, or have been there too long and become invisible, that's when we have problems. But the biggest culprit? Because of all the stuff going on, we didn't stick to the meal plan--that stuff goes bad, and goes out the door.

I shop every day, and only buy enough for the next 24 hours. Leftovers are eaten for lunch the next day (a microwave is useful).

I treat my refrigerator as if it is a convenience store. For example, when I get home, I'll wash, dry and trim the lettuce and put it in a ziplock baggie and I'll peel and cube melon and put it in a Tupperware container. Apples will have those !##$# stickers peeled off and the fruit will be washed. Leftovers are conveniently packaged and grouped so my family members can immediately see it and grab it for lunch. I'll repackage leftover chicken into a burrito and wrap it in foil so it can be easily heated.

I've started making meal plans, and they have really worked! I plan for usually three days in advance. I found that if I plan further out than that we end up wasting food due to an impromptu invite to dinner, etc.!

Freezing is always helpful but not everything freezes well. Freezing has really helped me with bread however. Now that I live on my own it is very difficult for me to eat a whole loaf before it goes stale or moldy unless I eat a slice with every meal. I rarely buy bread now, but when I do I just try as hard as I can then before it is too late throw the rest in the freezer and use it to make croutons later on.

I think planning ahead really is the best solution to not wasting. Also if you only have key items on hand for your meals, it will reduce the urge to snack or graze-sometimes.

Soup. I just learned to use my pressure cooker to make stock, so I've started taking some of the older greens, skinnings, tops and bottoms of veggies that would have been trashed, and bones, and using the pressure cooker to make stock in no time at all.

@sweetpeacooks, I totally get you. I plan super carefully to make sure all the food we buy is used up, but when something comes up - I get sick, working late, etc - certain plans go out the window and meal causalities are the result. When this happens, I make sure to remind myself that I am usually awesome at planning and that I should forget about that sad panzanella that I was too sick to make and focus on enjoying the dinners that are coming up.

My biggest sin has been forgetting what I have in there. A tip I took from a friend I visited recently: put a white board on your fridge and keep an inventory of everything you have in there. As you eat the items, erase them and consult the board before going shopping. Helps with both using things that may have been overlooked, as well making sure you don't overbuy when you go to the grocery store.

We keep a "eat this soon" list on corner the kitchen whiteboard. It really helps, especially when you can quickly see something to pack for lunch.

CMCINNYC, the triage box is a great idea!

We have a tiny fridge-compartment freezer, but I try to make the most of it to prevent waste and to extend our "pantry" a bit. Just this weekend when the cupboard was bare, I unpacked the freezer: I found a stash of blanched kale, sauteed mushrooms, breadcrumbs from a leftover heel of bread, and a jar of leftover bechamel, all tossed with penne and cheese for a delicious vegetable gratin.

I also use the freezer to prevent leftover fatigue. When I'm making a big batch of something or a labor-intensive recipe, I put half of it in the freezer immediately. I can't tell you how many lazy evenings or bare-cupboard days have been saved by a lasagne I unearthed from the freezer!

Most of our fridge casualties are the result of poor communication, or just plain shopping for each other, not ourselves. This summer when every gardener was giving us cucumbers, I started doggedly eating cucumber salad at every dinner, so they wouldn't go bad. The Fella noticed the behavior but not the motivation. He started <em>buying</em> cucumbers for me, which was very sweet but ACK! NO MORE CUCUMBERS!

meal plans are essential, we use to just shop by going to the store and buying whatever looked good at the time and a lot would go to waste,and there was a lot of time waste figuring out what to make and going back to the store for ingredients we didnt think of. Now I plan usually 10 days of meals before a grocery shopping trip. Now i know exactly what to buy and there is less wastage.

For me this only works because im sooo close to the store that if I change my mind or have a craving I can run there and get whatever. Otherwise meal planning would be kind of a buzz kill. Gotta keep that spontaneity in the kitchen, but for those nights when you just dont feel like cooking having a plan and what you need prevents take out.

I know most people recommend shopping as rarely as possible (and doing a lot of planning), but I find buying just what you need for the next few days makes it easier to adapt to changes and without a packed fridge, things rarely get forgotten.

When I do shop for food, I try to buy things that will allow me to use up whatever is still in my fridge first.

I find last night's leftovers almost always go well on a salad at lunch the next day. I freeze soups and stews. I can never figure out how to use a whole bunch of scallions before they go bad, so I chop and freeze them.

I make a clear-out-the-fridge vegetarian soup and freeze it in 2 oz containers. Something I learned from justbento.com is to make the soup with almost no water to create a concentrate. The frozen concentrate thaws in my lunchbox so, when it's time to eat, all that's needed is some boiling water to warm up the vegetables and dilute the seasonings. Takes up half the room in the freezer, which is great since space is at a premium.

Since I abhor the idea of wasting food, I stay on top of what's in there, by taking inventory, and correcting the whiteboard on the door frequently. (The other person in the household who's not as good about updating the whiteboard might even say I'm a Nazi about it.....:-) )

I also continually downsize the container, as the amount in it decreases. It's much easier to see what's in the fridge when you don't have six ginormous containers with two tablespoons of stuff in each of them... Using the clear glass Pyrex bowls helps make it easier to see what's in them, at a glance, and they can go right from the fridge to the microwave.

As a family of six, you'd think we wouldn't have too many leftovers! But as everyone has different tastes, and one of us is a vegetarian, while several of us love meat, we have to be careful not to let things spoil uneaten. I too have found that shopping more frequently, up to once a day, is a big help. I rarely buy fresh food other than fruit for any meal but the one we'll be eating that day or the next. We keep pantry food like pasta for the days we don't have leftovers or anything fresh planned. Plus lots of frozen veggies....

"4. Own Your Waste: If you don't feel like eating your leftovers or table scraps, then compost. Even small apartments and kitchens can help out and help break down organic material so it doesn't end up in landfills."

Composting only works with vegetable matter. No meat, no fats, unless you want bugs and a stink if it's indoors and animal predation if you try it outside. Unless, of course, your property is large enough to bury meat and fat waste. I don't have that luxury in my small back yard.

We have a very changeable schedule so I find when planning meals for the week selecting things that share ingredients or have interchangable ingredients (eg. how many of the recipes could include broccoli) helps makes sure if something goes awry and I don't end up cooking something that I can use those items in another way.

I also try and subtract one meal from however nights ahead I'm planning for. If we do end up eating in every night than I can either start the shopping/planning cycle earlier the next week or make an easy, pantry meal that night instead.

I struggle with this issue myself at times. But am here to share an awesome recipe for leftover bread sides, heels and slices. Tear into rough chunks either by hand or in food processor. Heat a tbsp or two of oil in a pan, crackle some cumin seeds, add thickly sliced onion and saute a bit, add tomatoes generously,green chilies according to desired spice level, saute, add the bread, salt sugar and lemon juice and toss everything well. Garnish with coriander leaves. Makes a fantastic snack or breakfast.
This dish has me looking for leftover bread so I can make it quickly.

We recently started grocery shopping with only cash. This has almost completely eliminated food waste in our house. It has also greatly reduced our food budget (and I have Celiac, which is one of the most expensive diets around!). I highly recommend it.

Good comment about about to expire food. Every single homeless shelter out there is desperaley in need of food. If you have about to expire canned or packaged goods, take it there. If you have a few too many staples because you loaded up while on sale, bring them to the shelter. Many shelters that feed meals on a regular basis are equipped to take cooked food- always great to know if you have a big party and too many leftovers.

Never underestimate the power of pizza! We use leftovers all the time as pizza toppings. Those are some of my family's favorite meals. If you don't eat wheat products, use a cauliflower crust instead!

I have discovered omelettes. We made sausage and peppers (with onions) from our CSA veggies. And the next day, leftover sausage made its way into the eggs. Yum!

Funny, but I can always find a use for bacon or sausage that is leftover, though we cook that stuff, rarely. Also, since hot weather spoils the sliced bread we have in the kitchen, I try to make French Toast, before the bread spoils, we don't make that many sandwiches. . . .

Buy less cook more.

Next time I purchase a refrigerator Im going for a counter-depth model. Food waste only happens in my house when things get hidden at the back of a shelf or drawer. A shallower pantry has helped the problem there, in future, a shallower refrigerator - where everything is in site - should further assist. We compost and freeze, we take leftovers for lunches, and waste very little. Trying to get on a more regimented meal plan to reduce cost and limit bad nutrition choices and eating out, but that should also assist with using everything we buy. All good points.

I also make soup regularly, using leftovers. All the meat scraps and bones, and any almost ready to toss veggies go so well in soup. And it makes great lunches and can be frozen too.

Use what you have. Look in your fridge and your cupboards and plan meals around what you have already purchased. With Google it's so easy to find recipes that will use the ingredients you have.

I've found that a fridge/freezer inventory is ESSENTIAL for avoiding waste, and it only takes a moment to update when you put something in or take something out. As much as possible, I try to store leftovers in clear glass containers; if I can't, then I use some bright neon pink labels & a Sharpie to label my old yogurt/sour cream containers - you can't miss them when you open the fridge. :-)

A trick I find useful is to buy less and more often. I can't come up with a meal plan for the whole week, and stick to it. So what I do is buy for 2 or 3 days, which makes it easier to stick to the plan, and if something unexpected comes up food won't go bad and you can make it the following day.

I was once cook and shopper for a collective of ten people. They had a system in place that streamlined things in a wonderful way while still giving the cook freedom to choose the meal plans.

There was a long checklist of all the supplies used in the house, including foods like spices, condiments, peanut butter, other non- or slow-perishables. Before the weekly shopping trip, individuals had a place on the fridge where they could request personal items like tissues for their bedroom. In that same place, the cook or housecleaner would make notes when something ran out - cleanser in the upstairs bath, whatever. There were backup stores kept of high-use items, so it was the backup cleanser you were replacing; the upstairs bath-users weren't out of luck till the next shopping trip.

As for meals, it takes a while to get weekly plans that all sync together, i.e. you're using the rest of the cabbage in another dish later in the week, etc. But after a while, there are enough recipes in your head, and/or you're able better to improvise; so the tedium of doing it all very logically gets replaced by more of a flow.

What I do to anticipate the unexpected night of dining out is keep enough frozen things on hand that if I need a meal at home I've got one and otherwise, the stuff can just stay frozen till I DO need it. Doesn't feel like any huge challenge...

I'd like to know how to avoid wasting bread. I seldom eat it, but when I do buy it when we have guests (quite frequently). Unless I remember to freeze half the loaf, it usually ends up being fed to birds or thrown away. Baguettes are also a problem, as they can't be frozen and are only good for one day.

Buy only the perishables that you'll get thru in a week.
If i make something that just doesn't turn out, i freeze it for my parent's chickens - they'll eat anything! and i get the eggs from them so i don't feel like i'm wasting food; it's a nice circle of give and take.

My goal this fall is to tackle to food in the pantry (not too likely to spoil, but part of my effort to use what we have).

Does anyone know of a good site (or iPhone app) that lets you choose several ingredients to find a recipe? All the ones I know of just let you select one main ingredient.

@hazel8, I second Oliviahoney's suggestion... Google your ingredients + recipe, I've found lots of recipes and ideas that way. We get a veg box every week, sometimes we have a glut of something or other, it's amazing what you can find by typing in "Aubergine Mexican recipe" or "kohlrabi curry recipe"... (btw kohlrabi is great in curries, who knew? ;)

You can always refine or adapt your search depending on what strikes your fancy, it's a really powerful tool.

So, I never use mayo, but I bought a big jar because I wanted to make crab cakes. A year has passed since then, it's way past the sell-by date, and I haven't used any more of it. I opened the jar recently and smelled and it didn't seem lethal or anything. Is it going to kill me or no?

@hazel8 Try www.supercook.com, you can list all the ingredients you have on hand and it will search for recipes that include those items. You can also highlight one or more ingredients to base the search on, or highlight an item to exclude it from the search (i.e. if you're having to cook for someone that has dietary restrictions). Their ingredient list is quite large, and they will even suggest certain ingredients that you might have forgotten to add to your list to widen the search (do you have scallions?). It will save your pantry list, so you can just update it after shopping next time you need to search for a recipe. It will give you up to 2,000 possible recipes for starters, entrees, desserts, or all of the above. Hope this helps!

@Lepidoptery - it might have gone rancid... that HAS happened in my mom's fridge before!

@Montana Girl
I wound up washing it down the drain because, well, a jar of condiment isn't worth that much anyway, but if it had been rancid, shouldn't I have been able to smell it? :O

(As far as I could tell, it just smelled like mayo. I'm not sure about the texture, because I bought more mayo but a slightly different kind so they might not have been quite the same to start with.)

@pearmelon - re:baguettes. I enjoy some the first day, then on day 2 I *always* plan on making crostini. Slice thinly on the bias and toast 'em up. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of olive oil, salt & pepper. They last forever and I always have something on hand instead of crackers for spreads, cheese, etc. All bets are off, however, if I have ripe tomatoes - then it's panzanella time.