I have really changed the way I look at food to avoid waste and either use our leftovers in creative ways, or by using our produce before it goes bad. I am surprised at the amount of produce I have allowed to go bad over the years by either not having a plan for it, or not cooking the intended meal for the produce in time. I’ve changed my buying habits at the grocery store to only purchase ingredients that I know my family will use in a timely manner. We have also increased our knowledge of preparing vegetables over the years which has allowed us to be more creative when we cook.

I am certainly not the best cook in the world, but have come up with a few creative things to avoid wasting our produce. If the produce can be frozen, by all means, chop it up in whatever form (diced, strips) you think you will need it in later. I have frozen celery, but because of its high water content it does not come close to its original state once thawed out. If I am making a soup, the frozen celery works well without having to worry about its texture.

My husband created a dish one evening which involved some leftover vegetables from a party. There were tomatoes, zucchini, cauliflower, and broccoli which he cooked on low with garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt, and pepper; all served over pasta. The combination is something I never would have thought to do in the past, and definitely wouldn’t have thought to serve as a main meal along with some pasta.

Make soup. Seriously, soup is really easy. My favorite soup to make is potato soup. I have this down to an art now and thankfully I forget about my poor little potatoes far too often which is why we have potato soup at least half a dozen times a year. Plus, it is super yummy, and even better the next day.

Make ratatouille. No, I am not talking about the movie. Really, it is a good vegetable dish and goes great over rice. I’ve only made it once and it was a long time ago because I hadn’t really thought about since then. I actually have an eggplant in my refrigerator right now so I am seeing ratatouille on the menu really soon.

I hope this inspires you to be creative with your vegetables. Hopefully I’m not the only one who forgets about their vegetables.

If you’ve ever taken a box of pasta out for the evening’s dinner and had left over pasta you will understand my frustration in cooking with pasta. I love pasta, don’t get me wrong. I find that the majority of the time when I cook pasta though I end up with excess pasta that has to be stored and hopefully I’ll remember to use it again for a future pasta dish.

This left over pasta dilemma intrigued me so I grabbed a few packages of pasta out of the pantry to determine what my problem was. I had a wide variety to choose from and wound up with four different brands and varieties of pasta. The first thing I considered about each package was the serving size and servings per container. Only two of the packages had the same volume of pasta, but the serving size for all four packages were the same. I was at least happy that the serving size was consistent on each package, but this did not solve my left over pasta dilemma.

After thinking about the pasta packages and thinking about my family I came to the realization that the reason I always have leftover pasta is because my family size is 4.5 and each package of pasta has somewhere between six and eight servings. I am certain that when my three year old son nears his teenage years he may be able to consume half a package of pasta by himself, but until then I’ll have to rely on storing the pasta until I need it for the next dish.

The good thing about the small amount of pasta remaining after I’ve cooked an entire meal is that it is the perfect serving size for two. My son and I can eat the left over pasta for lunch for a quick, easy, and healthy meal. All I have to do is cook the pasta, add some fresh shredded vegetables, and top it with some Parmesan cheese, or grab a package of homemade spaghetti sauce from our freezer to throw together a quick meal.