That's Fit

One of the best pieces of advice I ever read on meal planning was, "Don't be afraid of an empty fridge." Not that you never want to have groceries, of course. But before you go grocery shopping again for a new week, if your fridge is empty, it means your meal planning is right on track.

Eliminating food waste is good for the environment, good for your budget, and as Diet-Blog recently pointed out, good for your diet as well. Processed foods tend to have long shelf lives, so the food that most often gets wasted are the ones that are best for you -- fruits and vegetables. This used to happen to us all of the time. I'd load up on lots of fresh, healthy stuff at the grocery store without planning ahead, then discover much of it in the crisper drawer two weeks later, moldy and shriveled.

Today, however, two days before our next CSA box arrives, I'm proud to say that our fridge is nearly empty. Carefully planning your meals will help you save money on food waste, but it will also ensure that you actually eat all those healthy foods you paid for, and that just adds up to good nutrition.

For weeks, my family drooled over the four, perfect, green Granny Smith apples in the fruit bowl.

"Don't touch them," I admonished, "I'm going to make apple burgers with them."

Now, my family had other apples to eat, so don't go feeling sorry for them. But they really wanted those tart, crisp apples in the fruit bowl.

Three weeks later, those apples ended up out under the pine tree -- squirrel food. I'd waited too long and they were brown and mushy on the bottom. I felt bad then that I didn't let them get eaten when they had the chance.

Do you waste produce? According this article, we all do. Food waste takes up a large chunk of landfill real estate and creates methane gas that leads to global warming.

Fruits and veggies are good for you, so it's tempting to buy a lot. But produce is highly perishable, so reduce waste by only buying what you need. Diet-Blog has a few tips for buying and preserving all the fruits and vegetables you can eat, without the waste.