This is probably intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but meal planning is the answer. Block off some time (Sunday evenings are popular), to figure out all your meals for the week, make a list of everything you need to make all the dishes on the menu, go to the store and buy all that stuff and nothing else, make ahead and freeze any meals that you can and do any prep work ahead of time that you can.
Viola: intentional eating, less waste, and always something on hand to eat.
It changed my life in a lot of positive ways.
A slow cooker helps. You can use random ingredients before they go bad easily enough, and you will have left overs so cooking one time results in not having to cook for multiple meals.
I live walking distance from 2 small super markets, I walk to those near every day and just get a few things and I also get hello fresh and I always cook those. So generally my fridge is pretty empty but I always eat well. Just in Time Home Economics you could say.
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Consider therapy or medication.
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Buy nonperishables in a higher ratio, such as canned, pickled, or dry goods.
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If you’re not concerned about your health enough to cook your own food every day, then just don’t buy food that has to be cooked every day.
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Remind yourself why you’re doing it, set a timer, and get it done. “This is for me. I love good food, I love my body.”
A thing that has helped me a lot is to go buy food when I’m not hungry. It reduces my chance of overeating and buying lots of food, also making me spend less money.
When I used to cook a lot for myself in uni it helped a lot to plan meals.
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I just hunt and eat the homeless. I work for the municipality so I just leave what I don’t eat around park benches, bus stops and the front of stores to scare the rest away.
We cook and eat the food.
Go away, you tankies with your common sense
Buy empty deli containers and food prep at least half the meals for the week.
Clean up fridge on day off, note overstock and old stock
Plan meals for the week using the over/old stock.
Use the pickup service at the market instead of shopping so you don’t buy stupid things.
When you buy raw meat, cook it within two days, even if you’re just going put it back into containers, it’ll last far longer.
Buy stuff you don’t have to cook. It’s crap nutritionally, but at least it isn’t wasted!
This happens to us - if I cook dinner for everyone, two of us eat, if I cook dinner for two of us, everyone wants to eat. If I make enough for leftovers, nobody takes them to lunch. If I don’t make enough, they ask why there is not enough for lunch.
Things that help on your question though -
Canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned coconut milk, canned pumpkin, jarred spaghetti sauce, spices - a lot of our staples are not perishable.
Do you live where you can stop by the store on the way home? Then don’t buy perishables for the week, buy them for the meal you are making.
Some foods and meals freeze pretty well, freeze them and keep a list of what’s in the freezer so you remember to eat it.
I hate meal planning but it helps a lot. I sometimes put a note on the fridge “we have food for dal with spinach, chicken & cabbage, sheet pan gnocchi with sausage and broccoli, eggs and potatoes” or whatever we have the food to make, and cross them off as they are made.
Some foods make other foods. So if I make a hunk of pork, it’s pork, rice and beans then enchiladas then burritos, and so on.
Perishables take more planning. Get just enough and have a plan to use it. Use canned and frozen food to account for uncertainty. Be aware of expiration dates of your food and plan accordingly.
Freeze stuff
Walk yo and from the grocery store
Buy stuff that will last a while
Grow your own produce
Buy food that has a long shelf life - lentil, rice, beans, canned vegetables, salsa jars. As a bonus it also doesn’t have to be refridgerated.
You now have gout from eating too many preservatives.
You would need to eat an exceptional amount of canned food to get gout - and rice and beans doesn’t have artificial preservatives.
That’s … not what causes gout.
That! And then forget you have them for three years because ADHD.
Why are you buying perishable food items in bulk? Are you an inarticulate fopdoodle?
Freeze your fresh bread and only defrost the amount that you’re going to eat.
Use a software/app to meal plane. (Mealie/Tandoor) You pick the recipes you fancy for the days/week/whatever period. It generates a grocery list containing exactly what is needed for the meals you chose, nothing else.
I haven’t thrown away anything in a couple years now. Oh and freeze leftovers if needed.
