I’ve been a meal planner for quite some time and I often talk about how planning your meals is both healthier and easier on the pocketbook.  When I break down the cost of making a meal versus going out, it’s a much better value (and almost always healthier too) to eat at home.  Plus, I can cook once to eat at least twice so it means I don’t have to be in the kitchen cooking every night.

The downside to making all these clean eating meals is that it can be easy to waste food, so I’m making an extra effort to use up all the food I buy.  How many times have you bought a series of items with the intention of making a meal and then life gets in the way and you don’t get to it? Or you buy an item like fresh herbs, use some for a recipe and then let the rest go bad even though you planned to use it in other things?

I’m convinced that none of us goes to the store with the intention of buying food and then wasting it, but truth be told, that happens much more often than we’d like to think. 

This year one of my goals is to waste a lot less food. I’m starting that household trend by keeping much better wraps on what’s in the refrigerator that I need to use up.  Here are three simple tips I employ to keep watch of things:

1. Make a List!I  keep a list on the refrigerator of items that need to be used up by the end of the week.  You can use a stickie, keep a chart or employ whatever method works best for you.

2. Repurpose Food. If I buy something for a recipe and don’t use it all, I plan how I can use it up pretty quickly in another dish. For example, last week I bought a rutabaga that was part of a delicious veggie stew that I made.  Honestly, I hardly ever use rutabaga, but I took the extra and roasted it with butternut squash I had bought for another recipe.  It made for a nice side dish without a lot of extra effort and I loved the fact that I didn’t waste it.

3. Juice Leftover Veggies.  I have a habit of letting veggies go bad but when I’m more aware of what’s in the refrigerator, it’s easier to use them up.  I have celery I need to use up so I’m going to make a celery, kale and apple juice today that’s yummy and super healthy.

What do you do to ensure that you don’t waste a lot of food? What’s your favorite tip that’s helped you eat plenty of clean eating foods yet not break the bank throwing food away?

I’ve always said that the best vehicle to ensure clean eating is to plan your meals.  Meal planning helps you begin with the end in mind, create balanced meals with a variety of clean eating, no- processed foods, and save big bucks because those random acts of buying what strikes your fancy are long gone.

These days we’re all trying to maximize our dollars and do more with less given the state of the economy and the cost of food. One of my favorite ways to maximize savings is to do a periodic pantry challenge.  Simply put, I go through my pantry and see what I have stocked up that I can use for simple and quick meals.  So instead of always starting from scratch and creating dishes that have an endless list of ingredients, I put my creative skills to the test by coming up with interesting recipes based on what’s around that can contain minimal ingredients.

Here’s a short list of what I found in checking things out in my pantry:

• quinoa pasta
• fire roasted salsa
• steel cut oats
• gluten-free bread mix
• tandoori chicken seasoning packet
• canned salmon
• quinoa
• vegetable broth
• kidney beans
• black eyes peas
• coconut milk
• brown rice
• organic canned pumpkin

Based on what I found, I can already see making some quick and simple dishes that require minimal additional ingredients. For example, I’ll make beans and brown rice and add the salsa in for flavor.  I’ll make pumpkin soup in my Vitamix blender which also calls for coconut milk. I’ve made it before and its yummy.  I’ve got chicken breasts in the freezer that I can use with the tandoori chicken seasoning packet and I’ll use the canned salmon in salads for lunch next week.  I’ll whip up steel cut oats for breakfast and add some chopped nuts and fresh fruit.

That’s just a simple start based on a quick round of brainstorming. I can already see that I will buy so much less at the store over the weekend based on what I already have.

So that means healthy meals, money saved and lots of clean eating — that sure sounds good to me!

What about you, are you up for the clean eating pantry challenge? Can you see the possibility of creating healthy meals based on what you’ve got in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry? I challenge you to not only go through and see what you have but to also cut your grocery bill in half in the coming week based on this activity!

So get busy now. Go check things out and come on back and share what you found. We all have the ability to practice clean eating without a huge amount of effort or expense…you just have to have a plan.