My neighbor Rosa looked in my fridge and said I was throwing away $40 a week in food
So Rosa came by last Tuesday to drop off some mail that got delivered to her place by mistake, and she peeked in my fridge while I was grabbing her a water. She pointed at the half bunch of wilting celery, the sad bag of spinach, and the container of rice from who knows when, and said I was basically tossing money in the trash every week. I did the math after she left and she was close, I spend about $180 a week on groceries and probably dump a third of it. She told me her mom used to keep a big bag in the freezer for veggie scraps and make stock every Sunday, which never once crossed my mind. Since then I've been doing a fridge sweep every Thursday before I shop, and last week I turned old carrots, onion ends, and that rice into a solid fried rice that fed me two dinners. My problem is I still don't know what to do with stuff like half a jar of salsa or three lonely tortillas. What's your go to move for the random half used stuff nobody talks about?
Rosa's mom had the right idea with the freezer bag, but that stock trick only works with veggie scraps, not the soft stuff like old celery that's already gone limp. For the salsa and tortillas, just make quesadillas with whatever cheese and meat you have left, that's a two minute dinner right there.