Cook More, Waste Less

Knowing how to efficiently prepare meals helps reduce time spent on cooking, food costs, and food waste. Keep reading to learn how to cook meals according to your household’s needs and preferences. Additionally, discover how to incorporate leftovers when you cook to help you get the most out of the foods you buy.

Cooking Tips

Tip #1

Food Portion Calculator

Not sure how much to make? Use a food portion calculator to estimate based on the number of people and food type.

When following a recipe, check the servings. If it makes 6 but you’re cooking for 3, cut the ingredients in half or plan to use leftovers.

Try the Portion Calculator

Cooking Tips

Tip #2

Make Meals That Freeze Well

Cook meals that freeze well. If you cook too much, you can freeze it for later! Check out this video for some freezer meal inspiration.

Watch The Video

Cooking Tips

Tip #3

Take Advantage of Free Apps

Have several ingredients in your kitchen but don’t know what to make? Free apps like SuperCook make it easy – just enter the ingredients you have, and you’ll get a list of recipes you can make!

Visit Supercook

Cooking Tips

Tip #4

Plan Your Leftovers

Don’t feel like eating leftovers but don’t want them to go to waste? Browse tons of recipes by leftover type or enter what you want to cook using the AllRecipes tool here.

View AllRecipes Tool

Summary of Key Points

  1. Determine how much your household eats during a typical meal by noting how much of each item you use while cooking. Adjust these amounts (or keep them the same) for next time!
  2. If you end up cooking too much food, refrigerate or freeze the leftovers.
  3. Use your creativity to prepare a meal from the ingredients you already have or jazz up your leftovers. There are several apps and tons of recipes out there to help you decide what to make.

Cooking

Knowledge Check

Select your answers to these questions:

Question 1

If you cook more food than your household can eat, what is the best thing to do with the leftovers to prevent waste?

Question 2

What does the app SuperCook do?

Cooking

Knowledge Check

Question 1

If you cook more food than your household can eat, what is the best thing to do with the leftovers to prevent waste?

Question 2

What does the app SuperCook do?

Goals for Cooking

Try the food portion calculator.

Explore SuperCook and the other resources to cook with what you have on hand.

Work on freezing leftovers instead of throwing them away.

 

What’s Next?

Homepage Cooking Resources
The Next Stage of Food Waste