Food wasting? It's a no! Being trained by typical African parents, I was made to believe that being wasteful is a sin. My parents don't care if this is scriptural or not, but that's their own belief, and you must abide by it.Now, I am thinking if most African parents have this same belief too because I have had stories by my friends on how their parents discipline them any time they waste food as well.
My mother will remind you that the day you waste her food, you will be starved for your next meal for wasting food, and she did it to me and my siblings when we acted carelessly over food in our house. It was a practical lesson for us to know that she meant every line of her words over food waste.
The time I wasted food was way back as a child when I didn't understand what it takes to get food at home, but thanks to my parents, who reset my brain to doing the right thing. I have seen some families who lacked food to survive. I saw the hell they go through to feed, and when they eat, it's not even healthy enough because they don't have enough resources for that. Imagine having enough food and wasting it when some have nothing to eat. Sincerely, that's like cruel. Now that I grow up to know better and have my own family, the training I received from both my mom and grandma still remains so fresh in my memory, and I implement it every now and then in my home.
There are a couple of things I do to avoid wasting food. Now, I am the type that loves buying my food stuff in bulk, but I do not buy the type that spoils easily in a large quantity, basically to avoid waste. I really hate to waste food. This is not about saving my money, but I see it as a bad habit to waste. While cooking my food, I make sure to measure it instead of just going by the flow. I will rather cook smaller quantities that are too much to have left overs. My kids and my sister living with me already know my policy at home; you dare not waste my food. My waste bin is not for dumping my supposed meal, and having left-overs by any mistake means keeping them at the refrigerator to use the next day.
Sometimes, the left-over loose taste after staying a while in the fridge for one reason or another, but I don't hesitate to add up some ingredients to it and make it look so fresh for consumption.
For vegetables, it's a bit difficult to preserve, and if I am not careful, it gets wasted. For instance, this pumpkin leaf below, I don't put in the refrigerator for a long time; otherwise, it will lose its greenish color and the ingredients within. What I do is get a newspaper 🗞️, wrap it, and keep it either in my kitchen slap or in the refrigerator for preservation.
Same applicable to other vegetable leaves. When it comes to fruit vegetables, I make sure to refrigerate them; otherwise, they get spoiled. Having a refrigerator or freezer helps me avoid wasting a lot; however, when I didn't have this tool, I made sure to buy it in small quantities. This made me always visit the market regularly, but it's better than wasting.
Wrapping up, I do not like being wasteful, and I don't support it either, even if you have it in abundance. The little tips I shared above are the practices and tips I observe in order to preserve my food. I hope you find it useful.
This post was inspired by the #inleo community and my entry to the #septemberinleo monthly topic Day 29 .Please check out the prompt to get involved.