One of the best ways to address food waste, at virtually every level – farm, manufacturing facility, store, restaurant, or home – is to measure it and make future decisions based on what you learn.
Weighing and creating elaborate audits isn’t exactly easy at home, but simply approaching your food purchasing, storing, prepping and tossing habits with a bit of mindfulness can help you notice what’s working and what might not be. In that spirit, here’s what I noticed during the Thanksgiving meal I hosted and what I’m keeping and planning to do differently next year:
Here’s what I’m changing for next year:
Just one bunch of kale – I bought too much kale for our salad. One bunch would have been good for a salad serving eight adults, but I bought two, oops (and even worried that I should have gotten one more!). Kale salad lasts longer than lettuce or spinach salads, but I still try to minimize salad leftovers because they usually don’t lend themselves to freezing.
One less dish. I added a quinoa stuffing to our lineup to accommodate a guest with eating restrictions. I was too attached to the other dishes to subtract any (the traditional stuffing wasn’t going anywhere!), but this meant we had far more dishes than needed. The quinoa stuffing worked out well, so we’ll stick with that and next year I think I’ll drop another hearty vegetarian side I usually make. So this means that our future lineup of Thanksgiving sides will likely be: veggie-loaded vegetarian stuffing (a savory bread pudding style with eggs and mushrooms, so it doubles as a vegetarian main), roasted cauliflower, kale cranberry pecan salad, quinoa stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. I think we’ll be good.
Just one bag of cranberries for cranberry crisp. My ideal Thanksgiving dessert spread includes pumpkin pie and cranberry crisp. Because my father-in-law’s birthday falls around the time of the holiday, we also often have the family chocolate cake in circulation (The Cake, as it’s known). This year, this all meant we had too much dessert. The recipe I used for cranberry crisp this year called for two bags of cranberries, but, based the fact that it’s Dec. 9 and I’m still throwing some yogurt on the cranberry crisp as part of my breakfast, I think I made too much. So, next year’s cranberry crisp will be built around just one bag of cranberries. And per my husband’s feedback, I’ll be doubling the amount of crispy topping.
Here are the food volumes we got right:
Mashed potatoes. We made just the right amount. 10 potatoes or 4 pounds was perfect for serving our crowd of eight adults and two small children, with ample leftovers. (Not having leftover mashed potatoes would be criminal in my house.) For more help determining exactly how many potatoes you need for your next feast check out EatOrToss’s in-depth report on mashed potatoes.
Poultry amount. We don’t mess with turkey and we celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday, not the day itself, with a heavy emphasis on side dishes. In lieu of the giant bird, we pick up Peruvian chicken from a restaurant down the street. For a group of 10 people (including one vegetarian, one baby, one small child, two light meat eaters) two chickens was sufficient; we had plenty left over.
One can cranberry sauce. Canned is simply delicious, OK? And less work than making it myself, which I had done in the past. And I believe every Thanksgiving should include some canned goods. It’s the American way. And, by the way, one can was fine for our group of eight adults; the four-year-old guest enjoyed the rest of the sauce over the next several days.
Stuffing, green bean casserole, quinoa stuffing. We certainly had more than enough of all of these, but I’m so happy about the leftovers, so nothing wasted! And speaking of stuffing, while in years past I had enough scraps of bread in my freezer to use for stuffing, I had no such supply this year. Luckily a local bakery, Ravenhook Bakehouse, sold stuffing cubes made from unsold bread. It was perfect!
Three smallish, medium-sized cauliflowers. I made a simple roasted cauliflower dish with three small/medium-sized cauliflowers from the farmers market. It was exactly the right amount. If only larger cauliflowers are available, I’ll get two next time.
Plate size. I gave people dessert/salad sized plates for the buffet. No complaints that I know of! And people leaned into getting seconds. One guest told me he loved the smaller plate because he could create a classically heaping Thanksgiving plate without being ridiculous.
Check out EatOrToss’s entertaining and parties page for more on crafting festive, but not wasteful gatherings.
