I've always been raised to clean my plate and never waste food. If anyone didn't finish their food it was offered to the rest of the family and expected to be eaten. I suspect this traces back through the family tree to times of severe poverty - my grandmother, for example, to this day quite literally cannot throw away even a tablespoon of food. Her fridge and freezers are full of tiny containers of leftover food, some many years old.

Yes. This is what we would do at the beginning of the month, or if for some reason like a party at a relatives house, there was food. Binge, eat what you can b/c it won't be here tomorrow. Over eating doesnt help you feel less hungry the next day when theres no food, but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing we took advantage of it while we could.

When my BIL was here, one time at dinner I didnt finish and he asked to have my plate, even though I ate off it. This is not odd to me though as DH and I always offer eachother uneaten food. I know this is from growning up poor and honestly, I was glad not to waste the food.

Years ago I worked with the elderly and many of them saved everything on their trays that they didnt eat. sugar packets, milk, ketchup packets...but I do the same thing! I save all that stuff...I odered a salad from wendys like a week ago and saved the dressing and pecans packets. :)

Glamour, crispin and others,

I can completely relate, and some of the things you all posted brought back memories. We weren't exactly poor but rather struggling on the cusp of poverty and there were so many of us that there often wasn't enough to eat at suppertime especially when going through puberty.

I recall my brother asking, "Are you gonna eat that?" to everyone at the table when we slowed down enough to look up. I recall another brother saying this prayer at rapid speed: Father, son, holy ghost, he who's quickest gets the most. Amen!" There were a half dozen hands headed toward the chicken plate, mom right behind with the fork to spear us. I often say that I was raised in a barn and by wolves. If asked the aforementioned I say, "Why yes I was!"

I remember as an early teen wanting a floaty gauzy shirt but we couldn't afford new clothes except at back to school time and one Christmas outfit. So one day while rummaging around in a box of old things I came across some old voile curtains and made a gauzy top from them. How Scarlet O'Hara of me. Looking back it was semi lame but I loved that top. Similarly my sister made sandals out of cardboard when she was in grade school because we couldn't afford non practical shoes. Not ironically we are both clothes lovers with extensive wardrobes.

My parents, both Great Depression children tell stories of that time and were both deeply affected by it. So they came by their issues naturally from their own time of want. "Waste not, want not." were bywords of my upbringing. I struggle with dual tendencies to save everything and have a clean, spare living environment. Thank heavens for recycling and the thrifts. We've composted years before it was cool and eco-friendly because of my anti-waste issues.

If I had kids, perhaps they'd be normal. I definitely agree that eating more than one needs to avoid waste is also another form of waste but I definitely make sure that I prepare for potential waste, box it if able, feed dogs from "doggie bags", eat leftovers or compost as a last resort.

A very interesting thread.

My mother grew up without much, and so for her to give us generous plates of delicious food was an expression of love, AND she had an aversion to wasting food. So I learned to enjoy large meals, and I like savory dinner-type fare more than I crave sweets.

My solution to this has been twofold. Firstly, I have had to learn to simply cook less. A rump roast can be cut into thirds and a small section of it cooked today while the other part goes into the freezer. Yeah, it looks weird at first when you chop up a quarter of a pepper and put the rest away, but after a while it just is a fact of life.

The other part has been to have a plan for the leftovers. It's a lot easier to portion out only what I intend to eat if I know I'm counting on eating the rest for one of tomorrow's meals.

The funny part is that I suspect that older generations did those things out of habit, and nobody spoke much about it because it was just what you had to do. Only in the past couple of generations have we been faced with everybody having access to so much calorie dense food that we don't know what to do with ourselves.

I do the same thing! I use the condiments for my work lunches, and sometimes I'll use the little soy sauce and Texas Pete packets in sauces that I make at home. They're so convenient. I also save leftover napkins and plastic forks. :o I hate wasting anything.

HelloNurse those are great ideas on how to portion and not be wasteful. Although my mother was never wasteful she made abundant food. For example there were 4 of us in the house but she would make enough for 8 and then put all the food on the table and let us serve ourselves. Being naturally thin herself I'm sure she didn't see this as problematic since she clearly knows when to stop eating but for the rest of us this is catastrophic. We were never guided into appropriate portion sizes or when to stop eating.

Now I've learned to make only enough food for that meal for all of us. I portion everyones plate and only bring the salad or veggies out for 2nds otherwise me and hubby will constantly dip into the potatoes. Sometimes I'll make extra for leftovers but only enough for the next day, no more than that. I've gotten really good at cooking and buying the right amount.

But again I have to stress that there are times when it's not possible to finish every French fry.

Yes, but I'll rupture my stomach trying!! :lol:Kidding, but I do have to be careful not to stuff myself when out to eat just to clean my plate. Aside from pregnancies, I usually maintain about 160 lbs, a good 30 lbs over weight, and I don't do that without the ability to eat every last fry! :D

Well you get an A for effort then! But seriously, I've suffered from so much disordered eating that I'm just happy when I recognize that I'm too full to finish, it's like a miracle. I've wasted too much food by eating it.

I actually started a thread about this a few years back, and at that time, someone here said to me, if I'm eating food to keep it out of the garbage I'm basically treating my body like a garbage can...they worded it much better than that, but it really struck me and I try to remember that when I am literally eating for the purpose of keeping food from going in the trash.
I dont remember who said it, but maybe if they are still a member here and recognize their advice they can restate it better!

Interesting thread.

I was thinking the other day about all the goofy rules, or whatever you want to call it, that I grew up with, and how some of them were totally, just dumb.

Clean your plate, kids are starving in China, my youngest sister, said it best, "send it to them!" LOL.

Take all you want, but eat all you take.

Clean your plate you should be glad to have it.

Then Mom, who is heavy decides to reform and all of a sudden all the old rules no longer apply!?:dizzy:

Amazingly enough as I was thinking about all of this, I got to remembering how my grandmothers cooked.

1 portion of meat, 1 potato, 1 slice of bread and unlimited veg and fruit for women and kids, 2 portions of meat, 2 potato, 2 bread and unlimited veg and fruit for men. Dessert optional.

Mind you, this is somewhat old school, however, it was back when the men still did a lot of manual labor, the women did as well, but, you needed to watch your figure and given gardening and butchering and hired hands and so on, you were feeding 8-10 people 3 times a day, so you needed a plan!

Food was never wasted back then. Leftovers, if there were any, fed the cats and the dog, or went in the compost pile. Both of my grandmothers and my mom had a scrap bucket. Things like tater peelings, fed the chickens, leftover pancake batter, fed the dogs and the cats. Anything that was iffy, went to the hogs.

The rules, and the irony. *deep sigh*

I'm at a point now, where I never totally clean my plate. It's a rule, even if all I leave is one bite. I can toss it or, in my case, it goes in the compost. Luckily I have the room for compost and a large garden. Or on Sunday morning, the dogs and cat get a treat.

Ironically, one thing that just dawned on me, we did go out for breakfast yesterday, I only ate about half of what I ordered, I should have taken the rest with me, and tossed it in my compost pile, instead of letting the cafe toss it in the trash.

Lesson learned.

On the other hand, yesterday, when I was full, I quit. I did not feel the need to clean my plate, it was just too much. And I did not feel guilty, saying "I'm done!":carrot:

Exactly. That doesn't give anyone a pass to toss out good food but there have been times that on binge days I buy a whole box of cookies and then the next day I come to my senses and if I don't throw that sucker in the trash and spray the cookies with chlorine I WILL eat them all in one sitting. Either option is bad bad bad but I prefer the option that will cause the least self-loathing.

Yesterday I had a friend over for lunch, she brought me a whole home-made pie. We each had a slice and she left the rest here as a thank you for lunch.... now what do I do? If it stays on the counter long enough I will end up binging on it. Hubby does not eat desserts at all. What do I do with it?

wannabeskinny Do you have a break room at work? I've left items there before with a note that says, "Have some." People assume the missing slices are from earlier coworkers. This could be awkward if she works with you. :lol:

If someone brought a pie, and if I liked pie, I'd cut it into slices and freeze them like this but I am seriously a freezer fanatic.

I will freeze just about anything I can so that I can control portion sizes, eat healthy in minutes, and keep from wasting. I don't think you necessarily need to eat all of your food immediately so it doesn't go to waste. There are ways to store almost everything in the freezer, especially with use of ice cube trays, plastic bags, small containers, and jars.

It sounds silly, but it's the best thing I can do for our health since we're so busy and on a tight budget.

I was going to say the same as Crispin. I try to ask hubby to bring it to work, but honestly he eats everything, and has a serious weight problem to show for it...but here's and odd thing, I'd rather throw something away than him eat it because his weight is out of control and his cholesterol, sugar and BP are high and he desperately needs to lose weight, and his health is more important to me than wasting food, just like not forcing the kids to eat everything is more important that wasting food, henceforth letting them throw out what they dont want...yet I will eat something not to waste it...hmmm

Its not good to waste but eating it just to not waste it isnt the answer either.

I didnt know pie could be frozen...I had just gotten into freezing! We bought a freezer for the garage and I precooked chicken, rice, pasta and portioned it out. I also froze mac n cheese for the kids, so i can easily microwave and serve b/c of the baby cooking is difficult. I bet I could freeze cookies too.? If i did buy a box of CC cookies can I put them in zip locks portioned out and freeze? oh i also make a huge batch of steel cut oats and use a muffin tin ,freeze, put in zip locks so i can have them w/o cooking eat time. just microwave and eat! ok, my new answer to the question is freeze it!! lol!!