Dana Gunders

A great, thorough book for beginners - people who realize they're throwing away a lot of the food they buy and want to change, but don't know where to begin.

Gunders covers accurate meal planning, how to use leftovers, non-food uses for foods, how to keep foods fresh for longer, and more. There are 20 recipes here, most of them fairly basic in the use-it-up world, like soup, but a few looked good. (Also, the book isn't primarily a cookbook, so I'm not rating it on that alone.)

There is a bit of repetition that got old to me, since much of the information isn't new to me, but for beginners, this repetition might actually be helpful in reinforcing new ideas.… (más)

Very informative book about trying to be more aware of your own food waste. I got it from the library, right after cleaning out my refrigerator and threw out way too much food. This book is helpful for people new to this idea and for those who want to go hard core. I liked the recipes at the end. The best I do to reduce waste is when we move and I am very conscious of the food I need to get rid of and not waste...I don't plan on moving any time soon, but that attitude may help a bit. The only complaint about this book is the ridiculously small print size! Quarter of the page is blank and then text is so small; seems ironicly wasteful.… (más)

This is an excellent guide book on how to avoid wasting food. I found it on the Save the Food website (https://www.savethefood.com/). It's helpful, and even if you can't follow all the suggestions she makes in the book, just making a few changes would be beneficial. I found it especially helpful in deciding how long to keep produce, and how long I can keep food and it will still be safe to eat (in most cases, it's a longer period of time than I'd been led to believe). It also gives directions on how to safely store food to maintain maximum freshness and usability, and how to restore and revive food that's a little past its prime.

The guide is segmented into three parts: Strategies for Everyday Life, Recipes, and a Directory. Part One gives suggestions on shopping, storing, and preserving food, which is handy for people who buy in bulk, or who have to keep their food in storage for a longer time than the usual shelf life allows. Part Two tells you how to use all your leftovers, and Part Three, the Directory, serves as a guide for how best to store produce, meats. poultry, seafood, dairy and eggs, condiments, oils and spices, and pantry staples. It also gives information on how long different products can safely be kept, and the best way to store them to preserve freshness.

There's a section on food-borne illness, which is of prime concern to everyone when it comes to buying, preparing and storing food. There are also footnotes and an index.

The only complaint I have about this book is that the directory isn't a comprehensive listing of food products. However, you can find that information at the Save the Food website (see link above). Also, the USDA.gov website is a handy resource on all things food-related.… (más)

A handy guide with tricks and tips for throwing out less food, from carefully planning your menus and groceries to recipes using that sour milk or leftovers to best advantage.

I'm a single woman and keep myself on a tight food budget, but at the end of the week I often find myself with a surplus and scrambling to use up food before it goes bad. I was interested in seeing what Gunders would suggest for wasting even less, and this book delivers. Some things were good reminders - buy less food, plan to buy ingredients that you will use more than once - and others were brand new to me. The book is organized into three major sections: strategies from buying to cooking; recipes; and a directory by food type. The strategies begin with buying and take you right up through composting. Composting is not feasible for me, but I learned a lot about food storage and how to know if food is really "bad" or just decomposing normally (ie., vegetables get wilted and are still okay to eat; try putting them in ice water or cooking). Many of the recipes were designed in such a way to have a lot of "wiggle room" for using what's on hand; I would definitely try Sour Milk Pancakes, Fried Rice, and Black Bean Brownies (which are gluten free to boot). I didn't read the directory word-for-word, but she takes you through every major food group and several examples of each, giving storage tips (refrigerate? freeze?), how long it will stay "good," and suggestions for using it up.

I learned a lot I can incorporate into my planning and cooking, and definitely want my own copy of this to reference in the future.… (más)