Thirty plants a week - avoiding food waste for small appetites

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I like to think I get a really good variety of plant fodder in each week as I cook with a wide range of spices and herbs and veg etc

I think on another thread some months ago I calculated a meal I had cooked which had around 40 'points' just in that one meal

However I think what happens on average is that the same thing is eaten for many days on end until its used up (as I will not throw food away!) and then on to the next thing. The freezer is completely full of various batch cooking and then bags of frozen veg so theres no room really for more, its one in, one out at the moment

Ive had WLS which means I eat very small portions, for example Im going to roast up a cauliflower today and that will last me over a week in the fridge, added to other things even if I eat some every day.

So today Ive downloaded a plant counting app and Ive totted up 9.5 entries

But I suspect that tomorrow may well be the same 9.5 entries and so on and so on

I dont want to create a load of food waste, what do other people do when cooking small amounts?

Is anyone else doing this?

How about mixed seeds and nuts? Again the problem of eating the same thing till it's gone but it is an easy way of getting more points without needing more fridge and freezer space. I think as long as you don't buy the same few veg week in week out you will be doing ok. So say if you buy a lettuce for salad buy a different type next time, or bags of mixed leaves or switch to rocket or similar.

I vaguely keep an eye on it but we are a family of four so it’s a bit easier to do variety.

A few ideas

If you tend to reuse the same ingredients for a week start your count mid week from your shop/cook days so you get half of two different shopping weeks veg each count week.

Swap within your freezer. So freeze some cauliflower this week for a few weeks time and use a portion of something else from the freezer.

make plants integral to every meal. So soup or salad at lunch and veg at breakfast.

Greens wilt down to small portions so you could include spinach/kale/whatever leafy vegetables you like without eating too much volume.

Try and buy individual ingredients so a carrot not a full bag

Root vegetables stored properly will last a good while so you could do regular small portions of those. Just only cook what you need at the time.

small tins of vegetables- the mini/half sized ones. It might still last a couple of days but that’s still more variety

Yes I eat a lot of seeds and nuts. I chomp on nuts quite a lot, have been today as usual

So Im wondering if in fact I should be looking at 30 different types per month, or over a fortnight. Because if you do 30 a week, you could do the same 30 every week which would be 30 a month surely?

Am I overthinking this?

Yes Im doing all of the above already, I think the problem is its just me as OH wont eat it.

I can get down around 4 tbsp of food on average per meal so things last for ages and ages and ages.

I base all my meals round the veg and protein as we're not really meant to have starchy carbs and most carbs I cant eat anyway so thats ok, I can eat small amounts of rice and bulgar and a bit of my own bread but thats every couple of weeks not daily.

I eat soup a couple of times a day at the moment as Im working through a massive batch of chicken stock!! So I put different veg in there each time and usually have roasted veg and a protein for breakfast, although I was thinking about getting back to my porridge, which apparently also counts as a plant. I usually have that with dried fruit.

Actually I have just realised that tomorrow will be another new 3 different types of veg to today at least so it wont be exactly the same as today.

I don't follow a 30 a week thing. In summer, I grow some fruit but alot of veg in the garden. I tend to choose varieties not easily available in the shops, or more expensive- yellow raspberries, heirloom tomatoes, tromboncinos etc.

I also check this site. Eating things in season is generally cheaper.
https://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/

Do you live on your own? If so, can't you half or quarter recipes so you aren't eating the same thing for an entire week? Buy just 1 carrot, 1 courgette, 1 leek etc?

Do you often try new veg? I love finding a new veg/cuisine and giving it a try. Bitter melon, okra, Chinese cooked cucumber, kalettes, jerusalem artichokes, different mushrooms, different squash or pumpkins etc. If you can't use an entire packet- do you have family/friends you could share or swap with?

I dont live on my own but OH does not like fresh healthy food unfortunatey, he simply wouldnt eat what I eat, never has done.

Its frustrating bying veg because we shop in Aldi and Lidl but they dont do individual portions for most things and its often hard to quater a recipe and do it justice and cook it properly, somethings you can do it successfully, other things its not going to work so I have to do portions. I freeze virtually everything I get my hands on!

I'll always buy something different if I see it but I find big root veg very difficult to use up, Ive virtually given up with celeriac and big squashes, not only can I not manage to prep them but they're just too big to use. I absolutely love celeriac remoulade but you cant buy the stuff anywhere!

I think its true that fruit and veg are the biggest amounts of food waste in the uk?

Loving that website

Love jerusalem artichokes, I used to grow them and they went really well and then suddenly died.

I may be stating the obvious, buy why don;t you start by running down some of the stock in your freezer? Buy nothing fresh for a week or two. Defrost very different things, so you don;t get sick of the same each time.

Then make very different types of things from the same veg. E.g. roast butternut squash with sesame seeds and smoky chilli flakes, butternut squash soup with lentils, ginger and garlic, butternut risotto with fresh sage and spinach.

I try to do this too. One thing that helps me is having a wide variety of frozen veg at all times in addition to whatever I’ve bought fresh that week. Whatever I’m making I can add a little bit each of a few different frozen ones. Not whole portions of each, just enough to increase the variety of veg I’m eating.

I live on my own and was interested in how many plants I ate a week, thinking it wasn't that many. It came to 27, so I added another three.

I eat more or less the same thing every day, and with various spices and teas, I don't find it too difficult to hit 30.

I'm not going to be an active 30 a week person but I'm pleased I've got so much variety.

Jerusalem artichokes can become invasive, so I'm surprised yours died! They'll re grow from the tiniest part left in the ground. I grow mine in large pots. One pot has ones from a garden centre, the other from a packet of eating artichokes from Sainsburys. The Sainsbury's one do much better year on year!

I absolutely love celeriac remoulade
You'd be welcome to some of my celeriac in the garden. This year mine were woefully small, like a small apple! I made remoulade yesterday, but needed 3 of them to make it!

Well yes I have been running it down for the last year! But each time I make something, it inevitably makes more than one portion and I like to have a variety, thats the problem, so the freezer is full of bags of frozen veg for variety, pots of stock, pots of curries and soups, pots of sauces, bags of prepped veg Ive done myself, garlic, ginger, fish, meats.

One salmon fillet for example will do 3 meals for me

I like the idea of one veg with different flavours, I do tend to cook the whole thing in one go to avoid it going off in the fridge so I'll have a think about how to manage the logistics of that. And as I said before, its not easy to do some dishes for just one portion (me sized portion), it doesnt work so I always have several pots of whatever I cook which need freezing.

Ok, thats interesting. I had thought I would meet that number, but then today wondered if that was true, I'll find out by the end of the week!

I might try to grow them again, I was really upset, a) I like them b) they are expensive in the shops!!

The problem with anything like celeriac and squashes is I cant physically manipulate them due to a disability, they're just too hard, big and tough.

I think you can buy bags of butternut squash frozen but the bags are massive and too big for everything else I have.

You’ll have more than you think. It doesnt have to be a full portion like the Five a Day thing, so even a little chilli or garlic or herbs counts.

Yes its about a quarter of a point or something isnt it?

Im wondering about the theory behind it, Im sort of doing it ina lighthearted curious way, although I dont want food waste, because Im intrigued as to how something like drinking tea, coffee and eating chocoate can possibly be significant for health. I know it all contributes in the round but Im not convinced of the significance.

Ive just remembered that I need to use up half a red cabbage in the fridge for braised red cabbage, thats going to make 2 massive tubs, that also needs to go in the freezer. I cant keep the cabbage any longer.

It’s about your gut microbiota, encouraging a wide array of different bacteria to thrive.

They don’t say anything about herbs and spices only counting as a quarter, though they do suggest you use each one more than once a week to increase the overall quantity.

Info is here: zoe.com/learn/30-plants-per-week?srsltid=AfmBOopfBLkjKv0cx4sYq6fJjXtCOJG1aX1n__DPeKxVhwHWoWK0CneH

I live on my own so have quite a bit of food waste from veg and I just chuck it on the compost heap. As you say, it is difficult to buy smaller portions unless you find a local greengrocers but you sound completely overwhelmed with the amount of food you are managing.

As for getting 30 plants a week, even in a soup you can have onion, garlic, herbs, carrot, another veg, maybe some lentils, then sprinkle some seeds on top so giving you 8 or 9 types. You don’t have to eat huge quantities of them. Freeze some portions and swap them out as a pp suggested. Cook your salmon with rosemary (delicious,) maybe paprika or some garlic or lemon. It’s easy to add in small quantities of flavourings and sprinkle toppings to get the numbers up.

Do you really need to cook the whole red cabbage? It lasts weeks in the fridge. Just cook a small portion for yourself and add in cloves, spices, an apple some vinegar and sprinkle of sugar for balance. Two portions, two days then get something out of the freezer.

I have a really small appetite but a salmon fillet lasting 3 meals is quite a stretch. Do you just eat a fair bit over the course of the day so something is replacing the full salmon fillet? Curious as I'm trying to increase calories but the small appetite really gets in the way

Yes my 9 today is from the soup and nuts today

Its half a red cabbage!!! I used the first half, with half a bag of crannberries and a small apple in November. With 1 red onion that makes 2 massive tubs of braised red cabbage, that lasts for a couple of months at the rate I eat it.

I make it regularly, use the first half, then about 2 months later when the other half cant survive much longer I do the other half.

Thats why Im asking specifically for people with very small appetites, portions. My whole meals are only about 4 spoons of food at a time. Or a mug of soup.

Ive had WLS I said this in my OP so I eat very low volume.

I live alone and also only eat small, but I eat far more veg than you seem to. There’s no way that if I braised half a red cabbage it would take me two months to get through - more like two days! Does veg only make up a small percentage of each meal? That could be at the heart of it. My meals are mainly veg so I go through a fair amount.

I understand but I think you are overly worrying about food waste. Just throw it out, compost if you can and it goes back into the soil or the council recycling as that will get used too. Or find a friend who wants 3/4 of a cabbage and you can have a small piece if you really can’t bear the waste. Do you have any food co-ops near you? You could then get your small portions weekly when they are still fresh and full of vitamins and more variety, which is what you are after.

There are only two of us. Winter weeks I have the following without waste:
Frozen peas, sweetcorn, broad beans, spinach, French beans.

Loose fresh carrots, onions, broccoli, leeks, celery, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, mushrooms, peppers, beetroot.

Tinned kidney beans, cannelini beans

Fruit - satsumas, apples, oats, plums, pears, Sultanas

Dried lentils

Breakfast is porridge oats with fruit, lunch is usually a salad or soup.

Yes it would be helpful to know if there are food coops around for this sort of thing, Im remembering the last time I bought chard for example, massive bunch of the stuff that I couldnt get through so it went in the bin. I freeze virtually everything I get my hands on but its the final dish that is the problem as unless Im eating the same thing for days on end, Im worried about the variety but then perhaps I dont need to be, I'll have to see how the week goes!

Im in the habit of cooking up a lot of veggie stews and curries and chillies and they contain a huge amount of variety but sometimes I get bored of 'all in one' meals as like I said from time to time I just would like a bit of salmon and veg or chicken and veg standing alone.