I’m always tossing leftovers. Always. I just don’t want it then.
But I feel a whole lot better about my lettuce, etc. problems now that I have a compost bin. Now I’m not “wasting food”, I’m “feeding the compost”. And yeah, lots of lettuce and assorted greens. And baby carrots. And bread. And those little plastic things that berries and cherry tomatoes come in? And you know how you use some off the top, and then one on the bottom goes bad and suddenly… eww? Yeah, the compost pile loves that.
I used to waste lettuce. I always used to buy the bagged kind because it was convenient, but it was only convenient for about four days, becuase it went bad so quickly. I also tired of finding the bag of mush in the bottom of the crisper drawer. Now I buy whole heads of lettuce, wash and cut it up as soon as I get home from the store, and keep it in tupperware. It’s just as convenient, and lasts three times as long. It also helps that I’ve gotten into the habit of having salad every day for lunch, so there’s no forgetting about it.
We, too, throw out a lot of leftovers. My husband always has good intentions of bringing them with him to work the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, until they’re not good anymore. I’ve thrown out more furry meat than I’d care to admit to.
Bananas that’re past the bright-yellow-with-no-more-than-one-brown-spot but before the all-black-and-mushy stage make great smoothies (also a good use for the yogurt that was mentioned). 1 banana plus 1/2 cup yogurt plus a bunch of strawberries plus honey to taste in the blender for a few seconds makes a smoothie to rival Orange Julius. And it keeps me from throwing out just-slightly-past-their-prime bananas.
I most often throw out any sort of lettuce/spinach/green leafy veggie, fresh herbs (why don’t they sell them in smaller bunches??), or leftovers. I’m getting better about making single-serving meals so there aren’t any leftovers, but it still does happen occasionally.
Zucchini and yellow squash. I love 'em but hubby doesn’t, so I have to be sure I use very small amounts in any recipe. Plus, the dog won’t eat them. So, out they go. We do sometimes fail to use up potatoes and onions, and maybe some lettuce, but that’s about it when it comes to veggies that get tossed.
Our big issue with meat is that we’ll take it out of the freezer to thaw, and then it’s not all the way thawed, and we don’t feel like screwing with defrosting it in the microwave, and by the time we remember that there’s a pound of ground beef in the fridge, it’s decomposing. Matter of fact, now I’ve got to call my husband at home and remind him to package up the fresh ground chuck we just bought!