Hasta La Ideas

Over the weeked, I watched The Big Waste, a Food Network program featuring some well known chefs like Bobby Flay. The chefs were challenged to make gourmet meals using food that was ready for the dumpster. In my work experience, I’ve noticed that food is often wasted in households where there is no meal planning or system for keeping track of food that has been purchased.

Food that is hidden or not stored in an organized way will languish in refrigerators and pantries because it’s difficult to see what you have. When this happens, you’ll likely go shopping for those items and increase your stash. Instead, consider using the five tips below to keep food from perishing or stop it from turning into clutter. You probably use one or more of these tips already, but when combined you’ll make better purchasing decisions and have a greater chance of consuming more of your food instead of throwing it away.

Meal plan

We’ve talked about this numerous times on Unclutterer, so I won’t go into detail. (A good place to start is with our article “Creating a weekly meal plan.”) Just remember that meal planning keeps you from asking “What’s for dinner?” because you know what is on the schedule. If coming up with meal plans is difficult for you because of time constraints, check out services like The Six O’Clock Scramble, which is a program we love so much we have become users and affiliates for it.

Always use a shopping list

Using a shopping list will keep you from making spur of the moment purchases. That’s not to say that you won’t ever try something new (and put it on your list), but when you buy things that you wouldn’t normally buy, you may forget about them, particularly if you make multiple impulse purchases. So, before your next shopping trip, create a list of things that you intend to purchase and stick to it.

Track your stash with an inventory list

An inventory list placed in a very visible area of your kitchen (or on your pantry door) will help you remember what you have so that you can avoid making duplicate purchases. Record each item along with the quantity on your list or use a dry erase board so that you can easily make updates — and don’t forget your leftovers. If you tend to buy the same items, save a digital copy so you can print it as needed. Check out the Pantry Staples List created by Real Simple if you’re having difficulty getting started.

Keep your pantry and refrigerator organized

To keep your food from getting lost in the refrigerator or pantry, group items by category (dairy, beverages, left overs) and place them in the same spot all the time. You’ll want make sure that you have access to your most reached for items and that they can be easily seen. Use containers (like the Clear Handled Storage Baskets) to keep your items organized.

Check food freshness with StillTasty.com

The website StillTasty.com can help you determine if certain foods are still good enough to eat. The site will also tell you the best spot in your refrigerator to store certain items. For example, to keep eggs and milk fresher longer, don’t store them in the refrigerator door as the temperature fluctuates each time the door is opened or closed. For a quick reference guide, check out Hella Wella’s infographic, How Long Food Really Lasts in the Fridge and sign up for food safety alerts from FoodSafety.gov to find out which foods have been recalled.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Product news: American designer Victor Vetterlein has made an edible desk lamp.

Called Bite Me, Victor Vetterlein‘s lamp is made of biodegradable plastic derived from vegetable glycerin and agar, a gelatin made from sea algae.

The LED light-source is attached to a clear plastic adhesive strip, with electricity conducted to the top by laser-cut metal lines that spell out the name of the product and its ingredients.

“When the lamp is no longer useful or desired, the lighting strip is removed and the lamp may be eaten or thrown into the garden as compost,” explains Vetterlein, adding that the project was inspired by the book Green Plastics – an Introduction to the New Science of Biodegradable Plastics by E.S. Stevens, a professor of chemistry at the State University of New York.

To prepare it for consumption, the lamp must be cleaned and submerged in purified water for an hour to soften up. “The consistency after soaking the lamp in water for an hour is like wet Gummy Bears,” says Vetterlein.

It comes in four natural flavours: orange, cherry, blueberry and apple. “Agar is low in sodium and very low in saturated fat as well as cholesterol,” he adds. “It is also a good source of vitamin E, vitamin K, pantothenic acid, zinc and copper, and a very good source of folic acid, calcium, iron, manganese, potassium and magnesium.”

The lamp is sold with two electric cords, one that connects to the low voltage power converter and another that plugs into a computer.

Above: inspiration and ingredients

Vetterlein’s product has the playful look of boiled sweets, but we recently reported on a task light for Wästberg that tries to give bioplastics the solidity and tactility normally associated with metal or wood.

Other lighting by Vetterlein on Dezeen includes a desk lamp resembling bent blades of grass and another made of egg boxes. See all our stories about design by Victor Vetterlein.

The post Bite Me edible desk lamp
by Victor Vetterlein appeared first on Dezeen.

1. 3D-Printed Aston Martin Though the story called for a precious 1960 Aston Martin DB5 to be decimated, producers of “Skyfall,” the latest Bond installment, saved the rare icon by combining 3D printing with creative modeling. Propshop Modelmakers Ltd. employed a Voxeljet VX4000 large-scale printer to produce a series…

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Photo: Olivia Siong, Channel NewsAsia)

Ok, not quite—the aluminum frame for the Sky Greens innovative planting system tops out at about nine meters, or about three stories. But considering that the farm yields some five to ten times more than conventional methods, the metaphor stands at least as tall as the pulley-equipped towers: according to their website, “the A-Go-Gro system uses patented low carbon hydraulic green technology to power the rotation of the tower at very low energy costs, while still allowing the plants to get more than adequate sunlight.”

Channel NewsAsia reports that the Singapore-based company has been supplying local supermarket chain FairPrice Finest with locally-grown produce. The veggies have been a hit, selling out despite the nominal 10–20-cent markup—as fast as the farm can grow ’em, at a rate of roughly half a tonne daily. The goal is to expand from 120 towers to 300 by 2013 at a cost of S$27m (~$22m in USD), which is projected to quadruple the output to two tonnes per day.

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For her graduation project at Stuttgart State Academy of Arts, Johanna Kleinart hopes “to reveal the relevance of old food preservation techniques, that nowadays are gaining interest again.”

The young designer drew inspiration from traditional WECK jars, an iconic food preservation vessel that is itself a cousin to the popular Ball mason jar here in the States. Thus, Kleinart has updated the drinking glass-like form factor with a new sealing mechanism, “based on an O-ring, which has several advantages compared to the conventional flat gasket.” This makes it both easier to open vacuum-sealed jars and allows for dry storage, sans vacuum.

As with fellow design student Larisa Daiga’s “Interactive Modular Set,” the handsome vessels can be labeled time and again for ease of reuse: “the upper part of the lid is not glazed, so that it can be labeled directly with a water-soluble pen.”

Similarly, the vessels vary in color and size, where the lower section of each lid can be glazed in a different color. The borosilicat glass, which comes in five proposed sizes, from 155mL to 1L, can be tinted gray or left clear.

Hit the jump to see the tech twist…

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