Create a menu that allows multiple uses of key ingredients throughout a week

Food service managers can lower costs and eliminate waste by creating a menu that allows for the multiple uses of key ingredients throughout the week. It may be cheaper to purchase an item in bulk, but unless menus are planned to use up that item while it is fresh, some may be lost as waste. If the school has a garden or sources from a local farm and has to deal with a bumper crop of a particular vegetable, it can lead to waste can occur unless the food service manager uses creative menu planning to present that item in a variety of ways that hold the interest of students. This type of menu planning also has potential to save preparation time. For example, cooks can slice peppers all at once at the beginning of the week to be included in a salad or vegetable cup one day, then used later in the week for a stir-fry. Finally, this type of planning can encourage food service staff change the way they think about unplanned leftover food so that they can reuse or repurpose them more easily.Funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5Ope