Save Food, Spend Less Challenge 2026

Hennepin County | Ramsey County | Washington County

October 1 - October 31, 2026

"let no vegetable go to waste!!"

Abigail's points

35 TODAY
75 THIS WEEK
240 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

3.5

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

1.5

pounds

food waste prevented
UP TO

10

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.0

locally sourced meal

consumed

Abigail's actions

Planning

Keep a Food Inventory

I will take a fridge and pantry inventory to stay up to date with what I have at home before I go grocery shopping.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Cooking

Cook Just Enough

I will scale down the recipe of a meal to make just the right amount for my household of 2 so we eat everything up.

COMPLETED 0
DAILY ACTIONS

Cooking

Swap This for That

If I am missing an ingredient for a recipe I will find a substitute I have on hand and use that instead.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Storage

Preserve food

I will try a new method of food preservation, such as canning, pickling, drying or making jam. I will try 1 preservation techniques.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Shopping

Source Local Foods

I will buy locally grown food from my grocery store and make 1 meal(s).

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Planning

Plan to Use My Garden or CSA Produce

I will check to see what will be ready to eat in my garden or CSA box this week and plan recipes that use these ingredients.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Community

Watch a Documentary About Food

I will watch 1 videos or documentaries to learn about the scope and scale of food waste in this country.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Find your meal planning personality

I will explore different meal plan techniques and choose one that works for my household.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

REFLECTION QUESTION
Planning

Are there food items you have been better about using up and not wasting since you started keeping an inventory of what's in your fridge?
Abigail Hindson 10/13/2026 7:09 AM

I took an inventory of my fridge last night and while I didn't go to the grocery store, I brought some green peppers I don't plan to use to work so that others can make use of them! Since starting inventory, I'm doing better at using up the veggies that are harder for me to use from our farm box like radishes and beets.

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- Kara Lundin 10/13/2026 8:17 AM
  
  Same! I used some old potatoes and a bunch of still good but not super fresh veggies to make soup. Just having the challenge in the back of my mind when I am in the kitchen is helping me be creative with my recipes. I took an inventory of my fridge and found a bunch of salsa so I need to think about how to use that up this week.
  
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Abigail Hindson 10/12/2026 2:29 PM

Garden tomatoes and CSA potatoes made a great local veggie bake!

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Abigail Hindson 10/12/2026 2:28 PM

Tomatoes are still abundant in my garden thanks to the crazy warm fall weather! We harvested and made use of our fresh tomatoes and CSA potatoes in a fall veggie bake.

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Abigail Hindson 10/08/2026 10:23 AM

Ran out of soy sauce, so I replaced a marinade with golden mountain sauce instead. It was salty and delicious!

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- H McCrillis 10/08/2026 8:35 PM
  
  Ooh, I’ll be on the lookout for golden mountain sauce. Is it in only Asian grocery stores?
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Planning

How easy has it been for you to plan your garden or CSA produce into your meals? Do you ever let your seasonal food go to waste?
Abigail Hindson 10/08/2026 10:18 AM

On the whole, it's not too hard to plan to use garden/CSA produce because I am a flexible cook and find uses for ingredients that I have around. However, sometimes in our CSA box we get ingredients that we don't often use or like, such as green bell peppers, or too much of an item, like cabbage. Sadly, I've had to throw some bell peppers and part of a cabbage into our food scraps bin this season.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Cooking

How comfortable are you with making ingredient swaps? Where do you go to find substitutes if you don't have what you need?
Abigail Hindson 10/07/2026 10:08 AM

I feel comfortable doing swaps for many common ingredients, though I will often double-check online to make sure that I'm making a substitution that works in the right proportions.

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Abigail Hindson 10/07/2026 10:06 AM

Used coriander leaves instead of kasoori methi and swapped out Indian chilies we didn't have for guajillos!

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Planning

What meal plan method works for you and why? Have you tried some in the past that didn't work?
Abigail Hindson 10/06/2026 2:12 PM

I learned that I am a flexible planner by taking Hennepin County's Meal Planning Personality Quiz. This is definitely how I'd describe myself! One thing I have noticed is that in my household, my partner and I have similar meal planning habits but his mom, who lives with us and loves to cook, is much more spontaneous and dislikes leftovers. We end up having misalignment on how to plan to eat because sometimes my partner or I will plan to have leftovers night but she would rather cook a full-out meal. This leads to food waste because sometimes, the leftovers don't get eaten! I'm learning that we need to communicate more between the three of us to make sure that we have a home for all of our food.

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