Where can you get a great deal on healthy ingredients that spark your culinary creativity? Answer: Your own kitchen!

Inspired by last month’s Fourth Friday showing of Just Eat It, which highlighted the staggering problem of food waste, people got creative for this month’s Shop Your Kitchen potluck. Grains from the pantry, farmers’ market leftovers, and this-and-that from the fridge all went into tasty and healthy creations.

We also got some suggestions about shopping and food storage from some short videos and discussion:

• Shopping with a list and resisting the temptation to buy whatever looks good
• Buying smaller quantities that you know you’ll use.
• Adding an “Eat this first” box in the refrigerator.
• Not storing your bananas and apples near other produce, unless you want them to ripen quickly (they emit ethylene, which hastens the ripening process).
• Storing your lettuce first in a paper bag (the plastic keeps the lettuce from wilting, but direct contact with the plastic hastens spoilage).
• Prepping your veggies right away when you get back from the market so they’re available to eat later with no additional prep.