Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it’s been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
Last week I mentioned that I didn’t think I’d ever had three no-waste weeks in a row. Given the absence of a photo at the top of this post, you might think that this week is my triumphant third week, but it’s not. Le sigh.
I bought a bag of tomatoes last week and a few days ago, I noticed that one was getting a little bit squishy. So, I decided to put it in the fridge until I could do something with it, but on the way, I dropped it.
Yeah. A squishy tomato that hits a wood floor explodes and sprays tomato juice and seeds in all directions. And it is most definitely not salvageable after that.
So, that 3-weeks-in-a-row accomplishment is still eluding me, but I’m going to keep trying!
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
We didn’t have any food waste this week, but we came very close with some food related near accidents. Love my super helpful 3 year old, but I could do with just a tiny bit less help in the kitchen!
Athough, I have to give him credit for giving his siter pointers on how to do a better job washing dishes.
Alea – how does your 3 yo help with dishes?!?
My 11 month old tries to “help” already. When I hold her and try to get something out of the fridge she pulls food off of the shelves. Surprisingly, nothing has broken yet!!
Sorry for the late response WilliamB; I was out of town celebrating my Dad’s 70th birthday.
Some of the dishes do not fit well in our dishwasher, so I let my son scrub them in the sink. He is pretty thorough, but I follow up to make sure they are clean. He also helps me unload the dishwasher by putting away the silverware. He is a great companion and loves being involved in whatever is going on in the kitchen.
Oh Nooooo, Kristen – that is *such* bad luck LOL!
We had a couple of bits of bread and some rice after LMG had a guest over for dinner. But you have to visit the site to see a cute pic of our bunny. We ‘lost’ her and she turned up somewhere rather unexpected!
That may be, but I hear tomato juice is great for cleaning floors
What?!? No amazing Frugal Girl photo of tomato splatter?
No, I was busy cleaning up the mess before I realized I should have taken a picture. Whoops.
Bad week here. I finally gave up on the romaine that had been in my fridge for weeks. I was hoping I’d eat salad again but nope – all trying it did was waste good parmesan as well as a head of lettuce. That it lasted weeks without going goopy is a testament to the power of Glad’s Produce Bags.
I’ll probably waste a dozen clementines. It always happens – I buy one box too many each year. Half a peach went bad because I had felt queasy one day and unexpectedly was taken out to dinner the next. A plum sunk inconspicuously to the bottom of the fruit bowl, only 1/3 was edible. Half a homemade brioche went stale. Not much of a loss, I’m afraid: I tried the recipe with 1/2 whole wheat flour *and* it stayed in the fridge for 3 nights instead of the prescribed one.
OTOH I have enough Chinese leftovers for three meals and I made rice pudding for the office with only “waste” foods: rice from the Chinese, canned milk from the emergency stores (they gotta be rotated out every now and then) and a failed experiment in frozen cream.
The above reply sure went to the wrong place. I wanted that one as a freestanding, and this one to say: Kristen, I bet you one of your kids would see their way clear to splatter a tomato for you.
I love this idea. Food waste is one of my husbands pet peeves-OK, it’s mine too, but I have so many pet peeves I like to sluff some of mine off on him! I’m visiting you site every Friday for some non-food waste inspiration.
I think you’re being a little hard on yourself with the definition of waste.
lol! My mom would agree with you. But the tomato was going bad, and it is quite likely it would have continued to rot in the fridge before I got around to it. We’ll never know, though!
I’m getting back in the game!
My only food waste this week came from trying to use a different (read: cheaper) brand of italian dressing for a recipe…bad move.
We lost about two cups of fruit salad (with kiwis!) to a bad whipped cream choice. I’m trying to link to my blog post, but Mr. Linky doesn’t like me.
I wasted some chives I had tucked away in the back of the fridge. I bought them weeks ago, went out of town and forgot about them….
Hmmm… The “tomato incident” occurred during an attempt to keep it from going to waste. That’s a close call for me, although in the strictest terms the tomatoes did not get eaten, and were therefore waste. However it’s a world away from a bunch of rotten tomatoes getting thrown in the trash can. Do you get irritated when you have to deal with a mess like that, or do you cheerfully clean it up? Just teasing you…:)
No waste for us, but I’m planning a pantry cleanout soon, so I don’t know how long our run will last.
Since I dropped it, I wasn’t upset. I’m more tempted to be impatient when one of my kids makes a mess. lol I do try to remind myself of the grace I give myself in that situation, though, and try to remember to give the same grace to my kids. I’m definitely not perfect at that, though!
Hi Kristen! I love your blog. I am a single teacher living on my own for the first time. Fortunately my parents instilled in me the value of a dollar and a hard-work ethic. Frugality was the name of the game in our house of 5 kids
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I’m a “flexitarian” (I just love that new word) mainly because meat makes my stomach hurt pretty bad from a parasite I had a few years ago.
Anyways, a quick question for you! Some of your baking recipes use honey in them. It is so expensive where I live…how do you find good deals on it? Do you prefer local (which is great for alleviating allergies) or do you just buy your store brand? I myself prefer Agave because it’s not as sweet but have yet to try baking with it!
Ugh! Three weeks of waste in a row! I’ll get this under control some day!
Didn’t get to leave a comment when I posted the link this morning as I had to take kids to school, then headed out on a heap o’ errands. We lost just one small piece of bread this week to mold. It’s been very rainy here recently and I’m actually surprised more didn’t get moldy. The piece we lost would have been croutons for salad . . . .
I don’t think a dropped tomato counts as “waste” but as an accident! Don’t be so hard on yourself, Kristin!
I only had two small things of waste…jello that I don’t like but my husband didn’t eat fast enough! I’m getting the hang of it, haha.
same here, you didn’t waste it
accidents happen! i’ve been doing great w/ no food waste since your blog! Love it!!!!!
RE: your tomatoes, I was thinking that splattered floor tomatoes could make a small amount of homemade pizza sauce added in with canned tomatoes or even the rest of the tomatoes you are trying to save.
Your post reminded me about some “Kumatos”, dark plum shaded tomato things, that I bought 2 weeks ago and need to check on this week. I need to do my home fridge assessment where I go thru the whole fridge tomorrow because I forgot this weekend.
I had four small containers of wasted food: 1 small jar of homemade gravy, a small jar of tahini dressing (again, homemade), a plastic container of moldy pasta dish that I accidentally forgot about in the work fridge, and about 1/3 cup of spoiled milk in a jar (again, the work fridge–I bring in jars of milk that I fill from the gallon in my fridge to work to mix in my tea or drink during the day).
I adore your ‘Food Waste Friday’ series – such a lovely and innovative idea! Hopefully I won’t be contributing with too many photographs
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