Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born. If you’re not a blogger but still want some food waste accountability, feel free to participate by leaving a comment.
I am currently on a mission to organize and declutter my house from top to bottom before we start school again in the fall. I tackled my kitchen last Friday, and after I decluttered my cupboards, I had so much extra room (yay!), I decided I could keep our breadstuffs in the empty space, instead of on the counter.
I’m not used to this, though, and it turned out to be a bad idea. Out of sight=out of mind, and I completely forgot about the heel of this Blueberry Oatmeal Bread loaf.
If it was just dried out, that would have been ok, but as quick breads are prone to do, this piece had gotten slimy and stinky.
Happily, nothing in my fridge has gone bad, though, so this heel is all that was wasted this week.
Edit: I also found a few slices of lunch meat in the fridge that were too old to make me feel comfy. Drat.
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Today’s 365 post: Hair for the birds
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I had some lettuce turn brown and slimy, so I threw it away. Nothing grosser than when food gets slimy and stinky!
Totally off topic, but I have a question, prompted not only by this posting but something you said in another one. You said that your kids are not big eaters – in fact no one in the house is. And now something sweet is what had gone bad. Do your kids just not particularly have a “thing” for sweets? How do you control, if that is at all needed, the eating when you make so much great food – especially the baking part? With four kids, how do you bake and not have it all gone in a heart beat?
Hope all is better aftrer yesterdays posting!
No food waste for me this week! But I do have some parsley and cilantro that need to be used up.
No waste here! I used up the potatoes that would have been by making fried potatoes this morning.
Just a little cooked broccoli that got shoved to the back of the fridge. Much better than the last couple of weeks.
After two horrible weeks of waste, it’s a relief to write we had no food waste this week.
Some take-out rice, which I’m not sure I’m morally responsible for since I didn’t order the food. I did put some of it into an omlet.
The two week old cabbage is still hanging on. It doesn’t look as if any of my neighbors want it and I’m reluctant to waste further resources on something I’m pretty sure we won’t like. Next time I just won’t take it from CSA pickup: I’m sure someone would be happy to have an extra cabbage.
I posted my link yesteday, remembered to link back here from my post and then forgot to write a comment. One day my head will be working properly and I’ll get it all right. Terrible waste from me this week as I was ill. Hate when your body doesn’t care about all your carefuly laid plans!
I had to dispose of some of my Blueberry Oatmeal Bread as well. My 14-year-old son is out of town for a few weeks, and I just can’t seem to get the hang of expecting less to be eaten. Usually I can barely keep food in the house! It made me sad to throw out those slices, but … I do still have an entire extra loaf in the freezer! Yay!
I thought I’d share one of my favorite ways to never waste a banana. You know how bananas go bad so fast, and sometimes you wind up throwing them out, unless you want a ton of banana bread on your hands, or pudding? Well, here is one of my FAVORITE healthy desserts. When my bananas get VERY ripe, soft, and a little black on the skin, but still white inside, I slice them up and spread the slices out on a plate and set them in the freezer. When they are thoroughly frozen, I scrape them up with a spatula, and dump them into a ziplock box with a lid and put them back into the freezer. Then, when I want a SWEET healthy snack, I get out a saucer and get some of the banana pieces and top them with Reddi Whip, and, voila, you have a rich, healthy dessert!