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.
But that’s because the thing I wasted wasn’t really picture worthy. 
It was a freezer burnt bratwurst, which I did try to heat up and eat. But it tasted just…bad, and since it wasn’t a particularly healthy type of bratwurst in the first place, I decided eating it was just not worth it.
I feel vaguely like I wasted one other thing earlier in the week, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Shucks. I’ll update if it comes to mind!
P.S. You know how I wrote that tongue in cheek post about takeout yesterday? Well, I was super-duper tempted to get takeout last night…it was a busy day, I was tired, and when I came home from grocery shopping, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to make dinner (also, I couldn’t even find the recipe I was supposed to make!).
But, I felt that it would be pretty ridiculous to order takeout after writing that post (even though I was tempted to justify it six ways to Sunday! ), and I’m pleased to say that I managed to cook dinner after a quick call to my aunt for the recipe.
Anyway, because it bears repeating, I’ll remind you that I experience takeout temptation on an all-too-regular basis, and I’m right there in the trenches beside you, desperately trying to resist (at least most of the time. ).
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Today’s 365 post: The peaches, they have been exchanged.
Joshua’s 365 post: Sonia’s Pigs
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations on resisting the takeout temptation. It’s a powerful one as far as we’re concerned and has been calling us too often recently because our menu planning hasn’t been very good.
Friday Night is Date Night at Chez Wright – and we have been having a takeaway (as we call it in the UK!)… until I did my cooking from scratch experiment a few weeks ago and compared the cost and quality, and then I went back to slow cooking a curry at home (which is no hassle anyway). Last week however the Hubby wistfully mentioned we hadn’t had a takeaway in ages so I relented. £12 lighter in the wallet and a good bout of indigestion means that this week I am back to cooking a curry. Friday is No Waste tastes Great, but thanks to your inspiration Kristen twelve months in I have no waste to eat up for Friday dinner most weeks, and what I do have normally gets batched cooked as it’s typically produce. Like today I am batch cooking 3kg (6lb) of donated (by my friend) homegrown cherry toms. I’ve even entered a competition to get my soup on UK supermarket shelves with a new recipe inspired by them!
Your alternative to “takeout” looks fantastic! Way to go Auntie’s recipe!
Good for you for resisting temptation! And good for you for no (real) food waste! I had none either this week. Woo hoo!
Happy Friday!
I had a bad week. I found an outdated bottle of ketchup. Good for you.
Not a good week but I’d like to use mechanical failure as my excuse. Gorgeous looking dinner by-the-by.
Oh that cracks me up. I chucked some cantaloupe that was just not it.
Good job! Hey, that looks yummy…could you share the recipe some time?
I would also like to see this recipe! It looks super yummy!
Looks SO good! Yes, please share!
Yes! Add me to the list! Would you be willing to share the recipe?
Thanks!
Me too!
Ok! It’s on the plan for next week.
What is the name of the dish in the photo? It looks yummy….shrimp, mushrooms, cream….makes my mouth happy.
Oooh those prawns looked scrumptious !
I wasted tomatoes this week. Tomatoes and basil are my biggest food waste FAIL. Anyone have any suggestions for how to keep them from rotting the second I bring them into my home?
Don’t keep tomatoes in the fridge or in bags. Store on a plate on the counter and use within a couple of days. They might keep as long as a week if you’re lucky, but they’re just not durable food!
Treat whole basil plants (leaves still on the main stalk) like fresh flowers – keep in a glass of water, changed daily, in the fridge. Separate basil leaves don’t keep well – wrap in a barely-damp paper towel and keep 2-3 days in a sealed bag in the fridge.
Also, if a tomato is getting close, dice it and pop it into a storage container in the fridge. You can extend the life a day or two this way. You can also dice and toss into any hot meal for a little extra fiber and zest if you need to use one up or aren’t comfortable eating it raw because it’s that far gone.
On the whole, resisting takeout topic, this morning I resisted getting coffee on my way into work! I wanted it so bad, but I reminded myself of our long and somewhat short term money goals, and remembered that $10 for both of us at Starbucks just wasn’t worth it.
So instead, I made our Starbucks coffee at home!
This is my first week participating…and boy was it awful! I usually try to use up leftovers, but some recipes are so hard to cut down to 2-4 servings! We had way too much food go to waste, I’m embarrassed to even list it all out. Here’s to a better week next week!
If you’d like, tell us more about your household, what you eat, and what you watsed and we’ll share ideas how to reduce waste under those circumstances.
You’ll get there. We all started out with bad weeks. I cook for one, which is very very hard, but I just cut down the recipe. Or I make a full recipe, eat it once or twice in a week for lunch or dinner and then freeze the rest if it’s a freezable recipe.
You’ll get the hang of it eventually! Good luck!
I’ve been participating for almost 12 months now… good habits form the more you do it, you learn to keep an eye on the food, and take action if you suspect something may go to waste. Stick with it – it pays off!
Thanks! I am pretty good about cooking just enough most of the time, but soups & stir fry tend to stink – a little bit of this & a little bit of that adds up to too much for 2 people! I am also still trying a lot of recipes and some are bloopers.
Soups freeze really well. As do a lot of sauces. I stick left over sauce in a freezer bag, sealing it carefully to make sure the air is all out and then store them flat in the freezer. Takes up very little room and they thaw fast for those nights you don’t want to cook. I do the same thing with corn bread batter, soups, chili and even left over pasta can be stuck in the freezer. When you want to use it just toss it into a boiling pot of water and it’s done instantly. Works great!!
I was doing so well, especially considering I’m still not back on planning track after summer vacation and new job location (it’s amazing how disruptive that’s been to my schedule). Then I discovered that the remaining 5 homemade muffins had molded. Boo!
After a couple months (every other week) of documenting my waste, I finally feel like I’m getting better. But this week could totally be a fluke.
I cleaned out my cupboards last weekend and happily I only threw away a very old mostly empty bag of coffee beans. Being a Washington State native were pretty snobby about our coffee and there was no way I was brewing up those shriveled little beans. HAHA!! I also tossed some green hotdog buns. From the fridge two dried out little scallions. Not bad.
Many chocolate baked goods and molasses cookies use a bit of added coffee. I wonder if the beans would have been good enough for that?
You know I thought about that, but honestly when the beans were “fresh” they made some HORRIBLE coffee. Which is probably why they were stuffed in the back of the cupboard.
I’ve mixed old yucky ground coffee with a little baking soda and put it in a small dish in my fridge to absorb odors. I think it works better thank just baking soda…
I must be super weird. I never am tempted to get takeout. But I do like an occasional night of not cooking so, I plan for leftovers. I love what I like to call a smorgasbord night with bits and pieces of 2-3 previous night’s dinners. It can be interesting with Italian, French, Mexican, American and/or Chinese fare all together.
We gave in to temptation a couple nights ago and got pizza for dinner, because I just didn’t feel like cooking. Thankfully we don’t do that too often! That pizza was really good though..;)
Good for you for not giving in!
We did pretty well this week, just a roll, one and a half hot dogs and a little bit of sweet potato.
We too were tempted by takeout last night!! I was able to get one of the codes for a free Domino’s Artisian style pizza on facebook so we had a spinach, feta and onion pizza. Atleast if you’re gonna relent to takeout find a good deal
Are you just going to tease us or give us the recipe to that wonderful looking dinner??
Had a better week this time than last!
Thought I was going to have a really good week with just a few bits of fresh herbs tossed, but I discoverd that during our weekend of company at the end of summer, someone put an almost full jar of mayonnaise away in the pantry instead fo the fridge. Ick. Oh well, better to toss than get sick!
I didn’t feel like cooking last night either, but we had enough of a backlog of leftovers that I declared leftover night.
This is my first official Food Waste Friday!
I wasted a tomato and some beans. Check out my blog for pictures and additional comments!
I am now planning ahead for an emergency ” non takeout-takeout.” Sam’s club has very, very good heat-and-eat pizza in one of the cases near the meat and fish depts. It is about $7, cooks in 15 minutes and feeds our family fo four ( including two hungry preteens) with a salad or fruit. I regularly make my own pizza and can make one cheaper than this, but this is perfect for a night that needs a last minute takeout fix. The cost savings is significant, as we usually do Chipoltle or Chinese/Thai, which runs $20 and well beyond, or delivery pizza which is about the same price. They can be frozen-like the one in my freezer right now:)
Despite your post my daughter and I shared a large haddock and chips from our local award winning fish and chip shop for dinner last night. It’s not a regular occurence and, after a long day at work, it hit the spot and was quite delicious. I could feel guilty for not having rustled up something from the contents of my cupboards. Maybe I should. But I’m not. The evening before we’d eaten a kidney bean stew with felafel. Tonight I made a beef curry. Life’s sometimes like that.
And I wouldn’t encourage you to feel guilty. Takeout every now and then is one thing, takeout every night is another (though for some people, I’m willing to say that might be the appropriate choice. It’s just not for me.)
I agree this rainy east coast weather,jumping back into the deep end of homeschooling pool, extra sports and activities for the kids makes me SCREAM for Chick-fil-a or cereal for dinner! I completely agree with you that you HAVE to think about dinner at 8am if it’s going to happen. I’m glad you said that because I was just feeling ridiculous for thinking about dinner as I’m eating my breakfast every morning, so thank you for the justification!
I still don’t do a weekly meal plan that feels too rigid for me but I understand the point, maybe one day I’ll get there but it just doesn’t feel like me to have a plan. I guess I’m too much of a free spirit for that.
If the no-menu-plan thing works for you, then don’t change it!
Don’t feel like you need to do what works for me if it doesn’t work for you.
I plan. I’m a planner. I’m obsessive compulsive about my planning.
I make a weekly menu from recipes in my favorite cookbooks (Rachel Ray 30 minutes meals) and then build my grocery list off the recipes. Double checking the contents of my cupboards and fridge before going out the door. I don’t shop without a list….I can’t shop without a list.
Tonight however we are going out to eat. Chinese! We discovered a little hole in the wall with big portions and small prices. It also happens to be next to the Goodwill, so I can go scour the racks after. Win win!
Kisten, your post on takeout really got my butt in gear to plan better!
Today was practically set up for us to end up ordering carryout pizza – we weren’t going to get home until 6:20 at the earliest, and I usually make pizza on Friday nights, a 30+ minute endeavor in a family that normally eats at 6:00.
But I resisted! We at leftover rice and beans and moved our pizza night to tomorrow.
This made me laugh, after your post yesterday! Yes, it would be funny (kind of) to order takeout after writing your don’t-succumb-to-takeout-temptation post. Yaay for you for persevering!
I had an experience like yours just after I got back from vacation. On the spur of the moment I invited some friends over, then realized I had almost nothing to eat because I hadn’t gone shopping since I returned. Think, think, rummage, rummage. A ha! White rice from the Chinese take-out I’d been eating for the past few days, and the requisite eggs; and random bits of veg (onion, carrot, celery, canned baby corn) as a grace note. I checked out a few recipes but in the end was lazy and used spice packets. It was all gone at the end of the evening.
ha ha, i was able to ‘convince’ my DH that we’d be better off making sandwiches than ordering pizza. I was more concerned about my waistline than my pocketbook, but either way, we resisted the urge.
You’re right..it’s hard when we are tempted to order takeout. No dishes, no mess, right? But I find that when we cook at home, it is comforting to be able to know what I put in my food and that makes me sleep better.
I wasted about half a tub of sour cream. I was planning to use it in last night’s dinner, but it was blue and fuzzy. At least I was able to substitute a little milk and cream cheese instead and dinner came out fine.