Food Waste Friday | This week was good, but...
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.
Last week was another story, at least in the produce department.
I didn't take a picture, but I composted a head of cauliflower, several tomatoes, and the last of a head of lettuce.
What interesting is that back in 2008, when I first started working on my food waste, I rarely threw out just produce...leftover were a big part of my food waste, and for most part, I've conquered that challenge.
Sure, I waste the occasional piece of leftover fish, but I almost never am throwing out multiple servings of a dish I've prepared, and that feels really good.
And even though I do waste some produce here and there, I'm wasting way less than I used to despite the fact that we buy and eat more produce than we did 5 years ago.
Because I hate to post without a picture, here's a random one. It's of the most popular game at our house right now: Trouble.
Sonia and Zoe have been playing it every single day. And when Sonia's not available, Zoe plays it with her imaginary opponent, "Buddy". (She does all of Buddy's moves for him, including popping the dice. So when she beats him, it's all fair and square.)
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Ok...back to the topic at hand!
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Joshua's 365 post: This one was just for fun.
I'm embarrassed by the amount we've chucked recently. Two orange bell peppers, one apple (it looked fine on the outside, and then we cut it up and it was gross inside, so I'm not taking full credit for that one), some mashed turnips/parsnips that changed flavor while they sat, bread that got moldy, some lettuce that will be chucked today, and probably something else. Sigh.
Lot's of food photos for me today...mainly good ones, as I have been very busy in the kitchen - Choc orange cheesecake, apple sauce, healthy (well healthy-ish) carrot cake and parsnip and apple soup.
There is waste, and it's rather grim. Leftover pancake mixture - which always looks grotesque! And a rather unloved piece of leftover yellow pepper!
The lergy hit the house yesterday, so although I was on top form with productivity, it's nosedived since then! I'm not ill myself, but am presuming it's just a matter of time! Duh!
ps - cannot see linky - so dropping mine in here.
http://simplybeingmum.com/2012/11/30/no-waste-tastes-great-best-laid-plans-all-that/
You know, I don't know why that's not working. Maybe the linky tool is down today. I just checked my code and it's totally fine.
We've had no regular schedule to our lives for the last couple of weeks including our eating. We didn't waste much, but we didn't cook much either. I guess sometimes, things are just like that.
No memorable waste: one clementine went bad on the bowl, some bruised apples needed surgery, the occasional bad berry in the box.
Challenge:
Pork braised in tomatoes that didn't come out well that I've been avoiding. On the theory that maybe it's tough because I didn't braise it long enough, I will re-braise it this weekend.
Happy Problem:
Last year's venison from someone's freezer. The problem is the parts are unlabeled: I don't know what's tenderloin and what's tenderloin-shaped chunks of haunch. My friend wasn't much help, either. I'm considering making it all into small steaks, marinated with juniper and wrapped with bacon.
Hapy Problem:
What to do with the breasts of the deep-fried turkey I was given. (The giver kept the legs, the carcass and pickings became soup.) Can anyone come up with something more exciting than sandwiches or pot pie?
William, do you like turkey curry, turkey enchiladas, or teriyaki turkey? Those are three of our favorite ways to use up leftover turkey. All of those recipes mask the turkey flavor, for those who don't care for turkey-ness. How lucky of you to get the breast portions! It's the legs and back that I'm not thrilled with.
Tex-Mex! Perfect idea, and very locationally appropriate.
I, too, was surprised they kept the legs and gave away the breasts. But I'm not complaining. Right now I'm making CI's Multi-Grain bread for sandwiches.
Not much waste here, but when you are starting from nothing recently and living in temporary housing, you don't have a lot of build up in the refrigerator yet. Only waste was probably some boiled chicken bones. Made broth which became soup. 🙂
I love left over chicken dishes, like some simple elbow macaroni, turkey/chicken meat diced ish, 16 oz. of frozen peas, and a can of cream of chicken soup all baked. (Precook the elbow macaroni to al dente, then combine and bake about 1/2 an hour or until heated through.)
I hope you are all right, Skirnir!
No Waste this Week for Me .... But I have til Sunday
to Cook 4 Indiviual wrapped Chicken Breasts & a tomatoe
( it will go on a Salad w/ the Chicken Breasts 🙂 )
Question for Y'all ~
My husband & I went to dinner the other night. I took 3 Pyrex Containers & my Reusable shopping bag that folds up to go in my Sm Purse( the Pyrex are rectangle 3 Cup I call them Single Servings 😉 )
Anyways at first my husband was like No don't do that... & I said why not ? We are just going to go Hm & do this anyways.... Then we won't hv to toss the Strafoam away.
Does anybody else do this ?
I wasn't embarrassed because I'm trying to be as GREEN as I can be 😉
It was just alittle hole in the wall Resturant. A lady seen me doing this & smiled at me ..... So maybe she Liked it OR she thought I was a Scruff ? I don't Know & Honestly don't care..... I kept 2 Strafoam Boxes from going into the Trash & Saved me alittle Time not having to Transfer it at Hm.
I Hate throwing Anything away. ' Kristen has opened my eyes to repurposing more things ;)) thanks Kristen !
Merry CHRISTmas Everyone !
I think, if you are taking the leftovers from your dinner, there should be no problem. However, if you are at a buffet and you go through a second time with your boxes, that would be wrong.
Keeping styrofoam out of landfills is a great goal. Good for you!
I do that also. Real containers have many advantages including:
- don't spill like most take-home restaurant containers
- keep food better
- don't get thrown out
- save the restaurant the cost of their containers
I also take home gnawed bones, because bones lead to awesome stock. The roast duck bones from a certain Chinese restaurant are the best.
I had a few tomatoes (brought in from the garden in September) that were in storage ripening, go bad so I had to compost them - but I wouldn't say I wasted them.
I LOVE that game Trouble - my kids would just pop the dice long after they lost the counter pegs lol!
Never got around to posting my waste last week, so for 2 weeks I had:
an avocado and 3 mandarins. Pretty good for us. And the fridge is looking very empty these days. The avo looked fine outside but when I cut it it was bad from the pit out, and had those weird stringy things inside I always wonder why some ripen fine and some are weird. They are expensive here so it's very annoying.
I had an invisible friend named Jane when I was a little girl (around 4 years old). She played with me and kept me company when all my brothers and sisters were at school. I would get very upset when someone would refer to her a "imaginary", because my mom would give me 2 cookies when she baked, one for me and one for Jane. Why would my mom give me a cookie for someone who didn't really exist? Mom validated Jane as real, just unseen.
We only lost a head of lettuce...but I completely busted the grocery budget! I need to plan better or we will have to have ramen for a while :p
I also have an entire head of cauliflower that probably won't make it. I am going to hold out another day or two and see if inspiration hits me before I decide to toss it. It's one of those veggies I buy with good intentions and then lots of times I never get around to making the dish I had in mind.
One other question: does citrus (lemons and limes) last longer if kept in the fridge? I often have it on hand and it gets as hard as a rock after a while and then I have to toss. I usually store it on the counter but maybe the fridge is better? Anyone?
Oops I think I had a computer glitch while trying to link up or is the linky thing not working? Sorry for the double link above. Linking up below.
http://myliladventures.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/food-waste-friday-113012/ "Ž
It does seem like produce waste sneaks up on most of us more than meal leftovers.
Kristen, do you have a plan for reducing your produce waste in the future?
Well, I've only been doing FWF for 6 months or so, not 5 years, but our food waste - leftovers and fresh produce, has really decreased as a result of accounting for it each week. Thanks Kristen!