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On jinxing myself

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.

Remember how I said that Calico Critters don’t break, and then a tail fell off?

Well, two weeks ago, I told a friend I’d realized that the six of us had made it through the whole winter without getting sick at all. Not even a cold! Which is kind of amazing to me.

The next week, we got colds and a stomach bug.

Ha. That’ll teach me to say something. 😉

(I don’t actually believe in jinxing, but I do think it’s kind of funny how quickly we got sick after my declaration!)

Anyway, due to our stomach bugs, I had to throw away a few things last week that we would have normally eaten under healthy circumstances (some leftover steak (!) and a piece of chicken).

This week, I thought I was going to have to throw away some leftover popcorn, which is kind of not appetizing.

leftover popcorn

But I left it on the counter, and somehow, we all kind of snacked it away.

Phew.

I did have to compost an avocado that never quite ripened properly. It went from hard to rotten, as avocados do sometimes.

rotten avocado

I also tossed some leftover pizza, which had been reheated once. After pizza has been reheated on a pizza stone once, it gets awfully crunchy and unpleasantly chewy and none of us wanted to eat it.

Out of all the waste, I only really feel responsible for the pizza because, well, sickness is what it is, and the uncooperative avocado would have gone to waste no matter what I did.

I do have a few things in my fridge that need to be used promptly or they’ll be waste, though…I have some grape tomatoes that I will probably slow roast, and the wrinkly red bell peppers will probably end up as soup.

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Gladys

Saturday 29th of March 2014

For some reason I love buying avocados especially when they're on sale, but it always ended up being rotten.

Jen Y

Saturday 29th of March 2014

I love reading your food waste Fridays - I've always tried to go through my fridge weekly to keep from wasting foods but your posts have really motivated me & given me some fresh ideas for using food that's past it's prime. I've been married almost 27 yrs & have been a frugal cook most of the time but I've loved the weekly motivation your posts have given me. Thank you!

WilliamB

Friday 28th of March 2014

I'm sorry y'all were feeling badly. I hope it's the last for year. Did you consider putting the meat in the freezer?

Along the same lines, I had some cooked chix in the freezer that I took out last week to use, didn't use it, and popped it back in before it could go bad. But I'm wondering if it'll go bad really quickly, the next time I pull it out. I'm seriously considering trying to debone and mince it while still frozen so I can use it while still frozen, thus keeping it safe till I'm ready to eat it. Just another culinary adventure in the WilliamB household.

Waste: an orange that went moldy because I waited too long.

Saved: Several lbs of strawberries (sale + peelie = $.68/lb strawberries!), frozen for smoothies. Two bananas, ditto; now I have close to a dozen bananas frozen for future use. This is a rare thing chez WilliamB, usually bananas get eaten before that point. To save space I froze the bananas as slices rather than whole, which worked so well I may do that from now on.

Kristen

Friday 28th of March 2014

If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have frozen the steak at least. The chicken would have been iffy frozen and reheated because of the breading and topping.

You could always throw that chicken into the pot next time you make broth...maybe it would contribute some flavor at least.

Helen - myliladventures

Friday 28th of March 2014

You could always use up the tomatoes/peppers in an omelet vs letting them go to waste ;)

Kristen

Friday 28th of March 2014

Oh, I don't plan to let them go to waste! I will rescue them one way or another. ;)

Amanda

Friday 28th of March 2014

Sorry that you were sick. We got a family case of the stomach bug this week too, and I thought of your blog as I tossed out leftovers once we were better. Here's to hoping that a healthier week can help us stay food waste free.

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