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Of banana muffins and cilantro and blackberries and cucumbers…

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.

I like to get the bad news out of the way first.

The moldy sliced potatoes are a long story…I tried a sweet potato/potato gratin recipe, but ended up not needing all the sliced potatoes, and I rescued the extra sweet potato slices but not the potato slices.

rotten cucumber

And the cucumber…well, I forgot about it.

The end of this cilantro bunch got slimy and dried out because I somehow forgot to put it in the fridge.

dried cilantro

But!

I am redeeming myself! Look in the fridge.

properly stored cilantro

Do you see that properly stored cilantro up on the top shelf? It’s in a mug with a little bit of water and a plastic bag over top, and it’s doing really well.

(Also, do you notice that my fridge is awfully empty? Life keeps getting in the way of grocery shopping this week.)

In other redeeming news, I shredded leftover chicken and combined it with BBQ sauce and my children ate it right up.

I also froze some slightly squishy fruit to put in smoothies.

freezing soft fruit

And I made a batch of banana muffins to use up some banana puree I had in the freezer.

banana muffins

My kids are especially big fans of that last waste-avoidance technique. 😉

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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.

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Saundra

Monday 14th of April 2014

I can be so bad about wasting food some times. Whether it's because I make too much of a recipe (especially if it's a new recipe I'm trying out) or because I haven't gotten around to using an item by the "best before" date. Now that I'm trying to live a frugal life (which I blog about my experiences and tips on my website, Frugality Wise) I'm trying to curb my food waste habits! -Saundra (http://frugalitywise.wordpress.com)

Stephanie

Saturday 12th of April 2014

I'm doing much better! I tossed about 1/4 of a bag of was-fresh spinach that, frankly, was not in great shape to start with. Unfortunately I had to toss an entire crustless quiche. I'm still trying to find a good all purpose gluten-free flour. The one I used in the quiche turned the whole thing into a thick latex when baked. There was no saving it.

Susanna

Saturday 12th of April 2014

I've been trying not to have food waste but haven't been as successful as I'd like. On the 'plus' side of needing a new fridge I think I've found a way to avoid a lot of it - currently I have a top freezer fridge but my next one I'm strongly leaning to bottom freezer so all the fridge stuff is higher up and more visible. too hard for me to get on the floor and back up while searching for stuff that gets 'lost'. now I'm not thrilled shelling out money for a new fridge but his one is 14 yrs old and I've been fighting the freezer door/seals for a while plus a shelf broke and it's just not working too well for me. plus I want to go to stainless(which means saving up to replace everything eventually LOL but the dishwasher is acting up as well plus a rack broke in it- not sure how but it did...)

lori

Saturday 12th of April 2014

I had a lot of waste this week. Some 5 very old rotting apples, 3 sausages, half a pan of lasagna (new recipe, too meaty and salty). I do have a lot of really black bananas on the counter. Today they will be used for muffins so I can rescue them from the bin.

Rebecca

Friday 11th of April 2014

I'm getting better with my food waste, but just today I threw out a moldy lemon, moldy feta cheese and a very questionable 1/2 breast of chicken. Makes me sad.

The good news is I froze some steak and other chicken and I have plans for roasting the veggies still left in the fridge.

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