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Let’s see. What’s happenin’ on the food waste front?

The only possible bit of waste I have is this lemon, which came in a bag of lemons and was squishy when I brought it home.

bad lemon

(Check the bag better next time, Kristen!)

I may see if I could possibly salvage it for a stove-top air freshener, though.

So, that’s all I’ve got waste-wise.   Could I have some thunderous applause???

Alllrighty.

Here’s a peek at a few things I did to avoid waste.

I grind my whole wheat flour from grain I purchase in bulk, and I had ground a little too much.

Freshly ground whole wheat flour gets a little stale-tasting if you don’t use it or freeze it somewhat promptly, so I decided to use it by making some whole wheat bread.

IMG_8100

I tried a cinnamon-raisin experiment with the dough this time around and while it was good (my children all approved), I think it needs a little more tweaking.

More cinnamon!

More raisins!

In other bread news, I thawed some frozen sweet potatoes and used them in a pumpkin bread recipe.

sweet potato bread

Nutritious?   No.

Delicious?   Yes.

In fruit news, I ended up with many bananas ripening all at once, so I sliced and froze a few of them both for snacking and for smoothie-making.

frozen bananas

I also froze some leftover fruit salad that no one seemed to want to eat.   No one complains about these same bits of fruit when they’re smoothified, fortunately.

frozen fruit salad

I made a cheesecake for Mr. FG’s birthday, and he likes it topped with canned cherry pie filling.

The cheesecake was gone before the pie filling, though, so I rinsed off the remaining cherries and froze them to use in a smoothie.

frozen canned cherries

I’m not sure how nutritious cherries from pie filling are, but this still seems better than throwing them out.

Here’s how my fridge is lookin’:

IMG_8141 IMG_8145

It’s a little full at the moment because I went to the grocery store yesterday to buy things for Sonia’s birthday meal.

(Why yes, it IS birthday season at our house! 4/6 of our family’s birthdays occur within a six-week period.)

I don’t have a lot in the way of leftovers in my fridge, which is always good news.   There are a few grilled veggies, which I will probably eat with my eggs this morning.

leftover grilled veggies

And there’s quite a bit of tortellini soup left from last night’s dinner.   The kids and I will eat a fair amount of that for lunch today, I think.

Leftover soup makes such a great lunch meal.

tortellini soup

So! It was a good week at Chez Frugal Girl.   I don’t know why, but I’ve just been in a good food waste groove of late.   Hopefully it’ll continue!

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How’s the fight against food waste going at your house?   Tell us about your losses and saves, and feel free to leave a link if you’ve posted about your food waste this week!

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Gaia - Italy, my point of view

Monday 2nd of March 2015

No food waste for me last week ! It has really been a good week :)

Skirnir Hamilton

Sunday 1st of March 2015

Bad food waste week for us. I threw out probably about half a small roasted chicken, as I never made a dish out of it, and noone else grabbed some to make a sandwich or a salad like is often done. I just somehow wasn't in the mood for it, and let it go to waste. :( I rarely ever let that happen. Also tried a healthier strawberry sweet roll recipe. The original recipe called for a liquid sweetener, that I read you use a tad less of than regular sweetener, but I thought we don't tend to like really sweet stuff, so I used the same amount of splenda in it and well the final product was a tad bitter to me and as I have to count my calories, I just didn't want to spend the calorie on it. My husband and son said they wouldn't eat it either, so it went bye bye. I hope this week is better. I will say today I cooked up some chicken and veggies with some Asian Sesame salad dressing to go with my left over lo mein noodles, as there was no other way people would eat them. It was all eaten, so that saved a possible wasted item.

Kristen

Monday 2nd of March 2015

I think that makes sense with the sweet roll. There's no point in eating an empty-caloried thing just to avoid wasting it, whereas there IS a point to eating vegetables and such in order to not waste them.

SavvyJames

Sunday 1st of March 2015

As other have noted, smoothies are a great way to avoid wasting fruits and vegetables ... and of course, better for you than most snacks.

Isabelle

Sunday 1st of March 2015

My food waste this week was almost nil : half a small can of pizza sauce and a couple of lettuce leafs. Yay!

Sabrina | Frugal Italian Family

Saturday 28th of February 2015

Hi Kristen! I bit late, but here is my link, thank you !! http://frugalitalianfamily.blogspot.it/2015/02/food-waste-friday.html

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