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A little late, but here’s my food waste news!

I composted a rotten potato (does anything in the universe smell worse? I think not.) and a bad avocado (cue sad trombone).

And there was also this:

food waste

A lone piece of old pizza (I think my kids just didn’t see this, because normally they are champions at eating leftover pizza!), and some leftover green beans.

I am not normally a champion at eating leftover green beans, and so usually I just eat any extra beans the night of.

But apparently I didn’t this time and I have no idea why!

In more cheerful news….

I frozen random, less-than-fabulous fruit for smoothies.

freeze extra fruit for smoothies

Seriously, what WOULD I do without smoothies???

(I would throw out a lot more food, that’s what.)

I toasted two leftover hot dog buns…

toasted hot dog bun

and ran them through the food processor to make bread crumbs.

bread crumbs

Which I will most likely use to make zucchini patties.

Here’s my current fridge.

fridge

The three bowls up there on the right?   Taco salad in the making, I decided.

leftover taco salad

(the last of the lettuce, leftover taco meat, plus dip from chipotle chicken kabobs that I made earlier in the week)

I just finished eating that while typing up this post.

It was delicious.

Aaaaand here’s my freezer, which is still mostly just full of smoothie ingredients.

freezer

That’s how I like it.

So!

That’s the official update from my house.

I know it’s Saturday, but hey, if any of you feel like chatting about food waste, talk to me in the comments and let me know how things are in your neck of the woods!

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Rachel

Wednesday 22nd of July 2015

The toasting of leftover buns to make bread crumbs is genius... I'm totally going to use that one! I'm guessing you would just freeze them then if you don't have a bread-crumb-using meal on the menu for that week?

Kristen

Wednesday 22nd of July 2015

I just freeze the crumbs, actually! Then they're ready for use whenever I need 'em.

Christine

Tuesday 21st of July 2015

We were on vacation last week and eating most of our meals in a cottage. We had brought/bought groceries for the week. I did well to use most of what we had. However, on the last day I could not fit the dead bananas in the cooler or my bread ends. I felt bad that I wasted those. I always reuse them.

I used my last stash of bread ends to make your suggested french toast casserole. It was great. Thanks!

Kristen

Tuesday 21st of July 2015

Vacation is super hard on the food waste front. I almost always end up throwing away some food because I don't have room in my cooler to bring it back.

Addy

Monday 20th of July 2015

Kristen, you are right about the rotten potato smell! Last week I kept smelling something in the kitchen that was awful....took out the trash...still smelled like something had died. Finally upon further investigation found 2 small potatos that had scooted up under something in the pantry and had gone bad. Ohhhh...had to disinfect and clean and finally got rid of the smell.

Kristen

Monday 20th of July 2015

Isn't it dreadful? It truly smells like something has died!

Amanda

Sunday 19th of July 2015

I threw away a potato too this weekend that we had somehow forgotten about in a PLASTIC bag! Yuck-o.

Just a question--at what point in the grocery cycle do you do your fridge clean out? Ours is nearly empty at the end of the week and it makes finding and eating up leftovers for Friday lunch so much easier.

Kristen

Monday 20th of July 2015

I usually clean it out near the end of my grocery shopping cycle...that way it's organized and ready for new groceries, and I have a good handle on what I have and what I need to buy.

Liz

Sunday 19th of July 2015

No rotten potatoes here, but some cabbage that I shredded up plus about 1/8th of the rest of the head that I can't seem to get through. If I am motivated tonight I will stir-fry it all and serve with some rice or pasta... Not kicking myself though; I find it difficult to eat an entire head of cabbage on my own, and I like cabbage!

The other one that's hard to get through as a singlet is a watermelon. It was lackluster (whomp whomp!), and I used my freezer space for much tastier fruits: blackberries and blueberries I picked off the vine, and cherries. I'm not really a smoothie person, though. I'll bake these up into muffins or pies.

The carrots are my question mark. I bought a 10# bag or something ridiculous, forgetting I already had a 4# bag in my fridge. In three more weeks my husband moves in, and boy can he eat! So I'm hoping this will solve some of my food waste problems with tasty summer produce. :)

I did save some ham by making calzones.

Kristen

Sunday 19th of July 2015

Do you have any horses nearby? ;) We have some in our neighborhood and we feed carrots to them!

Oh, and did you try the roasted carrots recipe I posted? It's a little hot for roasting veggies right now, but they ARE super tasty. https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2012/12/easy-ridiculously-good-roasted-carrots/

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