Back in the food waste groove
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.
We've had a number of weeks without Food Waste Friday, what with all the holidays that happen at this time of year, but I'm ready to jump back in. Are you?
If you've vowed to save more money or create less trash this year, you should join us! Food waste is expensive and it clogs up the landfills, where it sits and produces methane. And that isn't terribly delightful.
If you're tired of throwing away slimy cucumbers and squishy oranges and hairy leftovers, make this the year you finally do something about it.
Check out my top ten ways to reduce food waste, implement them, and come talk to us about your waste every Friday. Public accountability did wonders for me, and heaven knows I was a food-wasting disaster before.
Let's see...what have I got to share on the topic today?
I found some wrinkly grapes in my fridge, so I picked out the really horrible ones (they went into the compost bin) and popped the rest into the freezer for throwing into smoothies.
Frozen grapes are pretty good plain too, so if you ever find yourself with too many, the freezer is your friend.
One evening this week, I realized my fridge was getting kinda out of control. I was shoving things in wherever I could make them fit, and I know from past experience that this is a recipe for food waste.
So, I organized it and felt much better.
The after is on the right, and though it might not look greatly improved, it really is way more organized. Plus, the act of sorting through what was in the fridge helped me to remember what I had, which is important because knowing what food you have is a key part of preventing waste.
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Joshua's 365 post: Oh, yes!
Oops! I've done FWF also! Oh well better 2 posts than none! Happy New Year!
I love frozen grapes. We don't make many smoothies around here, but we just love to pop them in our mouths. Our eating has been pretty irregular at our house during the holidays, but we going to get back on track.
I had to get rid of a few peppers. I bought them with the best intentions and they got lost in the fridge. Obviously we needed a little fridge organization...
One good thing about having teenage boys is they will eat anything that looks good anytime of the day. Leftover turkey, ham and green bean casserole for breakfast.... Sure 🙂 So my christmas dinner leftovers were gone in no time.
I cleaned out my fridge last night. I had to throw away one small pack of steak 🙁 One of the last ones from our 1/2 beef from early last year.
I didn't do food waste Friday this week because we're still on holidays. I'm pretty sure I froze or got rid of everything perishable before we left, so hopefully will not come home to much food waste tomorrow 🙂
Despite freezing a lot of food before we left, I ended up throwing away a fair number of leftover odds and ends after we returned from a holiday trip. BUT I did salvage some slightly spoiled milk by making ricotta cheese that we'll be slathering on a pizza tonight. At least I'm starting the year with a clean fridge!
I'm guessing you meant sour milk, not spoiled. You can also bake w sour milk(use it in place of buttermilk) or do what Kristen does and make pudding. 😉
My goal the next few days is to get through my fridge and my panty and get everything nice and organized before my big grocery shop on Monday. I found a tub of leftover mashed potatoes & some carrots that went bad from our Christmas celebrations and identified a couple of things to take care of so they don't spoil. I also found a bag of frozen grapes from our grapevine that I need to use up in smoothies! Glad to be back on the FWF bandwagon. Happy New Year!
I had ahead of lettuce that had been sitting in the fridge the whole time we were out of town for the holidays and it was pretty slimy.
Spending a week with the in-laws certainly makes me feel better about the amount of food that I waste at my house. I think things were worse than normal because of the holidays and the large number of people that were in the house, but their mentality about food waste is certainly different from mine.
I've been pretty careful to put all our leftovers into small containers and pop into the freezer right away, to use for a leftovers night about once every 2 weeks.
But I have a question. It seems that someone here always knows the answer, so here goes. Has anyone here tried using the liquid from a can of black olives in cooking? I always feel like there should be some use for that liquid, but haven't found one, yet.
Homemade pizza crust. And then throw some black olives on the pizza. 😉
I love the pizza crust idea! Maybe try to make a salad dressing out of it? Salad dressing usually contains lots of salt which you wouldn't have to add, and there would be some natural olive oils in the liquid already. Add a little extra oil, some sweet vinegar, and some herbs, and you could have a pretty tasty dressing! You could also use it as a broth in vegetable soup and cut back on added salt.
Reese and Megan,
pizza crust, salad dressing and soup (maybe minestrone soup, as there's so much else going on in the pot). I'll give those a try. Thank you both!
Not a good food waste week in the Ray household. Some scrambled egg, left over cottage pie, a whole bunch of corn (from Christmas family dinner), a little of a crockpot dinner left over, some cookies, fudge (I cleared out the snack cubboard. We WILL be doing much better next week organization is "key" Kristen! You are so right.
We had a pretty good week...under grocery budget and some holiday leftover waste. I'm only calling our grocery budget a "win" because we stayed under budget, but in actuality, we didn't have to go at all....but we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice New Year's Eve at home...we had a good time, so it was worth it!
I did horribly with food waste--the automatic defrost on our fridge went out and before we realized it much of our dairy had spoiled.
Just have to say though, that it makes me smile to look at your fridge and see all the Aldi labels. That's actually how I found your blog a couple of years ago: searching frugality and Aldi shopping!
We had company over the holidays who brought food--lots of extra clementines and bread! And our eating patterns totally changed as we were sitting around having relaxed mornings instead of grabbing granola on the way our the door. We lost half a loaf of bread to mold, and a couple of clementines, but otherwise did fine. Just using up all the last bits today and fridge is quite empty for this afternoon's shopping trip.
I feel sad about starting 2013 with a report of mashed potatoes gone bad.
They freeze so well. 🙁 Try that next time.
Oh my! I decided to do a pantry clean-out (taking a break right now) because I couldn't see what I did and didn't have. I am tossing so much food and find that I have multiples of numerous food stuffs simply because I couldn't see what I had! Yuck. I guess being more careful/mindful of food organization and consumtion will be one of my goals for this year. I really am appalled by how my food waste I have.
I did a pantry clean out a couple weekends ago. I am so much more organized with my canned goods. It certainly makes inventory so much easier.
I keep a paper on the fridge door that lists what leftovers are in the fridge, along with the day they need to be thrown out. I add to the list every time I put leftovers in the fridge. We try to eat the oldest first, either as lunch leftovers, or paired with something new for dinner. If we end up with too many leftovers to eat before they spoil, we have a smorgasbord night and eat them up. The list has kept me thinking about those leftovers ... even if they get pushed to the back of the fridge.
Oh my goodness! That is genious Kathie. I keep my two week menu taped to the fridge but I could just write the left overs on the bottom or number them to know what is in there. Thanks so much for the idea!
Terrible at Chez WilliamB!
- About 1/2 gal of homemade kimchee went bad over the holidays. Turns out it'll keep about a month in the fridge but I made it before Thanksgiving. It wasn't an expensive mistake but it is annoying.
- 1 orange dried out while I was gone. It'll be used to freshen the garbage disposal.
- 1/2 banana that I meant to eat on the way to the airport but forgot. Fortunately it did not get nasty while I was gone, just shriveled up.
Save of the Holiday:
All sorts of things from the office holiday party. After the party I labeled everything and put it in the fridge. Much was eaten by others in the next few days. After that I considered the remains fair game and took home what I wanted. Several lbs of lunchmeat is resting comfortably in 1/2 lb portions in my freezer, waiting to be made into stromboli or something similar (for a party or someone in need of a gifted meal). The remains of 5-6 supermarket chix is now cooked shredded meat for later use, and 1/2 gal of stock.
I personally think your highly organised save outweighs the waste. Way to go. Hope your colleagues appreciated the effort?
The next shift sure did. I work in an office that's staffed around the clock and I made sure that the next shift (who couldn't come to the party) knew about the extra food.
OTOH *someone* had a massive fail. I couldn't find a container for the slow-cooker ham & juices (believe me, I looked because I had my eye on the juices and ham bone) so I left it plugged it. That, I knew, would maintain the ham at a safe temperature. When I came in on Monday the ham was still in the slow cooker - but someone had unplugged it! I really, really hope no one was dumb enough to eat any of that ham and seeing all that waste was damn painful.
I would imagine had someone had any ham you'd know about it by now!
p.s - I've put the crock pot in the fridge in the past - but of course that's space allowing!
Got it in one!
I agree entirely about keeping the fridge (and freezer) sorted so that we know what we actually have in there.
I had a manic clear up on the 1st Jan, naturally, and as you may have seen from a post on my blog, I'll not be going grocery shopping until I've eaten my way through the food that I already have. I still get plenty of fresh fruit and veggies too so that I don't get rickets, but I just need to use up what I already have.
Making a loaf this morning using up flour, oats and yeast in the bread maker.
I started posting my FWF in my status on Facebook. The first time I did it, I realized I had enough food for a family of 4 to have a meal. Last week was 2 partial containers of leftovers, and today I had around half a pound of grapes and a head of lettuce that was shoved to far back in the fridge and froze.
Yesterday I made banana bread with some bananas that had been on mi frigde forever; so I avoided sending them to the trash.
Tomorrow I will be making enfrijoladas to use some black beans soup.
I will be doing much better this year 🙂
To go along with your food waste... Bananas! I freeze them when they start to get ripe or just plain ole brown. Then I use them in baking. Here is a great recipe passed down through my family. It is from the Great Depression era when those who lived in the city didn't always have access to eggs. In turn, it is great for those who have egg allergies as well. It's my Aunt Donna's Banana Bars. Super easy!
1 stick Butter, softened
1 1/2 c. Sugar, white granulated
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
3 really ripe bananas (I always throw my brown bananas in the freezer so I always have them)
1 T. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 cup Soured Milk or Buttermilk (add 1 tsp. white vinegar or lemon juice to your milk, stir & let sit for a couple minutes)
2 1/2 c. All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
Combine Butter, Sugar, Vanilla, Bananas & Sour Milk together with a mixer. Add Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt, & Flour to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, will not be smooth. Batter will be thick. Spread into a buttered or sprayed jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 18 to 22 minutes. Will be golden brown, pull away from sides and spring back to touch. Frost while warm. (I added chopped pecans to one side of it and was awesome :o)
Frosting:
Make a simple frosting out of 3 T. softened Butter, 1-2 tsp. vanilla, pinch of salt, 1 1/2 to 2 c. powdered sugar, and warm water until you get smooth but not too thick frosting. This is a add as you go type frosting. Add the warm water very slowly a little at a time. You could also add some softened cream cheese too maybe 3-4 oz. You can't mess up this frosting, unless you add way too much water. Or, just buy store bought!
Starting the year out with a bang! No food waste spree continues 🙂
Six pieces of homemade pizza. Heaven help me I cannot find a good crust recipe.
I saved strawberries by making muffins. And I'm waiting for my bananas to get riper before making banana bread.
Hi Leah, about pizza crust, I saw this on TV last month. I have a friend who runs his pop's family-owned pizza place. I asked him about this, and he confirmed that they make their dough with similar methods, esp. beginning pizza dough a day ahead, and refrigerating to relax the gluten. Anyways, the link is for America's Test Kitchen. It may give you some insight into why your pizza crust isn't how you like. I made my last 2 pizzas this way, and the thin crust is perfect (just flexible enough to fold, but not soggy, and not tough), and dough easy to handle.
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=26804
Good luck!
I haven't used this recipe in ages.
Easy Yogurt Bread
In 4qt bowl :
2c warm water
1 1/2 T yeast
2T honey or sugar
Stir to dissolve. Let sit 5 min.
Add
1T salt
1c plain yogurt
Mix thoroughly. Stir in aprox 7 1/2c all purpose flour a cup at a time. Until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Knead 5-10 min. Take knife and split dough in half. Knead both and pop in 2 buttered loaf pans. Let rise in warm spot 'til comes to top of pan (aprox 30 min). Bake at 350°F aprox 40 min. Remove immediately and cool on wire rack.
You can also make buns or breadsticks. Coat tops w egg white (I never tried this)
I have have made it into freezer pizza crust though. It came out w a thick crust. Definitely not a thin crust. You just roll out the crust and freeze on the pan. I had I remember docking and putting the toppings on it and wrapping after it freezes. You can probably just freeze the crust rolled out and docked. Topping before baking. To bake put in 350°F oven for aprox 30 min. 🙂
I was digging through the pantry and found a can of pumpkin puree and a can of tropical fruit that had expired. I never use either of those things, so I can't quite figure out why I purchased them. I also threw away a little stuffing from dinner a few weeks ago. Blegh.
The hardest part for me is not having food waste when I'm only cooking for two people. My husband and I don't have children yet, so we always have leftovers when preparing meals. Luckily, we love to eat leftovers for lunch (this week I made a huge pot of pintos and a pan of cornbread, and we have been eating on it for days).
I'm learning to incorporate leftovers into new recipes, too. This week, I made extra pork chops, but instead of just eating the leftovers as they were, I made up a pork fried rice recipe. It was one of my husband's all-time favorite meals I have made, and I totally made it up on the spot because I needed to get creative. I was very proud of myself, and I hope I have more moments of inspiration throughout the year.
I love the inspiration I get from looking at how well (or not) everyone does each week. It cheers me along as I try to waste less.
I threw away some leftovers from Christmas dinner, we had too much food. If I would have thought ahead I would have froze it for a quick night dinner. I normally take leftovers for lunch everyday so I think had I been working I would have used most of it up.
We had to get a counter depth fridge when our (2 year old) fridge died and we could not find one to fit in the space..long story anyway I hardly ever throw anything out anymore because it is soooo easy to see what is in there. With my old fridge once it was pushed to the back it was history. This time I knew the leftovers were there I just did not use them up.
OK, I've been thinking about participating w/ Food Waste Fridays for a while now. Last month, I ended up tossing two very nice pieces of meat and that was really TOO wasteful for me. I figure the new year is a good time to start a new habit.
So today, everybody's back to school/work and I'm cleaning out the fridge to start w/ a clean slate. I don't have a blog, so I'll post my weekly results on my Facebook page.
I just found your blog and saw that I had some loaner grapes in the back, hiding out. I picked out the bad ones, rinsed the rest and into the freezer they went! A nice simple tip for the day! Thanks and keep up the sharing!