Black Food Waste Friday
Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it's been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
I'm not out buying Christmas gifts today...instead, I'm blogging about my food waste!
So yeah...I didn't exactly have the zero-waste week I was hoping for. I really did try, though! The picture would have been much worse if I hadn't been working at it.
The stuff in the container is some pink sauce, which had been frozen. I got it out to use on our leftover night, but then we didn't end up using it. And it sat in the fridge, for too long.
And then there is some spinach. I think I am going to take a break from buying spinach for a few weeks because I have been wasting it awfully frequently lately.
Maybe next week I will waste nothing.
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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 Mister Linky Widget below. Participants get a spot on my Food Waste blogroll for the upcoming week, so join us! You'll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog!
well done Kristen; it's still a great food waste week and through taking part we all learn where our 'danger foods' are - the ones which often get left or forgotten about. mine will be up tomorrow; I'm too pooped to do anymore online work tonight 🙂
Good week. I too find that something I've defrosted and not used tends to go to waste.
Also, after repeatedly having to dump bagged salad greens including spinach I have started to rebag the greens, sometimes even using 2 containers with a paper towel on the bottom to absorb moisture, to give them breathing room - seems to help them stay fresh longer.
Put your spinach in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag with a piece of papertowel...will last 3 weeks, I KID YOU NOT!! :o)
I have a hard time eating a whole bag of baby spinach before it goes bad. Sometimes I throw it in the freezer to use in sauces and stir fries.
I started putting handfuls of spinach in our smoothies- it sounds really gross but you don't even taste it. The smoothie will be green unless you use a dark red or purple fruit in there. But it's a good way to use up spinach if you get in the habit, and it's healthy. Your kids might even think it's fun- a blogger named Carla- I can't think of her blog at the moment- calls it the "Green Monster."
I usually wash and rewrap my greens as above but this last week I got busy and forgot. My lettuce was getting old so I decided I better try and use it up. So, the other morning I washed the lettuce to use in my son's sandwich. It was getting a little wilted, but still good. I peeled off the outer leaves. Then, a HUGE, black moth crawled out and into my sink. That was it. The whole head went into the garbage. The ick factor was too much for me. That moth was in there for at least four days. Eeeeew.
I ended my problem of fresh veggie waste by purchasing a few Rubbermaid fresh saver containers. They are the ones with the green lids. Seriously, I have lettuce and other veggies in my fridge that are over 2 weeks old (I went out of town for a week or they would have been consumed by now). Still as fresh as the day I bought them.
I've read your site for a while now and thought I would try to document my own food waste. My problem this week was everyone but me was out of town. We should have planned better. I guess it's a work in progress. 🙂