Downs and Ups
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.
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We'll get the bad news over with first:
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I know.
It's pretty awful. In fact, I don't think I've had such a full food waste photo for years.
I did a serious fridge cleanout this week, and found a couple of things in the very, very back of my fridge, fallen behind the drawers, totally out of sight.
That, my friends, is how you end up with a bag of moldy pancakes, among other things.
After finding all of that stuff in my fridge, I decided to pull out my serious-food-waste-fighting pants and work on tackling what was left in my fridge.
I'm pleased to say I've been quite successful in the last few days. I seem to have refound my no-food-waste groove.
I mashed some black bananas,
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and mixed up a batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.
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Which actually ended up being chocolate chip/M&M banana muffins because I was low on chocolate chips.
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No one seemed to care. 😉
While I was busy making unhealthy things with produce, I made a batch of chocolate zucchini bread to use up the last of the zucchini in the fridge.
I had some extra pink sauce from a batch of Ravioli and Shrimp with Pink Sauce, and I was going to cook some pasta to eat with it. Then I found some leftover grilled asparagus and had an a-ha! moment. Asparagus is definitely healthier than pasta and this combo used up two leftovers.
Sweet.
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I'd made a double batch of Fish Cakes, so I had two egg whites left over. I cooked them like you'd cook a hard-boiled egg and then made a little batch of salsa to put on top of them (using up cilantro for the win!)
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And leftover brown rice became rice pudding.
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My fridge is in pretty good shape right now, and if I keep on like this, my next food waste post is going to be a non-event.
Oh, yeah.
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Those are a lot of saves. I'm impressed especially with the use of the egg whites. My saves were from the vegetable drawer. It seems as if around here no one will clean anything, but will be happy to eat it when someone else does. So that's what I did.
There's nothing quite like a fridge clearout to give you a kickstart!
I'm fine and dandy this week with a food save of my own yesterday. Good job on the bananas - they look very tasty baked up!
Last week was bad. Like really REALLY bad. This week the only thing I've thrown out is some strawberries that were probably too ripe when I bought them. They didn't even last a week. 🙁
I've got some other stuff languishing in the drawers, so I found a recipe for a strata that is going to use up spinach, mushrooms, and ricotta! Three birds with one (recipe) stone!
We usually have to eat our strawberries within 48 hours, or we're hosed. I keep hearing about this vinegar wash you can use to make them last longer, but I haven't gotten around to trying it.
Also, with six people in the house, it's not usually a problem to use up strawberries really quickly!
Those are some good saves 🙂 I like the idea of asparagus with pink sauce. Too bad about the waste, but that does tend to happen when you clean out the fridge.
I thought I would have food waste this week, since I left a few fruits and veggies in the fridge while I was away. Luckily they seem to have lasted, but I will be making sure to use them up this weekend.
Good job getting it all cleaned up!
This week the big kicker was dill for me. I am horrible with my crisper drawer, it's like putting anything in there makes me eternally forget it exists.
I'm about to do a major clean of my fridge because I need to defrost the whole shebang. My freezer has some ice build up, and I'm pretty low on groceries so it seems like the opportune moment. I really hope nothing spoils in the cooler!
I love how being accountable encourages us to stay on track. You've created some fantastic recipes this week; really inspiring stuff - thanks Kristen for keeping me on track too!
This is AWESOME.......and your meals look delicious, BRAVO, Love & Blessings to you/yours...
I'm curious. How do you cook egg whites like you'd cook a hard-boiled egg?
Oh. Um. I just realized that I meant to type, "like a fried egg."
That would be a challenge to cook one like a hard-boiled egg!!
I lost some strawberries, too. Tonight I'm doing some vegetable odds & ends - the last of the asparagus, the last of the broccoli, the cherry tomatoes that are going to go bad within 48 hours - over pasta, with cheese.
When in doubt, add cheese!
My first time posting on "Food Waste Friday" and it's a doozy! I rarely have food waste, but this is what happened. I came home with groceries yesterday.....late...hubby was prepping supper. Normally we work together to put all of the groceries away. In this case, I didn't want to get in his way. So I put some things away, he put some things away, and some got set aside. Still, it was chaotic.
This morning, when he went to make toast, he discovered two 1 pound packages of ground beef sitting on top of the toaster!! They had been sitting there 12 hours at room temperature! Ugh! I don't know how we both missed seeing them last night. $9 worth of meat into the trash!!!!
I just HATE it when I do something like that. So very frustrating.
Leaving groceries in the car is awful too. One summer, one of my kids left a cantaloupe sitting in their seat in the car, and oh my goodness! The smell two days later when we found it was indescribably awful.
You did a great job using up your leftovers! I need to get on the schtick with mine, that's for sure.
My Food Waste for this week is a container of Popcorn (that you pop on the stove) and a moldy peach 🙁 I should have known that the popcorn was on its way out, but it had been so long since we watched a movie at home that I didnt pay any attention to it. I perfer the stovetop popcorn over the microwave because I can control the amount of butter and salt that goes in it. As for the peach it was an organic one i bought two weeks ago at the farmers market. So I am impressed that it lasted as long as it did. Its four brothers were eaten 8-10 days ago.
My good food saves were some salsa and chips (that we replaced the popcorn with) that had been languishing around for quite a while. Im glad that we ate them while watching a movie. Also 2 green tomatoes that I baked some chicken with. They were also from the farmers market visit two weeks ago, so i'm glad they were salvaged.
I definitely need to eat up the red tomato and the rest of the salsa and chips. Maybe a taco night in our future??
Now thats what I call a successful fridge clean out! *thumbs up*
I haven't spent time on your blog recently but a little read of just a few posts makes me remember why I have liked to do so. You are so hilarious!!! and you always inspire me! Just makes me laugh to see you wrestling with the monster "Fridge"...cos I have been similarly wrestling with mine...and way less successfully than you!! LOL!! thanks Kristen, you bless me a lot!
Aww, thank you! I appreciate the encouragement.