Food waste and green smoothies
Here's what I wasted in addition to the beans I posted about earlier. It's about ¼ cup of green onions and 4 apple slices. The green onions are just the tail end of a bunch I bought a couple of weeks ago. While I wish I'd managed to use them all, I am still pretty pleased that I used almost the entire bunch. Untold numbers of green onions have turned slimy in my fridge in times past, so this is an improvement.
The apple slices ended up in the bowl because I'd saved the uneaten slices after dinner with the thought that I'd make them into applesauce. Unfortunately(fortunately?) we didn't have any more leftover apples for a long time and so I kinda forgot about these.
So, once again I didn't have a no-waste week, but all my wasted food was compostable.
However, I'm several days behind on eating leftovers, so I feel like I'm walking on thin ice. Tomorrow night we're having a leftover/sandwich night, so hopefully I'll be more caught up after that. Also, when I made my grocery list yesterday, I made a list of food from my fridge that I needed to use. I incorporated some of it into my menu plan and I think having the list around will help to remind me of what stuff needs to be eaten.
When I posted about the beans, I said that I was a little worried about using up the bag of spinach that I'd bought. Well, I got up the nerve to try adding it to our yogurt smoothies, and it's almost gone now. Yay!
Here's the ratio of smoothie to spinach that I used:
and here's what it ends up looking like. Appetizing, ey?
I've only had a couple of these and so far, I still have to work hard to screw up the courage to actually drink them! The spinach honestly doesn't do much to change the flavor of the smoothies, but it takes a lot to get over the appearance. My kids even agreed that the green smoothies tasted fine, and my four year old asks me to put the spinach in, which is quite wonderful. I highly doubt she'd beg for spinach any other way!
Oh, Kristen, I can help on this one! When you get those green onions from the store, do you notice they have these little things on the bottom called roots? That means you can plant them! Just get yourself a pot, a bit of soil, poke your finger way down in the dirt to make a hole and plop that little onion right in. You can fill the pot with them, planting them about an inch apart. Snip the green tops back to about 4-5 inches, give them a bit of water and set them outside, weather permitting. The tops will die back just a bit, but in a few days the new green growth will begin. Just pull them fresh as you need them! I forgo the pot and put them right out in the garden, with my flowers or veggies, from spring until frost. Fresh green onions, year-round, and no slime!!
Oooh, that is good to know! Obviously these ones were too far gone for that but I will keep that in mind when I have to buy another bunch. I always get annoyed that you have to buy a whole bunch of onions instead of just however many you need, and this would solve that problem.
Me again. I just blogged about you, hope you don't mind 🙂
Oh, you've got your nerve!
Blog away...as long as you always say nice things! lol
Great post - well done on your successes and thanks for showing us how much spinach to use. I've not plucked up the courage for raw spinach, but I love kale, perhaps I could try that. Have you ever eaten raw, young kale?
Good luck over the next few days - writing down everything in the fridge and then menu planning around it is a very good idea. It's what i do too and it helps keep your mind on what needs using next.
Kristen,
I don't know if you are already doing this, but just in case...it's easy to freeze chopped onion, pepper, celery and other crispy bits. If you want to be save the paper towel, spread them out on a metal surface, freeze then transefer to a container. Mostly, i just dry in a paper towel or napkin & transfer to a small freezer container. I often add more to an existing stash, and you can mix onion and peppers. These will thaw too soggy for salads, but will break apart readily when hammered a bit and are fine for omelettes (thaw right in the pan, before adding egg)and casseroles (add frozen to other fillings).
I just put spinach in the blender with a lil water (enough to blend), blend, pour into ice cube trays and freeze. I put 2 cubes in each smoothie, you can't taste it at all.