Food Waste Friday | Humble Pie
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. If you're not a blogger but still want some food waste accountability, feel free to participate by leaving a comment.
I feel like my fridge has been a disorganized disaster for the last week or so, so I was not at all surprised to discover some food waste when I cleaned it this morning.
It's really dark this morning, so I had to use the flash on my camera. Thank goodness I have the LightScoop.
Because without that handy-dandy tool, this is what my photo would have looked like:
Of course, it's not like food waste pictures are ever beautiful, but I definitely prefer the one taken with the Lightscoop.
(Lightscoop didn't pay me to say that...I just am such a fan of this little tool for really-need-flash situations, I keep on talking about it! If you've got an SLR and you're looking for a cheap way to improve your flash photos, fork over the $30 and buy a LightScoop...you'll be so glad you did! )
I have one small piece of Tilapia that got shoved to the back, a couple pieces of chicken thigh that didn't taste that good to begin with (I think I am becoming accustomed to the taste of small-farmed chicken or something!),and some produce (half a sweet potato, half a potato, some grapes,two apple slices, and some sauteed mushrooms).
Good grief. I haven't been this bad in a long time! A week like this every now and then is good for my growth in humility, though.
Plus, a good fridge cleaning is kind of cathartic, and I'm optimistic about my ability to do better next week. Starting with a clean fridge is so helpful.
Now, if I can just maintain the clean fridge....
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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 widget below. You'll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don't blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.
Today's 365 post: This is the work of Sonia.
Ahhh I had a huge waste week too AND I am obsessed with my Lightscoop. I use it for all my food photos. The clean fridge is always a challenge for me too, just when I start to get smug about sparkling shelves I find that something leaked in the back weeks ago and I have to scrape something off of somewhere. *Sigh*
Have an awesome weekend!
I threw out a grapefruit this morning because it looked SAD and I didn't want to eat it for breakfast. I think a half a bag of salad might get tossed later. Sigh. When the hubby's gone, it's like I don't even have a garbage disposal....
I'm glad you had a bad week too! It makes me feel better about my terrible food waste. I wasted a lot, because we accidentally left beef out over night and, in fear of e. coli, we had to throw it out.
Here's to a better week next week!
I'll have to get on of those Lightscopes sometime...my pictures always look horrible! I thought it was the "taker" but now I can blame it on the flash!!
Ditto. I love being able to blame the lack of a lightscoop rather than the photographer!
Well I had to waste Grapes this week. I bought them at whole foods and initially had to waste half the bag when I got them home because they were moldy. I thought I could eat up the other half of the bag(the part that was still okay) before the mold appeared again and no such luck. This will be the last time I buy grapes from whole foods. Its far too expensive to waste anything from there,particularly produce.
We freeze grapes; kids just love them; this way they never go to waste. Our city water has enough chorine to kill any mold that could appear on grapes or anything else--not healthy; so a little soaking and then washing with purified water takes care of them long enough to get them to the freezer.
Whole Foods will refund your cost for the grapes. Ideally you have the grapes or receipt, but I've actually had success with just my bare word. "Oh, dear, me, no. I don't have the food - that I threw out, of course. I'm sorry to say I didn't think to keep the receipt, I do remember they weighed about 1.5 lbs. I know it's a bit of a stretch without product or receipt[1] but can you refund the amount? I understand if you can't."
Of course, if you do have the receipt, none of this verbal care is necessary. Give them the receipt, tell them the grapes all went bad, and ask (politely, of course) for a refund.
[1] "Receipt" looks really funny after you've typed it a half dozen times.
My pictures take first prize for bad right now, but I am having to the camera on WenYu's camera these days as my old camera quit on me, and I have found a replacement for it yet. One of htese days, one of these days . . . .
A whole package of chicken legs got tossed this week. I bought two packages, but one of them had obviously turned when I opened it, so out it went (immediately - nothing smells worse than raw chicken that's gone bad).
You all are making me feel better--about a cup of chicken and black beans (would have tried eating it if there wasn't chicken included) and half a small bag of frozen peas that was too freezer burned to salvage.
I had a better week than last week, but I'm still wasting food. 🙁
Well, this was a bad week at the Lennon house. We found a squishy tomato hiding under the celery which went into the compost bucket and I had to cut away some mold off of some jalapeno cheese. Yes, that was it but still, bad enough. This is the first time I've publicly admitted to wasting food, or rather I haven't had much to report until now. Really, I don't waste food and my husband is even more adamant about it than I am and we most certainly won't allow the kids to either. There, I feel cleansed. I'll do better next week!
One packet of mozarella cheese this week. I'm banning myself from buying any more mozarella unless I know I will definitely be using it the day I get it!
Hmmm. I let some collard greens go to rot this week.
Comments on other posts:
Throw that bag of shredded mozzarella cheese in the freezer instead of the fridge when you buy it! it will last like forever. This is what I do for my mozzarella that I keep on hand for pizza.
As for the Boursin cheeses, "out of date" is usually not a food safety date but a a retailing control date. Cheese that is still sealed will probably last far beyond that date if it is refrigerated. OR throw the extra 2 in the freezer when you get home from Costco. They will last like a year in the freezer.
Pepperoni stick--will keep safely at room temperature for a while--probably for weeks. Dry sausages like that in general are a dried and salt-cured preserved food that use both drying and sodium nitrate and nitrite and MASSIVE amounts of salt to prevent bacterial growth. You'll be fine.
Kristen, I have been reading faithfully since discovering your blog on New Year's Eve and it has helped me tremendously to be even more mindful of what we eat and what we waste. In these last ten months I have watched our food waste dwindle quite a bit and have now decided to post my waste here with you all (next step is to post on my blog for friends and family to see, but I'm not there yet ;))
This week I thought it was going to be great no waste week, a first, but it all went completely pear shaped starting yesterday:
1/4 container of yoghurt that was fuzzy yesterday and it hadn't reached its use by date...aaargh!
1 1/2 pounds of chicken that was smelly when I opened it to use for dinner. It hadn't reached its use by date either...double aaargh!
2 pks of Boursin cheeses which I noticed were out of date by a couple of weeks. my husband had bought a 3pk at Costco. We always waste at least one when we buy the 3pk, which is why I stopped buying them there. I must remind hubby that it's better to buy just one than waste the food and the extra money you pay for the 3pm.
2 slices of bread. This happened yesterday morning but I only discovered it last night. I'd put on my toast last yesterday morning and forgot all about it as my husband and I got the family together for an early morning visit to the doctor for flu shots. Usually I like cold crisp toast but this was like a brick by the time I found it 🙁
A couple of inches of pepperoni stick. I bought 2 of these a while back as a treat for my daughter after she tasted them at a friend's house.Yesterday she opened the last one from the cupboard and I thought she had eaten ot all. Today I found the open package in the cupboard where she had thoughtfully returned it when she'd eaten enough. I didn't feel it was safe to eat now (the package had also been open). A little more education about food safety is in order.
I did creatively save a bunch of food this week, which made me happy. I also take some solace that some of this food waste was not simply due to my neglect. However, food waste is food waste. Hopefully, it will be better next. Time to start again 🙂
That is not so bad. I found out what to do with my waste. I was told I can feed it to the birds and other creatures. They love stale cereal, egg shells and more. There are also these little bugs that look like aliens called children of the earth. They look like a little old man. They love oats and chips ect.. I never waste anymore. Compost is helpful too still. I am interested in the new points for recycling program to get things with. Enjoy your weekend. The wholesale places hand out so many free samples I feel I ate a full meal at them sometimes. They are great.
Hi Kirsten, Food Waste Friday is such a great idea - i've got my colleagues at work talking about it now too 🙂
I had a lot of leftovers to deal with this week, which I was pretty concerned about. But we managed to eat through them all. A very small portion of baked beans did get tossed as they got shoved to the back of the fridge, forgotten about, and then dried up. I also tossed a lone potato roll which was in the bottom of the bread basket and sprouted things.
I have my work cut out for me again this week. I overbought on markdown produce and have some serious fruit eating to do. I also have more yogurt than I care to think about in the fridge that needs used SOON!!
This week I didn't waste anything!
I do have some careful planning to do, though. I've got some odds and ends of veggies left over from making spaghetti sauce. I think I will chop them up and freeze them today until I can eat them. I've got a few slices of pumpkin bread that needs to be used soon (no danger there, though, that stuff is awesome). I have said batch of spaghetti sauce that I will need to use / freeze by the end of this coming week. I also have some spinach that I need to use or freeze soon before it starts to get slimy.
I feel like I am right on the edge of wasting like 10 different things, lol.
Nothing this week - sorta. The full order of leftover restaurant wings went uneaten so I turned them into stock. Techicnally they weren't wasted but morally they were. Better to have eaten them and turned the bones into stock.
Challenges ahead: broccoli rabe and cabbage from my friend's CSA. Probably better to give the cabbage away then waste energy and inputs disgusing food that I just don't like.
This post inspired me to make sure I used up fresh fruits & veggies I had. Over the weekend I made apple cake and apple/pear crisp to use up apples and pears that were given to me. Then I got the last of the tomatoes from our one very productive tomato plant (which is now cut up for compost) and followed instructions on how to skin them. I made a batch of homemade chili using 2 cups of peeled tomatoes (very juicy) and froze the rest of the tomatoes. I felt very much like a Suzy Homemaker and enjoyed eating the results of my efforts.
Oh, sad sad food waste weekend. Lately I have had to go on several brief work trips, but like three of them in the last 5 weeks (unusual for me). The first time, I cooked meals for my husband to eat while I was gone and he polished them off. The second time, he only at about half of it. This last time, he didn't eat ANY of it, and I ended up throwing it all out this weekend. UGH! I told him that I'm not going to do it next time--sorry, my love! LOL Not only did this waste food, it wasted my time cooking days' worth of meals. Also tossed some slimy cucumbers (ew), a few rotten apples (they sneak up on me!) and some freezer-burned fish from this spring. I did, however, earn a free turkey at the grocery store which I promptly found a home for (we already ordered our local one) so I was able to pay it forward, which was nice.