Food Waste Friday | three things
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.
The mushy thing on the top of my container is a pear that was beyond saving. If I cut off the bad parts, there wouldn't really have been anything left!
And inside the container, there's a little bit of leftover corn. Zoe would have happily eaten this, but I forgot to feed it to her. Whoops.
And lastly, a bit of milk that had gone too far south to be salvaged.
If milk is just a little bit sour, I use it to make chocolate pudding or I use it in any number of yeast breads. I just wasn't fast enough with this milk.
For the first time in a long while, though, I feel like I have a good handle on my fridge, so hopefully next week I'll have a bit less to show and tell.
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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.
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Today's 365 post: Know why these eggs are unevenly sized?
Joshua's 365 post: The Dragon's Food
at least it wasn't rice this week in our house x
http://tasmanianminimalist.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-waste-friday_21.html
Dill--ugh. So much dill.
I love your description of what would be left if you cut off the bad bits :). Apologies for the wonky link but I'm still switching over to my new domain. Hopefully everything will be done today.
Almost nothing, which is amazing considering the state of chaos that has been my fridge for the past couple of weeks. IOW, bad things happen when I don't feel like cooking.
1. An oatmeal biscuit/scone/thingie I made to go with a soup. (I'm not enthusiastic about the soup, either, but it's boring rather than bad so I'll be able to finish it.)
2. Two grocery-story cupcakes someone gave me. I'm not sure that I'm morally responsible for them, to be honest.
At some point I'm going to have to acknowledge the scortched split pea soup that my roommate made but for now it's still in freezer limbo. I'm not sure I'm morally responsible for this item either.
I can see your dilemma - at what point do we become responsible for others food waste? Hmmmm - I have a similar situation with beetroot. My Mom keeps giving me it (home pickled in a jar and lovely) but I am currently receiving enough to feed a family of four on nothing else but beetroot for a week. And I'm getting a jar a week - having just arrived home with some more today. I may have to find a victim to pass it onto to save my own food waste record!
Oh WOW - beetroot! I love it! I could eat a jar a day...in one sitting. My mouth is watering at the thought...............
Send me your address 🙂
I have recently moved out of my parents house, and the amount of food waste that I have grosses me out! This week, I threw out old grapes, baby spinach (I bought waaaay too much) and parsley and I probably still have some cottage cheese and yogurt that needs to be tossed. I've eaten cottage cheese to the point where I'm sick of it and I just don't like plain yogurt! Sigh. So frustrated with myself. But hoping to get better!
I have some ideas for you:
1. Have you tried stirring something sweet into your yogurt, such as jam?
2. People - including Kristen IIRC - swear that spinach added to a smoothie can't be tasted. So how do you feel about a yogurt/grape/spinach smoothie?
3. I am told that frozen grapes are tasty, or - going back to #2 - will thicken up a smoothie nicely.
You get better at this. Practice, practice, practice.
I had a moldy orange. I also have some cheese that has a mold spot in the fridge, but I can just cut the moldy spot off of that.
My big challenge is going to be using the two avocados that my boyfriend bought because he thought I might want them.
for some reason recently lettuce has been my bad item. I was able to use up almost a whole head and then with less than a serving left it got pushed to the back....so I decided to do the "Not so frugal" thing and by the prechopped salad mix and see if I would use it quicker....and well life happened. It's not bad yet but if we don't have A LOT of salad today I think by tomorrow it will be composted so we'll see.
I've got some left over salad that I should have eaten but just wasn't feeling it. Since the garden's done for the year salad just isn't as tasty with the store bought produce.
I have some left over roast that I was planning to make French dip with and never did. I made the roast on Monday...do you all think I could still use it?
I hate to toss it out, but I tend to be cautious with meat.
Unless the roast sat out at room temp for a lo-o-ng time, it's still fine.
Use your senses to check:
- Does it smell like meat (good) or gross (bad)?
- Does it shine irredescent in the light (bad, unless you're talking about deli ham)?
- Does it feel slimy/tacky to the touch (bad)?
- How does it taste? Most people's health will not be affected by a nibble of rotten food, so unless you're immune compromised, very old or very young, you can use your taste buds.
I feel that I should be able to share a sound-based test to complete the quintet but my knowledge fails me.
Whoa - I know I haven't got my glasses on but did anyone else mistake the pear for a chicken drumstick? I read the bit about cutting the bad bits off a little confused, as I thought it looked rather tasty! Then clicked it was a pear!
I had a whole cauliflower head in my fridge looking at me saying 'go on then what's it gonna be?'. Had a 'Use It Up Week' so everything else got eliminated nicely - I have some well decluttered cupboards of pantry supplies which I spent this morning photographing. I didn't make cauli cheese as planned with the pie as I had too many veggies anyway. So now I am simmering away a cauli and cheese soup as punishment - I say punishment because I really don't fancy the idea of it (don't know why as I love both cauli and cheese), but I saw an advert for some cheese and there was a lovely soup photo next to it that did look appealing (at the time). It's going to be one of those 'love it or hate it' recipes!
I was pained to discover a lovely bunch of seasonally appropriate green beans, which I was really looking forward to eating, with mold all through them this morning. Sadness!
In our family, almost no matter how bad the milk, we use it in baking, something that requires buttermilk, or the sorts. You'll never taste the milk! I'll only chuck it once it's fully seperated. I don't know if storebought milk does that? We have a milking cow, so we're only on raw milk.
This week I had to chuck:
A bit of apple pie filling
Roasted chicken carcass...can't believe I had to...I usually make stock, but we raise chickens, so I have sooo many carcasses for soup, I accidentally let this one go!
Most storebought milk is homogenized, so it doesn't separate.
I'm jealous of the idea of so many chix carcasses that one accidentally escapes the soup pot!
Not seperate as in, cream from milk, but like when it goes beyond sour, that it pretty much seperates itself into cheese and whey. Although it's not cheese I would eat! Know what I mean?
I thought the pear was a drumstick as well, with bbq sauce on it!
Glad I wasn't the only one. 🙂
Sloan, you could use the plain yogurt as sour cream, or in any creamy sauce, or in a smoothie- just be sure to add enough fruit to sweeten it, or a bit of honey.
We did alright here this week, just a few leftover bits of produce and some macaroni.
I would have done pretty well this week, if I hadn't had a fit of "the tidyies and experiments!"
I have been inspired by your site to do this food waste thing and it seems to be making me a happy camper today. Just knowing that there are all kinds of others out there that are participating in this.
Just a side note, I love seeing the autumn leaves by the milk. No leaves are falling here in California yet. 🙂
I had a no food waste week, but I found out that I'm wasting a lot more money than I need to be! Check out my post for details.
We're about to move out of our RV then spend a week in just the car on the road staying in various motels until we get into our new apartment on the 1st. Everything still in the RV has to fit in that car. So, we are trying hard to eat everything we own with funny results. We have lots of meats with few sides so tonight the question was, "Would you like a pork chop with a side of salmon and three olives?" 🙂
I had to throw out a bunch of grapes and some mashed potatoes. However, my waste would have included a significant amount of grits, dry cereal, and cream of wheat along with some green beans if my chickens hadn't scarfed them down.
Love the blog. I am learning some great tips. But I am wondering how long it took you to adjust how much you purchase with how much your family actually eats. I think I over bought several things, but I find it hard to gauge exactly what we will use. Any tips?
I didn't blog about food waste in particular today. (I don't blog every single day either... just when I have inspiration.) I did blog today about menu planning and mentioned your blog in it.
As far as wasting goes, I had to throw out a chicken breast and a salmon filet because I was just too lazy to cook them after I thawed them. For shame.
No more though. I've been trying really hard not to waste food and now that I've started menu planning I think I'll manage to do just that.
Thanks for all your tips!