Food Waste Friday-5.8
These darn greens keep getting me! Last week it was a bit of lettuce and this week it's a bit of spinach. It really truly is only a bit(I got up close with my camera, so it looks like more than it is!). The spinach doesn't look terrible, but there is a funky smell coming off of it, and I don't think I'm brave enough to eat it.
I got a bit behind with eating the spinach this week(I had to hastily deal with almost a whole bag), so I'm actually sort of pleased that I only wasted this tiny bit...it could have been much worse!
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I found a great post about preserving lettuce and other greens for longer periods of time in the fridge. I can't take credit for the find but I did post about it here. It will DEFINITELY help your greens stay crisp.
We're left with the greens too - a bit of a salad bag. But we've taken the plunge to grow our own, so things should improve once we have a crop!
Well done on achieving minimal waste 🙂
One Frugal Girl-Thanks! I'll go check it out. 🙂
Thanks for participating, Mrs. Green! I'm sorry to hear you've had rotten(haha) luck with greens too.
I think One Frugal Girl's right. The plastic bag has to go. A couple of years ago I invested in a thin sponge mat to line the bottom of my salad drawer. It cushions the vegetables to prevent them from bruising and allows any moisture to drain away to prevent rotting. I bought the mat from Lakeland, a British online kichenware company but I guess you could use any thin sponge.
I'm finally participating, Kristen! We just throw out way too much food. I want to get that under control.
Just an idea for when you have alot of leftover spinach - blanch it in boiling water for a minute, drain & squeeze out excess moisture, then freeze and use as needed. I like to use this to make a filling for lasagna or stuffed shells.
I always try to avoid this kind of situation by simply adding more of whatever-the-little-bit-left-in-the-bag is going to be to the thing I'm making and emptying the bag. I've never been able to tell the difference in recipes, and salads don't usually have a problem getting consumed in this house. 🙂
I just used up the last of some less-than-appealing spinach in a sauce I made for pizza. It absorbed nicely and I liked that we were getting some added nutrition.
Even thought I had no waste, it was a challenging week - my husband was gone for a couple of days and then came back with a stomach flu. I maintain that it takes "all hands on deck" to avoid food waste - and if someone's not on board...
Greens are definitely my issue as well.
We had no food waste this week, but that was mostly because I didn't buy much last week because I knew we were going out of town for the weekend.
I posted about some great moth traps we've been using which have really helped reduce our pantry food waste.
Thanks for the other tips on here- I think those plastic bags do make the greens wilt faster.
Hey there, long time lurker but submitted something this time. Sorry there's no pictures of the actual waste, but I did snap a shot of what I managed to save from our shockingly wasteful freshman seminar buffet.
I wanted to make the point that while all of us doing our best to not waste at home, it's only a tiny slice of the pie compared to the waste that goes on inside institutions and companies.
Keep up the good writing, and congrats on being an inspiration for many!
Bring it over, the chickens will love it!
I use to think my mother was crazy, but have since picked up on her technique for drying lettuce. I have a small kitchen and refrain from purchasing anything else to store (such as a salad spinner). I would find my mother in the center of the kitchen, with a head of lettuce in a plastic bag at arms length. She would spin the bag vigorously in circles forcing the water into the bottom of the bag. She would then cut a tiny
corner off of the bottom of the bag and drain out all of the liquid. A fresh, clean kitchen towel placed insided absorbed the remaining moisture.