Food Waste Friday | A squishy onion
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.
This onion is from a bag of onions, and though the others were all fine, this one got squishy before I could use it.
The whole thing is squishy, so I can't even cut out the bad parts and use the rest. So, it's now resting in peace in my compost bucket.
Also, I have a single serving of leftover green beans that I think I am not going to eat. I have a whole bunch of other vegetables in my fridge that need to be used and that are much more appealing (leftover beans are just so unappetizing to me!).
So, I think that they can keep my squishy onion company in the compost bucket.
In non-food-waste new, I think I'm going to share my birthday pictures on Sunday since today is food waste day and tomorrow is menu plan day. So, check in on Sunday because the usually vacant blog will have something up. 😉
Also, go enter in my $100 SpaFinder giveaway if you haven't already!
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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 picture is full of things I love.
Joshua's 365 post: Maybe it's not a good idea...
I started cooking smaller portions and find my food waste is much less. I fed some sandwich meat that didn't smell quite right to the dog but that is about it.
Leftover green beans are unappetizing to EVERYONE. We haven't eaten them as much around here as we used to because they're rarely on sale now, but whenever we do have them, I find myself eating them all instead of even bothering putting them in the fridge.
Hm. What's more unappetizing, eating green beans that you just cooked but don't really want because you're full, or eating leftover green beans from the fridge.
Toss up.
My food waste was a lot of pantry stuff that shouldn't have been wasted. Snack things. Boo.
I do exactly the same thing....usually I just eat an extra big helping of beans if that's what's necessary to avoid leftovers. I figure that eating extra beans is hardly the most awful thing to do diet-wise.
If I manage to stay on top of the bean portioning at dinner, I can manage to give myself more beans and less of whatever else we're eating, so then I'm not trying to eat extra beans on a full stomach. These beans were from Easter dinner though, so I wasn't quite as on top of my game. 😉
P.S. Are you pleased with how promptly I put up Food Waste Friday this morning???
Hee hee. So pleased. Especially because this might be the last one I can be so on top of, going back to work on Monday and all. You'll probably start finding me lower in the list.
Have I mentioned how incredibly generous it is of you to do these posts and then open up the floor to the rest of the world? Typical Kristen.
You really have inspired me in a lot of ways, more than just what happens in the blog world. Thanks, eh?
Sounds like a wrap up comment or something. Sheesh. Get out the tissues or what?!
Aww, I'm so happy my blog has inspired you. Yay! Thank you for the encouragement.
And I'm sorry you've got to head back to work. If it's any consolation, the dread of going back to piano teaching post-baby was usually worse than the reality. =P
Totally concur. It's been such a treat to get to know all of you in blog land.
Hey, at least you just didn't manage to use your onion in time. I have an awful habit of looking at something and saying "Hey, I really should use that" over and over again until it's rotten. 😛
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (I actually have a lot of those t-shirts!).
I still haven't reached my no food waste week goal but this week was better than most. I'm sort of appalled at the money that used to get wasted in the not-too-far-distant past.
I am proud to announce that every edible bit of Easter Ham has been consumed at our house! 🙂 Unfortunately, the strawberry jello with mangoes in it was not quite as popular. For some reason the mangoes got brown and icky (very unappetizing).
Well, we still have Easter ham left and I've run out of ideas and everyone is sick of it! I will probably end up boiling it and putting the meat into the freezer for some later use. This is the first time we haven't finished one, and I bought a smaller one than usual.
And I bought a box of mangoes last week and am having a hard time getting anyone to eat them. Usually they disappear faster than I'd like but not this time. I've been scouring my cookbooks looking for mango recipes so they get used before they spoil.
Total cost of food wasted at our house this week was $3.45. I wish I'd had that to put into our vacation fund rather than in the compost.
I recommend mango salsa!
Oh my gosh, yes! THAT would disappear like wildfire around here. Thanks!
Putting in freezer for later isn't boring, it's sensible.
You haven't listed what you've tried but I'm going to spout forth some anyway, A lot of these can be made then frozen, for quick meals in the future:
- mix with potatoes for hash; top with eggs for a one-dish meal
- quiche
- timable (less rich than a quiche but also an egg-dairy-flavoring product)
- pot pie
- hand pies
- chopped into burgers or croquettes
- soup! (both meat and bone)
- split pea soup (good enough to merit its own entry) (both meat and bone)
- beans (both meat and bone)
- chopped and mixed into biscuits
- mix with cream cheese, pimento, and horseradish for a sharp tasty sandwich spread
All good suggestions - thanks! We had strata last night, and had it in soup on top of regular ham, sandwiches, etc. I had some more for my breakfast this morning, and will cut up some more for ham salad this weekend, then boil the rest off the bone and save for later use (soup and to put in macaroni and cheese, my girls' favorite).
Great ideas! I've copied them down for the next time I invest in a ham! I chopped the last of the ham along with a half a cooked chicken breast (from the freezer), a quarter of an onion, 3 stalks of limp celery, half a brick of softened cream cheese (leftover from my cheese cake venture) mixed with milk to thin it out, 1 cup of Italian blend cheese (needed use up), 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard, and salt and pepper. Scooped it into leftover rolls from Easter, wrapped the rolls in foil and baked a 375 for 20 minutes (until heated threw and cheese is melted). Basicallly, potential garbage in a roll, but very tasty. Even the picky eater ate it.;)
I made split pea soup over the weekend. I highly recommend Cook's Illustrated's version. It's the carmelized veggies that make it superior. Summary:
1. Simmer bone, onion, bay leaf for about 2 hrs. Remove bone, remove meat from bone, save meat for soup.
2. Cook split peas in the ham stock till mostly cooked. This will take 30-45 min.
3. While split peas simmer, carmelize chopped onion, carrot, and celery with thyme and a pinch of sugar. This will take 20-40 min.
4. Add carmelized veggies, a couple of cut-up boiler potatoes, and meat to peas, cook till potates are done.
I usually cut my mangoes up and use them in place of peaches in cobbler. If you don't have enough mix in a can of pineapple chunks. Very tasty!
How about using them in a smoothie?
I have been having major issues with the 10lb bags of onions I buy at Sam's Club. I ended up taking a bag back last week since they were ALL squishy and icky in 2 days. Yuck!
On the up side, I bought a bag of yellow onions at Aldi last week that are not squishy! I am one of your readers that has been turned on to Aldi after reading your posts. I was surprised at the variety of produce that they carry! Thanks for the info, by the way. It saves us on some grocery money for sure...money that is going towards building our chicken coop since my chicks are looking more like chick-ENS everyday!
Have a great day!
Woohoo! An Aldi convert!
Leftover broccoli used to be my downfall, and oh that smells so good when it goes bad. 😛 Then I had the bright idea to put a little soy sauce and sesame oil on it for a cold Asian-style salad. Yum! I'd probably do the same with green beans.
I ended up with a great deal of waste this week. I wasted pasta salad,watermelon and cantalope this week. The pasta salad there was just too much made for us to eat all up and not sure if thats freezable or not. The fruit was wasted because of lack of flavor.
This was my first week participating in Food Waste Friday, and I actually managed to rescue the food that was closest to going to waste! I had some sad-looking tomatoes and I oven roasted, and now they are sweet and delicious and will last until Saturday when I plan to eat them. Huzzah!
A little late commenting here and posting over at my own blog due to The Royal Wedding... Oh yes I have been watching since 10am this morning - lovely day to be British!
However just 5 apples for me this week which have just been popped in the slow cooker for a nice apple sauce to be frozen for use later on in the month. Onions tend to get me every time, so I regularly now chop and bag and freeze in batches. Get all the crying over in one go - Jo
Not so bad:
half a carton of roasted red pepper tomato soup that was nasty to start with.
a handful of bean sprouts
I miss our natural foods store where you could buy things like bean sprouts as a bulk item so there was no waste.
I did manage to use up all the parsley by adding it to everything, and the last bit of buttermilk by making Kristen's Wheat bread with a Twist.
Have to add a lemon to that list. Looked a little dried out but fine onthe outside, but was nasty inside when I cut it open.
hi. i seldom waste food.
There must be something sick and twisted with me, because I LOVE left over green beans. Sautee them with a little olive oil and garlic and they're every bit as delicious as first-round green beans 😉
If *that's* sick and twisted, then we're all head cases here at Food Waste Friday, aren't we?
Some waste for me this week. The last of the cream cheese and the rest of the soda bread I made that really is what I should have eaten it with but since it went ridiculously hard after only a couple of days, the bread went to the ducks in the park instead and the cream cheese went to waste.
And some pickles and sour cream that are old but aren't, strictly speaking, bad yet. However, I have admitted to myself that I'm not going to use them so rather than waiting for them to be rotten enough to throw out, I bit the bullet and dumped them. Is feng shui a good enough reason to waste something? It feels like I cleared out more than just the actual items, if you know what I mean.
That's exactly what I did with my beans. I just knew I wasn't going to eat them!
What, nothing about the royal wedding? 😉
Dear heavens, no! I'm quite the opposite of a celebrity nut. I saw a little bit of replay of the wedding on the tv at the gym yesterday (no sound, though), and that is all.
I chop up my onions and place them in a freezer bag in the freezer. You can break off what you need or package them individually, say in 1/4 cups servings. Works great for me.
Leftover green beans taste great with Italian salad dressing and eaten cold, like a salad. Mix with other beans for a bean salad!
Food waste has finally made it into the mainstream press in Ireland: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/pricewatch/2011/0502/1224295866192.html
Good practical tips at the bottom of the article too (all very well known to Food Waste Friday people already of course!)
If your left over green beans are still useable-freeze them for soups or stews..or add them to pasta with a few cubed cooked potatoes (red skins are good0 and dress it with vinaigrette for a cold pasta salad, or dress it with olive oil and parmesan (or any shredded cheese) for a hot meal.