Food Waste Friday, er, Saturday.
Normally I do this on Fridays, but my posting plan went a little wonky. And I didn't want to skip this because heaven knows *I* need Food Waste Friday posts to keep myself on track.
This was really, really not my best week. And it came on the heels of so many stellar weeks.
Oh well.
This bread was forgotten about because I happened to bake English Muffin bread, which was far more novel.
Should have frozen it.
Didn't.
This bag contains two mushrooms so foul smelling, I couldn't bear the thought of opening the bag to photograph them.
And then there is some moldy cauliflower, a bit of gravy, and some mushy kiwis (check the package before you buy them, Kristen!)
Oh! I forgot that I composted the last bit of a head of iceberg lettuce. I could have eaten it, I suppose, but iceberg is so non-nutritious compared to the other greens I had, I opted to eat the more nutritious ones.
On a more cheerful note, many leftovers were eaten.
(leftover veggies and shrimp with a fried egg)
I picked through the last of a bag of cranberries and saved the good ones.
And I froze some fruit that no one wanted to eat (for future smoothie use, of course!)
So, there you have it.
The lovely thing is that after a bad week, you can always pick up and try again.
And that's what I'm gonna do.
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I know we're off our normal routine, given that it's Saturday, but do feel free to share your food waste news in the comments. And if you blogged about Food Waste Friday, then share your link so we can visit your blog and read all about it!
Don't feel bad, we are human and it happens...I cleaned my fridge out this morning, which I do every single Saturday. I too, did not have a good week waste-wise. About a cup of rice, which sounds like not much because rice is cheap, right? but it irks me because I actually cooked more rice to go with a dish this week because I had forgotten this was there.... Also, a bit of macaroni salad, no big deal, we had had our fill, and some homemade meatballs in sauce, which SHOULD have been frozen, and were not. On the save list, some sourdough bread made into breadcrumbs, some blackberries into the freezer for smoothies, and two half-onions chopped and put in the freezer for future recipes.
I have a lot of leftover bread here because some people don't like the crusts and when fresher bread comes along the old gets neglected. Fortunately my neighbour happily takes the scraps for his chickens. Something else I do when I am being efficient is to process the bread with a little butter and some parsley to freeze for later use on a casserole or in fish cakes.
I had to throw away two bananas. I should have frozen them as I lernt from you, but I did't as I had forgotten they were there... and one Kiwi. Do you know if Kiwis can be frozen?
Frozen kiwis would only be good in smoothies...the texture would be pretty funky if you thawed them!
Well, pureed. Pureed in smoothies, yes, or as a coulis or sauce as well.
I threw away some random leftovers, and that always makes me feel wasteful. Normally I freeze things, but that's no guarantee they will get used...so...I do have plans to make crumbs with some old bread and make meatballs.
If you bought the kiwi at Aldi and were not satisfied with the quality, you should bring your receipt to them next time you go and ask for a refund and you'll also get a new package of it. I was told by our store manager that you don't have to bring the produce back, but it might be YMMV.
I posted my food waste (and saves!) for the week here: http://imperfectlyfrugally.blogspot.com/2015/03/food-waste-friday-and-fridge-pictures.html
We had a better week than last, but not stellar. I did save a couple of things, which always makes me happy 🙂
Sometimes it seems when it rains, it pours, lol! You just get hit with a bad bunch of produce or life gets busy and they get forgotten in the dark corners of the fridge - but ... you know - that shrimp and vegetable fried egg looked pretty good! I would be thankful for the good things that happened with leftovers, and not stress too much about the rest! Have a blessed and wonderful weekend!
A true own goal: I was so tired after work that I forgot to put away my leftover lunch food. The strawberries were fine, the pepper strips probably will be fine as long as I eat them soon but the homemade meatballs were not to be tested.
Yes, folks, I wasted meat. (Hangs head in shame.)
I hate it when I do things like that! So frustrating.
Hope you've gotten some rest now.
t's a pity you don't have chickens, they would have loved every one of those items. 🙂
So true. But somehow I feel like adding chickens to my life would be an overall loss on the simplification side of things. Heh.
I think this is the worst week ever for me and mine in the waste department.
There was so much in there that I can't list it all.
Here are the highlights.
Sausage, hamburger, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes. All of these in small amounts.
Leftovers galore.
Seriously...I could have fed a family of 4 for 3 days with what was wasted.
On the high side of this quite a bit was feed to the chickens and the dog and cat.
It happens! But a fresh new week is coming, so be hopeful along with me. We will do better!
My wastefulness for this week is related to food but was more a waste of money. Friday I asked my husband to call at the chip shop on the way home ( this is an English thing) as I didn't have anything planned. He had to get himself a large fish as all the small ones had gone, my chips were a bit dull and younger son wasted his food. It came to £9 for two portions of chips, a fish and a sausage! Convert that to dollars and that is a lot of fresh food I could have bought. I vow to do better also this week. x
I've found I do better on not letting produce go to waste when I put it on the fridge shelves and not in the crisper drawer. I see it and it reminds me to eat it. I'm testing that theory with a big package of spinach this week. I'm two spinach omelets in so far...
Yes, the crisper drawer is sort of a problem...it's too easy to lose things in it.
Although honestly, the back of my fridge shelves is more of a problem for me. I need a really wide and shallow fridge so I can see everything all the time. 😉
Hi Kristen, congratulations for your blog. I wanted to share an initiative to reduce food waste by promoting meal splitting. We have people who buy huge food portions at restaurants and otehrs that have not enough food to eat. In partnership with some restaurants in Chicago, we are asking people to make a small sacrifice so that everyone can eat. Please check our website: GoodPart.org
Hope you find it useful and want to help spread the news.
all the best, Gustavo