Food Waste Friday has returned! (plus, what I learned in its absence)
Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it's been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
Sooo, we haven't had Food Waste Friday for two weeks now. What did I learn during that time?
I learned that I am still in desperate need of accountability in this area because my goodness! Once I knew I didn't have to post a photo here, I was way, way, way less motivated to use up my food and eat my leftovers.
I didn't fall entirely off the food-waste wagon, but I was nowhere near zero waste, that's for sure. I am all ready to get back on track now, though, and hopefully you all are too!
This week, I wasted some pizza, and a bit of leftover Chinese takeout (yes, sometimes I give in to takeout temptation. And embarrassingly enough, this particular time was the night before the TV crew came, so I had Chinese takeout containers in my fridge. This was a good whack for my pride, though!).
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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. Participants get a spot on my Food Waste blogroll for the upcoming week, so join us! You'll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog!
Your food waste posts have inspired me to get control over my own families' food waste. I don't blog so I guess I will just have to confess on your blog! LOL I had to throw away half a homemade pizza yesterday morning b/c I had put the leftovers on a plate, wrapped it up and then forgot and left it out all night! I was so mad at myself!!!
But I did have a success this past week. I ended up with way too much spaghetti one night and used the leftover noodles and some bits of veggies in the crisper drawer to make Vegetable Lo Mein. The kids loved it and have requested it again! The leftover sauce from spaghetti night became the sauce on my pizza a few nights later.
I too have been inspired to waste less. I have to tell you though, this year hasn't started off so well. I will keep aiming for the goal. This will be huge for me! I have a family of 8, with all of my food waste it looks like I shop for a family of 12.
I think that I will need to reprogram my "system", or lack there of! Produce is my biggest waste. I will take baby steps and start there.
Leftovers were our downfall this week. They were leftovers from our families that probably should have been thrown out last week.
I'd always thought we were doing everybody a favor by taking food home, since it'll just go in the garbage if left at our parents'. But looking at that picture of all our food waste, I don't think we're doing anybody any favors... maybe if we stop taking it, they'll stop making it.
Next week we're cleaning out before a trip, but I don't think it'll be as bad as this...
Reading your blog has inspired me to watch our food waste more closely. One of the things I've started doing that has been very helpful is keeping a bright colored post-it on the front of the fridge where I hand-write those things that we need to eat up: produce, left-overs, etc. That way I can't forget about what's hidden in drawers or Tupperware. I've found it quite useful!
I am on the minimalist fridge kick too! I blogged today about my fridge makeover which you may be curious to read. The fridge is a great teacher on minimalism.
http://www.beruly.com/?p=573
Oh how embarrassing. I have tons of food I tossed today. I guess I can only improve from here right? lol
Over the weekend I compsoted 2+ cups of celery I'd chopped in anticipation of Xmas cook-fest. Too many of the pieces were white on the cut surfaces and I couldn't tell if they were dried out or moldy. I take many risks - I eat pizza that's been out all night - but that was over the line for me. Sob.
Anne: I agree 100% about crowded fridges being resevoirs of waste! My food waste goal is to cook the right number of dishes each week, so we always have something to eat (frozen food is much more expensive and full of wasteful packaging) but not so much it gets lost in the crowds. Thankfully I've never had a problem with three bottles of the same salad dressing etc., which makes it easier.
Kristen, my guess is that viewship will have one of two reactions to the take-out containers in your fridge. A large fraction will be disappointed that you're not perfect and wonder if you're the right role model for them. A similarly large fraction will be reassured that you're not perfect since they're not either; if you can do it imperfectly so can they. (Every time I make a point about whether role models should be perfect, I hear echos of many, many religious discussions in the back of my head - how funny is that?)
I'm looking forward to the show.
PS - to mitigate the celery fiasco, I offer up that I spent 30 min removing staples from clementine boxes so I can use the wood for kindling. Then I put the staples in a jar for metal recycling.
Great to see food waste friday up and running again. I love all your epiphanies about it, Kristen. Well done on all your other blogging too - your outfit is lovely!
WilliamB - I wish I could have sent you my pizza that sat out! I'm just not that brave I guess. LOL
Shockingly, I managed no waste this week, for the first time in ages. I've been extra careful since I returned from vacation, apparently.
Hi Kristen,
Are you able to delete my first link. I think I have the link fixed now. 🙂
Sorry about that.
Stephanie
I can't seem to do it, but can you? It seems like I used to have the option of deleting links, but there's no option at the moment.
It's ok, though...you can just get double publicity this week! lol
No food waste for me this week and none of my leftovers fed to the dogs either.
I have done pretty good at not wasting food, but of course I have some parsley in the fridge. Any ideas on how to use a large amount?
You can chop it up finely, put in an ice cube tray, fill with water, freeze, store cubes in plastic bag and used when needed in cooking.
You can also dry the parsley in the microwave or oven, store in glass jar and use when needed.
To use fresh add to salads, soups, pasta sauce, scrambled eggs, biscuits and eating a sprig of parsley will combat bad breath.
How do you let pizza become food waste? Chinese takeout I can understand.
For myself, I had about 12 grapes that got lost, smashed under a bag of apples.
I try to keep all leftovers on one refrig shelf to make it harder to let go to waste.
Same way most things go to waste....we forget about it, don't like it reheated for whatever reason, or have something more interesting to eat. It's not that I don't try (you should see how much I waste when I don't try!), it's just that I am apparently not capable of managing food waste perfection every week. 🙂
I am not working this month, thus we have to make food last longer and not waste a bit. I roasted a chicken which worked for 2 meals plus sandwiches, then made broth from the rest and picked the chicken off the bones for 2 different soups. My fridge and freezer are fairly bare, but contain the essentials for more meals that will include no food waste. I've frozen bananas for smoothies, biscotti and cookies crumbles for pie crusts and stale bread for bread crumbs and croutons. I feel good using up and making do until the end of the month.
I absolutely LOVE this idea. I waste a lot of food because I forget about it and it moulders away in the back of the fridge.
I started to do this but fell of the band wagon. Now i've been putting off taking the first photo because it's going to look terrible, what with all the mold:(