Food Waste Friday | I looked through my fridge...
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.
...but there was nothing in there to throw out.
Which is excellent, of course.
I did throw out a bit of pudding earlier in the week because it had been forgotten in the back of the fridge (so sad, because someone here would definitely have eaten it!) But I made that batch of pudding to use up some milk that had gone a bit sour, and almost all of it was eaten.
So I'm counting that as mostly a save. 😉
Since I don't have a food waste picture, here's a little sneak peek of Zoe's bed re-do.
More to come next week!
For me, some leftovers curries and a small bowl of milk(got sour)... We in India cook almost 3 meals a day and so, the food waste is bit higher sometimes.
Sad to say, there may be more wasted food in my fridge besides the ones I posted about. Life has just been so crazy! One of my jobs today is going through the fridge to see what needs to be tossed or used up.
I looked through my fridge and I too had nothing to throw out. I'd kept my eye on the prize and intercepted some potential food waste last night - guess who was baking and then eating strawberry muffins at 7pm? However I hadn't kept my eye completely on my cupboard. So my photo's this week are of a good example of keeping inventory and a not so good example!
I'm going to have to be extra vigilant going forward as they've stopped the food waste collection service in my area this week. I always aim for no-waste, but of course it does happen. I've put a call out for suggestions on my post today... as the thought of it being binned... well isn't an option really!
Jo - Your refrigerator pictures have helped me realize how little food I need to keep on hand. I used to buy way too much. Better planning = less waste.
Cheers Renee, it's great to hear that the weekly photo-shoot is of help!
My downfall this week was raisins. About 2 cups of them. How do you waste raisins? you might ask. Well, it takes talent.
First you rehydrate some in the microwave for muffins, then forget about them for several days. You might make more muffins except that your schedule didn't allow. Then, between nuking the raisins and not using them, you drop the container while trying to clean up and spill most of the rest on the floor.
Sorry about your raisin loss, but.......made me laugh!
I know you've suffered a raisin loss this week, but I had never ever thought of rehydrating them for muffins - so if it's any consolation at this difficult time, your loss is my gain 😉
Rehydrating dried fruit helps keep baked goods from being too dry. If not rehydrated the fruit will suck moisture from the batter. This can be a good thing (in bagels) or a bad thing (in muffins).
Or you can obviate the problem by not using them at all. Sigh.
Yes, totally makes sense. I made some dried cranberry ones (as I had run out of blueberries) and they were okay, but noticeably dry. I thought it was just the lack of gooeyness from the fresh fruit that was missing. But as I said, yes, makes sense - thanks for that heads up!
LOL - Thanks for the chuckle. This is totally something I would do!
We are doing our annual "eat down" of everything in the fridge and freezer, cleaning out for this season's harvest. So no waste here.
Blah, I wasted a good bit of protein this week. Gotta pay more attention to container sizes when I put stuff in the freezer. Congrats on no waste for you!
Apologizing for two posts to Mr. Linky, I didn't have the correct url in the first posting, NOW on to better things, thank you for the opportunity to realize my waste habits at home. What better way than to share and be held accountable!
Congrats on no food wasted!! I didn't do so well this week. Baby food, freshly squeezed(well, not so fresh when I found it) carrot juice, and tofu all went to waste. This waste so could have been prevented. All, but the baby food anyway. My baby hates squash. Good thing I'm aware of that now. lol.
We've been on holiday this week, so I haven't been quite so on the ball as usual...I'm feeling very guilty about my pair of mouldy carrots! 🙁
What a beautiful paint job! I might have to try painting something. Not my favorite thing to do.
I did let some hummus go bad. Too many weeks past it's date. And some tortilla chips that went stale. I usually keep them in the freezer, but these stayed out too long.
Renee, you didn't throw out the tortilla chips, did you? You can crisp them back up in the oven for a bit, or add them to soup for tortilla soup, or put them at the bottom of an enchilada casserole. I love tortilla chips! Can you tell?
Thank you, Lili. I did make a taco salad, one of our favorites. After that they just had that "these taste so stale I don't want to eat them" taste. Guess I am super sensitive to rancid oil flavor. I'll try the re-crisping and see if that helps next time. The freezer works great. They don't freeze or get soggy, just cold.
You could use them make crumbs for breading. Frex, dip chix in flour, then beaten egg, then tortilla chip crumbs. If you want to get fancy, let the chix sit on a cooking rack for half an hour, which helps keep the breading on the meat. Then saute or bake. Can top with salsa if you want.
You could also use the crumbs to top Tex-Mex bakes or casseroles.
I found a shriveled onion and a slimy tomato in my fridge. It seems that two weeks is the best I can do at staying waste free, but I continue to push for a longer streak.
No waste here too!
No waste here either.......since we just had "eat up the leftovers Thursday"! LOL
I had a little fruit waste! Part of the inside of my cantaloupe was purple and smelled weird. We ate the good half though. I have a few strawberries that aren't looking too hot. I may throw them into smoothies later though.
So excited, the school tortoises are back for another summer. They are our fruit and vegetable garbage disposals! They ate some icky broccoli and cauliflower that I would normally have thrown out. I started to give them an old Fuji apple but I was afraid that too much of it would make them sick (too much sugar.) So, I ended up sharing the old apple with two cute 10 pound tortoises. The apple actually wasn't that bad, just a little soft. It was enjoyed by all.
Hey, losing a little bit of already-rescued food isn't too bad! This week, I lost an entire cantaloupe 🙁
I bought it last week and completely forgot about it! Today I'll be making some pizza sauce to rescue some local tomatoes that are on the verge of going bad.
I am a HUGE fan of yours and am coming out of my lurking status and going to try my best to meet this challenge. Thanks for all that you do to promote frugal living! 🙂
Oh, I love it when readers de-lurk! Glad to have you out in the open now. 😉
No food waste to report, but I see some looming on the horizon unless I can figure a way out of a little conundrum. Basically, I've ended up with several jars of Kung Pao sauce that have been opened but only a spoonful of each has been eaten. I can't eat them because I have allergies.
Long story here - CatMan LOVES Kung Pao but we're trying to cut back on takeout, so we were trying a bunch of sauces & recipes to see if we could find a way to make it at home. Anyhow, these are the rejects. Normally I'd just find a way to eat them myself, but at least two of them have listed ingredients that would send me to the ER. CatMan won't eat them, and doesn't share my zeal for not tossing anything edible.
I can't post them on FreeCycle because they've been opened. But I hate to just toss them. Any suggestions?
Do you know anyone that has teenagers that might like to make something w them ...??
I had nothing wasted this week either but I did blog about food security and included a short film about food waste in the US
Not a lot of food waste, but some. About a tablespoon of brown rice that was from take out night and some really old, I think it was, gravy and a few blueberries. Price matched Aldi's prices at Walmart and the blueberries were not quite as good as Aldi blueberries, but most have been fine. Had a few soft ones and a few moldy ones. I think I got rid of all the moldy ones this morning and I will keep working on them. 🙂 But that is really about it, so a fairly good food waste week.
Cooking for two can be challenging. I think hubby hunts in the frig when he has one of his munchie attacks while I am working. I try to make no more than 4 servings per recipe. Dinners can be put in the frig and eaten that next night. I even make cookies and only cook 6-12 cookies. I then freeze the dough so my munchie man wont find them. It's been a struggle to only shop for what you need on a weekly basic, especially since I buy only whole food products. Living in my Tin Can with two small frigs can be tough.
Great web site.