Food Waste Friday | I wasted shelf-stable food. Goodness.
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.
That's pretty bad, huh? Not as understandable as wasting, say, delicate herbs.
I found these during my cabinet clean-out.
The problem is that most of this stuff was up on the very highest shelf, in the back. We know what that means: forgotten food.
I would totally have used this stuff up if I'd remembered that it was there.
None of these foods are unsafe to eat...they're just rancid, which means the oils have oxidized. Oxidized oils won't typically make you sick, but they do taste icky.
Fortunately, the bread crumbs were almost gone, and there's not much rice left in that bag either.
I also found some bad food in my fridge.
The spinach had an expiration of 12.20, so I'm surprised it doesn't look worse than it does! The grapes aren't that old, but they went south surprisingly soon after I bought them (I should have frozen them for smoothies when I noticed they were on their way out).
The mozzarella turned, um, pink because for some reason, I didn't make pizza one week (I make pizza almost every week so I hardly ever waste mozzarella!), and the leftover chicken thighs went bad because I just forgot about them. On the upside, they weren't local, organic chicken thighs, so I don't feel quite as distressed about wasting them.
(Organic, local chicken is both expensive and delicious, so letting that go bad is a terrible crime on two counts.)
Well, at least I ought not to have any pantry waste for a while...I know exactly what's in my cabinets, and my cabinets are organized in a way that will help me to keep better track of what I've got.
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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.
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Today's 365 post: (paper) snowflake aftermath
Joshua's 365 post: Matildabelle??
I too had mid-week waste due to cupboard declutter. 3 bottles of vitamins and some gravy browning (3 years out of date!), oh plus a teaspoon of chocolate powder. All gifted none purchased, but that's no defense really!
Photographed my fridge as usual this Friday. A good one for me - no Friday the 13th horror story! I even had a brainwave and sellotaped the fridge light off, and used my new camera without a flash. And I think it is a clearer image - but there's still a way to go with my camera skills 🙂
Jo-
You are so smart. Taping the switch to get a better picture.
To be honest Linda after I did it I did wonder if there was an easier way - like switching it off! But the Hubby wasn't around, and he's normally the one who intervenes and asks me 'what on earth are you doing' and shows me a simpler alternative. Haven't found the off switch yet...may go and ask him...
Hi Kristen, This is not a FWF comment but is about the link to your 365 page. It isn't working (got your 404'd message - funny!) but when I clicked on 'go to home page' the photo of Lisey came up. That's what keeps appearing when I click your tab at the top of the page. Happened yesterday too. No idea if it's me or you!
I'm just now joining you Kristen! Wish I had started this sooner...I could have saved so much more money!!
I wasted shelf-stable food too! I have a flour problem--any thoughts? Check my blog!
I store whole grains and nuts in the frig or freezer, including whole wheat flour.
One of my readers has suggested freezing flour when first purchased then storing in cupboard. I have probs with flour from time to time!
Fortunately I have a small chest freezer so my refrigerator freezer is more of a storage place as frozen things don't keep as well in it. I especially dislike that rancid walnut smell and keeping them in the freezer works great (as long as they were fresh when purchased). We also keep the occasional bag of tortilla chips as we don't eat them fast enough to keep from getting stale. My husband will buy several bags of Fritos when on sale and they keep really well in the freezer. They just get cold, but stay really fresh.
Good idea, Renee! We normally don't do that. I'd like to try it in the future, but it won't really help me salvage this old flour I have now =/ I'd like to use it for something non-edible, but I'm not sure what. If you have any ideas on that I'd love to hear them too!
Alexis - you could make salt dough shapes. Then you could use them as gift tags. I've been doing this although I've started doing them in clay, there's a picture on my FB. But in case you don't go over there, do a basic salt dough recipe and use a cookie cutter to cut them out, making a small hole in the top with a pencil (for tags) - I've been stamping the recipients name in the clay - presume this works with dough?. Leave to dry for a couple of days and paint, add some string or ribbon. If you can't stamp their name on you could paint it on?Alternatively you could make playdoh?
Bake more? 😉 Or buy smaller packages of flour so you will use it up before it goes bad?
Ack! Don't you just H*** wasting meat? I had a miraculous week but we've a party to throw this weekend so next week might be a totally different story.
You motivated me to clean my fridge! I found a few nasty things in there - most notably a wasted 1/2 container of 32 ounce yogurt. Nasty! I also gave up on the black walnut bread I posted about last week and we fed it to the squirrels. They loved it! And I got a cute photo of one enjoying a crumb.
Thanks for the linky!
Nothing. Two weeks in a row, this is a record. But I'm having a party this weekend with foods I don't usually eat, so who knows what will happen.
Must get back to more thorough meal planning. I stared meal planning when I was into trying tons of new recipes. I'm stepping back from that, using more oldies but goodies, and thought I could be lacksidaisical about planning. Not working so back in the saddle it is.
Good for you!
Pink mold is so weird! I had some corn tortillas get that a few weeks ago...
There was so much waste in the last two weeks I cannot even remember it all.I just know it was alot and alot of money down the drain. *le sigh*
Kirsten, The grits (and the rice and cornmeal) can definitely still be used for craft projects. We make maccaroni people with wood ball heads and mix white glue with grits to make hair. We've also used it with out homeschool mixed with glue or with flour, water and salt. The flour, water & salt mixture
makes great maps or roll it out to make air hardened cookies for ornaments,etc. The grits and cornmeal gives it a litte extra texture. Sometimes we make cut out cookies (think hearts for valentines day) without adding the cornmeal or grits to the mixture then when they dry out completely 'paint' them with white glue and sprinkle with grits or cornmeal to give them texture. Let this dry then paint as desired. They look really pretty hanging from a tree branch in a pot of your choice. I have grits, cornmeal and maccaroni that's over 4 years old that we use just for crafts!
Rice and dried beans we use for 'bean bags' and 'bean' animals. Can't help with the bread crumbs, but I'd never throw out cornmeal or grits.
All that stuff can be fed to wild birds too. If you don't have a feeder just sprinkle it on the deck rails.
I forgot to add that if you make maps with the flour mixture after it dries you can use the grits or cornmeal to add texture to certain areas. Think grass, sand, etc. Just alway cover with glue then sprinkle on the texture then paint.
Thank you for inspiring me to clean out my fridge today! Hope I don't find anything too scary 🙂
Well, at least you regularly clean your pantry!!! Last year we helped my MIL to clean hers and we found a can of cream of celery from 1985!! She usually keeps her house clean but apparently not her pantry. I'm surprised it blew up or something!
I mean, it didn't blow up!
Been doing better, after throwing out all the stuff that went bad after the holidays. This week, I need to throw out a few potatoes. How come I always have growing potatoes and sometimes a rotten one in the bottom of the bag. (Yes, I haven't tossed it yet, just such an unpleasant thing to do. Will do it in a minute before I grab me some lunch.) I think we will be tossing the acorn squash that we made a dish out of, as it is slightly desserty and I just don't think anyone in the house will tend to eat it as leftovers. But haven't tossed it yet, but bet by next Friday, I will have.
I did the pantry and fridge clean-out so it's a scary week!
From the fridge:
1/3 of a giant jar of artichoke hearts (these got frozen on the top of the back shelf and the texture was repulsive after)
1/2 c. of store bought curried carrot soup
From the pantry:
a can of soup so old I was afraid to give it to the food pantry
red and green chile powder a friend brought back from NM 5+ years ago
2 ramen soup spice packets (not sure these are really food!)
1 jar of cake sprinkles
3 pillows shredded wheat (ancient!)
and general waste:
1/3 of a loaf of French bread that got thrown in the cracker basket on top of the fridge and forgotten--now rock hard
Not as bad as I'd feared. We will not be buying any readymade soup in the future as I can tell we don't like that funny taste it always has.
I solely use pyrex for storage now too. However, I have learned that cheese, unless I'm going to use it within a few days, really needs a tight wrap in plastic wrap to keep it good. Just a hint for the next time you may skip a pizza week!
I didn't have a good week and I'm so ashamed that I'm not blogging about it! Here's hoping next week's better!!
I have been doing horribly in the food waste department lately! Wasted this week were a cucumber (not entirely my fault. I purchased it last Thursday and by Monday it was moldy), a half a bunch of celery that went limp SUPER fast (again, not entirely sure that was my fault...), a serving of chicken and rice casserole, some broccoli and cheese, some glazed carrots, a bowl of mixed fruit, two bags of shredded Swiss cheese that I found in the bottom of my deep freeze (they've been there for 2 years, and we don't like Swiss. Which would explain why they've been there for 2 years...) and 4 oranges that were hiding in the back of my fridge.
Ouch. I definitely know what I need to work on "re-learning" in 2012!
I did okay this week- a few satsuma oranges that were bad in the bag when I bought them, and a bit of pbj sandwich the kids didn't finish. Maybe next week I'll have my first no waste week? I sure hope so!
Oh yuck! I just threw out a big wedge of brie (totally uneaten!) that also had turned brownish and pinkish. I shudder to think of the cost. And what makes it worse...we LOVE brie. Just bought it before the holidays and each day kept saying...we'll have it tomorrow, we'll have it tomorrow...
It's a miracle! I cleaned my pantry and I didn't throw anything away. Although there was a little waste from my fridge...but it's still better than most weeks. So I'm pretty happy about that. 🙂
I'm excited to do an Eat-from-the-pantry-and-freezer week (or month!? there's a lot there!) and we were making tacos last night. We put the hard taco shells in the toaster oven and all of a sudden there was this really strong, weird and terrible smell in the kitchen -- the taco shells were virtually sweating and melting! I checked the box and they were WAYYYY expired! Who knew that way expired taco shells reacted that strangely when heated. Fortunately, we had a newer pack in the pantry and we could still have dinner. : ) Watch out for old taco shells! ~grin~
Looooong time reader, first time commenter! How can you tell when something from the pantry has gone rancid? Refrigerator or freezer items are pretty self explanatory, but I've always had a hard time with dry goods.
And actually now that I've posted, I remember that I have commented before. Whoops! lol 😉 🙂