Food Waste Friday | I'm full of beans.
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.
Well, my compost bin is. All of these beans got moldy.
They look kinda ok in that picture, but they really were beyond salvaging.
(very moldy picture alert)
(you have been warned)
Yup. That's more than I want to mess with.
I'm annoyed with myself and with Weis over the beans.
First, why I'm annoyed with Weis: They've lately only been selling beans in large-ish plastic containers. I hate that. I'd much, much prefer to be able to choose how many beans I want, and also to be able to choose which beans I want (if I choose my own I can make sure they're all good...in a container, all bets are off. And we all know what a single moldy bean can do to a pile of good beans.).
I'm going to have a chat with the produce manager next time I'm there and find out why they're packaging the beans this way and ask for a change. It doesn't hurt to ask, right?
Secondly, I'm annoyed with myself because I didn't look closely enough at the packaging date. The beans looked fresh and crisp, but when I looked at the date yesterday, I realized the beans had already been on the shelf for 5 days before I even bought them.
So, lesson learned. But the beans were the unfortunate casualty.
Happily they are quite compostable, so at least they're not going into the trash.
Which reminds me! A new reader wrote this week to ask if the photos I post are really all the food I throw away each week. She wondered if I only took pictures of the non-compostable stuff.
As evidenced by this photo, that is not the case...I take a picture of whatever food we waste, whether it's headed for the trash or the compost. The only wasted food I don't photograph is stuff like bruised spots I cut out of apples (I figure that doesn't count because I'm actually preventing food waste by cutting out rotten spots instead of throwing the whole thing out!), and also table waste (like the few soggy Cheerios Sonia left in her breakfast bowl).
Neither of those types of food waste were my main problem, though, back in my pre-Food-Waste-Friday days. I was the queen of freezer-burnt food, I let leftovers go bad ALL the time, and to my shame, many fruits and vegetables turned to slime in my produce drawers. So, those areas have been where I've focused my food waste efforts.
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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: I caught a smile.
Joshua's 365 post: Swingin' in Spring
I HATE when produce is individually wrapped. It doesn't make any sense at all.
I bought orange and yellow peppers on sale last week - fortunately for me they were good, unlike those moldy beans - but each pepper was wrapped like it was supposed to be coming out of a vending machine.
What. On. Earth?!
Oh, you'll mourn with me, I'm sure. I broke my big jar of yeast putting it back into the freezer. So: little round balls, all over. Hard to clean. And about five dollars worth of yeasty goodness gone, gone, gone.
*Sob*
Ohhh, I've done that! Not the whole container, but still...
And yeah, cleaning up yeast is awful. Mine always seems to have some kind of static cling going on, which makes it nigh onto impossible to sweep up.
I'm pretty sure I have yeast balls living under my fridge because I just couldn't get to them.
Table waste! Glad you mentioned that. Yesterday I was wondering, how much trial and error did it take, when you started menu planning, for you to figure out exactly how much food your family was going to be able to eat in a week?
I really hate pre-packaged food, too. There are only two of us and a tray of beans is sometimes more than I want to make. And individually wrapped peppers are insane! I've seen similar things more often than I care to remember.
I want to kick myself for the waste we had this week. It was meat waste and it got tossed because I forgot about it at the back of the fridge....le sigh.
So, this time I can blame Weis for the moldy food picture 😉 EWWWWWWW!
Maybe last week was "Bad Avocado" week or something because I cut into a bad avocado as well and had to toss it. It's so maddening too because they're not cheap! I threw milk down the drain again - another too large container that didn't get finished even though I tried to find ways to use it. Moldy onions made an appearance as well - not a particularly good week.
Our waste this week, was mostly my fault....never got around to chopping up a head of cauliflower I purchased marked down, which ended up being no savings at all!! UGH! Plus some strawberries, and I found a baggie of French Toast (3 slices) lurking WAAAY back in the fridge...it's been at least 2 weeks since I'd made the French Toast. And I tossed a yogurt tube that my son didn't eat with his lunch, but sat out at room temp. until I noticed it. I figured better safe than sorry with that one. And to end this on a good note, I've finally got the hubster eating leftovers and not complaining....too much!! lol
I didn't have a great week for not wasting food! For Table Scraps...do you put everything left on the plate into the compost? We had lasagna last night...could the meat/sauce/noodles/bread all go into the compost?
Basic answer: Yes, it can all go in the compost.
More nuanced answer: many people (myself included) don't put meat into a dump-and-forget-it compost pile, because meat more likely to attract vermin than non-meat & dairy is. However, I would feel comfortable putting in a little meat, such as what's in lasanga, meaty tomato sauce, or a ham omlet.
Grrr...the pre-packaged produce. You almost never make it all the way through before spoilage.
I had a terrible no-food-waste week. I cleaned out the freezer and had several containers of freezer burned food. On the positive side, I got the freezer cleaned and reorganized. And no more saving food that I didn't really like, but wasn't too bad. If I made something icky, I'm not going to save it!
And I can't wait for the farmer's markets to open. Another month in this area! Last year, I started bringing my own tote bag plus smaller plastic bags. The vendors were surprised, but they all seem to like the idea of reusing.
Always in a hurry, I really didn't notice the expiration dates so much but now I pay close attention because it saves so much money!
Bad produce here this week, too: a dried out limes, some cooked asparagus that was lots in the back of the fridge, and part of a pineapple that wasn't very good to start with.
On the up side, only one mago left from the bag of marked-down ones I bought, the others are eaten or in the freezer for smoothies.
Hey Frugal Girl,
Last night my husband said to me "Hey, why don't I pick up Thai on my way home from work tomorrow night and we can have a date at home, like the Frugal Girl." I said "WHAT THE WHAT? You read Frugal GIrl?". Perhaps, I've mentioned it a few times. 😉 Yea, Husband! Yea, You! Yea for me!
That's awesome! 🙂 My boyfriend is familiar with The Frugal Girl as well... from my frequent mentions of it.
My boyfriend is familiar with The Frugal Girl too! I talk about her recipes all the time and this weekend I am going to make Kristen's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake! I have a craving for chocolate and have all the ingredients in the house!
I always hated food waste, but FWF has inspired me over the past year to really concentrate on being better about not wasting food. Thanks for that!
Today I have to compost some going-soft fresh herbs I bought a few weeks ago at the Farmers' Market. This one stand sell small bags of single herbs for $2, and huge bags stuffed with several different herbs for $2.50. It's a deal, but for the life of me I cannot use all the herbs before they go bad. One week I put herbs in EVERYTHING (I made herbaceous iced tea, pesto, garnished the heck out of every dinner) and still ended up with a few straggly bits going soft. Oh well. One day I will use up every bit of the herb-bag.
Most herbs dry well. Wash the herbs and dry well. Then spread out on a plate or pan or cookie sheet. Preheat your oven for just a couple of minutes (ideally to 120F or less) OR you can just turn on the oven light. Put the herbs in, leave in till they're dry.
If you want to get fancy, you can tie the herbs together like a bouquet and hang them upside down from the oven racks. This makes the herbal essences drain into the leaves and thus your dried herbs are stronger. That's the story, anyway. I figure it can't hurt to try.
PS: Parsley and basil taste like nothing when dried.
I just wanted to let you know that I linked to this post in my blog today. I am implementing changes on my blog and I am planning to start doing my own Food Waste Friday. Thank you for the inspiration!
I tend to get evil looks from staffers at the local supermarket as I pull plastic boxes of lettuce, beans, etc. out from the back to check dates! I agree, I much prefer to choose my own produce.
The same thing happens to me when I buy packaged produce. Yuck! Most recently it was some zucchini in a package...I had a situation with some strawberries last week that I addressed with the store and they actually gave me my money back AND replaced the berries! I'm all for discussing it with the manager!
I just realized that it's been posting the same link for two weeks (i wondered why that entry was getting so much traffic...) but this week was heavy for us, waste wise. i'm not impressed, nor happy with myself.
I hate buying bagged produce too! Not only because I can't pick through them, I also can't use my reusable produce bags and am forced to bring home trash.
The good new is that I'm back in the fold and posted my food waste this week!
The bulk purchase thing really winds me up! Where I shop they do a bag of apples, and a get one free. Now this isn't very frugal but I'd rather pay full price and just get the actual amount of apples I want, as I have to keep thinking of ways to use them so as not to waste them. Just reduce your prices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway.... This week the carrots took me on as my No Waste Tastes Great challenge - but carrots you are no opponent for SimplyBeingMum - as my very favourite slow-cooked soup is a spicy Carrot, Ginger and Lentil soup. Sorted! Posting recipe as soon as I have checked in here....
I dunno...based on what you're saying, I'd take these back to the food manager, and ask for my money back. It certainly seems fair...and sure makes sense, considering this wasn't your fault.
I'm back on the Food Waste bandwagon! I haven't been doing well and need to be more accountable...!
Amazingly, the only food waste (besides me eating too much), was a squished clementine that I found at the bottom of my bookbag that I take to our homeschool co-op. It did make it to our marina compost, though! (Yes, our marina- where we live- has a compost-- yay!)
Ok, I'm late here, and I missed last week, too. But I do want to say that in the last 2 weeks I only wasted a handful of spinach and some slimy stems of cilantro (but I used most of it - the non-slimy ones of course)! Huge deal for me!
I had an incredibly aggravating and stressful week in work and ended up basically eating out or eating takeaway for just about every meal last week (not frugal AT ALL). However, no food waste to speak of this week so instead I mused on the topic in general.
I did go to the market yesterday so will have to be careful to make sure I cook and eat properly today and during the week.