Food Waste Friday | It's Protein Waste Week, apparently.
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.
Usually the food that I waste is composed of produce, but this week I did manage to use up all my fruits and vegetables. The bowl above contains several egg whites that were left when I made a Key Lime Pie for my husband (it was one of the 14 things I did for him during our 14 Days of Valentines). I was going to scramble them up for breakfast or use them in baking and somehow, I just never did. If only good intentions counted for something, huh?
I also wasted some other protein, in the form of chicken. Remember how I said I was going to try cooking chicken in the Crock-Pot? Well, I did, and I was none-too-thrilled with the results. It was really easy, and very un-messy compared to roasting a chicken, but the meat had a weird flavor and texture (it was almost mushy). I don't know if I maybe cooked it too long, or if the chicken I bought was going to have a strange flavor no matter what, but I don't think I'll be slow-cooking a chicken again. We did eat it for dinner, and with the help of copious amounts of cranberry sauce, made it through part of the leftovers (which tasted more and more odd as time went by), but we just could not manage to eat it all. I threw it out earlier in the week, which is why it's not in today's picture.
I suppose if I was really, really desperate, I would have eaten the chicken, but I've learned that sometimes, unless you're literally starving, it's just not worth it to eat something you really loathe. (The NonConsumerAdvocate had a similar experience with some pepper(!) bagels this week.) On the upside, I do know that I can prevent this particular sort of food waste from happening again simply by roasting my chickens the traditional, albeit messier, way...in the oven!
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I don't like crock pot chicken either. Pretty much the only thing the crock pot is good for, is cooking tomato sauce, chili, making stock, and baking potatoes...At least in my experience.
You are not using the crock pot or slow cooker to the highest, there are tons of recipes for it and it works wonderfully. Try it with some good recipes and not just sauces you will see
I do like it for slow-cooking beef for BBQ Beef sandwiches, but I haven't used it for much else! I've tried a number of recipes, but haven't been thrilled with many of them. It bums me out, because the slow-cooker seems so handy.
How do you bake potatoes in the crock pot? I might want to try this.
I like to make pulled pork or pot roast in the crock pot. I use the boneless pork loin, which goes on sale for $1.99/lb every once in a while around here, or the bottom round roast which I just got for $1.79/lb (that's about the cheapest boneless meats go around here).
BBQ Pulled Pork:
Season the pork loin with salt/pepper/minced garlic. Slice some onions. Put the pork in the crockpot, put sliced onions on top, and then add enough water to come up about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the pork. Cook on low all day. Take meat out, get rid of liquid/onions from the crockpot, put the shredded meat back in, and then mix with your favorite BBQ sauce. Heat through.
Pot roast:
Season meat with salt/pepper/garlic. In a bowl, mix up 1 pkg onion soup mix, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and 1-2 cans of water (just to make it liquidy - it's not an exact science 🙂 ). Put meat in crockpot, cover with mixture, cook all day. You can add veggies too if you'd like, but I just do them on the side.
Those are just a few really simple suggestions for meals that are yummy, cheap, and quick!
Well, not quick to cook, but SUPER quick to prepare 🙂
I love Key Lime Pie. I hear it's easy to make; need to give it a try! 🙂
I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe, and we all liked it except for Zoe (she just ate the whipped cream on top! lol).
I cleaned my fridge out and had to throw away 4 or 5 bottles of condiments that were expired. I am new at the food waste thing and had to do some purging to give myself a fresh start. As far as leftovers and other items we did really well. I am surprised how well the whole family did with a little bit of encouraging. I really hope this keeps up. I am already noticing differences in my trash output and the grocery bill.
The only way I'll cook a chicken in the crock pot is if the chicken sits on top of balls of wadded up aluminum foil while cooking. I've found this helps with the texture and flavor issues. And its a good use for those little bits of foil that are at the end of the roll - not quite large enough to use, but you don't want to throw them away.
you can freeze egg whites:o)
I know! My problem was that I thought I was going to use them and then I just didn't. Oh well.
About that chicekn: croquettes are good at hiding a multitude of food sins.
Have you tried CI's French braised chicken? The essence is to bake the chix in a tightly covered pot, using only the liquid from the sauteed French Trinity (onion, carrot, celery). IT comes out moist, tender, and with a little of the most amazingly savory liquid. It's easy and if you skip browning the chicken, it's also low-mess and very little actual work.
Ooh, that sounds tasty. I'll go look that up on their site. I've rarely tried a recipe from Cooks and not liked it!
Not all CI's recipes make the cut with me. Some aren't to my taste, others are too much work for the effort, others are seem like minute variations of the same thing (apple pie and pork chops are the best examples). But I've only tried one recipe that was just flat-out bad. So be warned: don't waste time or chocolate on their fudge recipe.
I have you beat -- my refrigerator died and I had to throw out food that didn't take the heat -- cottage cheese, carrots, mandarin oranges, store pudding. Luckily, I knew the 'beast' was going (I was holding off spending money) so I thought I was okay, but I didn't catch it in time.
I've done chicken in slow cooker -- and I agree with you -- I shredded it and make chicken/apple/walnut salad..mayo hid a lot of taste.
Any one have luck with meatloaf in slow cooker.
My husband is a die-hard meatloaf hater, so I've never tried it in the slow-cooker. lol He'd probably hate that even more than he hates regular meatloaf! lol
My husband is also a die-hard meatloaf hater, and the ONLY way I've gotten him to eat meatloaf (since I love it) is to make barbecue mini meatloaves...basically, meatloaf cooked in a muffin pan and topped with barbecue sauce. They're SO yummy! He likes them as long as I don't make them too much. 🙂 That said, it took forever for me to convince him to try it.
We cook a lot of soups in the slow cooker and beef seems to work the best, though we usually buy a higher quality of meat. If we do something with chicken, we will buy the whole bird (it is really hard to buy small ones), make our stock, cook the veggies in the crock pot in the stock, and add the chicken at the last minute. I don't know what the crock pot does to chicken, but it is not good.
I also struggle to eat leftover chicken because it is often gamey, but something about cooking it on the bone seems to remove that gamey flavor (for me).
I love my crock pot and make chicken in it all the time. mine has never had a weird taste to it. It does taste a little different then in the stove, I find i have yet to dry out a chicken in my crock pot.
My favorite way to make Chicken in my crock pot is to put the chicken in and our a can of muchroom soup on top. I serve it over rice with a veggie on the side.
ummy
I had a similar experience with crock pot chicken recently. My husband and I vowed to never cook a chicken in the crock pot ever again. LOL.
Sorry you didn't like the chicken, Kristen; what a shame! No food waste for us this week, unless you count a pear that went bad and had to be composted. I do, however need to use up broccoli and lettuce over the next 48 hours; any nice recipes that incorporate both of them except for soup?
My favorite way to eat broccoli is with cooked noodles. After the noodles are al dente, I rinse them in cold water. While the noodles are dripping dry I chop broccoli and what ever other fresh veggies I want to add (carrots, tomatoes, peppers) and occasionally chicken. Toss with Italian dressing. Serve cold.
Salad? I can't think of a way to use lettuce except for raw. We add it to tacos, and use it in salad.
Blanch the broccoli and make a salad?
Yummm, broccoli. I can't be of tremendous help but here are a few ideas, although I bet you know about some of them already
- Steam, add garlic, salt, butter.
- Stir-fry; a recent Cooks Illustrated had a great recipe - not something I usually say about CI's stirfries. Some lettuces can be stir-fried also - what kind do you have?
- Toss with spiced vinagrette OR soy sauce+rice vinegar+sesame oil, roast on preheated pan in 450F oven till you like it. (Roughly 10 min.)
- Creamless of Greens soup: saute onion in fat of choice, add greens and a little liquid, cover, steam till very tender, puree, spice to taste (try a little tabasco in addition to your usual spices). This recipe might work with the lettuce, depending on what kind you have.
What about Quiche for the broccoli?
My new favorite use for broccoli - cream of broccoli soup. Cook the broccoli if it isn't already. Chop in to small pieces. In a sauce pan, melt some butter (this will depend on the number of servings, 1 TBSP is enough for 2 decent servings), add the same amount of flour, whisking until smooth. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of chicken broth, stirring until blended. Remove from heat. Drop most of your broccoli into the food processor and add 1/2 of milk (or cream, if you have some) and puree. Add a bit more milk if needed; this all depends on the quantity of broccoli. Dump all this green mixture into the pot and add however much milk you want to achieve the consistency you like. Add the remaining broccoli (this is just to have something to 'bite' and it looks nice). Be sure to taste and add salt. I have found that the addition of cream cheese will work well when I don't have any 1/2 & 1/2. It works best to add it to the butter/flour mixture (known as a 'roux') so that it melts into the mixture. Sour Cream would also be an option but add it at the end so it won't curdle. Hope this is helpful!
Depending on the type of lettuce, you can grill it easily (leave the bottom part on when you cut it so it stays together on the grill), then dress it lightly w/ a homemade vinaigrette and a sprinkle of cheese. Lettuce is just wonderful done up this way.
Though if it were iceberg, I'd be more inclined to grab a jar of bleu cheese and a tomato and make a nice wedge salad. Those are so wonderful.
My brother accidentally unplugged the freezer in the garage without realizing it. I ended up having to throw out 2 boxes of cod, a whole chicken, a roast, sausage, 10 bags of frozen veggies, 4 bags of shredded cheese, 3 bags of SteamFresh skillet dinners... I could go on but it's just too depressing.
What a bummer!
Ohhhh, Sabrina! That's so awful!!! I would be upset if I were you too.
Ummm, at least it wasn't your fault?
For some reason I don't like washing my crockpot. I would much prefer to deal with the mess of a roasting pan. The only thing I like about cooking chicken in a crockpot is that I can leave the juices in it and after dinner pick the bones clean, then throw the bones back inthe crockpot add water and make stock.
We wasted ice-cream this week. I found a way to use broccoli stems in broccoli slaw.
Do you have a removable ceramic bowl in your crockpot? I have 3 crockpots. Two are small ones that are all one piece. I don't like using them but keep them around for parties and such. My large crockpot has a removable ceramic and I love it. It is so much easier to take that piece out and wash up after a meal. If stuff is stuck to the sides I fill it with water, turn it on, and then wash after the warm water loosened things up.
My girlfriend soakes hers in the sink over night and the next morning washes it out and uses it again the next day. She uses hers almost every day
Nope, my crockpot is all one piece, which is super annoying when it comes time to wash it!
Kristen, do you ever find that because you store with Pyrex, food that should be long past unusable still looks and smells good? I had a bowl of chili soup that was hiding in the back of my fridge for way too long (more than a month) and when I went to throw it away, it smelled as good as the day I made it. No fuzzy stuff going on either! Of course it was trashed, but I appreciate that Pyrex keeps things at least smelling good way longer than my Gladware ever did!
I do love storing stuff in Pyrex, not so much because it makes food last a long time, but because I can see what's inside. That makes me much less likely to forget about leftovers and such!
My first Food Waste Friday! I did okay, but not great. My mom threw out some pasta salad that I thought was still good, and some broccoli from Monday had developed a weird smell. Our usual leftovers night is Wednesday, but it got pushed back a day late because of company. I wonder if the salad and broccoli could have been saved?
So glad to have you joining us! Yay!
Some wasted protein here too. And egg whites that my husband tossed. Maybe it's the moon?
That's so funny, especially because I pretty much never waste egg whites. I wonder who else dumped egg whites down the drain this week. lol
I had a lot of food waste this week, thanks to my daughter 🙁 She was home from university last week, and cooked way too much food. She gets a bit crazy when she comes home, because she can't cook at all in the dorms. I had to throw away some couscous and cheese, ground moose and orzo, and a lot of salmon 🙁 That was also her fault, as she left a box of fish out of the freezer when she was digging for something, and it thawed. I gave some away, we ate what we could, and the rest ended up going to waste. All in all, a horrible week here.
I had to throw out about a cup of orange juice that got thick and nasty. Other than that, we did well. But I've started precooking foods so others can help themselves rather than looking blankly at the raw chicken breasts or head of broccoli.
I'm concerned about your report that you didn't like the slow-cooked chicken since that's one of my favorite ways to cook large quantities of chicken to have ready to go for recipes. A few questions come to mind, such as whether it was a whole chicken, bone-in parts, or boneless? Bones and skin provide a lot moisture and flavor, although I sometimes do a full pot of boneless breasts, then shred for use in soups, quesadillas, etc. Also, how much liquid did you put in the CP? Very little is necessary, otherwise you end up with a bland boiled flavor. Low temps also work better with chicken, as well as shorter cooking times.
I have alot of waste to tackle in my fridge right now and have been putting it off. I was sick for over a week with bronchitis which put hubby in charge of everything. I must say he did a great job playing mom and dad and still trying to work but beyond just making sure the kids had something to eat there is no way he could keep up with what was happening in the fridge. The kids were moaning by the end of the week that they were tired of cereal and pizza! I was doing good on my New Years resolution till this happened and now that I'm better I must get back to it!
Not too many things to waste today...expired condiments, an onion and ice cream!
Sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with your chicken in the crockpot. I cook mine like that all the time. I will usually get both my crockpots going,each with a whole bird, cook them all day and then pick the meat off. Then I store the meat in a plastic bag in the freezer and use the cooked chicken for quick meals like quesadillas, (sp?) or casseroles. I will agree that cooking it that way does make the meat a little bit mushy but for the way I use it it really doesn't matter too much.
Oops! I posted twice. It's great to see so many new people here!!
I had way too much food waste this week. But I'm learning, and that's got to count for something! 🙂 Here's to hoping I do much better next week!
Absolutely!! It took me months and months to end up with a no-waste week, and even now those are few and far between.
When I have leftover eggwhites and (extra time) I turn them into meringues using a recipe from my mil - very easy it is just basically eggwhites beaten until stiff and added sugar along the way bit by bit. They cook at low temp in the oven for an hour and then you let them sit over all night. great to clean out the freezer for all those frozen whites too!
Hello...iam very new to the site,an iam enjoying reading it everyday to get new ideas on everything from what to cook for dinner,snacks...ect..
I saw you on TV...an you said to make out a weekly plan for dinners..i have NEVER done that before..so i tryed it..OMG it was so nice.I talked to all my boys we figured out what we wanted to eat every night,i looked in my pantry to see what i needed to get at the store( not WAL MART ..I shop at shop a lot ) an i got JUST what was on the list. And for a family of 6 (my son lives on his own but still eats dinner with us sometimes ) i SPENT...52.00 !!! I was so shocked i called all my friemds an told them an told everyone at work. Plus it was nice everynite i didnt have to wander what i was fixing that night,I KNEW when the kids said " whats for dinner" ..or they could have looked on the frig an seen the day of the week an what we where going to have....DEFENTLY something my family will contine to practice...plus saving all that money every week is GREAT. Before i went shopping without a list an it was nothing for me to spend 200.00 - 250.00...just grabbing what i THOUGHT i needed,then when i got home an looked i already had it in my pantry...wander how many other people that has happened to...what a waste of MONEY.
Thank you again for all the great tips on saving money...KEEP them up...WE are reading them an using them all....
Cynde Haithcoat
I don't cook chicken in the slow cooker anymore either. We've tried it a couple of different ways, but I still can't get over the texture of it. We do however use it for lots of other foods. This weekend we had a Brownie sleepover and we put some hot chocolate in one, some soup in another and water and hotdogs in another. We set them up before we left for the morning tour and everything was done when we got back for lunch. You don't want to keep 20 7 and 8 year olds waiting for lunch after walking in the snow all morning! At home, I use it for soups, stews, roasts, spagetti sauce and chilis. There's nothing like coming home to your dinner being already made!
This was my first official Food Waste Friday and I did... well, let's not talk about that! I was pretty confident that next Friday's post would be much better. Unfortunately, we went without power for 3 days. I haven't had the gumption to tackle the fridge yet but I'll have to do that tonight. Hopefully, the casualties will be small. Gulp!
I don't do chicken in the crockpot - at least, not whole chicken - if we're going to eat it as, well, chicken. But that's how I get chicken stock for soup, and I pick the meat off and shred it up. That meat is frozen for use in soups, and sometimes my husband makes barbecued chicken sandwiches from it. I've occasionally done chicken breasts in the crockpot for main dish items, and we've enjoyed those.