Food Waste Friday | Little by Little
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.
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My food waste showed up little by little this week.
Early in the week, I found some chicken that had been in the fridge for an iffy amount of time. I'm willing to take a risk with other foods sometimes, but with meat, I err on the side of caution.
A few days later, I found a moldy zucchini.
And just yesterday, the very last mushroom got moldy.
It wasn't an all bad week, though. I rescued a dried up old potato by making some potato bread.
And I caught a few bananas just as they were about to be overripe. I sliced and froze them and used them in a yogurt smoothie (that's one of the three ways I use ripe bananas.)
My kids love to eat frozen bananas slices plain as well...the freezing makes even a slightly over-ripe banana taste not quite as cloyingly sweet and the texture is almost ice cream-like.
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Today's 365 post: One of these things is not like the others.
Joshua's 365 post: Doodle Redo
That bread! Looks amazing C:
I had some homemade granola bars,not sure how old,and I think I'm going to have a few grapes but maybe I'll try freezing them,undecided?
I have a courgette (zucchini) pictured in my No Waste Tastes Great post today. But (and I'm not showing off! honestly ;-)) mine's not mouldy. It's going in a veggie lasagne to use it up. There is some potential waste however. It's not meat (phew!) but it's beans and I'm not sure if one week on they are edible. Any ideas anyone? I will do a google and see whether I could manage to eat at lunch (wouldn't give the Kids just in case).
PS - Kristen - hope you don't mind me popping this in (I know you're an Aldi shopper so hoping not) I'm running an Aldi UK Easter Giveaway today - just for UK residents if anyone's interested? Please remove my comment if inappropriate! Thanks 🙂
Is the container of beans slimy on the bottom? Not just water or condensation (I know, that's water too), but something more viscious? If so then the beans have gone bad.
Do the beans smell bad? Then they're probably no good, unless you used a spice you don't like the smell of.
Hmmm not sure - will check hang on.... nope they look and smell okay. Not sure I can do it. Mentioned over on my post I may be slightly kidney-bean-phobic. I kinda work a 3-day-rule on most foods - this has been 7. Am I a really bad person if I dump them in the food recycling? Now in turmoil! Or shall I eat them (haven't had lunch yet) - presume worst case is not feeling so great in a few hours rather than imminent death?
The beans bit the dust. But if it's any retribution by the time I'd made the decision it was too late for lunch so settled for an apple and a few crackers...
I've really been meaning to try some potato bread. I've always liked it elsewhere. Ditto on the chicken - I'm always err on the side of caution for the meats myself.
Meat is the one area that I'm not as willing to risk it as well. This week was okay, but probably because I haven't had time to do a full clean out.
I also had a zucchini go on me this week.... Shoot!
And the last bit of Shrimp scampi, Might have been ok, but I wasn't taking the chance...
Yea I would chance the meat either...
I meant Wouldn't
I had to compost 3 pears and half a cucumber. 🙁 Last week I got rid of a few things that had been hanging out in my freezer for a *very* long time with good intentions of using them up. Like a store-bought carton of egg whites my mother bought when she visited last year. Since we buy fresh farm eggs, it's not something I ever thought to use, and when I looked at the carton, it says to freeze for no longer than 3 months. The worst, though, was a bag of cauliflower. Two (maybe three) years ago, I blanched and froze it during CSA season when we were inundated with it. It was terrible and mushy once cooked, so I pureed it and froze it on a cookie sheet. I then broke it into chunks and put it back in the freezer, with the intent to hide it in things like soup and mashed potatoes. It never happened, and it was now hideously freezer-burned and grey. Blech!
It's amazing what dawadling over going shopping will do for your food waste:
- half a bunch of kale that went pale and limp when I wasn't looking; I'd planned to make another bean-kale soup but the unseasonably warm weather and the fact I've been eating Leftover Soup for 2-3 weeks at lunch combined to make me disinclined
- an apple someone else cut up but didn't eat
bonus find:
I experimented with keeping onions and garlic in a cabinet rather than in the fridge (to free up another produce drawer). The potatoes started sprouting. But they're organic yukon golds, just what I wanted to plant. Now I don't have to buy seed taters.
But the only produce I have now is a slightly wrinkled apple, a handful of end of season clementines, and inputs (bit of celery, bit of carrot, onion, potatoes) and even those aren't looking great.
I had a terrible week last week, but thankfully this week I only tossed some scrambled eggs and a little cheese. Hoping this next week will be another good week!
We had a pretty good week, all things considered! It does seem to cycle, doesn't it? No or little waste one week, and tons the next. I'm getting better though. Thanks for the inspiration.
No Food Waste this week, Yippee!
Mind you lettuce, cabbage and celery on the cusp. Ooo, does that sound like a soup to you?
I agree. It's sad to waste meat, but not worth the risk. I found hot dogs this week that had been sitting around for I don't know how long. Apparently, my family has gotten tired of them because I used to go through a pack every couple weeks. They won't be on the shopping list for awhile...
I didn't have waste this week! Last week I had quite a bit so I'm happy that I slightly redeemed myself this week.
I didn't have waste this week! Last week I had quite a bit so I'm happy that I slightly redeemed myself this week.
Kristen! My husband and kids love frozen bananas, too. The kids use them to add to ice cream and my hubby uses them as ice cream (sadly, he and I don't have the same metabolism as our young teens do 🙁 ). I toss them into our smoothies regularly. Happy weekend!
I threw out a mortifying amount of food this week. yes, it went into our home composter, as well as the city compost, but it was still waste. My husband has been buying food at Costco without any plan of how it will get incorporated into meals.
So there was so much food in the fridge that it was impossible to see what we actually had! Need proof? My husband bought a six-pack of nice micro brew when we already had four left from the last purchase!
Now that's full!
However, I now have a clean slate and the motivation to not repeat.
Katy
No waste so far, but I do have a half pack of mushrooms, half an avocado, and some home made salsa to use up. It might be a good time to make omelettes.
I had to compost a whole canteloupe, but it was bad from the store. Like a pharisee, looked good on the outside but was rotten on the inside.
I also had to trim off some slimy parts before I was able to use up the last of my cucumber. I'm being a very lenient judge and calling it a no waste week!
I didn't do too bad. Some cherry tomatoes, old hot dog buns, cheese and evaporated milk. Mostly upset about the milk. But, I've learned my lesson on that one. Straight to the freezer it goes because there is absolutely nothing I make that calls for it except for meatballs.
I also love potato bread, but I have a few too many potatoes that are on the brink this week. I think gnocchi is in our future. Bananas never go to waste here either - I have three in the freezer waiting to become muffins.
I only wasted some stuffed peppers this week and two bananas that I dehydrated and they stuck so bad to the trays that I couldn't get off without breaking them into a bunch of tiny pieces. I should've just thrown them in the freezer.
Rarely do bananas go bad here, but this week, I threw one out. 🙁 I am used to my bananas becoming overripe somewhat quickly, but don't mind the peel color if they aren't too soft. As I don't eat them plain, I cut them up with some other fruit with yogurt and some cereal on top, I don't tend to mind if they are a bit soft. I picked up the banana bunch to find the ripest and two fell off. So I peeled one of them and started cutting it up into my bowl and ate one piece and decided it was just too soft for me to deal with. In somewhat disgust I dumped it into the trash and cut up a different banana. Now I need to go make banana oatmeal raisin cookies to use a few more overripe bananas.
I also tossed some lo-mein noodles that we just didn't like, unless that was last week, which it may have been. But I keep trying to make lo-mein at home and have a good sauce, but can't find the right store bought noodles and these we really didn't like. I was going to have them for lunch one day and toss some left over pasta sauce and a meatball or two on it, but just couldn't force myself to do it. But I did use up the left over barbecue sauce (homemade) in a crockpot chicken dish and used up the left over homemade pasta and pizza sauce in a pasta casserole last night. Tonight is a corned beef hash with some left over corned beef. Looking forward to it. Probably will make some apple pancakes too, as I love making them every few weeks and my son will then eat them for breakfast almost every day.
Also tossed a few grapes and I think that is it. So not a bad week for me. OH, I did have one question, we had a bacon wrapped fillet mignon meal once and the bacon is left. How can you reheat bacon and make it crunchy again? Or what do you do with previously cooked bacon? Use to flavor some soup beans, what?
I'm giggling because a moldy mushroom just seems kind of silly to me 🙂 Maybe it's just me.
I know. Fungus grew on the fungus. Heh.
I once called a friend to ask "My blue cheese got moldy, do you think I can still eat it?"
Response: "Just scrape the mold off."
When I walked into my kitchen Friday morning I almost immediately thought of you, Kristen.
I worked at both jobs on Thursday so didn't get home until about 9:30pm after putting in a 14 hour day. I popped some local organic, free range chicken breasts into the oven and set them on the stove to cool when they were done.
I walked into the kitchen Friday morning and the first thing I saw was my very expensive chicken breasts still sitting on the top of the stove. I went to bed and forgot all about them. ARGHH!! I could have just kicked myself!
I know you'll feel my pain.
Just found you site and love it! I'm definitely going to join in Food Waste Friday this week, that is a major thorn in my side. Signed up so can't wait to read more! Thanks 🙂