Food Waste Friday | not-so-fresh ginger
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.
This is a piece of what used to be fresh ginger.
I used almost all of it up (I had a fairly large piece), but this last piece got moldy.
Happily, ginger is so cheap, it's almost free, and of course this bit went into the compost. So, not much of a loss on the financial or environmental fronts.
I also found a rotten clementine in my fruit drawer. Plus, a mango I bought was in very odd shape...it had this weird webby stuff mixed in with the flesh of the fruit, and that makes me think it was a bad mango before it ever came into my house.
So, I'm not taking responsibility for that one.
All in all, it was a good food waste week at my house, and I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself because my fridge is relatively empty at the moment, and that always bodes well for the next week's food waste photo.
Hey, if you haven't joined us Food-Waste-Friday-ers yet, could I encourage you to consider it? Even if you don't blog, or don't want to publicly share your photo, join us in fighting to reduce the food waste in your home.
I know it might seem like a small thing, but if every reader of this blog reduced their food waste, we could make a huge difference in the amount of food that gets thrown into our landfills. There are thousands of people here in the Frugal Girl community, and if we each change and also encourage others in our lives to change, the effect could be really tremendous.
Ten-foot tall snowdrifts are made up of billions of teeny snowflakes, right? All those tiny snowflakes make something enormous, and you and I can can have an effect like that together.
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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 seriously need to redo this.
Joshua's 365 post: Dragons and Eyes and Art! Oh My!
I've had a problem with ginger in the past - waste wise! This isn't very frugal (but has helped eliminate waste) but I now keep frozen ginger cubes in my freezer. I mainly use ginger for slow-cooked soup and to pop a cube in is very easy - and when blending it's very smooth no stray bits of ginger. I totally appreciate that any foodstuff that's bought ready made into something convenient costs more. It's my little indulgence.
My fridge as always has had it's inventory, it's clean and it's picture taken! Not a lot in there, I'm making broccoli and cheese soup for lunch to use up a few remnants. Just done my Aldi shop - came in just under £50. Don't want to get too confident but seem to have the target spend sussed with my menu plan. No tallying up in advance and the last 2 weeks have come in slightly under (apart from my impulse purchases last week - bad girl ;-))
Eureka - apparently I can just freeze regular ginger - hadn't thought of that!
I tried freezing ginger and always ended up with watery, tasteless ginger. Now I keep it, peeled, in a jar of dry sherry in the fridge. Lasts forever, still takes like ginger, as a bonus I get ginger-flavored sherry for Asian cooking.
(Dry sherry is a common substitute for Chinese rice wine, since rice wine is hard to find. Don't use cooking sherry - that's the world's worst sherry made even more undrinkable by the addition of 5% salt. Can't use saki, either, saki is hard liquor, rice wine is wine.)
Ooooo, thanks for the tip!
William B, if you use the ginger while it's still frozen, it works fine to freeze it. I just grate however much ginger I need into the pan as the food is cooking and then stick the rest back in the freezer for later. It does get watery and weird if you let it thaw the whole way- I've wasted ginger that way before as well. Pickling is a good idea as well, I'd never thought of that!
That's good to know. If I'm ever caught without sherry I have a Plan B. Ease of grating is a plus - mincing ginger can be time consuming.
Oooooh, ginger goes right into the freezer at my house! It's so much easier to grate on the microplane when it's frozen as well.
Looks like I'm not the first to post the ginger-freezing tip. Man, your readers are quick!
It is absolutely insane how much I'm saving by being aware of the food waste! Thanks so much for starting this...I hope many more start!
Blogging about our food waste was a great exercise for me! I couldn't believe how much food we wasted some of the weeks. The biggest thing I noticed is that it helped me to think about leftovers in a different way. Leftovers were no longer optional to eat, but an extra meal that was already paid for, prepared, and just waiting to be eaten! Even though I am not blogging about food waste on a regular basis anymore, doing it for 2+ years really helped me to change my perspective and develop good habits about being purposeful with the food I buy. Thanks, Kristen!
A great way to think about food!
I totally agree about freezing ginger. I peel it first and then it is ready and so easy to grate when I need it.
I don't blog my food waste anymore, but Food Waste Friday really encourages me to see what I can use up before it goes bad. When I first started blogging my waste, I was APPALLED...and while I still sometimes have weeks where I end up tossing lots of stuff in the trash (often due to new recipes that flopped), our food waste has greatly decreased on the whole. So, thanks. 🙂
When you freeze it, don't thaw before using just use a small grater for preparation.
Okay I have been reading these posts for a long time and it is time for me to get on the bandwagon! I don't blog but I am going to start taking a weekly picture and start a food waste binder for the family. I am going to start with a complete fridge and freezer clean out this week and then start my recording next week. I think that seeing the pictures will help get the rest of my family on board and keep me on top of menu planning!
Thanks!
I absolutely love this and decided to join in this week. I found a whole bunch of leftovers that are destined for lunch this morning or the freezer, but I was really sad to see what was wasted.
Fwiw you can boil old ginger and use it for tea. I used to buy bottles of this stuff called Ginger Juice by the Ginger People. It's fantastic, all the flavor without the waste. Unfortunately our store stopped selling it.
This is completely off topic, but I had a couple of questions about your flooring. I could be wrong here but if I remember correctly in the pictures of your house when you guys first moved in there was carpeting in the dining area. Well, my husband and I just bought our first house last April and in all the living areas of our house, except for the kitchen, we have carpet. We are planning on putting down hardwood flooring in our living and dining room but I am pretty clueless when it comes to our options on product and installation. How did you decide what type of flooring to use, and did you guys install it on your own, or did you hire someone to put it in for you? I'm just wondering on how the whole process went. Thanks!!
We just bought some oak hardwood prefinished flooring that was on sale at Home Depot, and my brother and my husband installed it using my brother's power nail gun. My brother has lots of experience with this, and we'd have been lost without him!
I'm going to reinstate my FWF but I can't do it on Friday..probably Saturday. So I'll be a week behind you but still linking up!
BTW: Nice bag as a background 😉
Ha! That's awesome you noticed...I just get so bored of my table or my floor as the background. 😉
Bad week at Chez WilliamB:
- two clementines that were fine when I bought them;
- an apple that got left out and semi-dried before getting furry;
- 8 oz tub of improved hummus: not only did I lose the hummus I lost the tahini I added as well.
I note that my guests and I did an excellent job on the shrimp and sushi that were part of my weekend party. No waste there!
I fed old cornflakes to the wildbirds and one orange got moldy.
Nothing here!
Great week at my house! We've been house-bound because of snow around here, which means I've had lots of time to monitor what's in my fridge and spend time cooking!
I love your call to action! I grew up in a household that threw out food like it was nothing, so I do think that people need a bit of a wake up call. It's not just about saving money, but also about valuing the sacrifice that people and animals go through to provide us with nutrition. Thanks for spurring the movement!
I was a No-food-waste Nazi way before I ever knew of this blog, but lately I have to laugh at myself. Every time I have a tiny piece of mushy tomato to toss into the compost I think of Kristen and her no food waste Friday...no matter what day it is! So, yes, you have influenced many of us, whether you know it or not and that's a good thing! 🙂
This isn't exactly food waste, but something I love. Ever since I started making a menu plan for my husband and I, I have been much better about eating what I bought and buying what I want to cook. I just want to say that I LOVE to be able to say I used up ALL of that tomato or that cream. It's a great feeling knowing that none of that went to waste! 🙂
Nothing this week! Turned the mushy apples into mini-crisp, and ate the odd bits for lunch.
I had a great week today too! I love how much money we save by being careful and resourceful with food in our fridge
I didn't take a picture this week but I've started joining Food Waste Friday. It is interesting that I threw away some ginger this week too. It was in the back of my pantry. I still need to throw out some all natural eggs that I bought before Christmas then started a 21 day vegan kickstart and couldn't eat them. I cooked a bunch of apples this morning and froze some beans that needed to be used.
I'll do better next week.
Just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me with your Food Waste posts. I've been watching carefully what we buy and eat and trying so hard not to waste food. I think about your mission of not wasting food often and all the photos you have posted, and it's really helping me make a positive change in our family!
Hey there Kristen,
I've significantly cut down on my food waste since reading your blog. I am so much more aware of it and TRY to be more careful about using things up before they go bad and making less. Thanks so much for encouraging us along the way. I just need to get on a composting system and menu planning. I know you've talked about both of these things, but it really is that much more for me right now... so we'll see, maybe this spring!
Blessings! Jen S.
Okay, I'm in! Usually I clean out on garbage day (Monday), but I think doing it Friday instead will help me be more aware of what I already have when I do my weekend grocery shopping. I will try to do this when I get out of work tonight.
This article reminded me that I need to get back to placing aging food front and center in the fridge. I really do a lot better at eating things up when I remember to do that!
http://lifehacker.com/5877563/create-a-fridge-triage-box-to-possibly-save-over-100-month-in-wasted-food
The USDA food waste stats they quote are pretty crazy!
I know. The amount of food we waste in this culture is truly staggering.
Here goes:
- half a bag of moldy grapes
- half a can of moldy tomato paste.
- 6 or 8 rubbery/squishy apples from fall apple-pickiong
- 2 ancient tortillas
Ack! Some of those have been in there a long time.
On the positive side:
- rescued some mixed greens that were starting to go by picking out the few slimy bits and rewashing. Ate some for dinner last night and tonight, will finish tomorrow!
- ate very ripe strawberries promptly (such a chore! 🙂 I've wasted them before, though!)
- took yummy leftover soup to work, avoiding buying a substandard lunch!
I don't usually have a problem with ginger. However, I go through it so fast, because I make ginger tea almost every day. Do you store your ginger in the fridge or on the countertop? I'd read that you do NOT want to store it in the fridge, but keep it in a special ginger saver keeper thingy on the counter top. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂
A little better this week, but not super great. I made some chicken noodle soup for supper one night that we didn't particularly care for, so I turned the leftovers into chicken and noodles a few nights later. It was okay, but we just didn't eat the leftovers, so I threw away most of the pan. Otherwise, that's all this week! I'm going to have to get proactive this coming week though - our refrigerator is on it's last leg and after my produce stock up on Wednesday it decided to freeze everything up - I'm not sure I'll be able to salvage it all before it goes really bad.
I know what you mean, about that weird webby mold. That is always such a bummer to discover! I also believe that each individual can make an impact. The cumulative effect could be staggering here! How exciting. I'll get into the fridge next week and link up. There. Now that I wrote it, I have to do it! ;). Thank you again, Frugal Girl. I absolutely love your blog!!
Yes. And I was so looking forward to eating that mango!
Not a great week for us. The baked squash that someone had given me squash and so had to try the recipe... wasn't too bad, but no one was eating the left overs, so they went this week. Also, my husband had made some homemade hummus sometime around January 1st I think. WEll, he opened it up the other day to try with his first time ever making homemade crackers and it was moldy. I think when we make homemade hummus, we should never make more than one can of chickpeas, or maybe less. I did throw out an orange, but juiced two other oranges. Have two left that is also getting old, but may juice them or at least zest them. Also, we made a taco braid bread recipe last night that uses 1 tablespoon of egg in the dish and uses the rest for an egg wash and we don't tend to like an egg wash on our breads. So what do you all recommend for using half an egg? Or can one eat it the next morning at breakfast?
I don't see why you couldn't eat it for breakfast. Just make an omelet or scrambled eggs and add it. As long as you kept it in the fridge, I'd think it would be fine for a couple days. Other ideas are egg drop soup, scramble and add to fried rice, or add to a non-finicky baked good.
Hey that's pretty good! I also keep ginger in my freezer, it seems to last forever that way.
Thanks for helping us stay accountable!
I think this would be a good use for any leftover ginger.......http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/06/homemade-ginger-syrup-for-ginger-ale/
Though I wasn't planning on posting about food waste today, a few weird occurrences and your call to action have inspired me. Better late than never, I suppose!
We did terrible this week! I'm hoping next week will be better. I almost didn't post about it; that's how bad it was!
I didn't get around to posting about it because it's been a crazy week, but I threw out some leftover pinto beans. I pulled them out one day to eat for lunch and got thinking about how long they had been in there, and decided to just pitch them.
The only thing we wasted this week is a rotten clementine so it's not to bad.
Thank's for starting the Food Waste Friday posts, it has really helped me to be more aware of all the food we wasted in ou house and to try to change things around here!
Food waste is like throwing away my money! One of my goals for this year is to keep a better check on the pantry, larder, fridge and freezer in hopes to get this under control! I've just started blogging and you are giving me inspiration! Just love your blog!
Speaking of snow drifts, we had a lot of snow in the Seattle area this week, which is highly unusual for us. Our power was out for 32 hours, on for 6 hours, and off for 4 more hours. (Fingers crossed, it's on for now.) I had to throw out $100+ worth of cheese, condiments, expensive non-dairy yogurts and milks, Gardein vegetarian entrees (like BBQ sandwich meat, a great source of protein for my veggie son) and saddest of all, leftover homemade vegetarian corn chowder and lasagne. Sigh. (We're not meat eaters, so I can't imagine how much it would cost if I'd had to throw out the amount of meat the average American family has on hand in fridge and freezer at any given time.) I composted as much as I can but we live in an apartment and everything is overflowing right now. Most people are just dumping their food in the garbage. It's so awful. Well, next week I'll be back to normal, which means having to compost maybe one tiny thing here and there. I've really made an effort for several years now (inspired by Kristen, of course!) and know that this is just an unpleasant and expensive aberration.
Luckily I have never had a power outage for that long. I wonder how long foods in the freezer or fridge can last in a power outage. Doubt cheese would go bad in 36 hours... A chest freezer keeps cold for a long time without power, I am told. But hmmm, now I wonder... Not going to try it out though!
Yep, I didn't want to be the one to try the cheese and certainly wouldn't let my kid eat it! (My husband would have tried it, but I didn't want him to get sick and not be able to work.) Better safe than sorry. I looked everything up on a few government websites and followed their guidelines...
I have the tail end of a bag of salad that is pretty slimy. Bagged salad is one of my downfalls, I buy it with good intentions, but unless I have dinners planned around it, it usually doesn't all get eaten. I also have a couple of serranos that are pretty old.
Just started too weeks ago and already seeing results. I look at my fridge and visualize how to used it before going to waste.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Cristina
Portugal
We live in the country and have dogs who get any old food we don't eat and chickens and ducks who get all our vegetable scraps and peelings when I prepare the food. I make individual meals and freeze them from leftovers for my family to take for lunch or eat on a crazy night when dinner just doesn't get cooked. I try to plan several meals when I cook a large piece of meat like a pork roast or turkey so that I know what to do with the leftovers before I even start. I also have fresh fruit on the counter all the time so when the kids pass by they just pick up a piece to eat. I send fruit and/or cut up veggies with school lunches everyday so that really cuts down on waste. I grew up in Europe so I was used to shopping fresh on a daily basis and when we moved to the country I really went overboard buying too much food because I didn't want to run out since I only go shopping once a week.
We too have power outages and a freezer in the garage. The best thing to do is to put dry ice in there every day to keep things frozen according to the book that came with the fridge.
We make mixed juice with aging fruits, we have a juicer, and have come up with some good mixes, we don't do so well with veggies so I just give those to our chickens and ducks who return the favor with wonderful fresh eggs.