Food Waste Friday | Onions, Bread, and Turkey. Sigh.
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.
It was not the best week at our house for food waste. The slices of turkey breast were hanging out in a drawer in my fridge, and though they might be safe to eat, I am not entirely sure when I opened the package. And when it comes to lunch meat, I always err on the side of caution.
Next to the lunch meat is the end of a banana bread loaf. I'd made this with some really (really) black bananas, and it didn't taste quite right. We did make it through most of the loaf, though, and I am now certain that it is possible for bananas to be too ripe even for banana bread.
The two onions were in my cabinet, and I discovered the mold when I went to retrieve an onion for dinner. Bummer. On the bright side, Lisey was supposed to observe some mold for her science activity, so we just used the moldy onions (she dutifully inspected the mold with a magnifying glass as directed!).
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I don't think a thing was wasted this week. I remembered to freeze leftovers right away and have some bread ends to make croutons out of today. Maybe, it's because I bought less food last week due to budget constraints!
You know, if you buy onions (oranges, apples "” whatever) in a bag you can't always see if there is one going bad down in the center somewhere. I've had this happen and no doubt you have too. Get the bag home, open it and find that a lone onion has a spot developing. I've decided to not beat myself up over these things. It's going to compost it and that's that. But, I do try to remember to open those bags once I get home and check through them. That bad spot on the onion can spread to its buddies if I don't get it out quickly. Do what you can; don't worry about what you can't.
We've had some aging lunchmeat this week, too. My husband bought it and then didn't eat it. Not that untypical, unfortunately.
Husbands and lunchmeat are an issue here too.
I thought we were going to have a waste free week as well (mostly due to a strained budget too!) but last night while cooking dinner I found three bananas that I had placed in a cabinet to ripen quicker for muffins. Well they ripened a little too much and had some nice fuzzy mold over half of them. I'm still mad at myself. 🙁
I wasted nothing this week. Did you know, on those onions, just cut off the mold and use the rest of the vegetable. Also, you can freeze onions (I chop them first). You can also freeze peeled bananas and use them later in banana bread recipes. I do all of the above. if you see a food product deteriorating, freeze it quickly! You could have frozen that turkey also! Or used it chopped up in a soup (like turkey noodle or turkey rice).
Lot's of waste here, some of which could have been avoided. Try making banana bread muffins next time and freeze some of them.
I do a few sweeps per week and check out all my food products. Takes a few seconds. But in my house WE DO NOT THROW OUT FOOD EVER!!!!
I would have done that with the onions, but they were mushy and slimy all the way through. Trust me, I checked.
And had I noticed the turkey, I would surely have frozen it. I do make banana bread and banana muffins (as evidenced by the banana bread in this picture!).
I think that's great that you never waste food. That is always my goal, but apparently, I am not as skilled at this as you are. I am happy for the progress I've made in this area, though.
I think you are extremely skilled at avoiding waste, but life happens, and there's no way we can be perfect every time. You're doing a fantastic job 🙂
Besides, I think the moldy onions were meant to be, otherwise how would Lisey have examined mold in such a timely manner ???
re-read your posts b4 you post them, they may sound offensive or rude.if anything she has inspired others not to be wasteful! me included.
Take those onions out of the photo--you didn't waste them, you just inadvertently set up Lisey's science experiment for her. 🙂
I now keep a Sharpie marker in my kitchen and write the date on things when I open them. This has helped me out alot since I can never remember when we opened that package of ham or turkey or jar of pizza sauce.
We will have a bad food waste week here I'm sure when I actually can get in the kitchen and take a look at what went bad. My daughter had surgery this week and though I planned well for her foods (popsicles, ice cream, jello), I didn't think ahead to the fact that she would want me with her 24/7 and that I would not be able to get away to cook, clean or even shower! Kind of like having a newborn again. Wish I had planned better and thought to make meals ahead for the freezer or used the crock pot.
I'm always throwing out lunch meat because I'm never really sure. Growing up, we were constantly reminded - "when in doubt, throw it out". Plus the wetness of lunch meat in general bugs me. I usually freeze it small portions (enough for one or two sandwiches) because it is expensive in the first place.
I don't blog but I lost a half gallon of whole milk because I got scatter brained during the crock pot yogurt making experiment and forgot to add the starter. DOH!
Oh no 🙁 SOrry to hear about your food waste. Glad you mentioned about the bananas though - I have two REALLY black ones in the fruit bowl so maybe I should save further food waste by ditching them rather than making them into cake that we can't eat. Then again, the birds could have it I guess. We had the end of the cucumber that was slimy - ewwww and a couple of slices of bread.
Not too bad for my first week! 1/3 head of lettuce and some ancient pasta salad. Everyone have a great weekend and check out my new blog about a frugal and green home!
The moths got into the bulgar wheat! Inside a sealed jar!
A romaine that I was hoping to eat but couldn't convince my taste buds that this was a good idea. It's not bad yet - any ideas that isn't raw salad?
The remains of the homemade cranberry sauce from Xmas. It hasn't gone bad but it's not going to be eaten so I decided to ditch it before it turned rainbow-colored.
A bit of leftover stuffing (not from Xmas!) will be composted soon. The weekend guests didn't eat as much as I anticipated.
Question for the group: do you think we're responsible for leftovers brought into the house by someone else?
Angela, it's so unfortunate when those little buggers invade. I could almost believe in spontaneous generation.
You can slice up romaine into shreds and put it into a stir-fry or fried rice combo. We do that often.
About your question, if you think about it, leftovers brought by someone else are a gift to your food supply. So maybe you could think of how you could use those leftovers and see them as less food you have to buy.
Every time I ever open packaged meat's or even jarred products (Salsa ) I use a sharpie marker and record the date on the packaging or jar lid .
Works for us.
William B! My composting mentor! Last weekend I scraped out my first bin to start over with it. I put the compost that was created in a pot that I'll be planting a miniature lemon tree in. Your advice helped so much and now I can't imagine NOT composting! Thanks.
Hurrah - another convert! Now go ye and spread the good word. I hope your lemons turn out great.
PS - pie crust composts nicely.
You reminded me, I need to clean the fridge 🙁 I love the food waste friday posts. It inspires me to actually THROW away some of my food and not hang on to it if I know I won't eat it. Sigh, but I hate to waste food...
Lunch meat is a tough one. It's always tough to gauge just how much you'll eat in a week and if you wait to long it gets way too slimy to eat. I feel your pain on this one.
The great thing about homeschooling is that everything has the potential to be a lesson! Even moldy food!
I truly believe...when in doubt, throw it out. You were very wise, in my opinion.
Having had a dreadful bout of food poisoning a number of years ago from a lunch meat sandwich at a restaurant, I am more nervous about lunch meat than I am about other foods! lol
Sorry for the double link. I got hit with spam in my comment section last night and I could not figure out how to remove it. So I deleted the old Food Waste post and put up a new one.
No problem!
i just found this food wasting friday & i'm inspired! with lunch meat, i usually write on the package with a sharpie what date i opened it so if it gets close to 5 days, i have my husband smell or taste it. i say "when in doubt, throw it out". excited to try this
i just realized that other people wrote the sharpie thing. i think you do great & i just started composting this week (i read it on this site) and i did the same thing w/ the plastic bin. i'm also using it as a homeschooling project. o the love of science in everyday living.
I am so mad at my husband. He and my kids always make excuses to eat out when I am not home. I left a package of cooked chicken kabobs from Whole foods with instructions to eat the evening I left. I just got home 4 days later, and they were not eaten. His excuse "I didn't know how to cook them" the container was never opened. Do other husbands do this? I buy food for the entire family, and I am the only one who eats it. Bananas untouched and brown. Turkey cold cuts untouched, fruit untouched. They always sneak out to eat. So mad.