Food Waste Friday | Oops.
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.
I'm so sorry, but I have no food waste photo.
I wish the lack of a photo was due to a lack of food waste, but alas, it is not. It's due to me forgetting to take one.
So, words will have to suffice.
I had to get rid of:
-about 10 mushrooms
-three pieces of leftover fish
-about three bites of broiled chicken
You would be proud to know that I actually DID make my way through some of the leftover fish (there were more than three pieces left initially.)
I cooked the amount I normally would, but this was a new recipe and it wasn't fabulous and so we didn't eat as much as usual. And of course, I won't make the recipe again, which means this particular mistake won't be repeated.
So as not to leave you photo-less, here's some strawberry jam I made from the berries we picked.
Too bad about the fish, but that happens sometimes with new recipes. We had no food waste this week, but we're going to have to be vigilant this weekend or we will have some next week.
Looking for tips to save my tips over at mine!
I averted major waste.I gave away a bunch of leaf lettuce from our garden. A combination of the kids planting too many seeds (an over abundance of lettuce growing), cloudy days, and letting the kids get the lettuce for dinner (without instructions on how much) made for a heaping bowl of cut lettuce on the counter last night. Thankfully I have friends I could impose upon to take my potential waste off my hands 🙂
Elizabeth, did you know you can make lettuce soup or lettuce saute?
I hadn't. I think I'm going to look into alternate uses for our abundance of lettuce. Salads are great and I truly don't mind sharing with friends but maybe I will use this as an opportunity to try something new...thanks for the suggestions
I was going to say rip it up like you would after washing and throw into the bottom of your bowl when you have soup or sautee up with garlic. Another thing I've tried is lettuce wraps or lettuce bowls - egg salad, tuna salad works well in them 🙂
Allow me to offer my ad-hoc recipe for Creamless of Greens Soup:
1) Saute onion and, if you want, carrot and celery in oil or butter.
2) Add chopped greens, saute till a bit limp.
3) Add a bit of water, cover, steam till cooked and mushy.
4). Puree (stick blender, blender, food processor...).
5) Season to taste: Italian flavorings, Chinese flavorings, Indian flavorings, etc.
A month of bad Fridays came to an end this week. In other news, a month of being very busy and on the go came to an end this week. Think maybe there's a connection?
I wasted Nothing! Yay, it's been a while since that happened. That said I've got parsley root that need to be used up.
http://roadnotchosen.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-waste-less-week-and-inconvenient.html
I like how you used Parmesan cheese caps for the jars. I was just thinking of buying some plastic caps for my mason jars since the rings can rust when sitting in the water bath for yogurt making. I don't buy the green can of cheese so I might have to get that from someone else.
Yeah, they work pretty well for the regular sized jars. The wide-mouthed jars, not so much.
I've been told peanut butter jar lids work also. Haven't tried it yet. 🙂
I had a major fridge clean-out before I go away so found some waste lurking in the back. I also managed to poison myself with some cooked rice that I kept in the fridge for too long, so that got tossed too.
Now I just have some fresh food to eat up tomorrow and I should be good.
Oh, no. Food poisoning is so awful.
It wasn't to bad fortunately 🙂 Just letting you know, I am getting
pop up ads on the bottom of my screen when I look at your blog on my phone. I don't get them on the computer, just my phone.
Are they by any chance TNT ads? I'm starting to wonder if that particular campaign is the issue.
Is that front jar an old candle jar? If so, two questions, does it keep the air out well? How did you remove the smell and taste. I have tried and failed before.. My tylenol pm that I keep next to the best taste and smell like Lavender Vanilla Yankee Candle.
I got it at Goodwill a while back, and it doesn't really have a smell. The only plastic is the ring around the lid and it doesn't have an odor. Maybe it used to a long time ago, but it's faded by now?
To remove the smell, I'd suggest running it through the dishwasher and letting it sit out in the sun. That seems to do the trick most of the time.
That jam looks so fresh and strawberry-ie!
I lost about 1/3 of a carrot, in the middle of a bunch. It did get slime on some others, but I washed and peeled them, and they were fine. I also lost 1 clove of garlic that was moldy and shriveled. This was end of last fall's garlic, so probably to be expected.
I did "save" the garden spinach that was bolting. I pulled it all up, picked the leaves off the stems, washed and used in a Thai peanut sauce over rice.
I have a fridge full of leftovers, so while we'll have to make sure to use them up, at least I won't have to cook much for the next day or two.
How about this for avoiding food waste?
Last night around 6, I made a heavenly cajun shrimp alfredo (planning on perfecting the cheddar bay biscuit recipe using Alton Brown's biscuit techniques; once I finish my sweet chili sauce recipe I'll never need to go to Red Lobster again.) Well around 9, my girlfriend grabbed a popsicle from the freezer and found it to be a little soft. A quick check with a thermometer confirmed that this wasn't just a defrost cycle. The fridge portion was unusually warm as well.
I ran out the door and picked up the largest cooler I could find (110 qts) and 4 bags of dry ice. Between the freezer and the cooler I managed to save everything from the fridge. Granted, I spent $130 to save probably $200 worth of food, but I'm only counting $20 of that as a loss (for the dry ice), since I didn't previously have a cooler.
Ever since I got a flock of backyard chickens, I haven't had ANY food waste! The chickies will gobble up ANY leftovers, and this makes me very happy.
curious minds want to know if that's a CANDLE jar that you've canned jam in? I am impressed! 🙂 But how do you get rid of the candle smell?
Well, I'm not exactly sure what it is! I picked it up at Goodwill a while back and it doesn't have a candle smell at all. It makes a great low-plastic food storage container, though.
The jam is freezer jam, so you can use pretty much any container you want as long as you leave headroom for expansion during freezing.
The jar everyone thinks may have been a candle jar may have been a holiday candy jar..I have seen these at Christmas and Valentines Day with wrapped candies in them so it would not have a smell. The jam looks delicious!!
I *almost* had 2 packages of strawberries to toss yesterday, but they turned out to be OK, so I sliced them and put them in the freezer.
I know I tossed something out this week, but I can't remember what it was. I do know it wasn't as bad as last week, though.
Great job on re-using the candle jar. The hubster bought a gel candle in one from a craft show eons ago and we've finally finished burning it up...now to figure out how to clean it out and if it's 'food safe' otherwise it will be re-purposed to hold Q-tips in our bathroom.
Unfortunately, there was a massacre at our place in the produce drawer this week. I'm still in mourning. 🙁
Call me crazy but the jars on the left with the light purple lids almost look plastic (kinda like solo cups). We are getting ready to make some of your jam soon. YUM!
Those ones ARE actually plastic...they're made by Ball for freezer jam.
We´re going on vacation, but since we´re visiting family before going abroad, i just took all the milk, eggs and various groceries with me and gave to those we´re staying at.
Been harvesting a ton of strawberries here, the jam looks great! 🙂
So, a question. I have three little kids (5,3,1). We rarely discard things from the fridge, but what about meal waste? Since I'm not big on serving strictly noodles and green beans at every meal, we do end up with a kind of monstrous amount of table waste from whoever's being picky on any given day. Is there any salvation for that? Or just grin and bear it 'til it passes?
I have kids 10, 4, 2, and 7 months. My answer is just to make less. I used to make too much food. Then I realized the kids weren't eating as much as I thought they should. I did some food research and as it turns out the littles only need a few tablespoons of each type of food. I serve from the counter and seconds are only offered if some of each food it tried. Also as it turns out my 10 year old girl is selectively picky so she gets the same portion size as the 4 yr old and can opt for more. I make casseroles with lots of veggies a lot to ensure they get a good balance of everything then I serve leftovers warmed up for lunch a few days later.
Just one mouldy onion over the last couple of weeks. And this low food waste has been achieved by not buying much, which is a good lesson learned. Less food shopping = less food waste.
I am loving the idea of holding yourself accountable for wasting food! I am just getting started but here goes. We wasted 1/2 a head of lettuce (maybe less), my husband bought to much and we couldn't use it fast enough. And 1/2 a tub of grated parm that I was about to use when I discovered it had molded on me.
Thank you for your site, it has helped me rethink how I do things in my home.