Food Waste Friday | pineapple and salad, plus a bread update
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 not sure how this happened, but we somehow managed to not eat this pineapple in time, and it had a weird smell when I gave it a sniff.
If it had just gone a little soft, I'd have frozen it to add to smoothies, but odd smells make me too nervous for that.
And then there's this bowl of salad. Most of it is perfectly good, but several cucumbers in the mix got soft and slimy, and given how slime tends to drip onto non-slimy food, I felt like it would be wise to compost the whole bowl.
I am into avoiding food waste, but I'm also into avoiding food poisoning, and sometimes those two things are at odds. If I have to choose between the two, I go for avoiding food poisoning.
Ooh, and those of you who saw my sad, fallen French bread loaves yesterday will be happy to see these two much-improved loaves that I made.
So much better.
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Joshua's 365 post: Nautical
I try not to make too much salad at once especially if I'm going to put cucumbers in it. They do seem to slime up fast. We had just a couple of spoonfuls of pasta salad that got too old this week for waste. Pretty good.
Yeah, generally when we have salad, I set out six bowls on the counter and make six individual salads. That way I never have leftovers. But I'd made this when we had company, and now I'm reminded why I rarely make salad that way!
We do the same thing with salad. I serve up everyone's salad for them in the kitchen, so that there's nothing left. On the rare occasion that I leave the salad in the bowl (if we're doing a "help-yourself meal"), then that bowl gets passed round and round the table until it's empty! Leftover salad never appeals to me.
Again with the pineapple? 🙂
Well done with the bread!
Do you have a recipe for a basic white sandwich bread that could be made in a bread machine? I use my bread machine regularly but find that while the white loaf recipe tends to produce a loaf that dries out very quickly?
Thanks Karen,
Christine K.
Kristen,
I don't know if you've heard this before, but you're supposed to store your whole pineapples upside down, standing on it's leaves, on the counter, until eating it. Supposedly, this keeps the sugars flowing towards the crown, instead of pooling near the base. If the sugars pool at the base, they ferment easily.
Oh, that's interesting, and no, I'd never heard that before. I'll have to give it a try.
I wonder if its possible to balance it on its leaves...or if you have to cut the leaves off to make it work...
It'll balance okay, but I just slide mine in between two countertop canisters. If anyone accidentally knocks it, it's just fine, that way.
we take ours and stick it upside-down in a big vase we have and it balances that way. but make sure you dont put it in a vase that ends up mostly air-tight, or the top of the pineapple will start to mold.
Too bad about the pineapple - I've been enjoying your pineapple salsa over here 🙂
There's been a couple of times recently where I've had to decide whether to risk eating something that's been in the fridge for a while. I took the risk and was okay, but I'm not sure I would have if I'd been feeding other people (especially kids).
This week I had no waste, probably because I didn't buy any food, so had to make the most of what I had.
I had six bananas that needed saving. I made banana bread for the first time last night. I haven't tried it yet but will this evening. I am hoping it is good. Going on vacation and it is just my husband and I. Taking left overs and potato soup that I made to use up six cups of milk. I have a tomato that I need to eat up.
I too am food-poisoning-averse hence I have disposed of slow-cooked ham this week as my food-waste confession. Not good. Not good at all. So my post ended on rather a grim note. Fortunately I had muesli and greek yoghurt also on the post as a little food-eye-candy. The craving is still there - the power of marketing eh?
I generally have a strong stomach, but I got horribly, horribly sick once from eating overripe pineapple (while camping, no less). It was over 20 years ago, but even now I turn slightly green when I get a whiff of very ripe pineapple.
I do have a question. Maybe you've answered it before, but I read this post every week and have always wondered: Is this just the food waste when you look in your fridge on Fridays? Or is this all the food waste PERIOD? I know my children are constantly wasting food on their plates (no matter how little we give them to start out with) and wasting milk in their cups. Do your children or do any of you ever have other food waste?
It's for the week, actually. If I have to throw something out mid-week, I snap a photo of it (the lettuce from this week was one such instance.)
We don't really have a big problem with plate waste here, so when the occasional bit gets thrown out, I don't record it. If it was a consistent problem, though, I'd be inclined to focus on it more.
Have not had the best weeks for food waste of late. I know we tossed out some carryout food that none of us could stand to eat. It was the blandest stuff ever. My hubby managed to make one of the dishes edible by spicing it up a bit, but the others, just no thanks. Especially the dish my husband ordered, I have had asian microwave meals with more flavor. Never going to that restaurant again, no matter who likes it.
Tossed a half a sausage, see what happens when someone is counting calories and you grill up a number of different types of meat/sausages? We did toss more, but can't remember what at the moment, so starting to feel like we aren't doing such a good job minimizing our food waste.
Also, we picked up our first csa on Monday. It included kale, arugula, red lettuce, red bok choy, cauliflower, radishes and strawberries. So far, most of it has been used. But we didn't like the Kale chips that we made. The baked pasta with cheese and kale my husband and son liked, I did not. But it looks like those leftovers will disappear. So hopefully, we won't have much food leftovers from our CSA. We pick up every other week. This is our first year.
We have also had a bit more problem with mold on bread. I stopped leaving breads out on the counters when that started happening in Wisconsin, but now even in the refrigerator I am getting mold on our bread. Not even really old bread. So not sure what is going on there.