Food Waste Friday | Saving Potatoes and Pears
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 should be a significantly less controversial topic than yesterday's, which is a very good thing. We can all agree that food waste is bad, right? 🙂
(and though I've said as much in the comments yesterday, I apologize for any offense I caused anyone with my words, and if there's any particular part of that post that you'd like me to rethink or reconsider, feel free to email me and let me know. I'm certainly not infallible, and it's quite possible that my attitude needs correcting.)
On to the topic at hand!
I actually have no waste to report, thanks in part to you guys. I used up a couple of sprouting potatoes last night by making skillet-roasted potatoes (thanks for the Facebook suggestions, everyone!).
In other food waste news, I bought a package of pears from Aldi last week, and they're just not good. I've bought pears in the past and they've been delicious, but these ones are going straight from under-ripe to mushy/chalky, and I hate that. So, I'm probably going to cook them and puree them to make a pear version of applesauce, or I will slice and freeze them to use in smoothies.
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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: Oh, happy day! My canteen is here!
Joshua's 365 post: Am I in Hawaii? No...
Root. Beer. Pulled. Pork.
Four of the saddest words ever said in relation to food waste (unless your phrase is: "I don't have any food waste, because I ate up all of the Root Beer Pulled Pork." Which mine isn't.)
Glad you got some help with those potatoes, Kristen. WilliamB is in the process of reconfiguring my fridge, freezer and pantry inventory into edible combinations.
Other people's brains are awesome - and not in a zombie, I'm going to eat them way. Just in a helpful way.
Also, I promise only to comment once today. So does my computer.
Say it's not so!!!!
Hi Kristen, Does Aldi have a 'if you don't like it, return it' policy? Perhaps a 'set of replacement' pears would be possible? I realize that means gas, time, effort etc and pureed pears is much simpler! Just a thought...
I think they do, but yeah, I'm not planning on being near Aldi soon, and then too, if I exchanged them, the pears would end up being thrown away. So, it could be a win money-wise but not so much food waste-wise.
I'm joining Food Waste Friday! We don't waste much food anyway but I still want to hold myself accountable for what we do throw out. Week 1 is going well, but I can already tell next week won't be good because I already found something after my post was published that will have to be thrown out. Boo. 🙁
This was not a good week waste wise in our household. I wasted spinach,red leaf lettuce,red potatoes,broccoli and a package of fit and active hot dogs. I am not pleased with wasting the hot dogs but my refuses to eat anything other than oscar meyers hot dogs.
Hi Kristen,
I've made a chicken dish with slightly overripe pears which was pretty good. Simple too. I was going to write the recipe and send it to you but found a similar one online which is sooo much easier!
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Poultry/BalsChickenPear.htm
The recipe I had didn't use green onions and had the options of cherries or raisins. I didn't use either when I made it. I didn't pound the chicken either. I just slice the breast into smaller pieces.
It's just my opinion but I don't think that your attitude needs any ajustment as far as door to door salesman go. I finally put my sign up when people started getting pushy. No thanks means no thanks. The sign got faded and I removed it a few months ago. I get a few people who just want to drop off flyers for lawn care, handyman work, etc. Those I don't mind and actually keep. It's the ones who don't take no for an answer that try my patience. Regardless of what they are selling. If it starts to happen again I will not hesitate to make another sign. By the way, I think your sign is very nice!
Patti
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I share your pain with the pears from Aldi. The last ones I bought were as hard as rocks and then went soft quickly. Might want to either take them back to Aldi or mention it to the store manager. I took mine back to Aldi and "my guy" offered my money back or new pears. I chose to exchange them for a watermelon which was excellent. Aldi has always been great when dealing with the few problems I've ever had....
Today my food waste included... an entire pig head! We had a pig roast a few fridays ago and the head has been sitting in our fridge since then. No noticeable sign of rotting, but I don't think anybody was interested in eating that Lord-of-the-Flies-esque beast. So we placed it on top of our trash can (lid open so it was actually in the can) for the garbage man's appreciation.
Half a head of iceberg lettuce--someone left it here after a potluck and we just don't like it---too tasteless!
I had a frugal cooking morning yesterday and tried homemade yogurt. There is no Dannon yogurt sold in our town, and no Yoplait without Splenda and funky stuff, so I used Nancy's for the starter. With 2% milk, it hadn't solidified after 3 hours in the cooler at all, so I poured in more warm water and left it longer. It turned out to be a lovely thick consistency, partly because the whey separated out. I suspect we could mix it back in, but this morning I poured whey on the dog's food which made her quite happy! I made vanilla with 1/2 c. sugar and 1 T. vanilla and my husband loves it. I am thrilled that he likes a yogurt that doesn't have 6 t. of sugar in a serving! Thanks for posting that it gets easier with time, since this seemed very labor intensive to me and I'm not sure I would perseve without that encouragement!
I also cooked a pound of dry beans in the crockpot and turned them into spicy beans, which will be dinner tonight, over polenta most likely. The rest will go in the freezer.
And since I'm trying to clean all last years fruit out of the freezer I made cherry muffins, and rhubarb-cherry sauce (very nice with homemade yogurt and granola).
You should try making a pear and caramalized onion pizza!! We don't use sauce, just some olive oil and garlic and then caramalize the onions and put the pears on top. It is really good!!!
And, just to clarify..There was nothing wrong with what you posted yesterday. It was the comments of others that I found mean spirited. I thought certain religious groups were targeted in an unkind way. Especially when nothing they are saying is related to money. They don't ask for donations. I appreciated another posters comments that generally speaking they are kind hearted people just trying to bring peace to others. A kind no thank you is usually enough!
I guess that donation thing depends on the location, becasue they sure do here!
Suggestion on the pears: You could try making pear leather. That's what my sister did with a bunch of apricots and peaches that she got in her CSA last summer that weren't quite ready to be eaten raw. Basically, you make pear puree, then spread it on parchment paper in a low oven to dry for a while.
Our food waste this week is going to include some homemade coleslaw, unfortunately. I made a batch last Sunday to go with our hotdogs, then intended to eat it throughout the week with lunches or as a snack. Unfortunately, my pregnant tastebuds, which have loved coleslaw for weeks now, rejected this batch. I can't eat it, DH won't, and DS won't. Sigh.
I thought I was going to make it through this week, but I just don't like parsnips enough to finish the bag. I'm still glad I tried them, but gah! horrid!
http://findmefrugal.blogspot.com/2011/05/food-waste-friday-i-do-not-like.html
I bought one of those giant Costco bags of asparagus, and when I opened it the tips were rotten! 🙁 I used up about half by cutting off the tips, then sauteing the stalks, but about half are going to the composter.
By the way, thanks Kristen for recommending Freecycle! I signed up for my local Freecycle group and just received a composter. It's actually our 2nd composter, which is good because our first one is full.