Food Waste Friday | So, I have a picture...
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.
...but it only has one thing in it. And though I'm bummed I wasted a hamburger, this picture represents a happy change around here. I took this photo at about 7:00 PM yesterday, which would have been impossible a week ago.
Yes, daylight savings time is sort of a hard pill to swallow at first, but my goodness, it does make picture-taking in the evenings much easier. In the winter when I'm trying to take pictures of my dinner recipes, I have natural light in the early stages, but it's usually all gone by the time I finish whatever I'm making, and that bums me out no end. From now until October, though, I'll have all the natural light I want, and that makes me very happy.
But, hopefully next week I will have no need to take advantage of the natural light for a food waste picture. 😉
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We wasted a half a hamburger, 1 small slice of lasagna, and an avocado that was bad when I cut it open(it was composted). Since we have cut the food waste, started the compost and found a place to recycle our glass and paper/cardboard our trash output has been reduced by more than half. WOW what a difference a few little changes makes!
I have 2 questions, but i didn't know where to ask them, so I'm asking them here. 1. What do you and your husband do for fun? 2. I'm a stay-at-home mom and it seems like my job is never ending, thankfully my husband chips in a lot around the house....does your husband help you around the house?
i did this for the first time ever on my blog this week and i'm SO ashamed at how we did. i guess that's sort of the point though, to emphasize how and what we waste so we can cut back. thanks for the awesome idea! i have a feeling it's really going to help in my household 🙂
I threw out about a cup of grapes (they were pretty tasteless to begin with so no one really wanted them), a very sour clementine I tried to eat, and some mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was my daughters lunch on Monday and she normally would have eaten the leftovers on Tuesday but she has had the stomach flu since Monday night! Been a long 4 days!
Not too bad on the food waste this week but I really need to finally do the composting. I don't know why it intimidates me. I garden and could use the compost so I just need to pick a system and start doing it!
Kristens thread on composting is really easy. We made ours in about 10 minutes. I think it is a great way to get started, then you could move up to a fancier system if all went well.
I read her composting advice and it does look easy! Need to set DH to work on that.
At my house any fruit that isn't eaten for any reason, sour, tastless etc. goes directly (before it can go bad) into a tub I keep in the freezer. then it is used to make smoothies. No two are ever the same, but they are all delicious. I put about a cup of juice into my blender, add yogurt & the frozen fruit (chopped into small chunks) Liquify for a few minutes adjust the consistancy if necessary and then pour into glasses for everyone to enjoy.
Linda
Great idea on the smoothies. I intended to freeze the grapes but sadly they were forgotten till it was too late.
No food waste this week! I'm super excited, but I'm thinking it has more to do with the fact that we didn't cook as much this week as usual. I did rescue some bread and we ate it with dinner last night. I think I'm finally getting the hang of not wasting food!
Hi great job on your week. We only have a small amount of ham that I purposely bought to last longer. I just recently changed Thursday nights to omelet nights. It has been a great way to get rid of all kinds of little bits of meat, cheese, and vegies. My girls are 8 and 9 and love getting out everything we have left over and cutting it into small pieces. (They can chop away because in omlelets it doesn't matter the size!) We make them individually so everyone gets exactly what they want and usually all of the food is gone. This works well with making pizza too, but sometimes tastes just don't really go together on one pizza. With the omletes someone might choose taco meat while another chooses ham.
Kristen, would you sometime show us the inside of your fridge on a day to day basis? Maybe 7 pictures of how the week goes? I am interested in how many condiments and additional stuff you have floating around in yours. Thanks for all that you share. Love it!
Love this idea! 🙂 Omlettes are so easy to make, and eggs are fairly cheap as far as protein goes. I may have to implement omlette night at my house.
Have you tried making your omlet in a small baggie you put your egg(break the egg and beat first )and all your stuff in and seal it then boil it for about 10 to 15 minutes you can do more than one and they all get done at the same time ...
I have not tried this idea. We are going camping in a few weeks and I would love to try this. At home, I do everything I can not to use baggies and disposable stuff as a way to be fruegal and green. Thanks for reminding me of the idea though, can't wait to try it with a bunch of little girls!
Ziploc omelets are soooo easy and they work well either at home or camping. I did a post about them if you're interested.
http://3blondesandthelaw.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-that.html
Yes, I could do that one week...a daily fridge diary! lol
I'm curious to know if you have food waste that comes off of dinner plates... does that count toward your food waste? I have a 22-month old, who is wonderful to eat what we serve for supper most nights, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. We give her small portions, but sometimes she will love a particular food one night, and refuse to eat it the next. We eat her leftovers if we are still hungry, but sometimes the food really doesn't seem appetizing after a toddler's hands have pawed through it for 30 minutes. (I'm sure you can envision that!) We do quiet well not wasting food from the fridge and cupboard, but we always seem to be scraping our daughter's plate into the compost bin.
lovely to see the light changing; we have daylight saving starting this weekend! I found out how to make lettuce last over 10 days this week; this will really reduce summer food waste.
I'm so excited about not having any food waste this week! WooHoo!!!
Ditto your feelings about daylight savings. Last weekend I was dreading it, now I'm enjoying the extra natural light at the end of the day. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be either to get up an hour earlier; we all seem to have adjusted far more quickly than we did in the past.
Thanks again for the idea and for encouraging so many to go along. In just a few weeks we are all way more conscious here about what we might waste.
I really ike this idea! We recently sponsored 2 boys in Africa and every night when the kids are about to waste food, I remind them of our boys and how much they would LOVE to have that little bit they were about to waste! I think we all start thinking a little bit more about what we throw away when it's put into perspective!
I just started following your blog. I'm recently a SAHM, who's in college full time, and I've been trying to figure out ways to make our few dollars stretch farther. My friend turned me onto your blog and I've been hooked since. I like your need for accountability on your food waste. And I've figured out that I need it too. And I'm proud to say that I've not wasted much, as compared to normal. I'm hoping that my waste goes down as the weeks go on. Thank you for your ideas and your putting it out there.
Waaaayy too much this week! But in my defense, we had a party for my boyfriends birthday and I had a terrible stomach flu! More about it at my bloggieblogblog 🙂
We did much better this week. There may be a no waste photo in our future after all!