Food Waste Friday | Ugh. Me and zucchini.
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 have two small moldy ones in my fridge right now. Zucchini is one of those things I tend to buy with good intentions and then promptly forget about once I get home.
I will do better!
On the possible future waste front, I also have to tell you that I find myself in possession of a lot of tomatoes. I bought more than I really needed, so now I need to get my rear in gear and use them up before they go bad. I'm thinking some fresh salsa will be just the ticket.
Since I neglected to take a picture of my zucchini, here's a picture just to fill the empty spot. This was at an extended family birthday party, and I was trying to take a picture of the cake. But there are so many small people in my family, a lot of my cake pictures also have children's heads in them. 😉
I had a good week with no waste partly because we didn't do much cooking around here. Salsa sounds great for your tomatoes. I can't wait until we have ripe tomatoes and start making it. One of the pleasures of summer.
There were Birthday celebrations at Chez Wright this week, which has led my Food Waste post this week being titled "Turning Chaos Into Calm"! 2 fridge photos today, Wednesday was "Chaos" and Friday "Calm". Once again can I thank you Kristen... After the week I've had I'm pretty sure had you not created FWF the amount of potential waste I salvaged, by batch cooking veggies in my crock pots and whipping up cupcakes for dance classes to use up frosting, wouldn't have happened. My only casualty is a pot of houmous and that was most certainly my own fault for impulse purchasing something with just a 24-hour life (didn't notice use-by-date) and then getting myself a tummy bug an hour after purchase and unable to eat.
Not great there's waste, but really it could have been a LOT worse!
ps - toms were on my hit list this week. On my quest for a good tom/basil pasta type sauce I bit the bullet chucked it all in a slow-cooker (toms, onion, herbs) and it turned out pretty good.
Don't feel bad - - you're not the only one that has that problem with zucchini. I have 2 1/2 of them in my fridge that are bad. And, I bet there's more...it's been one of those weeks. New fridge arriving tomorrow so cleaning out the old fridge is at the top of the list this evening.
I know this isn't really a food waster post, but definitely could turn into one quickly. My husband found a great deal on bananas...~30lb for $5. I plan on freezing alot back to make breads/muffins, but any other suggestions? I have a food dehydrator..which I tried before, but the chips didn't really get all that crisp. I also have a vacuum sealer, along with a deep freeze. If ANYONE has any great ideas or in the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area, let me know please!!!! Have a great weekend.
We like to make banana "ice cream"! It's really yummy, fat free, dairy free, no sugar added. Just slice very ripe bananas, place on a large baking sheet and freeze for a couple of hours. Once frozen you can put them though a food processor or "ice cream" or in the blender with other ingredients for smoothies.
We like to make banana "ice cream"! It's really yummy, fat free, dairy free, no sugar added. Just slice very ripe bananas, place on a large baking sheet and freeze for a couple of hours. Once frozen you can put them though a food processor for "ice cream" or in the blender with other ingredients for smoothies.
sorry for triple post was having problem at my end posting comment
I will try some with that method. I figure I could make some yogurt this weekend and start making some smoothies for my son...might fatten him up a bit! Thanks for the info.
I just found a great recipe to make homemade fruit snacks out of zucchinni and kool aid. I can't wait to try it so I can usee up all the zucchinni from my garden this year!
My waste is shameful this week, but I'm going to beg the internet take pity on a sick pregnant woman... 😉
Can you believe I wasted homemade kefir?? Total;y ridiculous I know. It's only about 1/2 a cup but still...oh yie I just don't like throwing food out.
One thing I will make with zucchini is zucchini potato soup, and then I'll freeze it. I saute a small chopped onion with two chopped cloves of garlic. Then I either slice or shred the zucchini, dice and boil one or two potatoes, cook them together in stock, blend everything, and add a teaspoon of curry, a teaspoon of cumin, and a teaspoon of black pepper. Sometimes I add red pepper flakes as well.
But I did end up losing some broccoli that I got last week. Sigh. I should have made it into soup and frozen it.
My newest trick is not to shop again until I have used up food in the fridge...probably not a trick for those with kids, but for just me, it's a very good idea. I've become creative in my meal making.
I just saw instructions for baking bread in the crockpot and I'll try your wheat sandwich bread today and see what happens. Too hot in central Texas to turn on the oven.
We like to make banana "ice cream"! It's really yummy, fat free, dairy free, no sugar added. Just slice very ripe bananas, place on a large baking sheet and freeze for a couple of hours. Once frozen you can put them though a food processor for "ice cream" or in the blender with other ingredients for smoothies.
Your Food Waste Friday posts have really inspired me to do better about letting stuff go bad in our fridge! Last week we only threw out a small container of leftover pasta and this week I think we'll just have less than 1/4 a bag of spinach that's gone bad. Definitely a drastic improvement!
Zucchini bread is always a hit at our house, and a good way to use up extra zucchini. You can make several loaves and then freeze them for later. It tastes a lot like banana bread (it usually has a few bananas in it too) and is SUPER good. 🙂
I also had a bunch of zucchini on hand and wasn't sure what to do with it...I grated and froze some for soups or bread later, made 2 loaves of zucchini bread and then made zucchini "chips" in the dehydrator with the rest- just sliced them thinly and salted them. They're actually really good!
As far as waste goes, we wasted a tiny bit of watermelon that was brown when we cut it open, but we fed it to the chickens so it's not "truly" waste. 😉
A good summer recipe to use zuchini and tomatoes are to slice them up with some onions, parm cheese, and bread crumbs on top. Feel free to toss in summer squash, etc. Bake until the veggies are soft. Or, if you have a pan you don't mind tossing it onto the grill, then grill them up. It makes a gratin of sort.
I like to grill zucchini, just sliced in half lengthwise and brushed with oil so it doesn't stick to the grill. I think it's so good this way, I'll make extras so I can have it the next day, cold, sliced and with a vinaigrette on it. Good as a salad, or in pocket bread for a sandwich (my fam likes to add some feta for this).
No fresh vegetable waste here, but a tale of mouldy rice and an extremely frugal pasta dish!
I cleaned out my fridge yesterday, which meant I found some things to toss. I threw out old sloppy joe meat, a little juice, jelly, some very yucky watermelon, cantaloupe and half a lime.
Tomato sandwiches, my dear, are in your future.
Oh, food waste. I'm overdue for cleaning out the fridge. I did throw out some leftover chicken salad that I forgot about and some white sauce that we just didn't like that much. There's more in there, I'm sure.
You probably already know this tip, but I love to shred and freeze zucchini to make zucchini bread! So yummy!
This week was another average week for me. A large container of spicy spanish rice went to waste along with a little bit of colorful pepper stew. Such a shame, but we just couldn't get to it in time.
You mean you threw out a whole cake?! LOL, j/k. I didn't get a pic either, as DH beat me to it, as you will see in my post. My fave thing to use zuchini for is stir-fry.
I'm sad to report that I had to throw away some stinky salmon.
Didn't lose any produce this week, but I did lose two chunks of leftover pork. One had even been in the freezer for safekeeping.. I pulled it out, fully intending to use it, and forgot about it! Leftover meats and I have a love/hate relationship.
My food waste wasn't too bad, all things considered. It's a transition into the summer schedule with the kids eating lunch at home every day.
Hmmm... well, I'm ever so slowly working through the huge backlog in my pantry. The only thing I tossed this week was a 6 year old tub of miso. Some people say it lasts forever, but since the pantry had a whole other unopened package of miso that has to be eaten soon, the old one went.
This whole process is seriously making me re-evaluate my shopping and um... dare I say... "food hoarding" tendencies.
Great news Cat on the re-evaluation! 🙂
Hi Kristen,
I've been reading your blog for a few months now, and have really enjoyed your perspective on life! Regarding food waste, I've been using Fridge Smart containers from Tupperware for the past six months, and I've noticed a huge difference in my produce. Things like zucchini, mushrooms, green beans, celery, peppers, lemons, etc. last longer in the fridge when they are in the container. I'm wondering if anyone else reading your blog has these, and if they work well for others?
There was a bowl at the back of the fridge with about 6 slices of cucumber that have definitely been hiding back there a very long time. Not in my fridge, but I felt bad pulling the spinach out of my garden because it has become too hot here for spinach. I wish we would have picked more of it for salads! As for zucchini, we love to use our mandolin slicer to cut them up into thick strips (like french fries) then saute it in a little olive oil, salt, and dried thyme. I can't wait until our we start getting zucchini in our garden. Hopefully we get to eat more this year - the squash bugs decimated our plants last year.
Dreadful! Three quarters of a home made quiche and a carton of tomato soup. Darn it! I blame being ill at the end of last week.
I had a pretty bad week as far as waste. I wasted almost half of a Sam's container of fresh baby spinach. It's too bad salad tastes gross when I have morning sickness. Oh well, I'll remember that romaine is less offensive next week!
I just read that zucchini, like tomatoes, shouldn't be refrigerated. That is, I guess, unless you have a partially used one. Can anyone confirm this?
We make a homemade veggie pizza where I saute whatever veggies are laying around/need to be used with some base items: usually zucchini, red onion, mushrooms, garlic. Spread sauce, pour veggies over top and sprinkle with a little cheese. Yum!
I had to give the dog a piece of leftover pizza......
GMom
I have a quick question.
Say you're making ... I dunno, breaded chicken. And you have some extra eggy mixture and some flour or crumbs that have had chicken all over them. Do you count them in your "waste," or do you get to throw them away without guilt?
(I'm vaguely interested in whether such things can be composted, but I'm not allowed to compost in my community so it's not an option for me.)
The weather was cool and rainy most of this week (summer weather in Seattle doesn't usually begin until after the 4th of July) so I went on a baking binge and put a lot of muffins etc. in the freezer for future, hotter days. By dinner time, I was wiped out and just wanted to do what we call "every man for himself" night. Then I remembered I had some mushrooms in the fridge and they might not make it another day. So I sucked it up and made a mushroom/spinach frittata and my son and husband wolfed it down. (And there were 2 pieces leftover that made a a great lunch the next day.) I was was quite please with myself for not giving in and just allowing the mushrooms to rot. For once in my life, laziness did not rule the day! 😉