Food Waste Friday | Yay for leftover night!
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.
I am pleased to report that I have nothing rotten in my fridge at the moment and I'm even down to almost no leftovers. I had quite a few in my fridge last week, but we managed to get rid of most of them by having a leftover night for the kids while Mr. FG and I had takeout sushi.
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Today's 365 post: Meet Chloe
Awesome job. I like how you fed the kids leftovers and then had sushi for yourselves...sneaky!!
No waste this week. woohoo!!
Well done! You're getting good at this!
Not a good food waste week. Not only did we have our waste, I somehow became responsible for my neighbor's food waste as well.
1) Crockpot stew--it was fine (sort of) the first time we ate it...and I couldn't bring myself to deal with the leftovers. Definitely a recipe that's not a keeper.
2) Taco meat from my neighbor. I have salsa from her, too--and I think that will last much longer.
3) Leftover Chinese food.
And yikes, it's the end of the week, and I still have tons of food in my fridge! I didn't go over-budget, but I definitely over-bought.
Almost a no-waste week here, and then a missing piece of meatloaf from last week surfaced. Both my husband and I thought the other had finished it but it had been hiding somewhere and we both missed it. I hate to throw away meat, but I had a terrible experience after eating some too-old leftover meatloaf once, so this piece got pitched. Thankfully it wasn't too big, but still.
Today I will throw out a package of tofu that is well past its use-by date. I'm a bit scared to open it.
ugh. bad week here. an entire pound of deli ham was wasted due to an unfortunate crock pot mishap - and poor directions on a recipe. what was supposed to be a delicious ham barbecue ended up like burnt ham leather. gross.
A nectarine and the last half cup in a bag of spinach hit the compost this morming. At least it's compostable waste this week. I've been trying to have one of the following meals near the end of each week: Thai curry, stir fry, Indian curry, sauteed veg with Thai peanut sauce. It seems to really help clear out the odd bits of veg (raw or cooked) and any rice/couscous/bulgur lurking in the fridge. I usually dice up one chicken breast to add in for the two of us so It's a frugal meat meal as well.
The kids eat the leftovers. That is genius. There is one more good reason to have kids. 🙂 I like that idea. I will have to use it someday.
I love leftover night! I was going to do it last night, but my kids were so completely desperate to go "out" to eat, they bargained with me at 4 p.m. and said THEY'D PAY! We were each allowed two items from a dollar menu...kind of a meager supper for my husband.
Another bad week here, but not as bad as last week was, thank goodness!
I had two dinner rolls go mooldy on me. Typically I'd cut off the mold and continue on, but this was a weird mold that was thing and covered the entirety of the roll. Then I made mac & cheese for hubs' birthday and it never set up. That is, until I put the leftovers in the refrigerator and when I went to scoop some out to pack in hubs' lunch it was just one big blob that refused to break up. Blach! And then I found a small Pyrex container of grapes in the back of the refrigerator. They shriveled up and went a little moldy on me, so into the compost they went. Lastly, I threw away about 20 crackers. I found them in the back of my pantry (I do believe they were purchased around Christmas '09) and did my best to eat them. They were VERY stale, and I found that they had expired in May. I tossed what was left (mostly broken crackers). I just couldn't stomach anymore soft crackers.
On the bright side, I saved some cheese by cutting off a little mold (mold seems to be a problem here this week! ack!) as well as the last two tortillas which were going to be getting a little hard soon.
And now my refrigerator is pretty empty (which I both love and hate) and I'm hoping next week is a much better week!
I haven't had much waste lately. We're are trying to eat up/give away the unhealthy foods in our house in an attempt to eat healthier. So far so good.
Unfortunately we had a couple casualties this week.....some of a pasta dish, taco meat and a lonely pear. Better next week!!