Food Waste Friday | Yes!!
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.
I wasted nothing this week! I credit much of success this week to scrambled eggs and smoothies. I'm currently buying eggs from some happy chickens that belong to a local blog reader (Thank you, David!!!), and so I'm feeling inclined to include more eggs in my diet (I feel confident that these qualify as "real food").
Happily, scrambled eggs are a great way to use up little bits of food that are left over. One day this week I used half a bratwurst, part of a potato, some leftover sliced onions and peppers, and some baby spinach in my eggs, and another day, I used some about-to-go-bad tomatoes and cilantro to make a fresh salsa to go on top of my eggs.
And yogurt smoothies are such an awesome way to use up food as well...I love that you can throw in random pieces of fruit (and even spinach!). On Sunday, for example, I used up a few pieces of an orange, a small bit of cream, a couple of bananas, and a handful of spinach simply by blending all of that up with some yogurt and frozen strawberries.
I know I've mentioned this before, but I think that overall, my fight against food waste has made my diet healthier. It's rarely necessary for me to wolf down a pan of brownies to prevent waste (!), but waste prevention does often call me to consume fruits and vegetables, which means that I'm eating more produce than I was before.
A guest post is coming later today, so check back this afternoon. 🙂
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Tonight we'll be trying our hands at making crepes for the first time (dinner crepes, followed by chocolate dessert crepes!) If they turn out well, I can see these being another good way for us to use up bits of leftovers. The crepes themselves are made from ingredients we typically have in the house (eggs, flour, salt, butter, etc), and we can be really creative with the fillings. For example, tonight I'll be mixing chicken, frozen spinach and some leftover ricotta cheese... but you could use anything! You can also flavour the actual crepes with diced fresh herbs... yum!
Wow. I have only ever done fruit crepes before. I don't know how I would like them with real food in them.
They actually turned out pretty good! I added dried basil and oregano to the crepes themselves, and then filled them with diced chicken, ricotta, spinach, crumbled bacon and feta... Yum! We didn't make the chocolate crepes, because we have been dealing with a sick toddler. Another day, I guess.
Too often I fall into the same ol' same ol' with eggs. Fried, sunny-side up, or scrambled... with ketchup. I can say in all honesty that I've never thought of putting a sort of homemade salsa on top! The lightbulb clicks on!
Thanks to posts like these, I've vowed to do more good for the household. We buy nothing (minus Fiber One bars) that's pre-made or processed anymore. I make the household bread (I found a Julia Child recipe I'd love to share with you to see what you think!) for white bread, and my mom came up with a yogurt recipe that even a nitwit who hates yogurt (me) loves!
All in all..successful day's post!
I did it again! Nope, not a no-waste week. I wasted the same thing I wasted last month.
Congrats again on no waste! I have to say that throwing spinach all the time into smoothies is one of the BEST things. you don't taste the spinach but you get all the nutritional benefits of a completely fresh, unprocessed green veggie, in with things like yogurt and honey and fruit. SO yum! And, you are so full for hours! Love spinach in smoothies.
That's awesome! I get country eggs from my SIL and they are delicious! Great ideas for using your scrap leftovers. 🙂
Congrats on having zero waste!! 🙂
well done Kristen. I had quite a bit of food waste this week including mouldy cream cheese 🙁 Great news on the happy eggs!
I know...it's so awesome! The chickens are SO local (like 5 miles from my house), and their owner drives by my house frequently, so he just delivers them, encased in reused egg cartons. It's so green and healthy, I can hardly stand it. lol
Congratulations! My husband is the king of coming up with creative ways like yours to use food before it spoils. I wish I had both of your talents - I'm still learning.
BUT if you ever need someone to help you wolf down a pan of brownies before they spoil you just let me know. Spoiled brownies make me cry.
Ha! The reason I never waste brownies is that there are plenty of people here who will eat them before they get even close to going bad (do brownies even mold? I have no idea.).
It's harder to find someone who will eat up all the baby spinach. 😉
Kristen, if this lovely happy chicken farmer has more eggs, feel free to send him my way! I've even gone so far as too look for nearby farmers on craigslist (to no avail, they all seem to be in Pennsylvania) and I'd love to buy local and fresh!
Yay! I also had no waste this week! Which is the first time in a while. I used up some wilty spinach in a smoothie for the first time and I could not taste the spinach at all. Delicious, healthy, and no food waste; I am now forever hooked on smoothies!
I think of you every friday when I clean out the fridge...I'm getting better. When I first switched over to farmers market shopping-I was so excited for all the fresh produce that I way overbought 🙂
Jana
Great job, Kristen! I agree that smoothies and scrambles are great ways to use up odds and ends. The other one I've been liking lately is a frittata- just saute any veggies in an ovenproof pan, add eggs and milk and cheese and bake. so easy, and different every time!
We didn't do as well as last week, but still better than we used to do in terms of food waste. We need to get into the habit of eating more smoothies and using up some of our fruit before it turns. We do use eggs to use up leftovers from time to time. I use the leftover bacon and onions from when we have perogies and mix them in some eggs with some shredded cheese for scrambled egg sandwiches. Who can resist sauteed onions and bacon in cheese?
I love using up stuff with scrambled eggs and omelettes.... I also like to use egg whites but its leaving me with an issue for the egg yolks!
Since reading FG I have decided to use up all the odds and ends in my pantry. I tend to buy more stuff then just to use up what I have. It will take me awhile but I told my husband to expect some interesting meals!!!
Congratulations! Wasting no food in a week is an unusual accomplishment.
I am getting close to doing that by making better use of the freezer, sooner.
I have frozen indivudual or double portions of all the beans, rice, barley, etc that I know I'm not going to eat in the next several days and am planning to use them for lunches at work next week (once I've had a break of several days of eating different foods for variety).
And I have scoped out some months-old frozen hamburger patties to make chili with once the frozen stuff if mostly gone so they don't go to waste.
*and* I've found that my inexpensive Ziploc vacuum bags are great for cutting up small roasts into steaks and vacuum freezing them for future consumption. (I tend to eat meat about once a week or twice a week). I used a small partially defrosted steak tonight to make beef stroganoff as a special treat after work!
It's amazing how my grocery bill goes down as I make better use of the food I've already purchased.