In which I waste copious amounts of food.
Some weeks, I have little to say about food waste (and few photos to share) but this is very much not one of those weeks.
Let's get right to it, shall we?
The Waste
When I cleaned my fridge earlier this week, I knew I was going to find an awful lot of not-salvageable food.
There's been sickness at my house for more than 16 days, people aren't eating what they usually eat, and I got an extra two produce box deliveries somehow.
All of that is a recipe for waste.
So, this post is eerily reminiscent of the food waste posts I used to write back in 2008 when I was first learning to battle against food waste.
The good news is that this is now the exception and not the rule.
The bad news?
The photo above isn't the extent of my waste.
Nope.
I also composted two moldy containers of mushrooms (these came in the produce box, and Mr. FG, the only mushroom eater in the house, wasn't really eating anything at all when these arrived.)
I also composted an entire bag of now-slimy beans, which had been delivered the day everyone got sick.
I'd normally have made sauteed green beans (so delicious!) with these, but it never happened because almost no one was eating anything.
I also came across this orange. Instead of chucking it, I cut off the bad spot and used the rest to make this stovetop air freshener.
As part of my kitchen-cleaning day, I went through all of my kitchen cupboards and I found a little bit of waste there.
These panko crumbs were expired and smelled of rancid oil. Yuck.
And ditto for this last bit of rice.
The 3 Situations
This post isn't entirely filled with bad news. In my kitchen cleaning, I realized that I had three problems that could easily become waste.
First, I had a banana situation in the form of 10 overly ripe bananas.
Then there was the greens situation...2 bags of spinach and 3 heads of romaine.
And I found a potato situation as well.
I peeled the oldest potatoes and boiled them.
(Why yes, that IS my new Christmas pot. So nice of you to notice.)
And then I mashed them so I could make potato bread.
I also made a pot of clam chowder, which handily used up a number of the red potatoes.
I'm thinking perhaps a dish of indulgent scalloped potatoes should also happen soon.
As far as the greens situation goes...so far I've used up 1 of the 2 spinach bags and also a head and a half of the Romaine lettuce.
That leaves 1.5 heads of Romaine and 1 bag of spinach.
So, I think I may actually get through all of the greens.
I didn't photograph my ten bananas (you can see some of them in the lettuce photo above, though.)
I used 3 to make two loaves of yeasted banana bread.
And I used another 3 to make a double batch of banana chocolate chip muffins.
I used another one to make some sort of weird banana/egg pancakes for myself last night, so now I've only got 3 more left to use!
I'll probably freeze them for future baking, as we have a sufficient supply of banana baked goods at the moment. 😉
In other winning news: my produce box gifted me with a zucchini.
Well, that's not the winning part.
I am not known for my love of zucchini, but I am pleased to say that I used this one up within a day, and I did not even bake with it.
I sliced it up into thin slivers, which I sauteed, sprinkled with oregano, tossed with tomato sauce, and topped with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese (so affordable at Aldi!).
When mixed with the oregano, tomato sauce, and cheese, the zucchini is surprisingly palatable. And it's certainly a much lower-sugar option than zucchini bread.
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Are you still with me??
That was a super long Food Waste Friday post. But hopefully it was picture-ific enough to keep you reading.
And boy, I hope I have a lot less waste to report to you when I next host Food Waste Friday in two weeks. My family seems to finally be on the mend from this dreadful bug, so it should be a little simpler to eat up our food now!
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How's food waste goin' at your house?
I'd love to hear in the comments, and of course if you blogged about Food Waste Friday, leave your link in your comment.
Yeasted banana bread?! What is that like? Will you be sharing the recipe? I'd love to try that! Glad to hear your family is on the mend! My best to you in 2015.
It's sort of like an egg bread, but with banana thrown in. I took pictures while I made it, so I'll post the recipe in the next week or so.
It's been a challenge the past few weeks to keep the waste down around here too. I had surgery just before Christmas, and wonderful friends provided casseroles for our family to eat. However...with family Christmas dinners thrown into the mix, and unusual schedules, some of the casseroles didn't get finished before they were too far gone. 🙁 I need to get more creative!
This is one of my major goals for this year. I have worked hard on it since I started reading these posts, but sometimes get backed up like this for no reason other than I don't pay attention... Hope all is healthier at your house now. My state got hit early and hard this year...so many sick kids.
Empathize about sickness derailing cooking plans. I bought a large carton of heavy cream AND a half-gallon of milk, and promptly got sick. Now, after the holidays, I really haven't felt much like cooking or grocery shopping, so I've been stretching my empty pantry and refrigerator to imaginative limits.
---"Salerno spaghetti" (garlic & olive oil spaghetti with breadcrumbs and runny fried egg) from a Christmas-present Cook's Illustrated cookbook, using half of the bits I still have in a bag of plain panko.
---Chicken corn chowder, using the frozen pulled chicken from a previous broth-making endeavor, the last of a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, milk that needed using, and some potatoes that were gifted to me from future-MIL. Half of the chowder was frozen immediately in individual servings, so it doesn't become waste.
---Last night's fried shrimp (takeout chinese) will get mixed with leftover cilantro and green onion from the chowder (reserved garnishes) in some of the rice paper wrappers from my never-ending stash of those.
---Several tasty oranges got "supremed" so I'd eat them (rather than compost them), and the juice that gathered in the bottom of the storage container made a base for a salad of thinly-sliced fennel with orange vinaigrette.
---I made a batch of bakery-style chocolate chip muffins (half whole-wheat flour) to use up some more of the milk.
---I'll be making a spaghetti pie to use up the last of the ricotta from Christmas Eve lasagna, the last of a chunk of parmigiano cheese, and the last of a box of linguine in my cupboard.
After our New Years Eve PJ party with the boys we ate a very late breakfast yesterday which led to a very late lunch. So for dinner we ate popcorn while we watched a movie. Needless to say at 10pm I was hungry. I was "forced" to rescue some homemade crab Rangoon and apple crumble that were left over from Christmas. Not as noble as rescuing produce. 🙁
A few days ago I did use up a bag of potatoes that was starting to sprout. Cubed, drizzled with olive oil and roasted. My family tops them with whatever they like from the fridge.
Well, hey, sometimes I rescue things like chocolate chip muffins, so you're not alone. 😉
I haven't even been sick, but need to clean my fridge today to start the new year in the right way. I know there are some items way in the back that will need to be tossed. Then I can grocery shop and start anew.
Sending healing thoughts your way for everyone.
I am starting the challenge! Since I've found your site a couple of years ago, my awareness of food waste has grown leaps and bounds but I've never tracked it. I'm now conscious of it and do my best to save what I can. But now I've decided to document it daily in a notebook. I'm going to try to figure out the costs of what gets thrown out and I'm also writing down what I've 'saved' - aka what leftovers got eaten or 'repurposed' 😉 I think it'll be quite eye opening. And to think this is the same girl that years ago had no problem throwing out tons of thawed out 'to-be-eaten-for-dinner-that-night-when-she-decided-she-was-too-tired-to-cook', so lets just order out. Honestly, it was shameful. But I've come a long way baby! lol
**1/2 can of green beans (leftover from Christmas dinner)
**Approx. 3 servings of homemade macaroni and cheese
That's SO great that you've seen huge progress in this area of your life. Yay! A few green beans and some mac and cheese is nothin' compared to a bunch of raw meat.
Next time, Mr FG isn't able to eat up your mushrooms, you can go ahead and slice them and then put them in the freezer. We do that to salvage our mushrooms if we don't end up using them as quickly. They are easy to saute for a dish or put in a soup when you pull them out of the freezer.
Yes! I hear that sauteeing them before freezing really helps. I kept thinking he was going to get his appetite back and then he didn't until it was too late. Oh well!
And you can steam up your spinach and freeze it if you find that you aren't going to be able to eat it up fresh before it starts heading down.
Does this sustained burst of cleaning and cooking, mean that people are feeling better? I really hope so.
Me, too!
They are definitely improving! And I haven't had to make as many doctor and pharmacy runs, so that's helping me a lot.
So are potatoes that have sprouted "eyes" like the ones pictured above safe to eat? It's just my husband and I at home, and I have been wanting to buy more organic produce. Problem is, at many grocery stores (Aldi, Trader Joe's, etc.) the organic potatoes and other produce come in larger bags, and I get a lot of sprouted potatoes before we can eat them all!
Do you just cut off/peel the parts that have sprouted? And where is the best place to store potatoes so this doesn't happen (or happens more slowly)? Thanks in advance for any advice!
Yep, I just cut off the part that's sprouted and go from there.
Potatoes do the best in a dark, cool area, though with enough time, they'll sprout even when stored properly. But cool temps and dark conditions will minimize the sprouting
Phew! I will be relieved to stop wasting potatoes then, since some quick google-ing had told me once they've sprouted to just forget about them. Thank you! 🙂
Gosh, I've never heard that. But yeah, I've been doing it for years and we all seem to be just fine.
Joining the "No Food Waste" club in 2015. A couple of years ago I really focused on cooking from scratch and eating more fresh foods. I did great cooking but have found over the last two years that come trash day I am throwing away more and more food that hasn't been eaten. Having just one child, most recipes ended up with leftovers that I didn't push on my family so they were pushed back into the frig and never eaten. Plus, it seems my fruits and veggies are going bad in just days sometimes. Working to be a star member of your club this year:)
Yay! Glad to have you along for the ride.
Last summer, I came across a wonderful recipe for a green smoothie that uses cilantro. Not only is it a delicious (and perhaps illness-friendly) way to ensure that all leftover cilantro gets put to good use, it also compels me to buy extra cilantro from time to time, just so that I can make extras. The recipe is called Tropical Cilantro Smoothie and was posted on The Kitchn.
Thank you-I'll go check it out.
If I can't get to bagged spinach in a day or so I put the bag in the freezer to use in smoothies. Same for kale and other greens. Benefit of the vitamix is it can handle any big leaves, stems frozen bananas, anything I can throw at it.
Do you have the dry carafe to make your own flour? I think you would enjoy experimenting.
I think one of the key things I am not doing is freezing fresh food as I should to reduce waste. As a newbie to all of this, is there any food that doesn't freeze well? Until reading the last post, I have never even thought of freezing the fresh spinach we hadn't finished. I love my Vitamix and I make green smoothies all the time but for some reason brain was tapped into using fresh not frozen produce except some of the basics like berries that I popped in the freezer. Guess I have a lot to learn this year-
Potatoes & potato products don't usually freeze well. I have no problems with cubed potatoes in soup, but large amounts tend to suffer from texture changes. They'll go granier and more watery.
Usually cooked foods freezer better than raw. Frex, sauteed onions are about the same whether frozen or not, but raw onion is more watery and less oniony after being frozen. This is even more true for mushrooms.
Yeah, I usually only freeze something like mashed potatoes when I'm going to use them in something like potato bread.
We are the same way when we are sick! Plus the holidays make it so hard to get through all your food. At least you salvaged a lot. Good work!
Here is how we did this week: http://wp.me/p4yT07-14R
Since joining you in your quest to eliminate food waste I've made such progress that I seldom have anything to post about on FWF. I didn't post about it but this week I had to toss about a cup and a half of clam chowder.
I had guests over on the 20th. I made a double batch of your clam chowder. Delicious! but I made way too much, so I had soup left over.
Being a cream based soup I knew it wouldn't freeze well so I tried diligently to finish it off myself, but sadly by the time I ate my last bowl it was on the verge of being spoiled.
I've eaten my share of less than perfect food in my life but I wasn't going to chance consuming spoiled sea food and milk products.
I completely empathize. We're working our way through a second or third illness--I'm not sure because they all run together. I just want to have healthy children again!
We're having omelets with spinach and roasted potatoes for dinner. You can too! 🙂
I can't remember the last time in the last 4 years I haven't blogged about my food waste on a Friday - but I haven't today!
If I had blogged ( which I haven't) today I would have talked about the New Years Eve party we held. We asked guests to bring their festive leftovers - the rule was no newly purchased food items!
It's been a busy and draining December, so I've been absent from the blog, but back in the saddle for next weeks Food Waste Friday.
Happy New Year...
To fight waste a little, I freeze my fruit right before it nights the dust and I use it in smoothies! Since it's super ripe, it's very sweet. 🙂
This is not true for the potatoes or the extremely wilted lettuce, BUT if you have a juicer and an abundance of greens or crisp veggies, you could turn pounds of "extra" produce into healthy juices--like kale, chard, carrots, some ginger and a little orange make for a nutritious juice, which can also be frozen for later use or for soup.
PS: I got my first crock pot for Xmas and am looking forward to making bone broth (as we head into flu season!!)
As "bad" as you feel with "all this" food waste, I bet you're still way under what a lot of families who aren't sick waste in a week... So kudos for that. I was also curious about the yeasted banana bread, so I'll look forward to that post. And finally, I just want to say that you've been quite a motivation to me in the food waste front. We've never been big on leftovers in my family, but reading these posts of yours twice a month have really made me more conscientious about the food we throw away. I'm much more likely to serve leftovers than I was even a few months ago. And even better - to try to make something "new" out of them. My husband is still perfectly happy to throw away food that's left over after a meal, but as long as I clear the table, not him, things get saved and served later (maybe just on days when he's working late, but still... lol). So, thank you :).
I love that you found a way to work with zucchini! Your method reminds me of preparing spaghetti squash - the hubs and I don't care for spaghetti squash, but I like your zucchini approach for gluten-free compliance.
I'm nervous about the next few weeks... I'm working 7 days/week for the next few, so I'll have zero opportunities to get to the farmer's market in town and almost as few opportunities to get to the regular supermarket. DH will be just as busy. I'm making some food this weekend to go into the freezer, but I foresee more restaurant/prepared meals than I'd care for in our future.
The good thing is that you know this is temporary. So, just like with the sickness at my house, you can give yourself some grace during this unusual period of time, and when life gets back to normal, so will your food habits!
The refrigerator policeman makes his occasional appearance in our kitchen. My husband will get started pitching things. And as he pitches the "science experiments" at the back of the fridge he does a running commentary about the waste. I am much happier when I stay ahead of the refrigerator police! 😉
We did really well through the holidays with food waste. I made two briskets on Christmas Day and split the leftovers with my mom and a friend. The scrappy bits we froze along with some leftover short ribs to add to Sunday Gravy at a later date. Yesterday I sliced up the extra fruitcake and wrapped it carefully for freezing. Everything else we managed to use up, except the fruit compote which can last a long time anyway. Very minimal waste has become the norm for us too. We've been making the extra effort to plan shopping and meals so that we know we will use stuff up.
BTW, I wanted to thank you for the introduction to Third Day Naturals. The vanilla lip balm is fabulous! My husband likes the lotion stick for the dry spots he gets on his fingers from his job as an artist. He said it's working really well and doesn't get all over stuff like the Aquaphor ointment did, (although he still uses that at night while he sleeps.) Oh, and their honey vanilla scrubs smells heavenly.
Happy 2015!
Isn't it wonderful stuff? The lip balm works so much better than anything else I've ever tried, even Burt's Bees.
We had our power go out after a freaky wind storm last week (2 people were killed) & even though we kept the doors on the fridge closed some things didn't make it including turkey & rice soup which was so delicious but only enjoyed one bowl 🙁
The ice cream even had to go as did all our milk.
As a side note we keep our breadcrumbs in the fridge & freezer so they last a bit longer 🙂
I keep homemade ones in the freezer, but gosh, it never occurred to me with Panko. Duh. And thank you!
Hi FG
Do you ever have time to separate your bananas? Apparently they continue to ripen when they are attached. We only buy one bunch a week but we are able to use them up before they get too brown.
I do when I remember. Do you feel like it makes a huge difference? I haven't felt like it was earthshaking, but I do it for the heck of it when I am present enough to remember.
I keep all dried stuffs that have been opened in fridge/freezer, they last longer plus there were persistent sugar ants this summer from an adjoining property...
I am still recovering from the worst bout of 'flu, so there's been quite a bit of waste, been trying to eat right to help recover but no appetite!
I've been too ill to care though- and I'll get back to being more careful when I'm better...
Glad you are all getting back to wellness!