Let's start with the bad news. And then I will redeem myself.
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.
First, happy Valentine's Day! We're kind of big fans of this holiday around our house, although not in the way that involves enormous red stuffed animals or expensive jewelry. 😉
In case you're interested, Here's a post I wrote about how we celebrate it. And here's a more detailed post about the 14 Days of Valentines.
On to food waste!
The Bad News
Oy.
Going clockwise from the top, I have
- a dried-up bunch of cilantro (It's not like I'm confused about how to use up cilantro.)
- three (!) squishy cucumbers (Whyyy did I buy so many??? And why did I not use them??)
- a few beans (I am so annoyed that it's hard to find them packaged loosely-I have trouble using up a big bag before we get really bored of beans. I intended to saute these last few up for another lunch meal for myself, but didn't get around to it.)
And then the last thing...that package of sausage.
Well.
I was organizing my fridge, and thought a container had spilled. So I took out the fruit drawer to inspect the damage, and lo and behold, there was a package of sausage.
Which had expired in December.
Oops.
I didn't even realize food could get stuck under there, but I will be a little more vigilant now.
On to the winning part of this post.
Rescue #1
I had some leftover sauteed asparagus and some leftover gravy in the fridge, and I realized that with the help of a blender, the two could become soup! It was quite delicious.
(I apologize for the dizzying angle of the above picture. It seemed reasonable at the time?)
Rescue #2
I took some wrinkly grape tomatoes, cut them in half, tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted them. These are so good added to my scrambled eggs.
Rescue #3
There was a leftover sweet potato half hanging out in the fridge, so I mashed it, added some water to make it more of a pumpkin consistency, and used it to make some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
Rescue #4
To finish things up this week, I blended some leftover roasted squash with water, half and half, curry powder, and salt to make a bowl of squash soup.
It wasn't quite as delicious as the butternut squash soup I usually make, but it did make the leftover squash way more appetizing.
Hopefully next time around, I'll have a bunch of marvelous saves to share, and no bad news to go along.
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Hi Kristen,
At least you had a lot of saves! My grocery store only sells the bags of beans also. They will split the bag for me. I don't know what it is about cucumbers but I never can seem to finish one. I love them but maybe have to be in the mood.
Happy Valentines Day to your crew.
Patti
Limp lettuce. Ew. I did find that even limp romaine can be added to vegetable soup. I pretended that it was spinach! Speaking of soup, I always make a huge pot (I keep adding, and it just happens). I'm trying to get into the habit of freezing half of it - before we start eating it. Seems as if it lasts forever sometimes - dinner, then lunch, etc. Freezing has cut down on the "not again!" reactions.
I developed a rrecipe I call "Creamless of Greens Soup." It's more a technique than a recipe. Boiled down to its essentials, it's: puree cooked greens, add liquid, add flavor.
1. Saute aromantics in an oil you like; typical choices include onions, carrots, sweet peppers, celery, garlic.
2. Add the washed chopped greens and maybe a bit more water. Cover and steam till limp and mushy.
3. Add enough tasty liquid so you can blend this (not a whole soup pot's worth). Good options include stock (chicken, beef, veal, seafood, fish,...), tomato juice, V-8 or bloody mary mix (these are great because they're already seasoned), the liquid that some from salsa or pico di gallo.
4. Blend to a consistency you like. I don't like it perfectly smooth so I use a stick blender right in the pot.
5. Add more liquid to make it the thickness you want.
6. Finally, season to taste. It might be perfect as it is. Or you can add something. Good options include vinegar (which brightens up the flavor), tabasco (which has a lot of vinegar), hot sauce, soy sauce, Lea & Perrins, wine, tomato paste, mashed anchovies (not so many that you taste anchovy, just 1-2 so the soup tastes a bit meaty), miso, herbs, spices. I've also used leftover gravy, cream sauce, and meat drippings. I typically use 2-3 of these - maybe sherry vinegar, tomato paste, and thyme.
Now that I think about it, I have a bibb lettuce that I didn't use for its intended purpose, maybe I'll make Bibb Soup.
Me too! *not again reply*. I should freeze them and when I have chicken stock I should freeze because that would really enhance some food!
Loved the title of this post!
My husband left a pot of soup on the stove all night. I cannot believe we wasted a meals worth of soup.
Oh, I just hate it when I do something like that. So frustrating.
Ouch! Did the pot survive?
Hopefully the stove was off!
I didn't even think of that possibility - that sounds much safer.
It was off the stove and cooled. It just gotten left behind in the kitchen clean up. My husband was cleaning the kitchen and I was doing baths (I lost) and he got called out on a fire call for an accident and neither of us want back in the kitchen. It's our only waste for weeks and it was all in 1pot.
I loved all of your saves!! Great ideas. Especially the muffins....so cool!
Just sat down to type up my post. Lost power! It'll be even later than anticipated! Oops!
Loss:
* 1-2 c. bean sprouts. I don't even know what recipe I bought them for, which makes me feel extra foolish.
On the Watch List:
* Cilantro. I bought a small bunch for one recipe, used more in another (that recipe used the stems, so it's definitely a keeper!), have a third on tap for the remainder.
Saves:
* Ground pork. Got my act in gear and used the ground happy pork in 2 recipes. Life Happened last week, as a result I was afraid I'd waited too long but it was fine. Phew!
* Zesty cream gravy from a meat dish. There was at least a cup left over begging to be used. I sauteed salvaged chicken bits[1], them mixed them with rice and the gravy.
* The cilantro stems, see above.
* Miso soup, used in the same Meatball & Tofu Soup recipe as the stems. The stock was a bit dull so I poked around for something to jazz it up. The miso soup was perfect this Hmong soup.
[1] There's usable meat left on the bones after I debone a chix, maybe 1/2 c. per whole chix. When I have the time and patience I rip the bits from the bones; otherwise they end up in the stock pot.
Update: I made the third recipe tonight, using ALL THE CILANTRO in the marinade. This is a first - I used every leaf and stem of a bunch of cilantro. I feel a happy dance coming on.
Applause! Not sure I've ever done that with cilantro.
Woohoo!!!!
Having used cilantro in both chicken marinade and in meatballs, I can definitely report that it was "blah" in the marinade but terrific minced in meatballs. I'm going to do that more often; if I can remember that's going to be my fallback for cilantro, especially stems.
I also learned that minced ginger is terrific in meatballs.
I've been doing a lot better with food waste although I have some irrecoverables in the fridge. I have a leftover chicken dish that needs to get tossed although we did get a few meals out of it. I'm embarrassed to say that I have a HUGE bag of kale that I purchased to use with my new juicer but the juicer was broken in the box and while waiting for a replacement part, the kale can't be salvaged. I have the same problem with cucumbers although some of the leftover fruits and veggies I have that are on their way out are going to find their way into the juicer as my test cases. 🙂
I found a small greek yoghurt fallen in the back too! I had to clean off the radish stems (that kinda melted and smelled horribly BUT the radishes were still in great shape) How do they get stuck between the drawers? I had not seen that one since Dec!
Have you ever considered putting (slightly) squishy cucumber in smoothies? I do it all the time! Personally, I like the flavor (which isn't too strong if you don't use too much), and my sister told me it's good for your skin, too.
Oh, I hadn't thought of that! I'll keep that in mind for next time.
Wasted two avocados which went from hard to alien life form in less than 24 hours. And I had planned to make guacamole with them for a gathering. Luckily I had enough fruit around to make fruit salad instead.
I am always so inspired by your amazing saves. Until I started reading your blog I could never think of non boring ways to save things. This week I've said almost gone bread with an overnight french toast casserole, some spring mix got tossed into a green smoothie instead of spinach *couldn't tell the difference* and our left over deer chili has been used as frito pie and a salad topping for me.
Thanks for the inspirations!
I like the idea of pumpkin chocolate muffins!
I thought I had lost an entire unopened pound of ground turkey, but upon opening it it looked and smelled perfectly fine. I had no plans for it on the horizon and it had already been frozen raw, so I browned it, cooked and froze. I wasted a half a cucumber ( seems to be the week for this!) two portions of baked potato casserole, (which I don't feel too badly about, we enjoyed the casserole twice) and two limes that shrunk and got as hard as rocks.
*cooled
Nice saves! I had some bean wastage this week as well - I bought a pack of organic beans for 20c (94% off!) and didn't manage to eat them all before they went mouldy. But I don't mind too much because I definitely got my 20c worth!
I am in love with this idea and hope to take it my blog!
Just a thought - take out that cilantro and let it dry. Use it next time you make something that you need cilantro for that doesn't require it to be fresh, like a soup or stock.