One potato, two potato, three potato...
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.
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It was a sad potato week.
I also had to get rid of the last bit of pork taco filling. I made a lot of it, sort of inadvertently, and after eating it leftover for a number of meals, I just was NOT feeling it anymore.
So, I did the sensible thing and left it in my fridge to go bad.
I guess maybe I thought I was going to get a burst of pork-eating motivation or something?
I'm pleased to say that I have successfully used up all of my bananas of late (unlike before, I'm not building up a new stash in the freezer!)
Keeping a container of the Nutella-like spread from Aldi in the house might have helped.
Aaand, since the last Food Waste Friday here, I have successfully used up two entire bags of spinach.
An empty spinach bag (as opposed to one with slimy leaves in the bottom) is a happy sight.
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I have to chuckle a little that the bag of spinach has "all natural" on it. When is spinach not natural?! LOL!
Yeah...it's kind of like the cream I bought recently that was labeled gluten-free. Shouldn't all cream be gluten-free? Dairy has no gluten!
Although I suppose maybe some creamers have thickeners that have gluten? Still, it's not really cream then.
I've found cans of tomato sauce with gluten in them... you'd think it'd just be tomatoes. It's pretty sad.
It's amazing how many sauces, teas, salad dressings have gluten when you'd think they wouldn't =/ I have to be careful of anything processed. But your totally right--it's pretty crazy the things they have to label gluten free.
I recall buying a 'non dairy' creamer that used a thickener that was dairy based. I had an opportunity to ask a nutritionist about it and when she told me that, I burst out laughing. I know its not right b/c there are people that truly do have a dairy allergy but I found it ironic.
Our Aldi recently got that Nutella-like spread. I'm so excited to try it!
Ours just did too! Last year when I went to Chicago, I saw it on the shelves of a store, but it's taken almost a year for it to make its way to my Aldi's shelves.
Ooooh, Aldi nutella! For a while ours (Chicago) had it, then they didn't have it, then it was random, now it seems to be back for good, and it is SO GOOD.
The regional vice president I talked to said there was a supply issue...I guess it was more popular than they anticipated!
Those bananas look delicious (better than the potatoes).
I had a no waste week by making salsa from the tomatoes that were VERY ripe.
Yay for the empty spinach bag 🙂 I had several apples go bad this week, partly because I was too busy to make applesauce, but other than that not much.
I made homemade nutella recently, which was pretty easy and yummy, I hope you don't mind me posting the link:
http://www.economiesofkale.net/homemade-nutella/
I'll have to try it on top of bananas. It's also great on wraps with banana, rolled up and then toasted in a sandwich toaster 🙂
Leaving it in the fridge to go bad is the sensible thing to do;)
Haha, I always do that too! Even if I am sure I'm not going to eat something I just leave it in the fridge until it goes bad. I'm not sure why, but maybe deep down I have some hope I will use it?
Airing-cupboard casualties for me this week...
I am proud to report no food waste in our house this week. 🙂
And seriously, If I realized I could put Nutella on bananas I would never waste a banana ever again. Thanks for the tasty idea!
Here's the important thing to remember: Nutella makes almost anything better. =P
UGH! I had to throw away an entire loaf of bread. I bought 2 because they were on sale. I guess I should've known that with being on sale, they were close to out of date because in under a week when I brought it home, it was bad. I was SO annoyed. So annoyed in fact that instead of trying to salvage some and make croutons or feed it to the birds, I just threw it in the trash! I'm probably going to end up throwing away an entire eggplant, too. I bought it to make ratatouille with dinner one night, but with home remodeling this week... we forgot. :/ Hopefully next week is better.
I'm giving myself a pat on the back this week. No food wasted at my house.
The best way not to waste food whenever you cook too big a meal is to share it with a neighbor.
We threw out maybe a quarter cup of grocery store potato salad that the other half bought for a football game and there are three hot dog buns on the counter from said game still. I'm not too big on eating nutritionally low food just to use it up so the buns will probably either go bad or sit on the counter for so long that it scares me they haven't grown mold.
Why not toss them into the freezer and use them the next time you need them? Just thaw them in the fridge the day before you plan to use them. OR make use them for garlic toast, croutons, subs or to as someone else suggested to me - use them to feed the birds 😉
Love your empty spinach bag photo!
my 3 year old would always say he'd like a banana and then eat only a few bites - since I saw your peanut butter/banana slices idea, he eats the whole thing! my husband eats "almost too ripe" bananas like that now too. thanks!
2 c. cooked brussels sprouts, that I stuffed in the freezer to see if I'd use. Nope. I admitted defeat and tossed them.
A loaf of oat bread. The recipe just didn't turn out well. The rolls were fine but the loaf wasn't. I've staled it for breadcrumbs but I'm not sure I'm going to do it, to be honest.
Save of the Week:
I made a kale-navy bean soup but hadn't spiced it yet so it was bland. I also made spaghetti squash + homemade sauce that wasn't a big hit - too seasoned. It was a match made in heaven. It has kale, navy beans, brown rice, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, is zesty and I'm calling it Harvest Stew.
Great save!
Saturday's contribution: 2-3 c. of veggies and tofu I was marinating, that developed "gunk." Disappointed and mystified about how that happened.
One of the things I like to do with leftover taco filling is freeze it and then later I make taco pizza out of it. I actually use your thin crust pizza recipe and then top it with this recipe from allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-pizza/detail.aspx), minus the refried beans for our family's tastes. One of our busy night faves!
How do you like the Aldi version of Nutella. I thought it was just okay. But I'm obviously eating it. 🙂
I threw out an unopened bag of romaine lettuce from Sam's. I got a little too excited about how good it was and bought too. But I am the only one eating them. After the first bag, I just couldn't do any more and the second was already turning. Darn. I also threw out some hamburger gravy that was delicious, but I bought hamburger meat at a different place and I just couldn't do the texture of it (ground beef should not have hard bits!). I will give the rest that is in the freezer to someone who will really appreciate it though, so not a loss there at least. I will also need to pour out the last bit of homemade dressing, which is not such a big deal. There is only a tiny bit there. I just couldn't do more salad so no more dressing either. Oh, and I threw out a bit (er, pot) of spiced millet that had ended up sitting in the fridge for a week (I guess I didn't really like it). Not such a good week for food waste, BUT I did not waste the potatoes in my pantry. They were still in great shape and I used the rest, unlike the time it looked like they had made their own sour cream in the potato bag. Ugh.
I ran across this posting and think that it will make me stop wasting food. Thankfully I have a fur-baby who loves to eat left overs, but something he just cant eat. I cant wait to see what everyone does on Friday.