The final freezer challenge update!
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.
The deadline I officially set for myself was Wednesday, but I thought Food Waste Friday would be a more appropriate place to wrap up the challenge.
(Here's the start of my challenge and the rules I made up for myself.)
The original freezer
This is the before.
And here's what it looks like this morning.
The drawer is so delightfully empty.
All that's left is fruit for smoothies, some green chilies I froze this week, a container of bread crumbs (no worries...I will easily use those up) and a few corn tortillas.
And the top drawer just has yeast, coffee, broth, a little more fruit, and some OJ concentrate, all of which are regularly used in this house.
What I had left (and what I did with it all!)
-corn tortillas (mostly used in enchiladas)
-bratwurst (grilled and eaten)
-two packages of breakfast sausage (one package is in the deep freeze, the other is thawing in the fridge)
-slow-cooked beef, which I think has some Mexican seasonings (used in enchiladas)
-a small amount of bacon (used in salad and on pizza bagels)
-a package of broccoli (unopened & moved to the deep freeze for future used in broccoli noodle soup)
-a package of peas (relegated to ice pack status)
-a partial package of Mexican cheese (used in enchiladas)
Last time I updated about the freezer challenge, several of you suggested enchiladas for the tortillas, cheese, and beef (thank you!), so I modified a Cook's Illustrated enchilada recipe to use the beef.
This was a great way to use up the slow-cooked beef!
I consider myself to be officially done with this freezer challenge, as all the remaining freezer inhabitants are easy-to-use foods, not forgotten-about odds and ends.
I've never done a freezer challenge before, and I'm really glad I took this on. It turned out to be much more delicious than I'd anticipated, and I'm surprised at how much food I managed to rescue and use (I thought I'd end up throwing a lot away.)
I mean, seriously! Look at the ridiculous pile of food I started with.
On a not-so-cheerful note, my deep freezer holds all sorts of mystery items, and I really, really ought to do a freezer challenge there.
I'll probably take a few weeks off before I tackle that monster, though, as that freezer holds much more in the way of Very Old Food and I'm a little scared to take it on.
(Also: I foresee that challenge involving more throwing away of food than this challenge.)
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How did you do on the food waste front this week? And if you were participating with me in the freezer challenge, how did it go for you?
I did my chest freezer and I am ashamed to admit how much food I threw out! Some of this could have been avoided if I had simply labeled my food better. Lots of chicken bones lost and I will always date my bread now before throwing it in this freezer. Another good suggestion I read here, I think, was to keep a wipe off board on the freezer to keep track of the contents. My biggest save was to make a hamburger soup which used up a little bit of cooked hamburger and a small container of sloppy joe. The soup was delicious and the next day was so thick that I called it stew and made dumplings to cook on top.
I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be embarrassed too. And freshly motivated to label everything!
I hauled out my slow cooker, and used one package of chicken from the freezer, a cup of rice from this Costco sized bag we've been working through since like 2012 (turns out we don't eat that much rice), a can of mushroom soup from the pantry, a jalapeno from the garden that was going to go bad, and the leftover veggies from the veggie tray I had from a party. It was decent and has turned into lunch for the past few days.
Good thing rice lasts for a long time (as long as it's not brown rice!).
You did so well. Seriously impressed.. I may have mentioned this somewhere else also but...I love the photo of the enchiladas.
Well done!
#FoodWasteFriday over at mine is a request for help. I'm on the letter B this week. Beetroot. It's vacuum packed, so in reality would it ever deteriorate? I don't know. Fancy doing a bit of baking. I've slacked off a little of late, but need to get my mixing bowl out once again. Thinking Chocolate/Beetroot cake? Never attempted it before.
http://simplybeingmum.com/2014/10/03/no-waste-tastes-great-chocolate-beetroot-cake-yes/
Ooh, I am no good with beets!
Not good on the food waste front:
- 1.25 large tomatoes, on top of 2 last week. I'm not buying more than 1 large one a week till this waste stops.
- most of a head of lettuce: forgot I had one, bought another, it went bad; I will leaf through it find the edible bits.
Virtue was rewarded this week: when I went to restock meat after going through my freezers, I discovered my regular supermarket is now selling mildly happy meat (step 2, for those who follow these things) which is, inevitably, at a much better price than Whole Foods. Even better, every package had a $1/pkg coupon on it.
Niiice! What qualifies meat as mildly happy in your book?
Here's the webpage with descriptions of what each step is; it differs for chickens, cows, and pigs.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/animal-welfare-standards
My goal is Step 4 - living outdoors and foraging - but it's not always feasible. Till then I shall not let "perfect" be the enemy of "good enough".
Actually, this is the site to use, as the program is no longer confined to Whole Paycheck.
http://www.globalanimalpartnership.org/
Step 2 is roomy inside and "enhanced" environment, such as bales of hay to peck at.
wow! congrats on being on step 2!! i am vegetarian have been for 19 yrs now. of my 4 boys my oldest (11) is also, we are vegetarian because of the way the animals are treated. my other 3 children and hubby are all omnivores.. i try and buy meat that is raised by step 4 for the family when i make it. it' s hard to find though as i find it is expensive and limited.
Have you considered buying pastured meat in bulk? For example, now that I finally found a source I like, my pastured pork is about $6.50-$7/lb if I buy at least half the beast (factoring in that pastured pork is fattier than commercially-trimmed).
I did well this week! The only thing I had to throw out was some moldy cheese, and I saved the rest of the block (as my mother taught me). I used up some stale bread and bean broth making soup, made quesadillas for lunch with a handful of leftover black beans, and stuffed some tomatoes with the aging quinoa from the freezer.
This week's big question: Will I actually make the stem and core pesto from An Everlasting Meal, or will that bag of stems and cores rot in my fridge?
Take on that deep freeze one section at a time. It won't seem so onerous. You may also get some nice meals out of it. Don't we always feel better when things are under control?
That's a great idea!
Mexican casseroles and enchiladas are my favorite way to use up the odds and ends in the freezer. Yours looks beautiful - great job. I'm in the middle of a freezer/pantry challenge now as I am trying to see how long I can go without going grocery shopping.
Great work on your freezer. I have gone in the other direction and filled mine up with slow cooked beans. I talked about changes of made to be more frugal and environmentally conscious this week at
http://www.veeseasyvegan.com/chocolate-sesame-haystacks-five-changes-food-waste-friday/:
I haven't done my freezer (yet), but I have had no food waste this week! Yipee! I have a pretty minimal freezer, but, being school holidays where I am, it is likely to be investigated this week!
I had last commented that I really needed to tackle my refrigerator freezer... and a few days later, my husband forgot that he chilled a can of drink in the freezer, so that it burst and sprayed everywhere. Yes, my freezer is now clean and much more orderly. The good news is that I found very little to toss. And I found that frozen ginger root I knew I had in there somewhere.
I keep a whiteboard on my chest freezer, and it is a huge help. The only problem was when it got wiped accidentally one day as we were moving things around next to it. But most of the time, I just glance and see what I have. I write, for example, "Ground Beef, 1 lb- I I I I I", meaning I have five one pound packages. When I use one, I just wipe off an "I". Easy!
I need a major clean out and use up of all three food areas-fridge, freezer, and pantry. I am scared at how much food waste I will discover. Hopefully not too much, but know there will be enough to motivate me to better planning before another big shop.
What I do is buy in January thru August. Take the rest of the year to use things out of my freezer. I do notice a trend we use a lot of chicken. I try and focus on buying Christmas during these months. However I will purchase extremely good sale items