Well, that didn't feel good.
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.
It's been a long time since I had to throw out a nearly un-touched package of food.
But I had to this week. My poor 4-pack of lettuce had three whole heads left in it when it started to mold. And it is my fault that it molded because it had been in my fridge for a while.
The two containers of egg yolks are there because Mr. FG sometimes likes to take hardboiled egg whites to work with him (he hates the yolks.) The kids and I usually remember to eat the yolks, but this time we didn't.
And holy moly, there's no chance we'd mistakenly eat bad egg yolks...those puppies were stink-a-riffic.
There's nothing in the stainless steel bowl there. It was just sitting innocently on the counter. 😉
That's all on the food waste front, but I'll be back here tomorrow with a little recipe roundup and also Lisey and I will have a post up for you.
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Today's 365 post: That looks like a belly-flop splash.
Joshua's 365 post: You know it's hot when...
We're all different, aren't we. I love the yolks of hard boiled eggs, but I'm not too crazy about the whites.
I'm only just writing my No Waste Tastes Great post today. I'm took advantage of my Big Sis having the Kids for a sleep over and went out for a run this morning. School holidays means I'm not getting much training in! Felt very strange being "sans children" when I woke.
Anyhow... not a good week for me either really. Must be one of those weeks. My fridge even looks a little messy with odds and ends in there. My big decision today is whether finely grated parmesan is okay to use 2 weeks on. The packet says use within 3 days, but I'm wondering why? Is there something about parmesan I should be cautious about?
Grated parm will get stale but not unhealthy. Stale = less soft, less tangy/tasty. Freezing it will slow down the process.
Cheers WilliamB - as always the food waste oracle! It will be consumed this evening. Rather than plain breaded-chicken and pasta salad with lemon mayo, it'll be parmesan-crusted-breaded-chicken...
If you leave it LONG enough it will turn green. Guess how I know? But then it's obvious 'cause it's, ya know, green.
There is that, Mairsydoats, and shredded cheese will reach that stage faster than a solid chunk as exposed surface area is a large factor.
My grandfather used to sing Mairsydoats to get me to sleep.
Some similar mould issues here which got me thinking about when is mouldy too mouldy? What to do when it's not as clear cut as your lettuces? I found some answers to help me! Looking forward to the new recipes!
I had a terrible food waste week. We went on vacation and I had taken my cut up veggies with me. Well they do not do well when put on ice. They didn't make it. My husband forgot the sour cream in the pop up camper fridge for the six hour drive home....umm that didn't make it either. Two chicken legs that I left for my son to eat (he loves them) never gotten eaten. Bad bad food waste week.
The usual for me: a bit of this, a cut off moldy bit of that. One whole nectarine. The hot and sour soup my father left for me is going to be a challenge - I don't like it that much - but it falls under the heading "Something I'm Not Responsible For."
On the plus side, I went out to eat a couple times with my parents, had many tasty leftovers so I didn't have to cook much[1], did good things with them[2], and (possible exception of soup) none will be wasted.
[1] After several years of a lot of cooking and experimenting, I'm feeling burnt-out on cooking. Currently I'm working to remember how to make the same dish repeatedly and that simple is OK too.
[2] I'm particularly pleased with the fried rice made of leftover Chinese take-out rice, smoked turkey from the wing I'd earlier used to make chorizo beans, leftover pork from a not-entirely-successful marinade experience, a 1 lb ham steak I bought for $1, and the 90% of the onion that was not moldy.
Nothing wasted here this week. But I did make a really huge pot of pasta and pizza sauce for the freezer, using up some bendy carrots and wilty mustard greens.
As for boiled egg yolks, I have a cookie recipe that has been passed down in my family for a couple of generations that calls for hard boiled egg yolks. They are one of my family's Christmas cookie recipes.
Post! I don't like hard boiled egg yolks either.
I second that--my sister always makes egg white omelets and I'd love another idea for using up yolks.
Oh dear! Do you ever say something that minutes afterwards you wish you could withdraw? This recipe is actually being used (and posted) on my blog as part of a Christmas family recipes segment, around Dec. 1.
I'm sorry.
LOL about your husband and the egg yolks! That's hilarious 🙂
Had to toss out some of our favorite bread this week. 🙁
We are on the cusp right now - there are a few things in the fridge that we need to eat STAT or they are going the way of the egg yolks! Def gonna get on that tonight!
We had an okay week for Food Waste here, considering we were camping last week. We only had one casuality from that trip! I'm sorry to hear about your lettuce. I used to get those containers of six heads of different lettuces from our Sam's club, but I had to stop because we would never use it up before it went bad. And wasting lettuce just makes me very sad.
Had a bit more food waste this week then usual, mostly my fault. Two sweet potatoes that were moldy. Been keeping around one or two sweet potatoes all the time, as I make a balsamic chicken and sweet potato dish about every other week or sweet potato fries, but just hadn't done so in awhile. Second was my spinach is having to be picked over way more now, as I had bought it when I already had a fair amount of other lettuces and just didn't open it for awhile. Then when I finally did, it was already not so good and then I had the second appointment of my root canal and didn't feel like eating my daily salad for two or three days, so wound up not eating the spinach as much as I normally do lately. HOping this week will be better but that is going to require some left over days, as I had thawed some pork for using last night, but had a not so good day and we went out instead, and now we have Chinese left overs from eating out and my gallon pot of chili (Yes, I will freeze some soon.) and many other left overs. But we have tended to do fend for self weekend, but not sure if I should cook up that pork this weekend, or eat left overs.
Yes I had to throw out some things too since I was away for 10 days and my kids at home housesitting didn't eat this stuff up! But alas, I'm staring fresh now....
I had another bad week as well, thanks to a freezer mishap. Oh well. Better luck next time!
Sounds like you need to start a compost bucket.
Unfortunately my first Food Waste Friday was not a good one. I cleaned out the fridge completely, something I had been meaning to do for months, which meant a lot of "bits" left in jars that needed throwing out. On the plus side, I now have a lot of empty jars to store my dry goods in...
4 potatoes this week. Boo!