What can I say for myself? At least it wasn't happy chicken.
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.
I wasted some meat.
I hate it when I do that. Meat isn't compostable in my home compost pile, and since meat takes so much effort to produce, it feels especially bad to waste it.
But you know what?
I think part of the reason I wasted it is that it wasn't happy chicken meat.
The local chicken I've typically been buying is really yummy, and I'm pretty inspired to eat it even when it's leftover. This chicken didn't taste outstanding the first time around, and I think that's why it sat it in the fridge until it went bad.
So, this is interesting...it could partially justify the higher price of the good chicken.
What else is there? A small piece of pizza and the last of a bag of spinach.
The last bits of a bag of spinach always seem to be the death of me.
I did save a mushy pear by freezing it to use later when I make some Korean Grilled Short Ribs.
And we ate our way through tons of garden cucumbers before they went bad.
Also, I saved some bad bananas by making banana chocolate chip muffins.
Ooh, and I added a very brown avocado to our smoothie the other day, and none of my avocado-hating kids even noticed.
Score.
Plus, I think the only current leftover in my fridge is some pasta salad, so that's a cheerful thought. Maybe next week will be better!
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Today's 365 post: The skies will wear out...
I don't think we have EVER made it through an entire bag of spinach before!
We wasted some meat and eggs this week. We had a dish that we didn't like that much the first time either, so we didn't finish it. I don't like wasting meat either. Also, if I don't get to the tomatoes on my counter today, some of them are going to be beyond use. I haven't decided whether I am going to make more salsa or spaghetti sauce.
Could you try throwing just a few bits of spinach in smoothies throughout the week? Since the spinach bag seems to be such a hard one to go through, especially if you buy baby spinach, you really don't notice the flavor if you just put maybe 1/4 cup at a time and it shouldn't drastically change the color of the drink in such a small quantity. Or maybe at the beginning of the week, take out 1/3 or 1/2 of the bag, blanch it and freeze it to cook with later?
I wasted some dairy, and since I don't buy meat, I feel the same way about that as you do about wasting the chicken. Oh well. We're lucky here that we can buy spinach loose so that we can buy a small amount every week. And it's cheaper per kilo than buying it pre-bagged (although people don't seem to realise this). If we do have some left-over I have just started freezing it to put in soups or curries.
Any bag of salad is the death of me. That's my waste this week. 1/4 bag of wet-leaf-lettuce.
I'm hoping to ensure the mammoth courgette gets used up however! Just back from Aldi with my free-range-eggs in hand. That's the plan this PM - some nom-nom Zucchini Chocolate Bread!
A day of firsts for me... used a processor to shred courgette and tasted Zucchini Chocolate bread. I totally agree "nom-nom"... I managed 4 in the end (on FB) as I had soooo much courgette when shredded. 2 have been donated to neighours, 1 has already been sliced and started on here and 1 will accompany us on our jolly hols...
Another way to use zucchini and squash is to shred it, squeeze out the liquid (wringing it in a towel works), and add to sauteed veggies or omlets. I used to sneak zukes into my sauteed mushrooms that like all the time.
Aaah, spinach. So hard to use it all up. If I have some that's on its way out, I usually just wilt it and throw it in a quiche. Quiche, in general, is one of my favorite ways of using up various odds-and-ends that are in their final days. I keep prepared whole-wheat pie and quiche crusts in my freezer and try always to have eggs on hand. Makes it easy just to throw one together. And my secret ingredient is shallot salt along with whatever dried spices are handy and go with the filling ingredients--adds nice flavor to the egg mixture.
"it could partially justify the higher price of the good chicken"
That's how I justify getting real parmesano reggiano. It's so tasty that I use less of it and love it more when I do. Unlike chix, though, it never seems to go bad.
Nothing in particular this week - the usual random assortment of a few berries here, a bit of that there.
I rescused unhappy chix on the verge of badness by finally cooking it last night, it'll be dinner tonight. I used the remainder of the stuffing (breadcrumbs, aforementioned parmesan, duck proscuitto) in an impromptu one egg omlet.
Best save this week was turning lightly shrivelled local corn into dried corn. Now I just need to figure out what to do with dried corn. If nothing else I'll use it in winter soups, stews, and stuff but I welcome other suggestions.
You beat me to it! I was just about to say that the comment about how not wasting helps justify the higher price is spot on!
If I ever buy or prepare a food I don't like, I'm so much less likely to eat it, and so much more likely to waste it!
We used to receive dried corn as a special treat in Christmas boxes from my relatives. My mom made a fabulous baked corn casserole using the dried corn. I always requested it for my birthday supper as a child.
Recipe? Technique? Please.
Those last few bits of spinach are so hard to use up! I usually freeze the extra (after blanching it) if I know I won't use it all, then sneak it into pasta sauce or soup later on.
At the Swan house, we wasted half a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread- several flies got stuck in the bag and I was just too grossed out to let anyone eat it afterwards. Anyone that is, except our chickens. 🙂
With meat, I feel especially responsible for consuming every last bit, as the animal gave it's life for my consumption.
No waste around these parts, as we've been out of town most of the week. But a huge list of chores to tackle now that we're back.
Good job on the sneaky avocado! Could you have put the sad chicken to use in a soup with the last lil bits of bagged spinach? Usually when I try a recipe and it doesn't turn out how I had hoped, I can save it by turning it into planned-overs by tossing it into soup. Soup almost always saves everything. Its great for fridge clean outs.
you can always salvage old spinach by putting it in a smoothie. A banana + spinach and whatever fruit, is a really good/healthy breakfast smoothie.
Nothing to report, firt time for ages!
Spinach doesn't seem to have any flavor in smoothies, I've used it that way many times. When the weather is cooler I have lentil soup recipes that call for spinach to be added at the end, you might be able to freeze it for that (I have used Green Giant frozen spinach in my soups in the past).
No waste this week, but we managed to be home quite a bit, which helped.
My spinach never keeps more than a few days. It's definitely one of the first veggies/greens to go.
I have an iffy relationship with chicken. I don't like it reheated. I can imagine not wanting to eat it again if it didn't taste good the first time.
I'm struggling with a never-ending bag of spinach now - I've been eating it and eating it and it's not disappearing! I even put some in pasta sauce to top a 'pizza' for brunch today and it looks like there's still the same amount left in the bag! I may have to make soup or just be prepared for it to go to waste. I like it in my eggs though not too much. thinking about a turkey meatloaf that has spinach -someone posted the recipe for me a couple of years ago but I never got around to trying it...
Yeah, I also toss in the freezer the spinach I know we won't get to in time and then add to whatever, soups, smoothies, pasta. We tried your zucchini chocolate bread (I made them into muffins, cause I like the single servings and the quicker cooking time) they were AWESOME. (I left out the honey and mixed the flour half wheat/half white and it came out great) I always try to keep healthful snacks in the freezer for a quick snack on the go. With the summer heat, we have been turning our smoothies into home made Popsicles.
Where do you buy your chicken Kristen? Since reading "Food Inc" we have stopped buying chicken and beef from supermarkets and started buying just chicken from Trader Joes which sells organic chicken. It is delicious, much tastier than the chicken that we were buying before and now find ourselves unable to eat anyway just thinking of the way that they are treated. But, Trader Joe's chicken, while good, is expensive.
David.
I'm not sure you can count on any grocery store chicken to be humanely raised, but we don't have TJ here so maybe they have better sources. You might try this website to find locally produced pastured chickens near you: http://www.localharvest.org/
I guess my thought is that either way, the chicken gave it's life whether it was spent on pasture or in a factory farm. I absolutely hate it when I waste meat.
This is a concern of mine so I spent some time researching. "Organic" is all about what the chickens are fed and has, alas, little to do with how humanely the chickens are treated. Organic chix can still be treated inhumanely.
My solution is to buy Happy Chicken whole and in bulk from a local vendor, then cut them up and shrink-wrap them myself; whole being a lot cheaper and I get the carcass for stock. By buying so many at once and paying cash, I can negotiate a discount. My last batch cost $3.50/lb or about $14/chicken.
I had the most sucess talking to a chicken vendor at a farmer's market. If not, as WB says, localharvest.org is a good starting point. Persistence pays off - many of the farmers who list at localharvest.org aren't good businessmen. The info can be out of date and many don't respond to emails or phone calls. (How they stay in business I don't know.)
I'm on a 6-week no waste roll. It was a near miss though, I rescued a jug of milk and some limp vegetables.
I usually buy 2-3 bags of spinach each week. I use them daily in the juices and smoothies we are drinking. Spinach has a very neutral taste so it is very easy to add to either of them.
everytime I read Food Waste Friday, I try to get motivated enough to get my compost bin going. I have a $5 off coupon at Osh Hardware. I'm going to use it to buy a container to start my compost pile. At least I can recycle bad food that way.
I have two zucchini getting old. Does anyone know if I can shred it and freeze it? I'd like to use it for zucchini bread later but don't have time to make it now.
I shred it and freeze it in 2-4 cup increments all the time. Store in an air tight freezer storage zip bag and be sure to get out as much air as possible. I store mine flat this way it doesn't take up prime real estate in my freezer. Oh, don't forget to label and date the baggy LOL
Eggs. Sigh.
I have had good luck with freezing bananas and using later in smoothies and baked goods.
I think spinach multiplies exponentially when you open the bag!!!!!! Glad to see others have been able to freeze it and throw it in soup. I'll try that.
This post is really helping me prevent food waste! Thanks for doing this series. 🙂
I did EXACTLY the same thing I did last time I posted for Food Waste Friday. Der.
You always amaze me with how good you are at finding creative uses week after week! We've started getting the yummier, better-for-you chicken, too. It's been well worth the price increase for us.
Well... I have a confession to make... I let a half package of asparagus go bad... this as I was preparing my post about how I almost never wast fresh produce. Yes, it was a cosmic smack-down from the universe - pride will be punished!
Oh well, I did my produce post anyhow, and hopefully it will serve as a reminder for me!
No waste from our camping trip thanks to help from a hungry dog...but some at home when we returned. Last week I was pondering mould, this week I'm pondering the lack of mould on 10 day old bread...is that normal?
My husband takes old lettuce and puts them in stews. It tastes great. We rarely have food spoil on us because we don't overspend on food.
I don't think we had any waste this week. Managed to use up my homemade barbecue sauce tonight. My husband finished off the not so great take out lo-mein for lunch. The homemade bread is quickly disappearing. I do believe I need to freeze some of my chili in one cup serving sizes soon. Wish I could manage to empty out my freezer a bit more. The more I try, the fuller it seems to be. I swear I take something out of the basement freezer and it looks just as full afterwards as it did before I took it out. *sigh* Oh, well, we are planning to cook up a ham soon, so that should help empty it out some!
I get the whole "trying-to-avoid-waste-food", as we do it here as well.....What I can't quite grasp is the concept of making a dish or dessert that you weren't planning on making just to use up something that is on the verge of going bad. Example being the Banana Chocolate Muffins mentioned in the post above. So, instead of tossing a banana or two they were used, but so were other ingrediants that could have been saved for a future use and will now have to be replaced.
Thoughts???
Personally, I think it depends on if the thing you make, really is something that would be enjoyed. I mean, the ingredients were purchased to be used, not saved forever. But if the item you make isn't used and enjoyed, then probably you aren't saving much. For me, making banana bread when I have bad bananas is thoroughly enjoyed in my house. It typically takes over my sons waffles at breakfast. And I am sure making banana bread is fairly cheap to make. So to me that works. Now, if I want to use up strawberries and I decide to make strawberry freezer jam and have to go buy some freezer pectin, well then it may be worth it, or it may not, dependent on how much people like the finish product. Will it save me from having to buy more jelly later in time? Or will we not like it? IE I would rather not make something I have never made before to use up leftovers of something or have to buy something to make that dish/item. Making cookies, seems a bit more frivolous to me, but as my hubby is underweight, and I need to encourage him a bit to eat more, and I can always take cookies to church on Sunday, seems worth it to me. So I guess in the end, you have to decide for yourself if saving that item by making whatever is worth it or not.
Um... seriously? You kinda lost me with this one. If the other ingredients were used and eaten, then nothing was wasted. The only possible way this makes any sense at all is if every single ingredient you purchase is already destined for a recipe the moment it comes into your house... so do you only buy 2 cups of flour at a time? Perhaps you do... although I personally cannot imagine trying to cook that way. I just keep a nicely stocked pantry and then create meals around whatever is ripening in the garden or happens to be on sale or in season at the store.
I'm still trying to figure out how using an ingredient for something other than it's original purpose is wasteful. If it gets used, then it gets used... isn't it the same in the end?
Um....seriously??? I don't think I ever said that the other ingredients were wasted, did I?
What I said was I don't understand the logic of using other items/ingredients to avoid the waste of something else. For example the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.......I'm not sure of the ingredients but lets just say $7.00 worth of ingredients are used to save $0.50 worth of bananas......not productive in my book unless those muffins were needed for something or already planned. In my house, banana chocolate chip muffins aren't a necessity by any means.
Banana chocolate chip muffins ingredients can't cost more than $2, I am sure. I have done the math for my homemade breads which use quite a bit more flour and it comes up to about $2 a loaf, so I suspect banana chocolate chip muffins are similar. Of course, maybe a tad more with the chocolate, but I never put chocolate in my muffins. I make mine with light on oil and all splenda and all whole wheat flour, so if my family has it at breakfast, not any worse than a bowl of cereal or a waffle, so not a frivolous thing in anyway. 🙂
I do understand your argument and I can see it, if the item you make is a non necessary thing that doesn't save you a regular expense. IE as in my example banana muffins can take the place of cereal or store bought waffles at breakfast and do at my house. They aren't a dessert that if we didn't have, no one would miss. They often times take the place of something else that costs me money. So it does make sense to spend the money and time to make it.
H - it works if what you make is something that you'd want to eat, and that doesn't blow your budget or violate how you like to eat.
Taking your example: if I like Banana Choc Chip Muffins, then a good time to make them is when bananas would otherwise go bad. Since I like BCCMs, that's a good use of the flour, etc.; all that changes is when I make them. But if I don't like BCCMs and don't want to give them to someone else, then making them will, as you say, turn $.50 of waste into $7 of waste.
great comment. You could also mash and freeze the bananas so you could make the muffins at a more convenient time later on.
I'm sorry if I offended you... that wasn't my intention. Your comment just didn't make any sense to me.
It sounds like what you're saying is that you would consider the muffins to be frivolous or extravagant - so they wouldn't be a good use of resources regardless of whether the bananas were salvaged or not. Perhaps the trick is finding a way to incorporate the salvaged food (whatever it is) into something that you're already planning on making.
If I had some overly ripe bananas to use up, I'd probably just toss them in the freezer until the next time I was baking something appropriate and add them at that point. Either that or bake some banana bread and freeze it so I'd have something I could easily grab the next time I had to bring something to a potluck.
Once again, I really didn't mean to be snarky, I just couldn't wrap my brain around what you were saying.
So many others have responded before me, but I'll throw my thoughts out too. Skirnir and WilliamB pretty much said what I would have said. The muffins definitely don't cost $7, and my kids ate them for breakfast the next morning instead of the whole wheat bread they usually eat. The whole wheat bread stayed in the freezer for another day.
The muffins probably cost a bit more than the whole wheat bread that is our staple for breakfast toast, but I didn't have to throw out bananas, and my kids enjoyed the treat. : )
At this point in my life, saving the bananas was worth more than saving the dollar or so (the guesstimated difference between the cost of the whole wheat bread and the muffins.) But not everyone has the same priorities I do, and for someone else, perhaps composting the bananas would have been a better choice.
This was our worst week in nine weeks of focusing on not having waste. I am glad that I had to gather and take a picture or I wouldn't have realized. This will make us try harder next week!
This week I did manage to use an entire bag of spinach. I used some in a chorizo frittata with cherry tomatoes. It was very delicious. I also use spinach as the base for most salads because I really don't see any benefits in eating lettuce. I make small salads because I only have myself and my fiance to cook for. So we normally finish up all the salad in one meal. If I do have any salad veggies left, I'll normally throw them into a frittata, too. I never add the dressing straight to the salad bowl because of this. And then if I have just a little spinach left and I'm all "frittata-ed out," I'll just saute the leaves in a little bit of olive oil with a clove of garlic. Season it with some salt and pepper, add some lemon juice if you have it on hand. It's delicious! I normally just make it for myself since it's such a small amount anyway, and I love spinach.
i just wanted to say i feel sad about you saying at least your chicken waste wasn't 'happy' chicken. while it is cheaper to waste unhappy chicken, the idea of a chicken living this horrible and terrible life, dying, and then being thrown in the garbage is even worse. i dont know, it just really bothered me. i love your site and have been working hard on food waste here, but your title made me feel really sad.
Hmm, that is true. The only reason it's less awful is that I paid less for it. But, yes, I can see your point.