Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it’s been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
I wasted nothing this week! I credit much of success this week to scrambled eggs and smoothies. I’m currently buying eggs from some happy chickens that belong to a local blog reader (Thank you, David!!!), and so I’m feeling inclined to include more eggs in my diet (I feel confident that these qualify as “real food”).
Happily, scrambled eggs are a great way to use up little bits of food that are left over. One day this week I used half a bratwurst, part of a potato, some leftover sliced onions and peppers, and some baby spinach in my eggs, and another day, I used some about-to-go-bad tomatoes and cilantro to make a fresh salsa to go on top of my eggs.
And yogurt smoothies are such an awesome way to use up food as well…I love that you can throw in random pieces of fruit (and even spinach!). On Sunday, for example, I used up a few pieces of an orange, a small bit of cream, a couple of bananas, and a handful of spinach simply by blending all of that up with some yogurt and frozen strawberries.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I think that overall, my fight against food waste has made my diet healthier. It’s rarely necessary for me to wolf down a pan of brownies to prevent waste (!), but waste prevention does often call me to consume fruits and vegetables, which means that I’m eating more produce than I was before.
A guest post is coming later today, so check back this afternoon. 🙂
________________________________________________________
How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.
Steve in W MA
Monday 29th of March 2010
Congratulations! Wasting no food in a week is an unusual accomplishment.
I am getting close to doing that by making better use of the freezer, sooner.
I have frozen indivudual or double portions of all the beans, rice, barley, etc that I know I'm not going to eat in the next several days and am planning to use them for lunches at work next week (once I've had a break of several days of eating different foods for variety).
And I have scoped out some months-old frozen hamburger patties to make chili with once the frozen stuff if mostly gone so they don't go to waste.
*and* I've found that my inexpensive Ziploc vacuum bags are great for cutting up small roasts into steaks and vacuum freezing them for future consumption. (I tend to eat meat about once a week or twice a week). I used a small partially defrosted steak tonight to make beef stroganoff as a special treat after work!
It's amazing how my grocery bill goes down as I make better use of the food I've already purchased.
Theresa
Sunday 28th of March 2010
Since reading FG I have decided to use up all the odds and ends in my pantry. I tend to buy more stuff then just to use up what I have. It will take me awhile but I told my husband to expect some interesting meals!!!
Forest
Saturday 27th of March 2010
I love using up stuff with scrambled eggs and omelettes.... I also like to use egg whites but its leaving me with an issue for the egg yolks!
Jennifer Tarnawski
Saturday 27th of March 2010
We didn't do as well as last week, but still better than we used to do in terms of food waste. We need to get into the habit of eating more smoothies and using up some of our fruit before it turns. We do use eggs to use up leftovers from time to time. I use the leftover bacon and onions from when we have perogies and mix them in some eggs with some shredded cheese for scrambled egg sandwiches. Who can resist sauteed onions and bacon in cheese?
Angela
Friday 26th of March 2010
Great job, Kristen! I agree that smoothies and scrambles are great ways to use up odds and ends. The other one I've been liking lately is a frittata- just saute any veggies in an ovenproof pan, add eggs and milk and cheese and bake. so easy, and different every time!