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.
So, the other night, I made some quesadillas and I purposely made one extra so that I could send it in Mr. FG’s lunch. I refrigerated it in a Pyrex container and hurriedly grabbed it while packing his lunch the next day.
A few hours later, he emailed me from work and was like, “What did you put in my lunch? It doesn’t look like a quesadilla!”
And then I realized I’d accidentally put a container of leftover fish into his lunch.
It wasn’t good leftover fish, like fish cakes…it was a fish from when I’d tried a recipe that ended up tasting really…fishy.
Note to self: Must. Check. Containers.
Anyway, it wasn’t great fresh fish, it was even less lovely leftover fish, and it would have been disgusting heated up in a microwave at work (whereas at home, I could have heated the fish in a cast iron skillet).
So, he went out for lunch, and the fish (in that rectangular container) is part of my food waste this week.
What else is in there? The piece of chicken was leftover from when I made Chicken Tacos. Which were great, but I made too much chicken, and while I ate lots of the leftover chicken, when I cut into that piece, I realized it was underdone and I never got around to recooking it.
I also wasted a cucumber, which is weird, because we ate a lot of cucumbers this week, but I must have accidentally used up the new ones first.
And there are some leftover grilled veggies. I meant to add them to scrambled eggs, and I did do that, but just not for enough days!
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Jenessa
Monday 28th of October 2013
We went to dinner at a friend's house and they sent us home with a pizza since they had ordered too much. We both had some for lunch yesterday and decided to throw the rest away because it wasn't very good. I hate wasting food, but I see no sense in us forcing ourselves to eat unhealthy food. I also wasted a couple cups of lettuce that turned really brown.
Agnieszka H.
Monday 28th of October 2013
I generally try to waste as little food as possible, but I decided to throw out a small bowl of leftover barley-and-potato soup today - the soup was 4 days old and the potatoes 5 days old (I'd used up boiled potatoes from the day before), I forgot to eat it yesterday. On a positive note - I did manage to use up a portion of leftover roast turkey: I cut it into tiny pieces and mixed it into a casserole with boiled barley groats and some stewed veggies (leeks, a shredded carrot, a small onion), the end result was quite tasty :)
CeCee
Saturday 26th of October 2013
I was seriously racking my brain for any food waste and it is ZERO ZILCH NADA!!! Yay! We were in the last weeks of a pantry challenge and we literally ate every bite of every thing so we could successfully complete the challenge.
On an unrelated note a bottle of mineral oil that I use to massage my muscles after workouts was left open and knocked down by my wonderful husband. Then one of my pups licked it up, so for those who didn't know Mineral oil is a laxative. So I had oily carpet and a sick dog. Ugggggghhhhhhhh
Jodi
Friday 25th of October 2013
The fish lunch gave me quite the chuckle. I am happy to say that my waste for the week was 1/2 of a cherry tomato that had mold. I know it might seem weird that I ate the other 1/2. There is 1/2 cup of carrot soup in the fridge that if I do not eat tomorrow, I will throw out. So my plan is to have it for lunch tomorrow.
Dawn
Friday 25th of October 2013
I came so close to almost sending my husband to work with a whole container of leftover cheesecake last week. I checked it on a whim--I don't usually. When I told him of his near miss he said he guessed he could have made do...
WilliamB
Saturday 26th of October 2013
Doesn't sound like too much of a burden...
Liz B.
Friday 25th of October 2013
That reminds me of the time I thought I grabbed the margarine container being reused to package fresh fruit to go with my packed lunch - and grabbed the one with the margarine in it instead. :-) Not a great side with lunch that day! I found a bag of disgusting spoiled potatoes in my basement food storage area- I know they were very VERY old, and I'm glad I found them before they, um, caused a big mess (and smell). Also tossed about a quarter of a container of half and half that I left out on the counter before I left for work one day this week after adding a splash to my morning coffee. I hate when I do stuff like that - oh well.