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.
As you all know, one of my summer goals is to declutter my house from top to bottom.
Well, I got around to one of my cabinets recently and found a little container of very old Crisco. I think it expired two years ago.
Crisco has a stupid long shelf life, so I must have bought this eons ago. I don’t even like Crisco, and I must have just bought it for a recipe or something.
Anyway, I threw it out, and I doubt I will ever buy more.
I also found a few other things:
Now, these are all past their best-by dates, which means that they’re still safe to eat, but probably just won’t taste all that super.
So I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with them. Nothing there is exceptionally nutritious, and to use this stuff up, I’d have to combine it with other perfectly good ingredients.
Which means if the taste is off, I’ll end up wasting more than if I just threw these out.
I am currently leaning toward throwing the ingredients out and recycling the packages. What would you do?
Oh, I also let an avocado go bad, somehow:
And in my produce box, I got a bunch of heirloom squash. I turned one into something like zoodles last night, which was pretty good. I’m not a crazy big fan of squash, but hopefully I can manage to get through these!
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emma
Thursday 24th of July 2014
If it were me I would eat the pantry items since it would be an excuse to make and eat some less healthy items...
Stef
Tuesday 22nd of July 2014
the green zuccini can be added the last 5 minutes of any stew. And some can be grated and pan fried with some egg wash, a tbs or so of flour, and make into little patties (added feta chesse is really yummy) just after you grated the zuc. or squash, make sure you salt them and then squeeze the extra juices out of the them! Then add your flour, egg and/chesse! yum
Mary
Sunday 20th of July 2014
You could make brownies from scratch with the chocolate and mix up some of the pudding. Combine them with some sort of fruit (fresh or frozen) or whipped cream and you could have a trifle of sorts.
Jen Y
Saturday 19th of July 2014
Just some ideas for these foods: The Crisco could be used to make suet for birds. The pudding could be mixed with whipped cream cheese for a light, small dessert without using up too many other ingredients.
My favorite way to eat squash though not the best for you - slice & dip in egg then in Jiffy cornbread mix. Fry until golden brown on each side, add a little salt & pepper. I have to eat at least one this way every summer.
engineermom
Saturday 19th of July 2014
Grill all the squash! Slice 1/2-1-4 in thick, toys with oil, salt, pepper, some dried spices like oregano, then char on a very hot grill. Even great cooked and eaten child on a sandwich, so just cook it all!
engineermom
Saturday 19th of July 2014
"Chilled", not "child"! Still getting used to the auto correct on my kindle.