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 should open up the floor more often…you guys had so many great ideas for reducing our inherent “I want this! and this! and this!” attitude. If you weren’t here yesterday, you missed out…go read through at least some of the comments on yesterday’s post.
Here’s my food waste for the week.
Perched atop the Pyrex is a hunk of cheese that has been in my fridge since before vacation. And, um, vacation was at the beginning of September. Poor neglected cheese. It’s actually starting to look like a fancy sort of moldy variety….kinda like bleu.
In the next Pyrex container is some canned pumpkin. I made one of those recipes that uses half a can, and I really should have just doubled the recipe because the pumpkin sat.
And sat.
And sat.
And started to grow white…things.
Off the compost.
Also heading to the compost are the apple slices in the bottom container. I thought they were still ok and I pulled them out, intending to use them in some muffins, but alas, they were moldy.
It’s amazing how easy it is to waste food, even when you’re trying very hard to be mindful of the contents of your fridge. A few efforts from this week: I made some rice pudding with takeout rice (darn it all, I forgot to ask for no rice again!), topped my scrambled eggs with salsa made from onions, cilantro, and some almost-gone tomatoes, and ate a whole bunch of salads to prevent my greens from going to waste. Plus, we faithfully ate our leftovers.
If I’m wasting while trying this hard, it’s not difficult to believe that I wasted oodles of food when I wasn’t trying hard!
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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.
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Today’s 365 post: Just me and my two little girls
Joshua’s 365 post: Micah
Skirnir Hamilton
Saturday 5th of November 2011
I used up some overripe bananas making banana bread, made some taco soup with left over taco meat and a rice salsa dish that my husband had made and threw in some shredded barbecue chicken too. But about two weeks ago our waste was a good chunk of cooked boneless pork that had been in the fridge way to long. There was something else too. This week was a red pepper that had brown spots all over it, and a bit of celery. I think that was it. I do try and use left overs, but sometimes fail.
Brenda @ Meal Planning Magic
Saturday 5th of November 2011
Our food waste has been pitiful lately. So much so that I haven't posted much about it until this week because it's been too embarrassing! Even this week it was but I feel like I'm slowly getting a handle on it. Some weeks are better than others and I have to remind myself of that. BTW, I used to have half used cans of pumpkin go bad too...until I found recipes for pumpkin banana smoothies and homemade pumpkin lattes on Pinterest. Voila! No more wasted pumpkin and they are sooooo yummy!
Wanda
Friday 4th of November 2011
We had no waste this week and getting the banana's at Whole foods seems to be working out better.
Kate
Friday 4th of November 2011
Could you please post your recipe for rice pudding?!!!!!
Vicki
Friday 4th of November 2011
I love it when you tell us how you worked hard to use up the leftovers in your fridge and what you ended up using them in. Not only is it inspiring but it helps change my thinking in regard to just eating the leftovers as they are and helps me to see my leftovers in a different light. :-)
Renee
Saturday 5th of November 2011
Read Jonathan Blooms book "American Wasteland". It really changed the way I look at food.
Karin
Friday 4th of November 2011
Yes, I'm with Vicki, Kristen "” you've given me several good ideas on how to convert leftovers into "new" meals . . .