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.
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My food waste showed up little by little this week.
Early in the week, I found some chicken that had been in the fridge for an iffy amount of time. I’m willing to take a risk with other foods sometimes, but with meat, I err on the side of caution.
A few days later, I found a moldy zucchini.
And just yesterday, the very last mushroom got moldy.
It wasn’t an all bad week, though. I rescued a dried up old potato by making some potato bread.
And I caught a few bananas just as they were about to be overripe. I sliced and froze them and used them in a yogurt smoothie (that’s one of the three ways I use ripe bananas.)
My kids love to eat frozen bananas slices plain as well…the freezing makes even a slightly over-ripe banana taste not quite as cloyingly sweet and the texture is almost ice cream-like.
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Today’s 365 post: One of these things is not like the others.
Joshua’s 365 post: Doodle Redo
Jamie
Monday 26th of March 2012
Just found you site and love it! I'm definitely going to join in Food Waste Friday this week, that is a major thorn in my side. Signed up so can't wait to read more! Thanks :)
Tammy
Saturday 24th of March 2012
When I walked into my kitchen Friday morning I almost immediately thought of you, Kristen.
I worked at both jobs on Thursday so didn't get home until about 9:30pm after putting in a 14 hour day. I popped some local organic, free range chicken breasts into the oven and set them on the stove to cool when they were done.
I walked into the kitchen Friday morning and the first thing I saw was my very expensive chicken breasts still sitting on the top of the stove. I went to bed and forgot all about them. ARGHH!! I could have just kicked myself!
I know you'll feel my pain.
Adrienne
Friday 23rd of March 2012
I'm giggling because a moldy mushroom just seems kind of silly to me :) Maybe it's just me.
WilliamB
Monday 26th of March 2012
I once called a friend to ask "My blue cheese got moldy, do you think I can still eat it?"
Response: "Just scrape the mold off."
Kristen
Friday 23rd of March 2012
I know. Fungus grew on the fungus. Heh.
Skirnir Hamilton
Friday 23rd of March 2012
Rarely do bananas go bad here, but this week, I threw one out. :( I am used to my bananas becoming overripe somewhat quickly, but don't mind the peel color if they aren't too soft. As I don't eat them plain, I cut them up with some other fruit with yogurt and some cereal on top, I don't tend to mind if they are a bit soft. I picked up the banana bunch to find the ripest and two fell off. So I peeled one of them and started cutting it up into my bowl and ate one piece and decided it was just too soft for me to deal with. In somewhat disgust I dumped it into the trash and cut up a different banana. Now I need to go make banana oatmeal raisin cookies to use a few more overripe bananas.
I also tossed some lo-mein noodles that we just didn't like, unless that was last week, which it may have been. But I keep trying to make lo-mein at home and have a good sauce, but can't find the right store bought noodles and these we really didn't like. I was going to have them for lunch one day and toss some left over pasta sauce and a meatball or two on it, but just couldn't force myself to do it. But I did use up the left over barbecue sauce (homemade) in a crockpot chicken dish and used up the left over homemade pasta and pizza sauce in a pasta casserole last night. Tonight is a corned beef hash with some left over corned beef. Looking forward to it. Probably will make some apple pancakes too, as I love making them every few weeks and my son will then eat them for breakfast almost every day.
Also tossed a few grapes and I think that is it. So not a bad week for me. OH, I did have one question, we had a bacon wrapped fillet mignon meal once and the bacon is left. How can you reheat bacon and make it crunchy again? Or what do you do with previously cooked bacon? Use to flavor some soup beans, what?
Becca S.
Friday 23rd of March 2012
I only wasted some stuffed peppers this week and two bananas that I dehydrated and they stuck so bad to the trays that I couldn't get off without breaking them into a bunch of tiny pieces. I should've just thrown them in the freezer.