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 made some Chicken Tacos this week and happily, the jalapeno/cilantro/onion rub used up all of my green onions.
Except for this one, which was totally slimy.
I put the slimy parts into the compost, and stuck the root end in some water, just to check and see if it was still alive enough to grow. And sure enough, it’s started to get taller in just a day or two.
Of course, my celery-naming girls had to call it something, and they’ve decided that the onion’s name is Funion. (and nope, I don’t think they have any idea there’s a snack by a similar name!)
So, at least only part of the onion has been lost.
(Incidental question: Should I leave the onion in the water, or plant it in a small pot of dirt?)
Oh, and I have to tell you that I finished off the whole container of organic spinach from Aldi.
Finishing spinach entirely is always a victory for me. 😉
And lastly, I’m not sure that this counts as a victory, but the kids ate up some leftover frosting by spreading it onto graham crackers for dessert last night.
_________________________________________________
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.
Those of you who participate in Food Waste Friday can now grab a fancy-schmancy button to perk up your posts. If you copy and paste the following code into your Food Waste Friday post, this little graphic will appear.
If you blog on WordPress, just make sure you’re in html mode when you copy and paste the code, or it won’t work properly.
____________________________________
Joshua’s 365 post: For Some Reason
Shaylin
Wednesday 23rd of January 2013
You may already know this - but here's a tip for making your spinach last longer. Although you may not like it - it involves paper towels :)
We purchase the spinach in the tubs and put a folded paper towel in which soaks up the extra moisture, making our spinach last way longer! I can stretch a tub for a week or more. We do change our the paper towel every couple of days when we use it. We used to only use half before it would get gross and slimy, but now we regularly use the whole tub with no sliminess! :)
Jenny
Friday 25th of January 2013
Would this work just as well with a cotton dish towel? I expect that it would. Or you could cut up a couple old cotton t-shirts to use for this. I'd just make sure they're 100% cotton, not some cotton and acrylic or spandex blend because I don't think those would absorb water as well. Then just throw it in the laundry when you change it, and no waste for the same effect.
McKala
Tuesday 22nd of January 2013
I have the same problem with using up raw spinach! We buy a big container of the organic at Sams and eat it on tacos or anything else that we would use lettuce for and even make salads from it and STILL there's some left lol. It's like that neverending plate of spaghetti =). My proud moment of the week was using up badly bruised apples that we would have thrown away, by making sugar free Crock Pot cinammon applesauce. It was so yummy, even my 2 year old was begging for more! I love how you're always taking veggies and putting them in water to sprout. I think I'll try that too! Thanks for your blog!!
Susan
Monday 21st of January 2013
ZERO food waste this week at our house, Yea! Not a challenge for me but keeping my family on board with reducing food waste can be an issue sometimes though! We usually compost any fruit and veggie leftovers, so cannot help with the onion!
Dori
Monday 21st of January 2013
When I've grown green onions from the roots, I just leave them in water (and change it out frequently, like every other day or so) and they grow just fine. The roots only last through a couple of growth cycles, though, before they start weakening and breaking down so if you want them to last longer than that perhaps planting in dirt is your answer. But I just find sticking them in a small vase with water is simplest for me, plus it fits right on my windowsill so it's always a reminder that I have these green onions I can use in my recipes and they take up no space at all (and no bugs either!).
Laura @ Living Our Way
Friday 18th of January 2013
I'm still in the baby steps of not wasting food and I'm working on planning my menus ahead of time to better accomodate all food. For veggies and fruit, we've been doing "lunch trays" once a week to finish up any veggies that weren't used in meals.