I'm not sure what to call this post.

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.

Because this is kind of not so stellar:

Rice with a few shrimp, half an avocado, some cilantro, and a piece of leftover chicken.

I wanted to beat myself up about it, but you know what? I may not have used up all of my food, but I used up a whole lot more than I would have if I hadn’t tried.

We had turkey on toast for dinner one night (I made some more gravy, since there wasn’t enough left to feed all six of us.)

Joshua and I ate leftover turkey for lunch with cranberry sauce.

I made six loaves of potato bread.

(I used some of the bread to make croutons for last night’s salad.)

I froze the last two cups of potato for more potato bread.

Despite these efforts, I still wanted to beat myself up, so I am reminding myself that this week, I homeschooled my kids, cooked dinners, washed laundry, bought and decorated a Christmas tree with Mr. FG and the kids, got out my Christmas decorations, and got some Christmas presents bought, among other things.

So, I’m going to give myself some grace instead of condemnation (which is what I need when all I can see are my failures. Grace, that is!), get rid of the wasted food, and start fresh this week.

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Stef

Saturday 7th of December 2013

very good on positive thinking. when I feel like this (throwing some things away) remember that some blessings come (running over) :) That means even your cup of water, if it runs over...it is a waste...but a sweet blessing just the same!

CeCee

Friday 6th of December 2013

My failures: 3 cups of mashed potatoes. That I SHOULD have made into potato bread, a cup of green bean casserole, 2 tablespoons of cranberry relish & an apple (that was forgotten with the Thanksgiving Feast)

My Successes: 3 bags of Frozen leftover turkey, 26(!!!) cups of homemade turkey/ vegetable broth prepared and frozen/ canned, 6 cups of redbeans made with leftover ham bone

Things that need to be eaten soon: leftover ham (only has a few days left), turkey gravy (to be served over biscuits), piece of bread pudding

I'm not beating myself up too bad because this week involved an early thanksgiving and a wisdom teeth extraction. I did what I could. Next week will be better...

Liz @ Economies of Kale

I didn't have such a stellar week either, it happens. Good job on the potato bread, you must have had a LOT of potato left over :)

Kristen

I did! I think it was 5-6 cups altogether.

Micro

I'm attempting to make a spinach soup to burn through what we have left before it gets really slimy and gross. I'm not sure how it will turn out and hope I didn't just waste some chicken breasts, carrots and peas while I was at it.

Oh man, I hear you...sometimes if something seems super iffy, I opt to throw it out, just because I'm afraid trying to rescue it will cause me to waste other perfectly good ingredients.

Hope your soup is good!

Liz K.

This is life. I'm always amazed how well you do, this still looks pretty decent to me - I'm still working on the whole food waste avoidance thing. Some weeks are better than others.