Well.
As you all know, I had an epically bad start to my week, at least as food waste goes.
Throwing away a whole chicken = not exactly a fortuitous start.
But.
The rest of the week was as good as the start was bad, so, yay!
Remember the grapes I froze after throwing out the chicken?
Well, they’re all used up now, thanks to multiple smoothies.
(The color of this one is due to a beet, not to the grapes. Grapes don’t provide much color to smoothies!)
I had a few too many sweet potatoes and regular potatoes hanging around, so this week I made mashed sweet potatoes, mashed regular potatoes, plus potato cubes. So the potato situation is pretty under control.
Also, if you follow me on Instagram, you know I used random leftovers in scrambled eggs and salads over the course of the week.
So, my fridge is in pretty good shape right now. It’s not empty, but pretty much everything in there is new and fresh.
And my freezer is doing well too. I didn’t use up a bunch of stuff from it this week, but I also didn’t add things, which is a win in my book!
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How’s the food waste scene at your house? Share in the comments!
Annie
Friday 22nd of May 2015
The only item we lost this week was a baked potato. It was hidden under our cheese/cold cut drawer and I unfortunately found it by the smell. On the good side, we did yield some great future sauce from the brisket I made last week. I chopped three huge onions, six shallots, some carrots, celery, and fresh parsley and covered the brisket with it along with a 1/2 cup red wine and a carton of crushed tomatoes. After removing the brisket to rest I used an immersion blender to puree everything and the sauce it made was great on the brisket, but then we realized that it would make a fabulous base for a meat or chunky mushroom-veggie sauce for pasta. We have enough for at least four more meals besides brisket leftovers.
Kristen
Friday 22nd of May 2015
I hate, hate, hate it when I lose something good because it got hidden out of sight. So frustrating!
Hannah @ eat, drink and save money
Friday 22nd of May 2015
I'm afraid to do Food Waste Friday in a couple of weeks! I've put off really cleaning the fridge due to the new baby so I have no clue how we are doing. I still did FWF this week, but only documented the stuff I threw away. I have a feeling that things will look pretty bad in a couple of weeks!
Here's my post: http://wp.me/p4yT07-1rj
Kristen
Friday 22nd of May 2015
I think you should feel free to give yourself some grace...it's not every month that you have a new baby, you know? Just do what you can.
Melissa
Friday 22nd of May 2015
Just curious about your freezer situation. I always try to stock up so I can buy at the lowest prices, so your freezer state a few weeks ago wouldn't have bothered me. Do you try to stock up and have a full freezer, or do you not worry about it since you mostly shop at Aldi and their prices are stable?
Kristen
Friday 22nd of May 2015
Well, I do have a chest freezer in my laundry room, so that's where I can store things like applesauce when I make it in bulk, or beef I buy in bulk.
And it's true that when you shop at Aldi, you don't have to stock up as much! I love not being a slave to the sale cycles at regular grocery stores.
At any rate, though, the freezer by my fridge isn't good for long-term storage (things get freezer burnt in there), so it's best for me to only keep things in there short-term. When I let it get too full, things sit in there for way too long and get dried up/freezer burnt.
WilliamB
Friday 22nd of May 2015
Very little this week, which makes up for last week's sadness: half a chopped onion.
Kristen
Friday 22nd of May 2015
That's much less sad than my chicken. ;)
Gina
Friday 22nd of May 2015
I took some stale bread to my mother for her chickens. And I plan on eating leftovers for lunch the next five days - some will have to be frozen after I put them in containers, but they thaw in plenty of time for lunch. We haven't been too frugal around here lately, but it was a busy week!