It’s Friday Guys – My turn once more to host Food Waste Friday!
Each week since March 2008, in order to motivate her to waste less food, Kristen The Frugal Girl, has posted a picture of any food that has gone bad over the last seven days. She found this embarrassing practice so helpful, to her, that she invited other bloggers to post their own photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
I started participating in October 2010 and have found, that 2-years on, the amount of food I waste is minimal. In fact every Friday, as part of my No Waste Tastes Great routine, I account (and devise a plan) for all my potential food waste as well as confessing to any items that I failed to save.
Kristen has kindly asked me to host Food Waste Friday, alternate weeks (when she doesn’t post herself), and her initial invite for everyone to join in is cordially extended here!
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Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge
Click here to learn more about my Friday routine
So, how’s Zero Waste Week 2013 panning out for me?
There have been ups and downs.
Starting on a positive note, I skipped a grocery shop and decided to ‘use up’ what I had.
Finding some frozen pastry in the freezer, I made a pie.
You may notice in today’s fridge some peelings and bits of vegetables. They’re headed for a vegetable stock.
I was very good and kept, rather than recycled, my veggie peelings this week.
Stale bread was also put to good use. I was off to a great, and tasty,start!
On a less positive note – bagged salad got me again.
I’ll never learn. Once opened bagged salad has a very short life span. When it wasn’t eaten for lunch on Saturday, due to a change of plan, it was doomed. In hindsight (which is a wonderful thing) I should have ensured it accompanied our pizza that weekend. It didn’t.
Another casualty of our abandoned Saturday lunch is the peppered mackerel from last weeks Friday fridge.
I now have a dilemma. The mackerel was already over it’s ‘use by’ date by 4 days last Saturday. I was okay with that.
Psychologically I’m now struggling to eat it. It’ll be 11 days over by tomorrow – almost a fortnight.
Rationally I know it’s, probably, absolutely fine. The way in which it has been shrink-wrapped to within an inch of its life means no air will have reached the fish. It’s also been refrigerated.
Ethically I’m struggling to throw it away.
I’m wondering where this is going. Might it take up a permanent residence in my fridge? Perhaps I could name each fillet?
Okay so that’s ridiculous. I eat it or I waste it. The decision is mine.
Back on a more positive note, the rest of my Friday fridge is in good shape. The tomatoes, both chopped and sundried, have already hit the crockpot with the remaining pesto/pepper and some chicken I’ve just picked up. We’ll be having this for dinner.
All other items have a purpose and place.
How’s Zero Waste Week going with you? Did you sign up? There’s still time to check out Rachelle’s great campaign – it run’s until the 8th September.
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As always I’ll leave the last word to Kristen…
“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.
**I’ve decided not to include the LINKY for the foreseeable. My blog doesn’t allow links on the actual post, and being redirected to another page isn’t ideal. Please drop your link in the comments section.** Jo
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.”
<div align="center"><a href="https://simplybeingmum.com/" title="Simply Being Mum"><img src="https://simplybeingmum.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/food-waste-with-leaf-v2.11.jpg" alt="Simply Being Mum" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
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
You are too clever with your Zero waste pie. As for the fish, I would pitch it. When doubt throw it out–for fish and meat anyway. That’s my vote. I too had salad go to waste this week. It really does go fast, doesn’t it?
It’s a tough call on the mackerel but I may take this one on the chin. It’ll be a lesson learnt! Salad sure doesn’t last… I’m going to give it a miss for a while I reckon!
You are too clever with your Zero waste pie. As for the fish, I would pitch it. When doubt throw it out–for fish and meat anyway. That’s my vote. I too had salad go to waste this week. It really does go fast, doesn’t it?
It’s a tough call on the mackerel but I may take this one on the chin. It’ll be a lesson learnt! Salad sure doesn’t last… I’m going to give it a miss for a while I reckon!
I love the pie 🙂 Sadly I had a bad week this week and wasted organic chicken 🙁 I accidentally left it out of the freezer overnight and was not going to risk eating it.
http://www.economiesofkale.com/2013/09/food-waste-friday-chicken/
It sure is a difficult one between eating potentially gone off food and wasting it. You just have to go with your instincts!
I love the pie 🙂 Sadly I had a bad week this week and wasted organic chicken 🙁 I accidentally left it out of the freezer overnight and was not going to risk eating it.
http://www.economiesofkale.com/2013/09/food-waste-friday-chicken/
It sure is a difficult one between eating potentially gone off food and wasting it. You just have to go with your instincts!
No food waste this week! Lot of cooking with dried beans though, they’re not as intimidating as they first look.
http://roadnotchosen.blogspot.com/2013/09/0-food-waste-and-cooking-with-beans.html
No they aren’t are they? I have a slight OCD thing about accidentally poisoning people… I may have mentioned this before. This prevented me from cooking dried beans and lentils for a long time. Totally irrational!
No food waste this week! Lot of cooking with dried beans though, they’re not as intimidating as they first look.
http://roadnotchosen.blogspot.com/2013/09/0-food-waste-and-cooking-with-beans.html
No they aren’t are they? I have a slight OCD thing about accidentally poisoning people… I may have mentioned this before. This prevented me from cooking dried beans and lentils for a long time. Totally irrational!
No waste again here! 😀 I find bagged salad turns quicker then a fresh made salad. Makes me wonder what they put in the bag?
Linking up:
http://myliladventures.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/food-waste-friday-9613/
I’ve read somewhere that its actually pointless eating bagged salad, as by the time its bagged all nutritional value has diminished due to the processes used. Including I think dipping in chlorine? Whether this is true or not I do not know.
No waste again here! 😀 I find bagged salad turns quicker then a fresh made salad. Makes me wonder what they put in the bag?
Linking up:
http://myliladventures.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/food-waste-friday-9613/
I’ve read somewhere that its actually pointless eating bagged salad, as by the time its bagged all nutritional value has diminished due to the processes used. Including I think dipping in chlorine? Whether this is true or not I do not know.
Salad always gets me – and the avocados I buy to put in the salad. I know I can freeze them – but I forget.
I’ve never bought an avocado – truly! Because I think it may go to waste here. I always look but never touch! How silly, I’m sure I could always rustle up some guacamole…
Salad always gets me – and the avocados I buy to put in the salad. I know I can freeze them – but I forget.
I’ve never bought an avocado – truly! Because I think it may go to waste here. I always look but never touch! How silly, I’m sure I could always rustle up some guacamole…
The Overall Win:
Not wasting the vast majority of the mounds of restaurant leftovers from The Hordes of Relatives visit. (Note: I’m very happy with The Hordes of Relatives visit. I like these relatives.) Bagels & cream cheese for breakfasts – did you know cream cheese freezes well? Chinese delivery for one dinner – into ziploc bags for transport and subsequent use. Italian by the boatload for two other nights. (One bit that cracked me up: one kid wanted spaghetti, no sauce , the other spaghetti and meatballs with the sauce on the side. But how were to tell which container was the spaghetti without sauce, and which was the spaghetti with the meatballs on the side?)
The Losses:
– Most of one hardboiled egg, that someone cracked and ate one bite of; I didn’t finish it in time and it turned bad.
– The equivalent of one bagel that got moldy today.
– One quart of take-out rice. It was either take it home and figure it probably would go bad, and then into the compost pile, or leave it and know it would go into the trash can. Usually leftover rice becomes fried rice but too much other food in the fridge this week.
– Equivalent of 2 cupcakes. I couldn’t take them to work because they were “equivalent of” rather than whole cupcakes, and I wasn’t going to eat desserts I didn’t love just so they’d go to waist rather than to waste.
Most Amusing Win:
– The restaurant gave us the wrong pizza, a white pizza with fancy cheeses rather than a regular cheese pizza. The first night the kids didn’t like it even after I used the spaghetti-sauce-on-the-side as pizza sauce. The second night, perhaps not knowing it was the same food, they loved it.
As usual WilliamB a pleasure to read! As for the pizza – I read once that pizza is the one foodstuff that improves being cold? Was it cold?
It was hot. I toasted it as is, to warm and crisp it. I put on the tomato sauce on after the toasting, which kept the crust from being soggy and served to cool down the ‘za.
One other loss: soba noodles, that my father put in my fridge. Rats – I like soba.
The Overall Win:
Not wasting the vast majority of the mounds of restaurant leftovers from The Hordes of Relatives visit. (Note: I’m very happy with The Hordes of Relatives visit. I like these relatives.) Bagels & cream cheese for breakfasts – did you know cream cheese freezes well? Chinese delivery for one dinner – into ziploc bags for transport and subsequent use. Italian by the boatload for two other nights. (One bit that cracked me up: one kid wanted spaghetti, no sauce , the other spaghetti and meatballs with the sauce on the side. But how were to tell which container was the spaghetti without sauce, and which was the spaghetti with the meatballs on the side?)
The Losses:
– Most of one hardboiled egg, that someone cracked and ate one bite of; I didn’t finish it in time and it turned bad.
– The equivalent of one bagel that got moldy today.
– One quart of take-out rice. It was either take it home and figure it probably would go bad, and then into the compost pile, or leave it and know it would go into the trash can. Usually leftover rice becomes fried rice but too much other food in the fridge this week.
– Equivalent of 2 cupcakes. I couldn’t take them to work because they were “equivalent of” rather than whole cupcakes, and I wasn’t going to eat desserts I didn’t love just so they’d go to waist rather than to waste.
Most Amusing Win:
– The restaurant gave us the wrong pizza, a white pizza with fancy cheeses rather than a regular cheese pizza. The first night the kids didn’t like it even after I used the spaghetti-sauce-on-the-side as pizza sauce. The second night, perhaps not knowing it was the same food, they loved it.
As usual WilliamB a pleasure to read! As for the pizza – I read once that pizza is the one foodstuff that improves being cold? Was it cold?
It was hot. I toasted it as is, to warm and crisp it. I put on the tomato sauce on after the toasting, which kept the crust from being soggy and served to cool down the ‘za.
One other loss: soba noodles, that my father put in my fridge. Rats – I like soba.
2nd post! We suffer from regular BSW (bagged salad waste). Two thoughts – I find that ‘Florette’ brand salad lasts longer than s’market own; and secondly, I’m thinking of planting a trough of rocket (one line per week over several to give staggered harvesting) then use it by mixing with something duller, crunchier and longer lasting -iceberg?) That way I’d get flavour and texture with less waste – albeit with less variety and prettiness. Save the bags for specific/special occasions. Will report back!
Please report back. I’ve considered a living salad here. Can it be sewn throughout the year do you know so you have constant supply?
2nd post! We suffer from regular BSW (bagged salad waste). Two thoughts – I find that ‘Florette’ brand salad lasts longer than s’market own; and secondly, I’m thinking of planting a trough of rocket (one line per week over several to give staggered harvesting) then use it by mixing with something duller, crunchier and longer lasting -iceberg?) That way I’d get flavour and texture with less waste – albeit with less variety and prettiness. Save the bags for specific/special occasions. Will report back!
Please report back. I’ve considered a living salad here. Can it be sewn throughout the year do you know so you have constant supply?
You can make salad in bags last much longer by putting a piece of kitchen roll in the bag once it’s open. Don’t know the science behind why this works- but it definitely does!
Sarah my guess would be it absorbs extra moisture. This seems to be the main problem with the salad deteriorating. Good suggestion!
You can make salad in bags last much longer by putting a piece of kitchen roll in the bag once it’s open. Don’t know the science behind why this works- but it definitely does!
Sarah my guess would be it absorbs extra moisture. This seems to be the main problem with the salad deteriorating. Good suggestion!
Loved reading about all your success stories this week. With the fish; if you’re in any doubt and you’re paranoid about poisoning people, into the bin it goes my friend. It’s not worth taking a risk over. You’re already a zero hero – thanks for all the plugging of zero waste week; I really value and appreciate your support.
Hi Rachelle – the fish has been binned. Poor show on my part. But live and learn eh? Hope you got lots of interest in the campaign! Pleasure to assist! Jo
Loved reading about all your success stories this week. With the fish; if you’re in any doubt and you’re paranoid about poisoning people, into the bin it goes my friend. It’s not worth taking a risk over. You’re already a zero hero – thanks for all the plugging of zero waste week; I really value and appreciate your support.
Hi Rachelle – the fish has been binned. Poor show on my part. But live and learn eh? Hope you got lots of interest in the campaign! Pleasure to assist! Jo
Thanks for reminding me that I should be keeping those veggie scraps to make a vegetable stock with.
Thanks for reminding me that I should be keeping those veggie scraps to make a vegetable stock with.