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 3-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
Moo-ve along, nothing to see here…
(It’ll be a fish and chip supper this evening rather than a #nowastetastesgreat dish)
Does this mean zero-waste?
Alas no.
The usual food-waste suspects have reared their head, once more, this week.
You’d think I’d have learnt by now, wouldn’t you?
Suspect 1 – Grapes
I’ll salvage what I can and dispose of the rest. What should I do going forward to make a save?
Suspect 2 – Bagged salad
A handful of leaves have once more gone to waste. It’s little consolation that I’m not alone is my inability to save salad. Tesco recently reported that it’s estimated across the UK food industry, 68% of salad sold in bags is wasted – 35% of it thrown out by customers.
I’ve been told that storing on top of kitchen paper helps. I. Must. Remember. To. Try.This.
Both grapes and salad are notorious at Chez Wright for going to waste. I blame it on their inflexibility to adapt to other uses 😉 Only joking, I need to keep my eye on the ball a little more.
Ending on a positive note, I generally have more success with vegetables.
There’s usually the option to make a save with soup.
There was just a little waste off a cauliflower head as I trimmed the black spots.
The other 95% of the cauliflower has been quickly slowly cooked into a freezable soup for frugal and nutritious packed lunches…
Not all bad news then?
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.”
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
http://lizzieshomeworld.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bleugh.html
I am doing much better sicne following you guys, so thank you.
http://lizzieshomeworld.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/bleugh.html
I am doing much better sicne following you guys, so thank you.
The last little bit of grapes and lettuce are always hard for me also. We have been working on a kitchen project for the last month so our eating has been very unusual. This week I didn’t even check to see if there was any waste. However, I finally have a working kitchen again. Yea!
The last little bit of grapes and lettuce are always hard for me also. We have been working on a kitchen project for the last month so our eating has been very unusual. This week I didn’t even check to see if there was any waste. However, I finally have a working kitchen again. Yea!
Grapes!! Grrr. They catch me out too! I must do better – I had some rather bendy, grey looking carrots too. About 4.
Currently winding down the freezer ready to stock up for Christmas.
Have a great weekend Jo xxx
Grapes!! Grrr. They catch me out too! I must do better – I had some rather bendy, grey looking carrots too. About 4.
Currently winding down the freezer ready to stock up for Christmas.
Have a great weekend Jo xxx
The only time I have ever repeatedly been able to use up grapes is when I religiously prepped them upon bringing them home. I would pick them all off the stems, separating any that were already inedible (compost) or soft (immediate eating after a wash), wash and dry the firms ones with paper towel or a kitchen towel. Then I would store them in a large open dish – paper towel in the bottom, then a few layers of grapes, then more paper towel, etc. and loosely cover, so they stayed dry. (I usually had two or three layers of paper towel, so, not a lot.) I think this worked for three reasons – first, the less-firm grapes were identified and removed, second, the paper towels absorbed any leftover moisture from washing/sitting, and third, the grapes were ready to grab on a moment’s notice so we were more likely to have them as a snack – even when the kids were young they could get their own because they were ready to eat.
As for the salad, that is often a problem here too; my solution was to stop buying it 🙂
But every once in awhile, I’ll really, REALLY want a salad, so I’ll buy a small bag. Then I’ll successfully use it up and decide the big bag is a better buy and buy that instead and … you know the rest!
The only time I have ever repeatedly been able to use up grapes is when I religiously prepped them upon bringing them home. I would pick them all off the stems, separating any that were already inedible (compost) or soft (immediate eating after a wash), wash and dry the firms ones with paper towel or a kitchen towel. Then I would store them in a large open dish – paper towel in the bottom, then a few layers of grapes, then more paper towel, etc. and loosely cover, so they stayed dry. (I usually had two or three layers of paper towel, so, not a lot.) I think this worked for three reasons – first, the less-firm grapes were identified and removed, second, the paper towels absorbed any leftover moisture from washing/sitting, and third, the grapes were ready to grab on a moment’s notice so we were more likely to have them as a snack – even when the kids were young they could get their own because they were ready to eat.
As for the salad, that is often a problem here too; my solution was to stop buying it 🙂
But every once in awhile, I’ll really, REALLY want a salad, so I’ll buy a small bag. Then I’ll successfully use it up and decide the big bag is a better buy and buy that instead and … you know the rest!
I freeze grapes when I feel they’re coming to their used by date. They can be popped straight into smoothies (no ice needed either) and also eaten straight from the freezer as a snack. Make sure you freeze them separately on a baking tray before popping them into an air tight box or bag.
Definitely wrap your herbs and salad leaves in damp kitchen roll. Wash them when you get them home, shake or spin out the water and wrap. It keeps them fresh much longer.
I freeze grapes when I feel they’re coming to their used by date. They can be popped straight into smoothies (no ice needed either) and also eaten straight from the freezer as a snack. Make sure you freeze them separately on a baking tray before popping them into an air tight box or bag.
Definitely wrap your herbs and salad leaves in damp kitchen roll. Wash them when you get them home, shake or spin out the water and wrap. It keeps them fresh much longer.