**Warning – I’m in a talkative mood this Food Waste Friday. If intending to read this post, you may want to grab a coffee before you start)**
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 Mums Friday Fridge
Whaaat? No food?
“That’s one empty fridge” I hear you say.
(At least there’s a fridge photo this Friday. How ironic that Kristen gave my fridge a shout-out last week – the one week I didn’t photograph it!)
That’s because everything that was in it, is now on the kitchen table.
There was so much contained within this Friday fridge, that a photograph of it would have shown a very mixed up fridge.
To the left we have a selection of salad, some pancetta and a little pesto. That’ll be Saturday’s salad then.
In the centre, there’s cauliflower, courgette (zucchini), broccoli and peppers. Big Ben, my large slow-cooker, will comfortably batch-cook a vegetable curry that can be frozen for lunches. I have a few potatoes, some chopped tomatoes and curry paste, in the cupboard, that will complete the recipe.
On the right, it’s the usual spreads, fats, yogurt and cheeses – all still in date, and ready to be popped back on the top shelf of the fridge.
The limes I’ll slice and freeze.
There was midweek-waste this week. I posted a photo of an apple that I failed to save, on Instagram.
((Instagram is great for those who love photographs (like me). I can be found here.))
It reminded me to track down any other potential non-fridge food waste.
I sometimes have to remember to make the save. Particularly when it’s a non-chilled item. The apple had been lurking at the bottom of the fruit bowl.
On my potential-food-waste hunt, I found 2 potatoes.
Hah! They may have been mutating, but regardless they hit the saucepan. I’d just lost an apple, I wasn’t increasing my casualty numbers from 1 to 3. No way. They made a very nice mash to accompany my slow-cooked honey-ham in cola.
(I did photograph the recipe, but didn’t get chance to post it. It’ll be up sometime next week. Do you like the token bit of greenery? 🙂 I couldn’t photograph the ham in situ with the veg, and mash, as it was early evening and there was no light in rainy and dismal England. I had to take a snap the next day, when most of it was gone).
In fact, Wednesday was a very organised food day. There’s nothing quite like being organised when it comes to food. I love it. Seriously. It’s my obsession. And while on the subject of organisation. Did you see Monday’s post?
Here’s next week’s meal-plan. I’ve added links to the recipes. But please note the slow-cooked ham recipe, I’ll be re-posting soon with photographs. And regarding the homemade pizza, anyone who is following me on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) will know that I have recently reduced the homemade-ness element of this pizza. Aldi UK now stock the most amazing fresh pizza dough in rolls for 99p. It’s the stuff of miracles. Not that I get carried away 😉
Saturday – Pizza/Salad – no longer 100% homemade – thanks #AldiUK
Sunday – Chicken Wraps
Monday – Slow-cooked Ham – this is the old recipe, the new one will be posted soon.
Tuesday – Cold leftover ham and scrambled egg with sweetcorn.
Wednesday – Slow-cooked Lasagne with salad
Thursday – Smoked Haddock Pasta Bake with Rustic Rolls
Friday – No Waste Tastes Great
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
Emptying your fridge is another way to get it really clean. Yours looks spotless.
Key to keeping stuff clean lies in having less stuff IMO. It looks a lot on the table but in reality wasn’t so bad. It always gets completely emptied but normally into the countertop above. I needed some extra room this week!
Love how you only shop for one week at a time. I’m not sure if I could be brave enough to do that? And for some odd reason, I love seeing your empty fridge! Refreshing 🙂
No waste here this week – woohoo!
Linking up:
http://myliladventures.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/food-waste-friday-2714/
Emptying your fridge is another way to get it really clean. Yours looks spotless.
Key to keeping stuff clean lies in having less stuff IMO. It looks a lot on the table but in reality wasn’t so bad. It always gets completely emptied but normally into the countertop above. I needed some extra room this week!
Love how you only shop for one week at a time. I’m not sure if I could be brave enough to do that? And for some odd reason, I love seeing your empty fridge! Refreshing 🙂
No waste here this week – woohoo!
Linking up:
http://myliladventures.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/food-waste-friday-2714/
I had to throw a fresh fig away this week- it got hidden near the back and was just too far gone- it was devastating! 🙁
I had to throw a fresh fig away this week- it got hidden near the back and was just too far gone- it was devastating! 🙁
I was ~this close~ to having no waste this week. Then I smelled the half-and-half. Sigh. A whole quart wasted. :-{
But lots of work to prevent future waste:
– I made hummus and, a week later, froze most of it in 2 c. containers.
– The cauliflower that someone gave me is mashed, to become cauliflower tots later.
-The 5 half-price free range chickens are cut into parts (a task I was dreading) and vacuum-packed for later.
– Picked over the bones for usable meat (a task I was dreading), got 2c. meat for future use.
– Make 8 cups of condensed chicken stock from all those bones (=32 c. full strength).
– The deep freezer is sorted through and organized (another task I dread).
– The pizza dough I made last week, is rolled into crusts (another task I dread, it never cooperates for me), and prebaked for pizza later. I already have pizza sauce in the freezer.
– Finished the massive pile of sweet peppers I bought because they were tasty and cheap. It took a couple weeks of eating at least two a day. I feel very healthy for having eaten all of them.
Looking at all the times I wrote “a task I was dreading,” I think it’s time I stopped buying whole chix to cut up and pick over, and buy cut-up pieces instead. It can be more expensive and I won’t have bones, but I won’t have to do unnecessary jobs that I dread and I have more chicken stock than I know what to do with right now – 20 c. of ~concentrated~ stock, = 80 c. at full strength. I think I’m set for a while.
PS: if you need to debone chickens, I HIGHLY recommend watching the YouTube of Jacques Pepin teaching it, taken from his “Essential Pepin” series. Search for “pepin debone chicken galantine.” He says that once you get the hang of it it shouldn’t take more than a minute … and his video makes the claim credible! And that includes turning the wings into wing-pops.
There – I followed SBM’s lead in being verbose this week.
I was ~this close~ to having no waste this week. Then I smelled the half-and-half. Sigh. A whole quart wasted. :-{
But lots of work to prevent future waste:
– I made hummus and, a week later, froze most of it in 2 c. containers.
– The cauliflower that someone gave me is mashed, to become cauliflower tots later.
-The 5 half-price free range chickens are cut into parts (a task I was dreading) and vacuum-packed for later.
– Picked over the bones for usable meat (a task I was dreading), got 2c. meat for future use.
– Make 8 cups of condensed chicken stock from all those bones (=32 c. full strength).
– The deep freezer is sorted through and organized (another task I dread).
– The pizza dough I made last week, is rolled into crusts (another task I dread, it never cooperates for me), and prebaked for pizza later. I already have pizza sauce in the freezer.
– Finished the massive pile of sweet peppers I bought because they were tasty and cheap. It took a couple weeks of eating at least two a day. I feel very healthy for having eaten all of them.
Looking at all the times I wrote “a task I was dreading,” I think it’s time I stopped buying whole chix to cut up and pick over, and buy cut-up pieces instead. It can be more expensive and I won’t have bones, but I won’t have to do unnecessary jobs that I dread and I have more chicken stock than I know what to do with right now – 20 c. of ~concentrated~ stock, = 80 c. at full strength. I think I’m set for a while.
PS: if you need to debone chickens, I HIGHLY recommend watching the YouTube of Jacques Pepin teaching it, taken from his “Essential Pepin” series. Search for “pepin debone chicken galantine.” He says that once you get the hang of it it shouldn’t take more than a minute … and his video makes the claim credible! And that includes turning the wings into wing-pops.
There – I followed SBM’s lead in being verbose this week.
Oooh, I was just wandering what to d with two lemons I have past their best. I’d have never of thought to freeze them so thanks for the tip. I actually remember being at a house party where the hosts were using frozen lemon & lime wedges instead of ice cubes for the Gin and Tonics.
Oooh, I was just wandering what to d with two lemons I have past their best. I’d have never of thought to freeze them so thanks for the tip. I actually remember being at a house party where the hosts were using frozen lemon & lime wedges instead of ice cubes for the Gin and Tonics.
I need to empty my fridge and clean the whole thing at once. I’ve been spot cleaning it for months. It’s so easy to shut the door and forget it! I’d rather go sew or paint something!
I need to empty my fridge and clean the whole thing at once. I’ve been spot cleaning it for months. It’s so easy to shut the door and forget it! I’d rather go sew or paint something!