Food Waste Weekly

[marvholly]

I know it is NOT my shopping/posting here day but if I don’t post I will probably forget. This week (so far) I have tossed:

1 red onion
½ small regular onion
¾ c pancake mix-this was bought at the dollar store & I did NOT like. Back to natl brands or Aldi for me.

[Blonde Granny]

I've tossed some of the specialty lettuce that comes in the plastic box. I also found a jar of salsa that probably had 1/3C left in it...typical of DH, he won't eat the last of anything.

[Iggy aka IG]

I tossed some mushy, wilted baby spinach this morning , and about 1/3 cup refried beans earlier this week.  They were hiding out at the back of the fridge. 

I've been planning meals around leftover things.  Last night I made a 7 layer salad in an attempt to use up a big bag of frozen peas which will not go away.  Tonight I'm making crack slaw out of the leftover fish taco cabbage from last week.

[Deleted]

I have 2 growing boys and a hardworking DH, enough said?!
We're not big on leftovers, there's only certain meals we will stick in the fridge for later. Sometime we treat our pup to the leftover meat too We also don't eat out very often. I do grocery shopping once a week and try to only get the perishables we need for the week. I look over our food supply very closely before I shop, just so that I don't waste money or perishable foods. The main things that get thrown out around here are the leftovers we do end up putting in the fridge, they don't always get eaten! If we have produce waste, it goes into our compost. The compost is then used in the garden. We've been gardening for about 4 years now, have learned a lot, LOVE IT, and have grown a lot of vegetables & fruit in the summer months. In previous years, I've given the extra away to family, friends, & neighbors, and we also swap our different harvests with a neighbor for things we don't grow. This year, I'm learning processes on how to freeze some of the extra to use this winter. Next year, I'm going to concentrate on learning how to can our harvests.
I'd say my family is pretty good with keeping our food waste to a minimum

[marvholly]

Today is my shopping day. NO food waste this week.

[Blonde Granny]

I tossed out 2 heads of romaine lettuce yesterday along with some cranberry sauce that I found in the freezer. The sauce was left from last T-Day.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Last week, I tossed the last of the squishy brown bananas ... I had newer bananas that needed to be eaten before they got too brown and squishy.

Last night, I tossed some salmon with a "use or freeze by" date of July 7 ... oops. Missed that by a week, my bad.

Not food waste ... but I decluttered and cleaned out our medicine drawer and tossed all of the badly-expired diabetic testing strips. (Some were from 2011)

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Last week, I tossed the last of the squishy brown bananas ... I had newer bananas that needed to be eaten before they got too brown and squishy.

The brown, mushy (squishy) bananas are the best kind to use for banana bread (you can also add diced walnuts) or banana muffins:

www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

www.food.com/recipe/best-ever-banana-muffins-62286

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Jul 14, 2014 19:46:37 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

Last week, I tossed the last of the squishy brown bananas ... I had newer bananas that needed to be eaten before they got too brown and squishy.

The brown, mushy (squishy) bananas are the best kind to use for banana bread (you can also add diced walnuts) or banana muffins:

www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

www.food.com/recipe/best-ever-banana-muffins-62286

1. I don't bake.
2. Banana bread isn't on my healthy eating plan.

[marvholly]

So far 1/2 cup of black beans (cooked from dried).

[marvholly]

If no one else is interested in doing this i will let the thread die.

Waste this week was 1 small zuchinni.

[Deleted]

DH and I are pretty good about not wasting food. I often stir-fry for lunch and most veggies that are about to go bad can go into that. The fibrous parts of veggies that we can't eat get frozen and cooked into broth. Uneaten bits of meat are frozen and included in the stir-fry or in pasta sauces. Bananas about to go bad are frozen.

We also periodically check the freezer and make sue we use what's in there, but we wouldn't be picky about using a 4-year old piece of meat in a stew.

[Blonde Granny]

I tossed out a small bowl of cherries this week, and a jar of Old El Paso queso sauce that had dried out.

[Iggy aka IG]

Last week, I tossed a bit of leftover Hollandaise sauce, and DH tossed several hot dog buns (he said he doesn't care for them frozen then thawed).

Oh, and due to a nationwide fruit recall earlier this week, I tossed a peach and plum, and the rest of the fruit cookie which had sliced peach on top. 

[marvholly]

NO WASTE this week. I was good and cut up & froze about 1/3 lb of strawberries. Both strawberries & rspberries are on sale this week so I will get some into the freezer for winter. Since I mostly et either w/yogurt or on waffles frozen is fine.

[Blonde Granny]

I threw out a bagel that had turned into penicillin. Finished off some canned corn that was in the freezer, but since I seldom make soup, what was left went into the trash.

[lexxy703]

Oh goodness.  I am horrible about things going bad & needing to be tossed.  I need to toss some asparagus, tomatoes & chicken on Sunday when I take the trash out.  That is off the top of my head who knows what else I will find.  I patted myself on the back because I froze leftover crabmeat for fututre use instead of waiting until it was bad.

[marvholly]

YIPEE!!!
Another no waste week.

[Iggy aka IG]

Tossed about 1/2 cup unused pancake mix, and about 2 cups chopped cabbage.  Not bad considering it's been several weeks.

[marvholly]

Had to toss an entire pineapple this week. I should have known. Paid WAAAY below the going market around here & this particular store is KNOWN for selling damaged & short dated stuff.

It was <$1 but still bothers me.

[Iggy aka IG]

I poured out nearly an entire quart of almond milk.  "Use within 7 days of opening" my eye. 

[marvholly]

I don't use much milk except for a bit of cooking. Been buying the ultra pasteurized qt at dollar store. Had to toss about half this week. Not bad - $0.50.

[marvholly]

Had to toss
1/3 c corn
1 serving of watermelon

NOT happy w/myself.

Since I seem to be the only one posting here regularly I may let this thread die. Everyone else must be too embaressed to admit their waste.

[resolution]

I just threw out a whole bag of spring mix salad that I didn't even open. I'm not sure where the time went on that one.

[Iggy aka IG]

This week:  Tossed 1/3 cucumber, about 1/4 cup wilted spinach, and about $12 worth of leftovers from the out of town restaurant last Saturday.  By the time we arrived home, the doggy boxes had been tossed around in the cooler, got dunked and drenched.  I was disappointed enough to be almost emotional about it. 

[donnafreedman]

DF and I have a "boiling bag" in the freezer. We throw in vegetable scraps and meat/chicken bones and when the bag gets full we put it in the slow cooker overnight to make soup stock. (Woke up to a lovely smell this very morning, in fact.)

The reason I bring this up is that we also throw in wilted produce. Doesn't happen that often, since we're pretty careful about buying only enough for two people, but sometimes there will be a little bit of tired spinach or lettuce. Into the bag it goes.

Maybe that would work for some of you?

Or start a "garbage soup" bag in the freezer so that things like the 1/3 cup of corn left over from a meal has a place to go right away (if you're pretty sure it will just wind up uneaten). Ditto the last few spoons of gravy, or small amounts of meat or vegetables.

Here's a post I wrote explaining this:
donnafreedman.com/2011/02/05/garbage-in-supper-out/

[Blonde Granny]

I am such a slacker!!! You ladies have so many great ideas, and I just fail miserably at this thrifty cooking concept.

[marvholly]

I think the only thing I tossed this week was a peach. Shame because they were REALLY good but have now gotten too $$.

[Blonde Granny]

I tossed out 3/4th of a loaf of Italian bread from TFM that we paid $4.69 for. DH just loves his bread......he has finally agreed no more bread without preservatives because we don't eat it fast enough. This was the second week in a row that his "just have to have it" bread turned to green stuff and was tossed out.

I did start the bag of leftovers Donna wrote about. Now if when I make soup from it I can get DH to eat it.

[marvholly]

BG
IF you freeze 1/2 or 3/4 of the bread will your DH be willing to eat it a week or 2 later? I KNOW some people (mostly men)refuse to eat anything that has been frozen.