Food Waste Friday

Well, as you can see see, my scheduling of blog posts has not been as much of a success as I would have liked.

But, on a more positive note,

My Food Waste
I wasted a little bit of leftovers at work one day this week because I just couldn't eat it. I ate about half of it and my stomach told me in no uncertain terms that it was done with this food.

And I think I wasted something else but I don't remember.

What about you? How did you do this week?

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
Yay, another zero-waste week for me! I haven't thrown out any food yet.

The only thing I might be throwing out soon, if I don't make myself eat it, is the very last little bit of some leftover squash casserole from about 2 weeks ago. It was good, but it was a little too spicy for me (Note to self: go easy on the habanero next time!).

I think I have few other odds and ends to use up as well, but I'll be getting to those today / tomorrow. I have a bit of sourdough pancake batter in the fridge I'll probably use for breakfast, and some black bean something or other that I'll probably take to lunch today.

What about you? How are you doing with your food waste?

Food Waste Friday

Hello there!

My Food Waste
Nothing! yay...

I do have some romaine that is rapidly losing its luster, though. And I also some squash leftovers that I'm not too enamoured with. I'm thinking of trying to make jalapeno bread with it, since it's already a spicy dish, I think it could work, but I'm a bit nervous. Also, I already have 2 loaves of bread in the fridge, so maybe I'll freeze it for another day.

What about you? How was your food waste this week?

Food Waste.. Sunday

Argh, not again. I am several days late again, phooey.

I wasted a serving of a casserole I made a few weeks ago. I think it was still (technically) good, but I couldn't stomach it for some reason and I didn't feel right serving it to DH 500 times. It's hard to eat a casserole by yourself, even if it's just and 8x8 (all the way filled to the top).

I have applesauce in the fridge right now that has a bit of mold in the corner. I really need to deal with. I was going to make granola this weekend, but with all the other cooking I did, I didn't do the granola. I guess I should scoop the mold out if I really am going to use it.

I also wasted a failed smoothie. How can you ruin a smoothie? Put broccoli in it, yuck. I've added spinach and other veggies before, but apparently broccoli is a no-go. Its flavor is too strong. I hated dumping it down the drain. I'll have to be more careful next time.

So, overall, a pretty bad week. But I think I'm on track for this week to be better. :)

Here's hoping.

Food Waste... Tuesday?

Hmm. I'm a bit late me thinks.

My Food Waste (from last week)
some goats cheese I accidentally bought a long time ago instead of feta. I thought it would work out... definitely was not the same. I kept holding onto it thinking "I'll find a use for it." So when I threw it out it had a nice creative new structure thanks to all the fuzzy mold holding it together in new ways.
I also wasted a roux sauce base that I burnt terribly (I hate the smell of burnt flour). I was more sad about the butter than the flour tho.
I know there was something else I wasted but I can't remember what it was.

I almost wasted a whole butternut squash! I looked down and saw my lovely squash covered in magenta and blue mold (no lie) and I was very upset. But, being thick-skinned towards food spoilage, like the squash itself, I decided it was still safe. So I liberally chopped off the skin and some of the outer portion of the squash and roughly cubed and froze all the tasty meats. I do feel slightly bad as I also didn't save the seeds. I just added it to my compost pile. It was late and I was exhausted and didn't feel like staying up an extra 30 minutes to rinse and roast the seeds.

So, not too bad, and at least I averted a major food waste crisis, but only barely.

Food Waste Friday

Yikes! Not a good 2 weeks for us. I didn't post last week due to intense mayhem, but here's the rundown of all the food that I didn't manage to salvage.

My Food Waste
a failed dinner that would have had lots of leftovers, but it wasn't that good and my husband actually got sick off of it I think. It was kind of a lot.
1/3 of a so-so casserole that we just didn't have the heart to keep eating.
a bunch of flour in a failed sourdough starter
some oatmeal from failed soaking attempts (not too much, but still)

so... pretty much, I've wasted a lot of food. This makes me sad. My cooking was way off track or something because I usually don't have problems with food being nigh inedible. But tonight, dinner was delicious, so I think after finishing the paper I am back to my old cooking self again. Which is good, because I can't afford to eat out!

Food Waste Friday and a Recipe

My Food Waste

This week I haven't wasted anything! I've been so excited about my food waste lately. I've been really keeping it under control. Food waste shouldn't be a problem coming up soon because I'll be trying to eat as cheaply as possible to make up for already blowing my November grocery budget.


Red Beans and Rice
Last night we had one of my favorite dishes of all time: Red beans and brown rice. I make it with bacon, lots and lots of onions, Frank's Red Hot, and Worcestershire Sauce, with a little bit of brown sugar thrown in. Delicious! The original recipe I found online (sorry I can't remember where) had about 5 different kinds of meat which I thought was a bit excessive. So I kept my favorite, lol. It's just such an awesome blend of sweet and spicy with a bit of a vinegar tang.

Here's what you need:
About a cup plus a little bit extra of dried red beans, soaked
2 med / small onions or 1 big onion.. or 2 big onions.. I like lots of onion!
1/2-3/4 diced raw bacon. It's easier to chop if frozen, and it cooks into this wonderful soft bacon-ey awesomeness when chopped before being cooked.
um, 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot, 2-3 TBSP of Worcestershire Sauce, and 1-2 TBSP of brown sugar.

How to Make:
Cook the red beans, keeping the liquid as well.
Cook the rice
cook bacon while you chop onions, add onions.
cook until tender but not super tender
add red beans and liquid (helps with the awesome sauce)
add seasonings

How to Eat:
Serve over some of that awesome rice you just made!!!

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste

This week I haven't wasted anything yet. I'm pretty impressed with myself. I finished off some bread and other random things. I really need to use up my spaghetti sauce and the rest of 2 leftover casseroles or I will have a lot of food waste to report next week. Ick.

Wish me luck.

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
This week I didn't waste anything!

I'm very excited. I've been really trying to crack down on cooking appropriate amounts of food and I think it worked this week!

Huzzah.

(PS, I realize it's Saturday and not Friday, anymore, but I just didn't have time to post yesterday.)

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste

This was not such a good week.

1 meal's worth of bean soup from the freezer. I really tried to eat it all. I just didn't happen.
a couple tablespoons of canned jalapeños from... a long time ago.
a cup and a half of ground beef from the freezer that got freezer burned (I think. It tasted awful).
some frozen celery
If I don't think of a use soon, some of that bland squash soup will also be thrown away. I used a good bit of it--snuck it into the chili I made--but still have several cups leftover.

Oh well. Considering how I've have craptastic vertigo on and off all week, I don't consider this loss too much. I will be sad if I don't get off my bum and use up some of the peppers I have in my fridge: a poblano and a habanero. Yum.

What about you? Do you track your food waste?

Step 0: What I Couldn't Do at the Beginning

At first, I was testing the waters slowly, but the more I read and the more I do, the more I feel the need to dive in. So, here goes! I will be getting rid of preservatives and other nasties. My first target was HFCS, which I've almost completely eliminated from our diet. I doubt I'll be able to do 100% at first with preservatives, but I am definitely going to be much more strict about what I allow into our home. I probably should have done this at the beginning, but I don't know if we could have gone "cold turkey" off our old diet onto a completely different diet. Instead, slowly using up the old and replacing it with better has been a good route overall for us. I just feel a need to step it up.

So, we finally made the plunge today. Remember all that stuff I posted about last week? That and more went to one of two piles today: trash, or for my brother.

Why am I getting rid of all of this food if it's still good? Because they each contain things that I've decided aren't good for us. I mentioned it to my hubby and said he was fine with it, so away it goes. I will have to find tasty substitutions for some of it, especially the salad dressing and the pickles because we both really liked it. I'm also kind of sad that some of my canned goods had preservatives in them. (If you're asking why I am giving some of it to my brother if it has things I wouldn't eat in it, the answer is simple: he's pretty tight on money right now and I'm sure he could use the random boost of food to eat. And this food is still better than fast food or nothing at all.)

In a way, I think clearing out all this garbage will be like starting over. I think it will make it harder for me to buy more crap, since I'm getting rid of so much. The sting of wasting so much money and food will drive me to consider each purchase more, and to make sure I am not buying junk!

To my brother:
3 cans of olives
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 box of chicken helper
6 boxes of jell-o mix
1 box of stuffing
4 boxes of mac & cheese
30-ish packs of kool-aid
10-ish packs of ramen
2 containers of bacon bits
3 bags of microwave popcorn
3 boxes of rice-a-roni knock-off
2 sleeves of crackers
1 bottle of salad dressing
5 cans of condensed soup
random pasta
2 shakers of popcorn flavoring

To the Trash:
1 jar each of chicken and beef bullion cubes
1 jar of opened jelly
1/2 a ramen package
2 open salad dressings
1/2 bottle of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 shaker of sprinkles
1/2 large jar of banana peppers

The two things I don't if I can bear to throw away is most of a bottle of white cooking wine (who knew it had preservatives in it) and what's left of our soda stash. The soda I am keeping for hubby and it's better than normal soda because at least it's made with real sugar instead of HFCS. Just last week I cut out caffeine so I will not be having any more of it myself. If I can get him to agree not to drink soda at work, I won't care of he has a soda once or twice a week from our stash. Plus we can keep it for company.

I feel good about this, although I am a little apprehensive about this final big change.

What do you think? Did you go through a cupboard cleansing to eliminate bad ingredients from your house? Was it hard to throw away so much money?

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
This week I wasted a little bit of leftover egg from an omelet earlier this week and one frozen container of bean soup (meal for 2) that I just couldn't look at anymore. We ate all 4 of his brothers, but it was just too much. And some frozen celery.

I think that's it. I do have to try to use most of a gallon of milk this week, but worst case scenario, I will just make more yogurt with it, now that I've freed up one jar and I got another jar by finishing off some pickles.

I'm Sick of Using it Up

Before I learned about food, I bought a lot of crap. Box kit dinners, frozen dinners, ramen. Then, like now, I frequently stocked up to keep my pantry full. So, after I learned about food, I decided I couldn't, in good conscious, waste all of that food. I had easily over $150 worth of stuff in my pantry that I knew I shouldn't be eating, but couldn't bear to waste. So slowly, as the weeks and months roll by, I've been using it up. Every week I've been trying to fit one or two items into my menu plan to get rid of it, while still mostly eating much healthier. (Oh the irony of using some of my organic milk to make a box of tuna helper).

But you know what? I'm just sick of using it up. I just want to throw it all away. I know, I should take it to a shelter. But I don't even want to look at it long enough to plan the trip to go to the food pantry. At the same time, I haven't looked at this stuff for a long time anyway, when it comes to meal planning because it's just not what I want to be putting into my body. It doesn't even look like food to me anymore.

I have
1 box of Chicken Helper [$1.25]
3 boxes of Rice-A-Roni (off-brand) [$2.50]
1 box of stuffing [$1.25]
3 boxes of mac & cheese [$1.15]
1 box of crackers [$1.50]
some random white pasta [$2]
10 or so packages of ramen [$1.70]
5 cans of condensed soup [$5]
6 boxes of jell-o [$3]
30 packets of kool-aide type drink mixes [$3.50]
2 small jars of bullion cubes [$6]
6 packages of microwave popcorn [free]
2 small containers of bacon bits [$4]
2 containers of salad dressing [$4]

I just don't even care. It's not real food, anyway. But I hate to be wasteful. And this would be very wasteful. And after estimating how much I spent on these items, that's $36.85 worth of food. That's a lot of money to a frugal heart like mine. And that's probably not everything, that's just what I saw / thought of while scanning through my cupboards this morning.

Dilemma:
Give this almost-but-not-quite food to a food shelter because it's better to give this to someone than if they starved or went hungry, or just pitch it because it really isn't food, anyway?

Regardless, I have to go to work now, hurray.

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
So far I haven't wasted anything! I am very impressed by this considering the insanity of this week and the fact that I bought a huge thing of spinach at the beginning of the week. I froze a lot of it for making scrambled eggs at random moments.

Hurray!!! No food waste.

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
I wasted 6 cups of milk which should have been yogurt. You can read about my hilarious adventures here and here.

Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday, craziness ensued (the good kind for once!).

Other than that I haven't wasted anything this week! Woo-hoo. this completes my second clean-out-the-pantry-and-freezer week and we've done well. It's weird seeing our freezer so empty for the first time in so long.

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste

This week we wasted a little bit of leftover blueberry smoothie that I froze. It turned completely tasteless and nasty when we froze it. Ugh, we also wasted 3 homemade tortillas that I froze but which somehow turned terribly bitter and nasty in their short stint in the freezer. Gross. Thankfully it wasn't much, overall.

Other than that we've been slowly using up some of the stuff I've been wanting out of my house for a while--yay! I will probably continue our scrounging for another week, only buying some fresh veggies (must.eat.veggies.) and things like milk. I really want to continue to use up some of the crap we have so we can get rid of it once and for all.

I will replace it with much healthier alternatives and I am excited for the change.

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste

Technically, if I had actually gotten time to post this on Friday, it would have been a no-waste week. But since I didn't, today I discovered that a whole bag of the cheap-o battered fish fillet things had gotten really badly freezer burned. Ick.

So I wasted a $2 bag of "fish," if you can call it that.

Other than that, nothing yet!

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
NOTHING
Arrgh, I just remembered, I wasted about 1/2 cup of ww pasta from my fridge. I was all excited to use it up and when I got it out it was all slimy. Eeeww.

Even still, Hurray! I almost wasted several more things, but I either ate them up real quick, or stuck them in the freezer for later. I am really proud of myself for this week because I was sick and miserable and I still worked really hard not to waste anything--and I did really well!!

Later I will post how my Green Pepper Soup turns out. Since my hubby fell asleep after a frustrating day at work, I decided I would try to get some cooking done now so that this week won't be as hectic. I'm also making whole wheat tortillas--YUM.

Also, today we celebrated my first bigger paycheck by going out to eat at Olive Garden--it was so much fun to go on a date!

Food Waste Friday

My Food Waste
A singles-serve cup of applesauce (hfcs)
6 cups of flour (bleached)
1/2 a tostada and 1/2 a pepsi (curse you, oh windy day)

Sometimes my food waste will be higher as I purge some ingredients from our food. I generally try to use it all up, anyway, but I didn't quite hit the mark this time. And the tostada and pepsi wasn't my fault. I do have some other leftovers that I need to use in the next day or two, but overall, I don't think I did too bad.

Food Waste Friday

I have been following Budget Confessions for a few weeks now and Cate had an idea I really liked. Every Friday she posts how much food her family wasted that week. She does this in order to keep herself aware of how much food she is throwing out.

So I am joining the ranks. In order to keep myself aware of how much food I am throwing out, I am posting a list every Friday. I am playing my small part in a larger online movement of getting serious about waste. I believe it is important to be aware of ourselves and how we are living our lives, and a large part of that in America, I believe, is keeping track of and reducing waste.

The Less Food We Waste...

• the less money we waste
  
• the more food is available to other people
  
• the less food is needed to feed our country
  

My Food Waste

• 1 pancake's worth of batter
  
• about 1 cup (1 meal's worth) of leftover chicken-something
  
• 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal

Not too bad for my first official week of tracking it.