Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Food Waste Challenge check-in: week 2

The second week of the Food Waste Reduction Challenge went really well. Again, I'm not going to count the food waste generated by the kids since their waste is slightly difficult to predict.

Mostly, I don't want to give them negative food issues by making them eat something when they are no longer hungry. I'm not giving them the guilt trip that "there are starving kids in Poland" that I got as a kid growing up. But, that's an issue for another post entirely.

So, this last week's waste included:
  • 1 apple - I had cut it up and left it on the counter in a container for far too many days before I was going to get around to eating it
  • 3 slices of turkey - this was actually from before the Food Waste Challenge started that I forgot to get rid of and have been dutifully ignoring
  • I'm sure there will be more lettuce casualties soon, but I'm ignoring it for now
How about you? How did the last week go for your Food Waste Reduction Challenge?

21 comments:

Rachel B. said...

I'm actually doing pretty good.
This week I threw out:
4 pastachios because they were in two week old rice (which I'm still eating) and were soggy.
1 yogurt, because I forgot my lunch box at work
and I think a few meat scraps
I'm also only counting my waste since my parents don't seem to care.

Urban Thorn said...

hmmmm... well, more found apple bits (casualties of 2 year old) have gone in the compost. I had to scrap a half a pot of spaghetti and sauce which got left out over night after one particularly frustrating day where I finally dropped from sheer exhaustion around the same time as my son, it wouldn't phase me except we have mice. Other than that I think we've done really well.

Kristen said...

I had to trim the funky end off of some soysage, but we ate the remainder in a pasta dish. I also made a huge batch of sweet potato gnocchi and was able to freeze all of the leftovers! (Not that we'd have any trouble devouring it!)

We used older bread that was hardening as bread crumbs for tuna patties.

jewishfarmer said...

Deanna, I think you could include your kids without the massive guilt trips if you simply reduced their portion sizes dramatically. We found that a lot of the kids' food waste was because we were over-serving them - we'd give them smallish portions, but more than they wanted. We found that when we simply served them a lot less food, at was reasonable to ask them to eat it all (if there are only two small pieces of broccoli, it isn't really a matter of stuffing them full of extras) and not intimidating. After everything is gone, they can have more.

Sharon

Sandy said...

I had two UFOs (Unidentified Food Objects) in my fridge last weekend that were way in the back and most likely the remains of someone's (my husband's) lunch. Also some parsley ends that were yellowing, and one soggy cucumber. I tend to overbuy on the weekend for the coming week to eliminate weekday trips, and that cuke got away from me. The parsley was bought in a bulk bag, so some of it was marginal to begin with. I bought it to dry, so most of it was usable. The rest will be compost.

Rachel B. said...

My mom's making a chicken tonight, maybe I'll convince her to let me make chicken stock (something we use a lot) out of it.

equa yona(Big Bear) said...

Urban Thorn-Those mice are great for consuming would be wasted leftovers!
I let a banana get way more ripe than I care for it, but the dogs LOVED it!
Warning:do not leave wet radishes with the greens on in plastic! Fortunately, after I cut away the gooey, stenchy greens, the radishes are fine. So nothing wasted this week. I feed fruit and veggies to the dogs a lot as part of their dietary regimen, and since they are like my kids(I know, some people will now retch) nothing I giv them to eat is wasted. And i wouldn't feed them anything unwholsome.
Crunchy, your mom used starving kids in Poland too!? By the time you were a kid, they had a pretty thriving economy. When MY mom used the line, they were really hurting. Guilt trips!!

Urban Thorn said...

equa yona, the mice certainly do get rid of left-overs, the problem is that the left-overs (and hidden fruit) encourage unwanted mice to stay! My dog does get a nice helping of dinner as well, usually a mixture of my son's leftovers and whatever's left in the pot (if it's not enough to warrant refrigerator space)

Dea-chan said...

Ah not doing so good. We need to start composting, and I'm putting it off...

But we're doing better at actually eating leftovers.

ThiftedBliss said...

It is clear to me that I do not eat enough fruit! I did not finish my oranges from last weeks CSA pick up and got 4 more this week as well as 4 pears! So I am going to put the oranges in my salad-did not finish the lettuce and got another huge bunch of arugula! I am going to ask my egg supplier if I can do a trade, greens for eggs to help me with my surplus. Ate all our leftovers and very little to the compost this week. I did miss a lemon in my clean out and that went into the compost as it had green fuzzies! Am loving the challenge of no waste and planning meals around the CSA pickup. Karen from CT

Aimee said...

I don't think we've reduced our own waste much - we are still feeding it to the animals and the compost pile. But maybe I get some credit for collecting food waste from my church and my daughters high school and feeding it my pig?

Robj98168 said...

Pretty good. Ate cold pizza for the past 3 meals, the only food waste I threw into the composter was some veggies and some old soup that just didn't look or smell right

Chard Lady said...

I used a frozen bottle of tea as an ice block, never drank it, and threw it out after it had been frozen and thawed a couple of times. In an attempt to save some broth, I didn't screw a cap onto the container tightly and some of it spilled all over the freezer. At least both liquids were made with rescued food.
My pumpkins and squashes are on their last legs. I had to cut some mold off the outside of a squash, but the rest was fine to eat.

LatigoLiz said...

Not the best week. SO bad that I didn't even bother to count. Found numerous experiments that have obviously been in the fridge for well more than a week. And my Super Bowl leftovers made it the whole week for the most part, and then got pitched. Fridge is getting cleaner, though. And hubby is eating leftovers nearly every meal it seems. We're having leftover pasta tonight even, a not-so-festive Valentine's day treat, but we at out a few nights ago instead, and DID finish off the doggie box we brought home.

Adrienne said...

Not the best week for me. I had a cold and didn't have much of an appetite/ couldn't convince myself to eat what was about to go bad like I usually do. Threw away a whole pear that I just didn't feel like eating and it got way past its prime; some turkey meat that I forgot was in the fridge; yogurt that expired, and then another scoop of yogurt from the new container b/c I took the top off, turned around to get a spoon, and the cat was licking the yogurt. So I scooped off the licked part. Another container of yogurt expires tomorrow... need to find a recipe so I can at least use up most of it.

Allie said...

I lost 6 ounces of charro beans and 5 ounces of mushrooms. I was bummed. The prior week (which I don't think I remembered to comment for since my classes are kicking my ass) I had no waste.

I count all the waste in the house, since I don't think my boyfriend should be exempted.

Maria said...

I think I am doing okay, but not the best. I had some pork that no one wanted any more (leftovers for two nights) but the feral cats in the neighborhood loved it (I have no idea if pork is good for them or not). One orange went bad, I found an old salad dressing bottle in the fridge (out of code)that got dumped. The chickens got the last of the chicken with rice soup- about a large bowl full and they ate every bit. I also dumped about three glasses of OJ, it just didn't smell right. I have some cake from Valentine's day that I hope I don't have to throw out, but if so, hopefully chickens like sweets????

bodygeek said...

a 1/2 cup of cooked chard/tomatoes, because I forgot it in my work fridge. about 15 clementines that were very iffy. 1 lime. 1/2 container of cottage cheese that I really meant to eat. That's it, I think. which is kind of a lot for just one person, isn't it?

Tree Huggin Momma said...

I am late in checking in. Week 2 was better than Week 1. I am far more aware of what I am purchasing and what I have on hand. I however haven't tackled the butternut squash or the pie pumpkins. 2 Are beyond help, but nicely dried so come spring I will harvest and plant the seeds and compost the remainder.
As for our actual waste for the week, it was limited to animal fats (sorry I can't do anything with animal fat, the thought turns my stomach). We composted egg shells, coffee grounds, and honeybell peels, as well as onion skins, garlic skins, and some other veggie left over, but last night I did use the entire carrot, root to leafy green in my stew and thought it lovely.

Tree Huggin Momma said...

When you buy your herbs and have more than you will use before they go bad: chop them up and put them in an ice cube tray with a little bit of oil (olive or canola) and then when they are frozen pop them into a labeled container, instead herbs for a soup or sauce.

Extra CSA greens: Blanch and freeze in 1 c portions. Use in soup, stews and smoothies.

Yogurt can also be frozen. Pour into ice cube trays and when frozen pop out and store. Can be added to soup, sauce or smoothies.

Fruit can be cut up (skinned or not depending on the fruit) and frozen and then added to smoothies.

Left over meat not enough for a meal can be frozen and added to a guolash or soup when there is more. It doesn't matter if its 6 different meats, as long as the flavors blend. I freeze and label the meat type and the seasonings.

When in doubt that you will use it before it goes bad freeze it and use in in soup or stew at a later date.

Tree Huggin Momma said...

Where is the week 3 check in? I was late last week and determined to be on time this week :)