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!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Food Waste Reduction report #2

Food Waste Reduction ChallengeThe second week of the Food Waste Reduction Challenge didn't go so well for our household. I wasn't feeling too great from having strep and we had a few other stressful events going on (what else is new?), so I was being awful lax about leftovers.

So, forgive me starving people around the world, I threw out (well, composted) perfectly good food just because I was too lazy to do something else with it before it went bad:

  • About 5 tortilla chips with cheddar cheese (in all honesty, this was my daughter's leftovers, but there were untouched and I could have eaten them)
  • The ends of a loaf of bread
  • Four slices (butts) of sandwich bread
  • Most of one apple
  • Most of one pear
  • One cup of beans
  • One cup of pasta
  • 1/4 of an avocado, a few slices of tomato and onion

    I'm sure I've forgetting something, but that just about rounds it up. How was last week for you?
  • 28 comments:

    Oldnovice said...

    Don't have a photo up yet (and probably won't for a few days because I take the pic when the plate is full enough to take outside), but an entire pear went to waste, some blueberries, strawberries, and grapes.

    Glad to see you posting something today; you know we worry when you don't post routinely. Hope your family is doing as well as can be expected.

    Farmer's Daughter said...

    We've been doing well. I gave about half of my chocolate cheesecake with strawberry topping (see my blog for the recipe if you're interested) to my mom, dad and brothers. It was a valentine for my husband, but there was no way we could eat it ourselves.

    Other than that, I've been good about not making more than we'll eat.

    Megan said...

    Right, apart from peels that I can't eat and the gunky stuff from a pumpkin, the only real stuff we've thrown out is about 2-3 servings of red cabbage with raisins--we left it out for a couple days and it got mold. EWWWWW......

    Haven't eaten any fruit in a couple weeks apart from raisins because we can't afford them on this £2 a day challenge, so that's prevented any extra peels or cores or anything going off. Also probably kept us more aware of waste than usual.

    I should start taking photos!

    Kelly said...

    why didnt cha just freeze most of the stuff? its an easy way to not waste food, ready for whn youre feeling more creative and/or need a quick fix.

    Stacey said...

    My week was pretty good! You can check it out here:

    http://myfriendoprah.blogspot.com/2009/02/food-waste-for-week.html

    I hoping for no waste next week! :)

    Oldnovice said...

    why didnt cha just freeze most of the stuff?

    ... because we really thought (at the time) that we'd eat it before it went bad and then life got in the way, AKA shit happened.

    Anonymous said...

    I suck.

    A bit of onion and red pepper. One lemon. 12 oz bag of frozen edame - bought it, tried it, hated it. 1 sausage patty. One egg. 2 oz of moldy cheese of unknown type. 1.5 cups of fruit salad - husband left his out and wouldn't eat it the next day.

    Anonymous said...

    Oh Crunch...I so sympathize. I've been waiting for confession:

    Forgive me Crunchy for I have sinned. Badly. I had the flu and I was in my bed for three days and ate nothing but a teeney bit of bread and 7Up. (I know. The 7Up is a throwback from Midwestern Childhood Upbringing. It's just something you drink when you have the flu.) When I recovered enough to crawl about and try to live again...I wasn't eating much. As a result for a week food simmered and stewed and molted in the fridge. Saturday I threw out so much that I was just pissed at myself -- although really, there was nothing I could do except maybe invite people into my sick house to eat up leftovers.

    It was so bad.

    All I can do is try again. And I shall.

    (Boy, I feel better now that I've confessed!)

    PS: My word verification is biopupel. Doesn't that sound like some new type of energy compost? :)

    Robj98168 said...

    PIcture

    Crunchy’s Food Waste Challenge:
    Sunday- No Food waste Monday- No Food Waste
    Tuesday- No Food Waste
    Wednesday- A handful of un-popped popcorn, Used the last of the Crab Salad I made on Monday in a “Crab Melt Sandwich” for supper
    Thursday- No food waste
    Friday- No food waste
    Saturday- Well this week shot to hell- found out that bean sprouts don’t keep. A whole jar of lentil sprouts went bad- but I was able to compost the jar of lentil sprouts- or rather put them in the composter

    Total Food Waste- 6.5 oz

    Anonymous said...

    I'm glad you are up and feeling well.

    This week, I got a little upset at my husband because he threw out the kefir in our fridge (some may remember that a friend with a special diet had visited and left it behind). I had just found and planned recipes to use it, and he threw it away because it expired on the 9th. I'm not sure how much was left, but I'm guessing at least a cup or even two. (And I'm sure it was good because kefir is fermented...) Anyway, I did cook a curry with some of it, and it wasn't bad. That was all that got wasted for the week. And it wasn't worth getting mad at my husband!

    Ashley said...

    I knew I forgot something...

    Anywho, the last two weeks we were bombarded with soups (just picked up another from the neighbor across the street) and cassaroles. Last week, we had a couple gallons of food waste that went bad (power outaged didn't help) or just could not fit in our belly or the fridge.

    This week however, our total toss was... 0. Yep, z-e-r-o. Well, for food waste. I was sick all week so the three of us ate up all the soups sent to us. We haven't had to make anything else, just eat up leftovers.

    Gretchen said...

    I admit I must be confused about the food waste challenge. Like, when Rob said that he threw away unpopped kernels of popcorn... how is that wasting? he can't eat that! And I thought composting was an acceptable alternative, so if we compost is that still considered wasting?

    I guess it's all about baby steps. For me, my throwing away of stuff is about the same, but I am wasting less food. I make smaller portions and eat all our leftovers instead of letting them get pushed to the back of the fridge.

    Oh, and by the way.. I did unplug my fridge last week.

    DON"T HAVE A HEART ATTACK. It was our garage "extra" fridge. Now we are keeping everything inside. Remember, baby steps for me.

    Anonymous said...

    Have realised I need to make decisions about leftovers quickly.

    If I think I'll probably use it in the next few days, I have to freeze it as chances are I won't use it quick enough. The 'probablies' are the things I keep wasting!

    Improving though!

    Heather said...

    We did bad. I haven't actually joined the challenge (naively thought I didn't need to) but have thrown out about 4 cups of uncooked pearl barley and a cup of walnut pieces, both of which got infested with bugs. Not sure why - the barley was only about 4 months old, the walnuts were more dicey at about 10 months. We have had record-setting temps in Auckland this week - maybe that's why.

    Thrown out absolutely none of the food we've cooked, did let at least one plum go bad, but the pantry supplies mentioned above were a bit of a surprise.

    knutty knitter said...

    Lets see - one mouldy apricot and a tin of out of date apples (when I say out of date I mean by about two years. It was hiding in the back of a cupboard.)

    viv in nz

    Spot-On said...

    had a great first week, but bad 2nd week. My post is here: http://pathtogreendom.blogspot.com/2009/02/food-waste_15.html

    Joy said...

    Pretty good week:
    http://mamacitalujan.blogspot.com/2009/02/food-waste-reduction-report-2-and-more.html

    Cave-Woman said...

    I noticed that you discarded a few bread end pieces. Do you not like them----or, like me---find it hard to think of enough things to do with them ?

    Maybe you could toast them and make yummy garlic bread crumbs with them?

    I saw a Weight Watchers recipe that involved rolling chicken strips in yogurt and spices, and then rolling it in the homemade breadcrumbs with a light bit of olive oil for baking.


    Just an idea.
    Blessings!

    Anonymous said...

    I batted 1000%. I even discovered something I was going to throw out -- the end stalk part of green squash, about half an inch -- is something very tasty for my dog. Go figure. It was the only food thing I was going to toss, but my little guy loved it and looked for more.

    I unplugged my fridge in January and it's changed everything. I don't waste a thing and don't shop much. I've really enjoyed planning and being thoughtful about food.

    Anonymous said...

    Hi! So far, I have composted 1/2 of an overgrown lime, a few pieces of bread and 1/2 cup of cooked peaches. They were all rescued anyway, so my net amount is negative, WAY negative.

    Jennie said...

    We had 4 cherry tomatoes go bad at the bottom of the little container, so the worms got those.
    And we have probably 3 cups of chicken/noodle soup that will hit the trashcan today. But, that chicken soup was an attempt to keep a handful of wilty veggies from the trashcan, and it was also my DH's first soup attempt so it wasn't spiced quite right. And we did have 3 meals off it before we just couldn't choke down anymore of it. :-D So not a total loss.
    Hmm.. oh and a 1/2 cup of peaches that was part of a larger serving I defrosted for lunches. It sat out unoticed for a day and fermented. :-D

    Not too bad all in all. I made homemade bread crumbs from my homemade bread ends, and veggie burritoes from some leftovers even though I have to eat them because DH won't.

    Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

    This week was much easier for us! It was such a busy week that we didn't have time to go to the grocery store until late Sunday. We cleaned out the frig to the bare walls with this week's meals.

    No food waste for us except for some coffee grounds and veg peels that went into the composter.

    Cluck Cluck Here said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
    Cluck Cluck Here said...

    Wasting food really gets my goat. If we experienced either hunger or the work of raising food, it would quickly eliminate waste. Pun intended.

    Anonymous said...

    It was a good week. Half a moldy grapefruit, one rotting pear, and part of an onion. Oh, and some soymilk that thickened up mysteriously.

    Bread heels go in a plastic container in the freezer until I have enough for bread pudding.

    Anonymous said...

    Oh dear.....I have finally mastered baking a nice moist banana loaft, so thought I'd start trying out cookie recipes until I find one that works well as a replacement for store bought cookies. The general consensus on the first batch is that even if they weren't a bit burnt, they weren't very nice. And they have chocolate in them so I can't even feed them to the chickens! Looks like it is the compost heap for this batch.......

    Keri said...

    The butts/ends of the bread are AWESOME with soup. You can freeze it until you have soup to eat the bread with.

    Alan said...

    Stale or otherwise unwanted bread can be cubed up with a knife or kitc hen shears and toasted in the oven (while roasting something else, for efficiency's sake). Put the toasted bread cubes in a plastic bag in the freezer until you have enough to make stuffing for poultry. My wife's stuffing usually has 4 to 7 different kinds of bread in it and everyone loves it.