Food Waste Friday, 3/9 - Oh, Produce!

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

I've got some nasty produce this week.  The cucumber (.50) on top is quite squishy.  I tried to think of something to do with it, but I was drawing a blank.  A goal for next week is to be more intentional about using them in my and my son's lunches. 

In the bag to the left are some pretty nasty mushrooms (.25) and then the right are too many jalapenos ($1.00)! How could I waste such yummy jalapenos you ask.  I have no valid answer for that.  I simply forgot about them.  I promise I will not let it happen again!

I have a few things in the fridge this week that I will have to really watch and be intentional about (note to self- use those cucumbers!), but seeing how so many of you others salvage your food has been quite benefical for me.  I had a big learning curve here! 

Wishing you a good week next week!

Food Waste Friday 3/2

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

It was not a bad week around here in terms of food waste.  I ended up composting some parsnips (free.  I got them from volunteering for my CSA.), half of a lemon (.25) and one mushy cucumber (.50).  All of this will go in the compost bin.  I sure do wish it had been nothing, but overall I guess this isn't bad.  If you know any recipes that call for parsnips that cover their sweet taste I would love to hear it.  I just am not big on sweet vegetables.  I love me some chocolate, but please don't make my veggies sweet, I just can't take it.  How did you do this week?

Food Waste Friday

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

This week went to the beans, garbanzo beans that is.  About a month ago I made a huge batch of garbanzo beans.  This allows me to have quite a few for some yummy homemade hummus and my hubby plenty to eat himself.  The bad news is we didn't eat enough of them and they went sour and I means S.O.U.R., totally nasty.  So quite a few are heading to the compost bin (2.00) along with one tomato that was free, one lime (.25), one orange or lemon (I can no longer be sure which it is.... .25) and a bit of leftover hummus (.50)

So, it looks like this week I wasted about $3.00 worth of food.  It pained me to throw out the tomato, that is just not allowed!  I hope you did well yourself this week!

Food Waste Friday

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

During my blogging hiatus I still worked hard to keep our food waste low.  Sometimes that worked and other times not so much, especially when we were in the late fall months of our CSA and we were getting lots of things I had no idea what to do with.  But my fridge is pretty well cleaned out right now and here are the nasties:

• Some veggies I had intended to use in a pastry and just didn't get around to making.  Yesterday, I decided to try them in some spaghetti sauce and it tasted down right foul!  So the veggies hit the compost and the sauce pictured went in the trash. The veggies were practically free, but let's say they cost $1 and the sauce that ended up tainted by the the veggies was $1.50.   
• I also had to trash some spaghetti sauce that had started to grow mold :(.  It was organic, which makes me doubly sad!  The cost of this sauce was about $3.00 (best guess!).
• All total I wasted about $5.50 - not so good, but I guess that is what happens when you have to throw away organic spaghetti sauce.

Have a good weekend!

Food Waste Friday

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

Well, right after I posted last week's food waste I realized I neglected to include something - yucky tomatoes.  I purchased 4 packs of tomatoes (.45 per pint).  This was too much and I knew that, but at .45 a piece I was hoping we could do it.  Three weeks later, I have to admit they went bad before we could use them.  So about 10 cherry tomatoes went into the trash.  Estimated cost 10 cents, if that.

Next, I made bread a week ago and something went very wrong.  I think I left out the salt, but regardless it was ewwww.  I made croutons with one loaf, but the second was beyond tasting bad and has taken on a strange odor.  Those of you who make your own bread, maybe you can help me out here.  My husband says it smells like it is fermenting.  I kind of think it smells like it is sour.  This smell has happened a couple of times.  I would love to know how to avoid it because this isn't the first time it has happened.  Typically it is at the end of a loaf and I just suck it up and eat it anyway.  Estimated cost, (I don't know) lets say 50 cents.

My third item is about a half of a jar of applesauce.  It was long past its expiration and it was definitely fermenting. I have the same problem that Kristen of The Frugal Girl was discussing today.  I like to buy the big jar because it cost about 10 cents more than the little jar, which makes for a great deal, but typically ends up getting wasted.  I guess I need to buy the little one anyway.  Estimated cost 50 cents.

Finally, I had to throw away some veggies from earlier in the week.  They were part of the veggies that I rescued from the marked down produce section.  I cut them up and froze them, but even my husband who will eat just about anything you put in front of him said they were "Foul."  So, the leftovers hit the compost bin.   Estimated cost, 50 cents. 

Estimated grand total for wasted food this week - $1.60. 

I know this seems like a lot, but remember I'm new at this and I really do think I'm making progress.  How did you do?

This is linked to The Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday. 

Food Waste Friday 7/29

 On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

It was a better week here!!!!!  Thankfully, no meat was left out like last week.  I'm still upset with myself about that one. 

The first item I had to waste is this sad ear of corn (.20).  I've never seen corn with mold on it until this week.  It's pretty nasty.  The good news here is I was able to save the two other ears.  Before I started documenting food waste, they would have gone the way of the trash can.  Can you easily compost an ear of corn?  I think it would not decompose easily, but I'm sure I'm wrong and would love to hear if anyone has done it. 

The second item that got wasted, but did end up in the compost bin, was a portion of a zucchini (.00 - garden)  Although it didn't have mold, it was definitely not right. 

Finally, there were a few cherry tomatoes that I bought about a month ago and meant to put in a tomato (.20) sauce, but totally forgot.  That is it and a grand total of .40 for wasted food!  I'm getting better!!!  Although I still would love to say "I ain't got nothin' for ya" I know that documenting has definitely made a difference. My refrigerator is also so bare lately.  It is kind of weird.  How did you do?

Food Waste Friday - Another Humbling Week

On Wednedsday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

This is my third week of posting food waste and as I suspected (but actually more than I suspected) it has been a humbling experience.  This week I believe (this is from memory) that we threw out a zucchini (.00 - garden), a tiny amount of uneaten cowboy casserole (.25), an entire package of chicken tenderloins (3.47), a package of mushrooms (2.00), a green pepper (.00 - garden) and a small amount of yogurt (.10). 

The zucchini came from my in-laws garden and was GROSS, all squishy and watery.  I was going to make chicken tenders with the tenderloins and we ended up ordering pizza.  The tenderloins had been defrosting and got lost under dishes drying and were forgotten until the next morning.  The sad thing is this is not the first time I have done this.  I did try to salvage the mushrooms and green peppers.  Both actually didn't look to bad, so I tried to mix them in with some other veggies and grill them, but they tasted so bad I ended up picking each one out and throwing them away.  The yogurt just went bad due to my inattentiveness. The total dollar wasted was $5.82:(.  Maybe next week I will do better.

Food Waste Friday

Food Waste Friday

On Wednedsday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

This was my first full week of documenting my family's food waste & I have to say it was upsetting when I actually took the time and truly observed what I was wasting.  In addition to what I saw wasted, I really believe that we would have wasted more if I had not been so attuned to not wasting.  For example, we ate a ton of produce this week, which is great, but I don't think we would have eaten that much had it not been for me shoving it down all of our throats (with love of course) so that it wouldn't go to waste.

So here is the waste:



One moldy, squishy squash (.75)



One plum I was going to use in a smoothie that my husband threw away first and I just couldn't bring myself to put it in the smoothie after it had been in the trash (.33).

4 moldy, left over buns (.50) that weren't very good to begin with, 1 can of funky hummus(2.50) ( I had meant to purchase tahini and had no clue what I was buying), and some quinoa (2.00).

That is $6.08 total for food waste.  Not so hot.  Hopefully next week will be better since I cleaned out the fridge this week.