food-waste-disposal

Every week I talk about food waste. Why? Other than it’s so cool and fun? In the hope that it will make me aware of how much food (and money) I’m throwing away when something gets tossed in the garbage and not eaten.

Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. via Wasted Food

Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl started documenting her food waste in March 2008, added pictures and then challenged her readers to join the fight. Don’t be a Grouch, keep it out of the can.

091113

What the…?

Yes, that’s half an onion.  I have a theory about why I’m throwing away half an onion that’s about a month old.  I’ll explain it later.

I also have a large quantity of what was supposed to be tapioca pudding.  In preparation for our upcoming move, the husband has asked that I use up all the food in the cupboard.  He’d like to move no food whatsoever.  I’d like fewer fine lines and wrinkles.  Some of us live in reality and some of us ignore it.

But I digress (shocking I know).  In my wifely duty of pleasing my husband I decided to make tapioca pudding with the tapioca that had been in the cupboard for almost two years.  This was  a bad plan on two counts.  One, my husband prefers rice pudding.  (Oh right, I like tapioca.  Ooops, silly me.)  Be that as it may, apparently tapioca can’t be trusted to sit in an open box for almost two years and still maintain high standards of quality.  Not to mention the fact that I had the heat too high and therefore had the unfortunate result of cooked milk and egg that was neither smooth or silky in texture.  And that was on day one.

We each ate a bowl anyway.  I declared it inedible but the husband, always the trooper, swore he liked it and would eat it all.

Lucky for him, I stuck a spoon in it on day two.  Definitely the worse for wear.  Now the tapioca wasn’t just chewy it was sort of…dense.  The husband didn’t even protest when I told him it was a goner.

Now I’m craving tapioca pudding.  Guess I should go eat that ice cream so we don’t have to move it.