Food Waste

Thankfully that is not a photo of my waste.  Being out of town did limit how much food was thrown away in the kitchen.  I won’t dwell on how much food gets thrown away while staying in hotels and eating a wedding reception buffet.

Unfortunately though, I am not completely without guilt.  Before we left I did toss a quarter of an apple that had been in the fridge for about a week waiting for Toddler L to find it.  He chose that week to stay out of the fridge.  I guess he does listen to me sometimes.  I did also toss about a quarter of a loaf of bread.  I had sliced it after making it, which I normally don’t do.  Seems that wasn’t a good idea as it was showing mold within days.  That was a bummer.  But my new philosophy is that each week starts anew.  I have a clean slate come Saturday and I will do with it the best I can.

Now for something truly inspirational.  Amy Butler is an amazing designer and her newest venture is a beautiful line of rugs for Chandra.

How is this Compact?  It’s not.  Except that I’m not going to buy one, I don’t need a rug.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate their beauty.

Are they at least green?  Yes, and blue and red and brown.  Okay, okay, they are green by comparison.  Her rugs are 100% made from New Zealand wool and are semi-sustainable using no harsh chemical washes, the industry’s safest chrome dyes and natural latex adhesive.  The rugs are completely hand made, from the tufting to the sculpting.

So if they’re not used and not made from recycled materials why am I showing you?

Because they are beautiful.  And looking at them just makes my day brighter.  See for yourself.

That’s what the husband said as I was tossing out 6 pieces of my new favorite molasses bread*.  They had started to grow mold while I was busy eating a loaf of white bread.  Apparently I can’t leave bread alone for a minute, much less days without it getting into trouble.  I really kind of knew that, which is why I was so thoroughly disgusted as I opened the garbage bin.  I will be slicing and freezing my bread as soon as I make it from now on.

If you haven’t guessed yet, the answer was “no”.

I also did not take a picture of the plum I tried to eat but refrained.  I was cutting off a small piece of the skin because the plum labeling sticker would not let go and I didn’t want to eat sticker glue.  As I cut into the plum I saw that it was strangely discolored and “off” throughout the inside.  So my week started with plums that were picked too soon and turning to mush on the outside while the inside was not yet ripe and finished with a plum that appeared to be rotting from the inside out.  I did eat the plums at the beginning of the week mind you.

I’m a little more worried about what won’t get photographed next Friday.  We are headed to Michigan for a family wedding.  Lots of eating in restaurants and sleeping in a hotel that probably won’t have a mini-fridge.  As this is the land of large size portions I see some food waste in my future.  As much as I’d like to avoid it I’m not sure how much I can control.  I wonder what the waiter will say if I order a quarter of a chicken-fried-steak** because I don’t want to throw the rest away?

If you haven’t guessed yet, the answer is “no”.

.

The Las Vegas Weekly put together a great article on the new “local” movement.  Or should I say the new local-washing movement.

“With more consumers buying from their own neighborhoods, corporations are getting in on the local action.”

What?  You didn’t know that Hellman’s and Frito-Lay are actually just your typical local companies?  Check out the story here, and see what else the big corps are hoping you’ll buy.

* Just a note, I do really like this bread machine recipe but I bake it in the oven not the bread machine.  Great flavor and a better crust.

** Don’t believe everything you read.  I’m not planning to have chicken-fried-steak next week.  Or any week for that matter.  This was a test.  Only a test.

As Toddler L would say “yu-cky…garbage…yu-cky”.  And unfortunately, that’s what all this food was.  I knew it was coming.  I’ve been saying it for weeks.  The onions were just waiting to get noticed.  The avocado, well that was just unfortunate.  I bought two because the husband is a big fan.  I like them, but not enough to remember that I have to do something with them.  This was my pudding.  It proofed.  And the bread, well that was croutons that didn’t happen.  I was able to cut off about a third of the peach and eat the rest.  Which is good considering it was quite large, organic and cost $1.50 at the farmer’s market.  Not a good week but at least I made sure all the chocolate chip cookies got eaten before they went stale.

Why does it matter if I throw away a couple of onions and a scrap of bread?  Well, as Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food put it:

Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. At the same time, food prices and the number of Americans without enough to eat continues to rise.

Will the food I throw out in my kitchen have any bearing on whether someone else has anything to eat?  No.  But by being aware of what food I waste hopefully I will also consider the waste that is happening at a grander scale.  And if my talking about it makes someone else aware then double chocolate chips for everyone.

And be sure to thank The Frugal Girl for challenging her readers to expose their dirty laundry moldy food.  All in the name of sharing eyeballs, I write for public humiliation and blogroll status.  I’m all about status.

First up is the weekly food waste.  Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl, has challenged her readers to be more aware of the food they throw out.  By facing the issue head on and even publishing the findings (public humiliation is a great motivator of change), we can all help reduce food waste.  These Friday postings are my findings.  Or non-findings as the case may be.

This week I have no findings.  Again, I haven’t done a thorough search for what may be lurking.  Having house guests throws off my whole game.  My weekly standards usually get all shot to hell.  Shopping doesn’t happen in an orderly fashion.  Eating is not always as home-made.  And regular kitchen maintenance is at a bare minimum.  Or non-existent.  This week it’s been non-existent.  So I blindly assume I have no food waste to bear witness to.  I hope I’m not wrong.

Over the next week or two, as things calm down (post baby delivery and house guests) I will probably have some things to show you but I’m taking a free pass on most of it because of the aforementioned activities.

Bear with me as life returns to normal.

Yeah, okay that was a joke.

If you are traveling with infants or young children this summer check out today’s other post.  It really has nothing to do with the Compact but I’m putting it here anyway.

I think I have an onion (or two) that aren’t going to make it much further.  As I mentioned before I don’t seem to be using onions as much in my summer cooking.  I think we’ve had these for several weeks now.  I should probably grab it and see if it falls apart in my hand.  But then I’d have to deal with it.  Better to avoid.

I received the nicest blog compliments the other day.  No, I wasn’t nominated for most hilarious, best written, about nothing blog awards.  But thanks for thinking that.  A couple of friends offered to bring food by after we got home from the hospital.  Major advantage to having kids.  The compliment came when they were concerned about affecting my menu plans and food waste.  How sweet is that?  My friends worry about my food being eaten on the day I determined it should in a previous week when I had no idea what the current week would bring.  How sweet.  And naive.  My friends really should know that everything I do is totally off the cuff and can be rearranged at a moments notice.  Especially when that notice says “we’re bringing over dinner”.

Ah well, they may not be weighing their food waste but at least I may have them thinking about the possibility.

Weighing waste?

Did you catch that?

Don’t worry, it was a joke.  I’m not that sleep deprived.  Actually, there is a woman who does weigh her waste and blogs about it.  I’m in awe.  But I’m too sleep deprived for that.

I think I’ll go eat the peach looking at me just so I don’t have to worry about it next week.

I was going to write about the movie we saw today, Food Inc., but have decided it’s way to much to bite off and will require it’s own post.  If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it.  If you have, I can’t wait to hear your comments when I get my thoughts together and written up.  Hopefully in the next day or two while it’s all still fresh.  Unlike so much of the food available to us.

Until then, enjoy the 4th of July if it’s your thing.  Otherwise just enjoy the weekend.

I’ll take it.

With an extra mouth to feed (my brother is in for a visit) we have had a pretty easy time eating everything up the last few days.  Plus, I intentionally created a very perishable-free menu this week.  I did buy a few vegetables and some fruit for the next week so hopefully we will actually be around to get it all eaten.  I’ve already sent berries to live in the freezer.  At 69¢ a pound for strawberries I was almost wishing I knew how to make preserves.  But I have lots for smoothies, sauces and such.

Week one of this no food waste streak.  I’m going to be really optimistic and reach for the entire month of July.

Does a bigger goal make us work harder or just more likely to not succeed?

But you’d be wrong.

All having no picture means is that I didn’t get one of the food the husband pointed out smelled a little (okay, a lot) funny before it got tossed.  Good thing he noticed before he gave it to Toddler L.  I can’t say I would have.  I’ve been a little preoccupied.  But I’ll get to that later.

Where was I?  Oh, yeah…  Food waste.  What was it?  Pasta.  Plain, boring, no sauce pasta.  I had made a batch last week for Toddler L.  It’s one of the few things he will almost always eat.  Right out of the fridge.  Cold.  Dry.  Takes after his father.

Unfortunately, Toddler L wasn’t feeling much like pasta this past week.  I could have used it for an adult meal but I kept holding onto it thinking it was for the kid.

Now it’s for the dump.

Not a lot of dollars down the drain on this one but still unfortunate all the same.  Mostly because it was one of those interestingly shaped pastas that hold the sauce so nicely.  Oh, well.  The good news is that Toddler L wasn’t eating pasta because he was eating my homemade pizza.  That means he ate a vegetable.  Ha!  And he didn’t even know it.  I’ll tell him when he’s twelve.

So what has me so preoccupied that I don’t even know I have bad food in the fridge or what my son is eating?

Pretty exciting huh?

That’s one of the “thank you” bags I made for the labor and delivery nurses that will be in my life sometime in the very near future.  We had such great nurses with Toddler L and I think it’s in part due to the goodies we handed over on our arrival.  No, not really.  They were great, but just because they were.  This is just our way of acknowledging it.

The bags toppers were made on the computer, printed on paper and stapled to the clear bags.  I did the labels the same way but printed them onto label paper we had in the closet. The husband made some of his awesome oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (they’re sitting in the freezer waiting for the moment we head out), they will go in the smaller white bags.  Everything goes in the big white bags and off we go.  Like Little Red Robin Hood with her basket of goodies.

I’ve been creative.  I’m happy.

It’s Food Waste Friday.  And this is my waste.  There was actually no mold on the tomato paste but as it was pretty nasty on the lid I thought I’d just give it up.  And why I had stored a tablespoon of tomato paste is a very good question.

I have no idea.

And no, the watch is not waste.  It’s for reference.  You might mistakenly assume the picture is of an extra large potato salad bin instead of the itsy-bitsy take-out salad dressing container it really is.  (Well, somebody might.)  Just know it’s a men’s watch.  (I’m only trying to keep the reference accurate.)  Yes, I wear a man’s watch.  Don’t ask why, there’s a lot of history there.

For those of you who need a little inspiration in using up items before they become food waste, check out Life to Leftovers at Wasted Food.  Jonathan Bloom has started a new feature to help out the helpless.  Or at least those with food they don’t know what to do with.  (Yes, I was one of those people once.)  Jonathan may not have the answers, but his readers are great at coming up with ideas for your food.

Who would have thought to make icing non-edible and use it for a kid’s craft?  Or how about french toast from leftover hamburger buns?  (So I haven’t actually had a craft day with Toddler L yet, but I did try the french toast buns yesterday.)

If you have a kitchen conundrum take it over there.  Jonathan’s group may just give some new Life to (Your) Leftovers.

Last week when I was downloaded what I though were pictures of Toddler L off the camera I came across a picture of these strawberries.

I’m sorry to say it actually took me a moment to remember what the heck it all meant.  This all happened the Saturday before Mother’s Day.  On that Sunday I found out a friend had passed away.  It was not a good week.  (Remember the empty menu plan?)  So by Friday, I had no recollection of what had happened the previous Saturday.

Now I remember.

We bought these strawberries Thursday evening, come Saturday morning they looked like this.  Boy was I miffed.  Actually, I was a lot more than miffed, but Toddler L and Baby X were listening.  (Yes, I know Baby X is still cooking but I”m practicing and imagining he can hear everything I say.)  I try to keep my fruit on the counter instead of in the fridge because it typically tastes better.  Big mistake.  I have had strawberries since this debacle that went straight into the fridge until every last one was gobbled up.

This batch went straight into the garbage.

Yes, I know that in itself is a waste.  40% of what’s in the landfills could be composted.  But not by me.  Not for lack of desire.  More like lack of opportunity.  No compost, no garden, no green bins.  For now I take solice in the knowledge that I put that pesky plastic container in the recycling bag.

As for waste this week, I go back to having nothing to show.  (I’m not even smiling as I write that as I may be completely out of it and not even know.  I’d hate to be smug only to have another strawberry incident.)  I think I do a pretty good job of making a “use it up” lunch whenever there is something on the edge.  I guess that’s what has saved me so far.

For those of you not managing quite as well with the food waste issue, here’s a little something that might just help.

This spring, The Kitchn (a division of Apartment Therapy) held their second annual Kitchen Cure.

This is a series of posts, reader interaction, and assignments designed to help get your kitchen in shape. The goal, in six fast weeks, is for your kitchen to be clean, healthy and organized, and your cooking more nourishing and delicious than ever.

One of their great ideas was this grocery reminder.  Post this on the fridge and you have no excuse to not know what’s inside.

If that doesn’t help you out, how about their list of What To Do With…?  75 Tips for Leftovers and Ingredients.  This is definitely one list I will be checking twice (weekly).  There are some great ideas for foods from all over the kitchen.  A personal favorite though was the ideas for Inedible Failed Dishes.  One commenter made a suggestion I think will become a family tradition of our own.

Growing up, on the rare occasions my mom completely failed in the kitchen, it was traditional to order pizza. Even if there were leftovers around, a kitchen disaster meant mom had a glass of wine or a gin and tonic while dad dialed. A family tradition I have adopted and will pass on to my daughter.

For those of you that have seen the inside of my fridge, there’s a new addition.

I finally succumbed to the pull of bread in the oven.  I’m still not ready for kneading though.  I made a batch of dough considered the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Four ingredients?  It must have cost a whole $1.00 for everything.  And the dough should make about four 1 pound loaves.  How about master frugal recipe.  As I don’t have a pizza stone or peel (don’t worry that will be remedied as soon as I can), tomorrow I will be making a loaf in my dutch oven.  Yep, the dutch oven, in the oven.  I’m already considering what else I can use to get some different shaped loaves.  A new use for that too-big-to-cook-in Corning Ware dish.

And yes, it was about 5 minutes of work today.  Let’s see if tomorrow goes as smoothly.  I can’t tell you how excited I am.  Really.

I love my bread machine, but this is what bread should look like.

If my in-laws don’t walk in the door and swoon over my fresh-from-the-oven bread I’m immediately sending them to a hotel.

Just kidding.  They can stay.

I’ll go to a hotel.