Cream cheese anyone?
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Maybe we could have scrapped off the mould and eaten it??
I had a bit of food waste this week; some cream cheese, a mouldy tomato (so mouldy it was stuck to the container it was in) and some alfalfa sprouts.
The cream cheese is one of those things we rarely eat. I buy it for special occasions such as making a cheesecake. You might recall, the last ‘special occasion’ at Chez Green took place at the beginning of March. Alas the cream cheese found its fate in the back of the ‘fridge.
The other day I thought we’d have cream cheese and salmon sandwiches, only to be confronted by this:
**Shudder**
The tomato got left in the back of the fridge and say what you will, organic food often goes off quicker than non organic, so this was furry. I was going to slice off the green bits, but the whole thing stuck fast to the container and it rather turned even my “Use it up!” stomach.
The alfalfa simply tasted funky. Soapy almost. The sure sign that for whatever reason it’s not quite right. It wasn’t old, but maybe it had got a bit wet. So onto the compost pile it all went. The cream cheese was bokashied as I wasn’t sure what worms might make of mouldy cream cheese – can anyone enlighten me as to whether they can eat mouldy food?
Regarding this week’s Dustbin Demon I was saved by our very own eco warrior. I bought a new handbag this week (it was a need, naturally, and not simply a want) and little Miss green carried it to the checkout for me. She asked the lady to cut off the plastic tag holding on the price. Go her! That was something I would most definitely have ended up bringing home with me. I then saved the day again, because the assistant, who was full of smiles and couldn’t have been more helpful then put the tag into my bag. I gave it back to her and told her to keep it.
She was about to put my bag into a carrier when I stopped her, so then I had to practically fight with the woman to not allow her to stick a piece of ‘sold’ tape around the handle of this bag. What the hell would I do with that when I got home? I told her I was sure my receipt would suffice lest I get stopped and strip searched by the security staff. She was very unsure, obviously needing to do her job correctly, so we stood locked in battle for a bit before I stuck the bag over my shoulder and walked out clutching my ‘proof of purchase’ in my hand.
There wasn’t a security guard in sight…
What about you – any food waste or dustbin demons to tell us about? And please, any recipes for using up cream cheese would be appreciated!
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Tags: food waste
Cream cheese can be added to just about anything: soup, mashed potato, sauces. The problem is remembering to check and use up the packet!
Soft cheeses with mold are not edible, since the mold spores penetrate the surface quickly. Same with tomato. As for sprouts – they were definitely spoiled! When you’ve had several things go moldy in one week, I recommend wiping out the refrigerator with something that will inhibit molds, like saltwater or dilute hydrogen peroxide. (I only use bleach when I absolutely must.) I have severe mold allegies, so I have to take drastic measures.
As for food waste – I did blog about this, since I tossed out a sizable portion of gift-casserole, still edible. it just was not going to be eaten, so why keep it to get yucky?
@Jane: Hi Jane, yep that was certainly a problem for us this week. I have an unopened pack too, so I hope this is still ok and I’ll be using some of your ideas.
@magdalena: Thanks for that – very useful and I’m now glad I didn’t scrape off the mould and eat it! The sprouts were stored in a different fridge (we have two) but I will give a quick clean out anyway – thanks! Will read your blog later 🙂
@Mrs Green: Unopened cream cheese has quite a long life and I would consider freezing it. Opened cream cheese doesn’t! Tomatoes tend to taste nasty even if they only have the smallest mouldy break in the skin so may need a taste test.
Cream cheese is lovely in mashed potato! I also use it as a quick pasta sauce mixed with a bit of natural yogurt and whatever else is handy, just mix the 2 in a saucepan or add to fried onion and pour the creamy mix over the pasta. Its also very nice mixed with some spinach and put on toast……mmmm I am making myself hungry 😉
Cream cheese is also very good in cakes and scones. I use a wormery for all my kitchen waste (not cooked food though) and not sure if they like cream cheese. I sorted out the wormery yesterday and have a large quantity of compost and liquid fertiliser ready to use.
@Jane: Ahhh., I didn’t know you could freeze unopened cream cheese – excellent idea as it is often on offer.
@B @ logos coaching: lovely ideas – thank you! I think it would go down a treat with pasta here 🙂
@Ann: I never knew that about cakes and scones recipes; do you have any particular ones to share? I’m not sure how I would use it… Great to see your wormery is providing you with some compost and fertiliser.
@Mrs Green: We freeze ricotta or quark as we can’t buy it locally for making spinach (chard) pie in the summer .
@Jane: Good to know – thank you! I’ll try and remember if I buy any…