A rather alarming Food Waste Friday
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Alas I have lots of food waste to own up to this week.
It wasn’t so long ago I was showing off about my one tiny fridge organisation tip that could reduce food waste to a big fat zero. Even more embarassing is that my contribution to the Gloucestershire’s 10:10 campaign supplement this week is all about reducing food waste! It’s a case of do what I say and not what I do, this week folks!
Suffice to say, this week, I’ve been reminded yet again, that being busy, changes to plans or someone getting ill tend to throw a spanner in the works of an ordered zero waste life.
Ironic really when my goal this week has been to achieve that ordered life I crave.
You might remember my ‘5 things’ challenge? How is yours coming along? Mine has been on overdrive, taking steroids and super charged because tomorrow is Ned’s jumble sale for the homeless, so I’ve been busy sifting, sorting and heaving boxes of ‘stuff’ around the house.
Meanwhile, Mr Green has taken advantage of the rather wonderful weather and has been replacing the bathroom roof.
What with cramming in a couple of hours home education, stroking bunnies, cleaning the bathroom floor 4 times a day and pulling up horsetail in between all the sorting of the last 12 years of my life the result of this week has been two tired and hungry adults throwing things on a plate to eat – convenience has been king.
This hasn’t been a week of kitchen Goddessness or lovingly preparing meals for hours on end. It’s been a case of see it, grab it, eat it and roll into bed with an aching back but a happy heart…
This morning I came downstairs to write my shopping list. Friday is “Go to Ledbury” day where we can stock up on food for the weekend. I write down anything that is leftover to try and avoid buying duplicates.
Behold, I was met with rather an alarming sight (not to mention smell) in the fridge, consisting of
a week old egg
An egg, as solid as a new roofing panel
Some ‘fish and potato pie’ mix that never made it to the pie stage
you think it looks bad? At least you don't have to smell it ...
A small bunch of grapes
yes, it's a grape clearly in need of some botox
A prepared potato for the aforementioned ‘fish pie’ dish
prepared potato, complete with froth and fermentation
Some cooked lentils – you have to trust me on this one because the smell was too bad to hang my head over to take a photo.
All I can say is thank goodness for bunnies that like soft grapes and worms and bokashi bins that will gratefully eat anything.
I found a bag containing 5 soft kiwi fruits too. They are at the ‘eat me today because by tomorrow I’ll have that horrible afterkick that burns the roof of your mouth’ stage. So I need your ideas to stop any more food waste.
It’s smoothies for breakfast, but that will only use up two. That leaves me with 3 kiwi fruit. I’m the only person who will eat them raw and even though I love them, I think 3 in one day might be a little too much.
What can I do with a couple of kiwis that Little Miss Green will love?
Well I bet you lovely people have been far more successful than me this week. But hey, I have a study I can get in to and an office that is getting there …
How did you get on with your food waste? If you want to have a nose around other people’s food waste, be sure to check out Kristen’s “Food waste Friday” post too.
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Tags: food waste
Oh dear, better luck next week! At least it didn’t get to landfill.
FWIW my food waste is not great this week either; will post it later.
I confess, I did laugh when I read your post. With you, not at you ! Oh the humanity. This was the week the food bit back !
Kiwi fruit …umm. Incorporate it into a crumble if you have any other fruit around ? Fruit salad ? added to yoghurt and honey ? Have to confess I am at a slight loss only because I am not keen on kiwi fruit.
Ok, the food waste story I mentioned last week. As you know, myself & some of my neighbours/tenants help cut down food waste a bit by going round offering surplus or near-date food to each other. ( Something I’ll no doubt hold forth about again another time 😛 ) One lady rang me last week to say would I eat an M & S bombay potato crispbake as she had 2 and they were about to go out of date. Yes, sure, sez I. I’ll bring it round just before you go off duty, sez she. So far so good.
What I didn’t realise was she had decided she would kindly cook the crispbake before passing it on, so an hour later I was presented with a steaming plateful of food, a veritable pyramid of rice, the crispbake, sauteed mushrooms, green beans & courgettes, slices of avacado, olives and er – dried apricot. She was beaming away, obviously delighted at being able to feed me. I just didn’t have the heart to say what I thought, which was ” Oh dear gods, that’s masses of food, I’ll never be able to eat all that… ” So I smiled & thanked her and carried the lorryload of food upstairs, where I struggled (wo)manfully with it for about half an hour before admitting defeat. I sadly had to throw about half of it away in the end after contemplating all options.
so yes – things don’t always go to plan when trying to reduce food waste – sometimes it is a case of one step forwards and two steps backwards – but keep trying is my motto !
Gone off kiwi fruit always makes me chuckle. When I was living in Brockworth years ago we had an electric outage and after fiddling with fuses my partner at the time came to the end of his limited knowledge on the subject and called in the experts.
After a bit of investigation the guy tracked it down to a dodgy extension cable which was under a bookcase and right in line of a dripping kiwi fruit, so old it had gone past the stage of mould and simply liquified. Fortunately the electric guy saw the funny side, took pity on us and wrote off the £100 or so call out fee.
A lesson in how food waste can not only be wasteful in itself but could end up costing you a lot extra on top! Oh, and to keep all your fruit and veg in a suitable place and not leave them lying in random places about hte house where they can get buried and forgotton 🙂
I had a food waste success today! I had a partial can of coconut milk in the refrigerator after making a Thai peanut dipping sauce. I found a recipe for Brazilan Chicken with coconut milk and used it up. I was afraid it was going to end up going bad.
I like to bake my “going soft, must be eaten kiwis” in either scones or muffins with strawberries or raspberries. It is a delcious combination! Better luck next week!
@Sharon: I remember you saying you were going to get back on the reduced food waste bandwagon – I hope it worked out ok for you!
@greenlady42: Thank you for sharing your story – that was hilarious. What a sweet hearted woman but I can understand why you had to admit defeat – that plate of food sounded HUGE LOL!
@Alex: Oh my! There’s another funny food waste story – we’re on a roll this week 😀 Thanks for that and how lovely that he waived the fee; that’s great.
@Condo Blues: Yay! Brilliant result; well done you – I hope you liked the brazilian chicken 🙂
@Alea: Ah, kiwi with berries; now that sounds good – thank you Alea!
Dehydrate your Kiwi in slices – better than sweets!
@Dawn: Dawn; you’re a genius; I think you mentioned these on the GP forum? I remember commenting, but clean forgot. Ok, I’m going to write this on my whiteboard incase it happens again! Thank you 🙂