Wasteful Friday

2/4/2011

11 Comments

 
I know I said I would post every Friday about decluttering and food waste but I think I was a bit overzealous when I said that.  I'm now thinking every other Friday (or Saturday or Sunday) is a better idea.  Last week got away with me and before I knew it I was a week behind on this venture. So, here I am 2 weeks later. I'm going to try very hard to do this every other week (did you hear me?  I said TRY). So here goes, these are the things I/we wasted/threw out over the past 2 weeks. Even though our list is long, I think we did MUCH better that the previous week since I am more conscious of waste in the kitchen.  However I am wondering when I will STOP buying celery!  I always throw away more than we consume.

Things we wasted over the past 2 week:

1 package of chives
1 package celery – yes, the entire package.
10 baby carrots
2 green onions
½ bag of lettuce mix
1 bunch of parsley
2 helpings of sliced steak
2 cups of buttermilk
8 bread heels 
½ green pepper
1 almost full jar salsa (it was a science experiment)
1 hamburger bun
1 piece of Chicken Pot Pie
1/2 red onion
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

What should I do with all those heels? Not one person in my family likes to eat them....give me idea folks, or this will keep appearing week after week on my list.

OK, a few things I did differently to keep from throwing things out -

-I had 6 egg whites left over from a cake I made.  Instead of throwing them out (like I normally would have done - don't hate) I saved them for breakfast the next morning and made egg white omelets. Boy 1 looked at it funny, but ate it anyway.
-With our left over steak and chicken from Mexican Street Tacos, I made flautas!  They were wonderful and were all gone within a day.
-With my leftover Mexican bean soup I made refried beans for burritos!  Yummy!

In the past 2 weeks we (I say we because Hubby is loving this and is getting rid of things as well!) have gotten rid of 140 more items from our house.  In the past 2 weeks I have purchased 14 items, bringing my grand total of things out of our house to 819 items!!  Only 1192 things left to go!!

AND to my embarrassment I have only worked out ONE, 1 time in the past 2 weeks......
11 Comments
Lara
2/6/2011 05:50:46 am

Dude, seriously? It's taking everything I've got to not compose a list of what you could have done with all that stuff... Oh, who am I kidding? You and I both know that I *did* actually compose the list, but am just too chicken to post it... ;-)

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Trish
2/6/2011 05:54:28 am

Just post it, really, go for it! I know. I'm horrified by what I threw out! ;o)

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Lara
2/6/2011 06:02:07 am

You asked for it: Bread heels: Grind in your food processor to make bread crumbs (to use in breading stuff for frying or to use in meatballs or meatloaf) or feed to the birds in your backyard. Ditto for the hamburger bun. Or freeze the hamb...urger bun for an emergency some morning when you don't have enough bread for the kids' lunches. You can put PB&J on a hamburger bun and the bread will thaw by lunchtime. 2 cups of buttermilk: Alton Brown's waffle recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/basic-waffle-recipe/index.html Chives: You could put those in ANYTHING. They would have been great in the egg white omelet. In a pinch, they could be finely chopped and frozen. They wouldn't work for a garnish, once thawed, but would be great in any savory baked goods. Cheese biscuits, beer bread, etc. Ditto for the green onions. Or you could put 'em in twice-baked potatoes or something like that...a casserole. Once they're baked, you won't be able to tell that they were ever frozen. If I have leftover green pepper, onion, celery, I will frequently chop and then saute them and freeze them for future use. They can be tossed into a soup, sauce, omelet, frittata. I do wish, though, that I could buy a smaller amount of celery at a time. I rarely use an entire bunch before it goes limp. It does make a great snack, though. Spread a little peanut butter or cream cheese or laughing cow cheese or hummus on it. Not too bad and very healthy. Good way to use a lot up at one time. You could make the kids a little after-school snack tray with the carrots and celery. Put out some peanut butter, cheese, raisins, nuts and let them dip and spread and stuff whatever they want in there. Chopped tomatoes can be frozen, too. Toss them in your next batch of chili or homemade tomato sauce. Or any soup that would be good with a little tomato. The steak could be cooked into an omelet or frittata, too, or frozen until you are ready to make one. Or toss it with some pesto and cooked pasta and pack it in one of the kids' (or Hubby's) lunches. Or put it in a tortilla for an ersatz burrito. Or serve it over a salad, with the bag of lettuce mix. I'm with you on the salsa, of course, and leftover pot pie. You could freeze it or reheat it, but the crust is never as good the next day. Another thing that could help you feel less guilty about throwing this stuff away is a compost pile. If we have produce that's past it's prime, I'll compost it and it becomes fertile soil for our yard/future garden that I'll plant this Spring. You can't put any meat products, but we put potato peels, papery outer layer of garlic and onions, apple cores, cut-off ends of cucumber and zucchini, bell pepper stems, etc. We hardly throw ANYTHING away over here. Between all the plastic, glass, metal and paper that we recycle and the food trimmings and leftovers that we compost, our weekly trash pick-up is TINY, mostly dryer lint from the laundry room and used Kleenex because Kate's allergies are so bad. I do understand, though, that time gets away from all of us. I've bought ingredients for a recipe and then had something come up and I didn't get around to making it or freezing the ingredients before they went bad. It happens to all of us at one time or another, but if you keep an eye out for what you have on hand and use that stuff up first, it can be mitigated. Of course, if something's really gone bad, toss it! You definitely don't want to poison your family! Sorry to be even more verbose than I usually am, but this is just kind of a "hot button" topic for me. I love to kind of make a game out of making something creative out of what we have in the fridge.

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Lara
2/6/2011 06:03:26 am

Note: If you're not using the bread crumbs right away, keep them in the freezer so they don't mold. Oh, also? For egg white omelets, if you mix in at least one whole egg with the whites, it'll look more "normal." I'll use 4 to 6 whites and maybe 1 whole egg. You almost can't tell the difference that way.

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Trish
2/6/2011 06:11:05 am

You don't know how happy I am to get that list!! Seriously! I bought some of those items for specific purposes and they didn't get used, they went bad and moldy, so I threw them out. Sometimes it takes hearing it from someone else! Thank you! REALLY! That is why I am doing these posts, to become more aware and I want feedback. I was totally at a loss for the heels of the bread....how simple is your idea? I always buy bread crumbs. Next time I am calling you before throwing something out. I want to be able to post that I threw NOTHING out and that I went to the gym 5 times in one week! Can you help me with that one too? ALSO, I have been thinking about a compost, but haven’t researched it yet….

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carol
2/9/2011 01:55:03 am

I use the heels of the bread in lieu of breadcrumbs. (Notice how I said in lieu of instead of saying I make breadcrumbs?) I am way too lazy to save and make a big batch of real breadcrumbs. I just take one or two of the heels and stick them in the toaster on low a couple times until they're mostly dried out. Then rip and use in recipes. If there's liquid in a recipe, I don't even toast the bread. I just soak it in the liquid and it pretty much disintegrates.
For leftover meat, as long as it's not too saucy, I put it into fried rice. Actually, even if it is saucy, I've washed the sauce off, but don't tell my kids! You can use any meats and veges. I season with a little sesame oil and oyster sauce. Yum! Sometimes I make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for breakfast, or even send to school for home lunch.
One warning though, i'm quite famous for not wanting to waste so I will try to make something, only to end up still throwing it out, but after you've added tons more time/ingredients to it. Just don't catch my disease and you'll be fine!

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Trish
2/9/2011 09:45:02 pm

Thanks Carol! The steak was very saucy, so I didn't know what else to do with it. Wash it. What a great idea!

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MIL
2/10/2011 03:50:14 am

Hasn't anyone ever heard of Bread Pudding? It's the best, traditional with cinnamon and raisins, chocolate, pumpkin..

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Sarah
2/11/2011 02:43:26 pm

Hi--

I found your Korea blog by doing a google search. We found out today that we are moving to Yongsan. I have 3 kids (9,6,and 3) and will have a 3-month old baby by the time we move.

You've got some great info on your blog, so thank you for posting. My 9-year-old daughter especially loved the modeling posts, and thinks she is the next big thing. =)

As for the heels of bread, I use them for grilled cheese sandwiches. I just put it heel-side in, and nobody knows.

I've also heard that celery lasts much longer when wrapped in foil--maybe you can try that.

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Trish
2/11/2011 09:59:37 pm

@MIL - send me your recipe for bread pudding!!

@Sarah - Korea was my entire families’ absolute favorite duty station. My advice to you begins with ~ live on post. There are so many children for your kids to play with! The people that live off post like it just find, but always complain that their kids have no one to play with. Live in Blackhawk if you can get it!! I still have many friends there and can connect you if you would like. In fact here is a link to a blog of a friend that is still there.... http://alvisadventures.blogspot.com/2010/03/seoul-international-marathon-all-262.html
Next, don’t be afraid to go off post. There is such a wonderful & exciting world waiting for you in Seoul and all over Korea really. Explore as much as you can. Learn a few key phrases to get you through! Most Koreas speak English, but they love it when you try to speak their language. Get a house keeper…they are cheap AND amazing & they do your laundry; just ask around for a good one. Typically they will even baby sit while they are cleaning. OK, that is it for now. Feel free to ask more questions if you would like. (Not that you ask any…. ;o)
Thank you for the kitchen tips. I’m going to try the grilled cheese heel inside trick to see if it works on my people! I love it…I’m not buying celery anymore. ;o)

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Sarah
2/17/2011 03:14:16 am

Thanks for the info. As I understand, we'll have to live on post unless they don't have availability. Why do you like Blackhawk over Burke Towers? I thought Burke had more square footage.

I will definitely check out your friend's blog. I'm hoping that living overseas will help me be more motivated to maintain a blog.

I put my email in here, but since I don't have a webbly account, I don't know if you see [email protected]. I'm sure I'll have a bazillion questions as we go along.

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