• What are you wasting?

    Posted on February 25th, 2009 Saver Queen 6 comments

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    I just discovered a wonderful blog called Crunchy Chicken.  The author has been running an exciting Food Waste Reduction Challenge, encouraging all of us to reduce the amount of edible food that we throw away or compost, by keeping track of the waste we are producing.  It got me thinking about the things I have been doing recently to decrease my food waste, and my grocery budget as well.

    Here are some ways that I reduced waste in the last couple of weeks.

    I made a big list of everything I could possibly make with what I had.  The list turned out to be surprisingly big!

    I turned little leftover crumbly bits of cheese into a delicious cheese dip.

    I saved stale bread and turned it into bread crumbs.

    I salvaged a homemade pretzel recipe gone amok and turned that into bread crumbs also.

    I chopped up veggies that were about to go bad and froze them for a veggie stir-fry.

    I butchered my own chicken wings, freezing the undesirable parts for chicken stock.

    I preserved my salad and herbs better so they would last longer.

    I used leftover chickpeas in a pasta dish.

    I froze the bits of leafy bits of celery and sprouted garlic for a stock.

    I finally used up the old blackened bananas that I bought at 50% off in banana bread and shakes.

    I used up the lemons that were about to turn in salad dressings and in a lemon loaf.

    I used up other veggies that needed to be eaten in a shepherd’s pie.

    I found a more efficient way to store my leftover bread bags and vegetable bags.

    I used the netting that the oranges, avocados, garlic and onions came in for an art project.

    I noticed that an orange was about to go bad, so I simply squeezed it using my antique juicer and made freshly squeezed orange juice.

    I made a batch of granola bars that didn’t quite work out, but saved it and ate it on top of yogurt, instead.

    I used up soy milk that was about to go bad by putting it in shakes and in my coffee (I had run out of milk and cream).

    I made a fish chowder to use up fish and veggies that weren’t being eaten. 

    I used frozen veggies on a pizza when I ran out of fresh vegetables.

    I started washing out mini-yogurt containers and saving them to hold paint when painting (they are best for watercolours, btw).

    Josh made cookies using up some baking supplies, since we both refused to buy store-bought cookies

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    I think I may start noting how much food goes to waste in our house.  I would be interested in seeing how much we waste and thinking of new ways to cut back our waste even more.

    What did you do this month to reduce waste?

    The Saver Queen

    Groceries, Waste reduction
     

    6 responses to “What are you wasting?”

    1. Beef Up Your Piggy February 25th, 2009 at 11:26

      Great post, Saver! It always amazes me how much food and money is wasted each week. I just did a similar post about this topic
      I read about the amount of money that is wasted along with the food. Not to mention how many people do not have any food at all.
      Thanks!

    2. Dawn February 25th, 2009 at 11:49

      Just last night I put ginger peels in my veggie stock bag in the freezer. In other ziplock I added the bones from my pork chops for meat stock. One thing I work on is trying to plan menus with what I have so everything gets used and as little as possible goes to waste. I also purchase as little perishable items as possible, as a single gal with a busy life, my schedule can be erratic - I hate when good food goes bad because I am not home to cook it.

    3. Micaela February 25th, 2009 at 18:00

      Wow! You are amazing! I’ve done… probably not too much!

    4. noble pig February 25th, 2009 at 19:48

      I know, the waste is ridiculous. I need to work on it.

    5. Diana February 25th, 2009 at 21:40

      I’m not as good at preventing wasting as I’d like to be, but I did a couple things. I used up leftover veggies in pasta dishes and soups before they went bad. Some of the veggies looked like they were going bad before I was ready to use them in one of the soups, so I chopped them up and froze them and then tossed them in the soup come cooking time. I’ve worked on eating leftovers instead of new food. I just cook for hubby and me, so when I get packets of chicken breasts in 3, I put the extra one in the freezer for later. I ended up using one in a pasta dish on Sunday night. The pasta on Sunday night used canned pumpkin, so I used some of the leftover canned pumpkin in some oatmeal for breakfast the next day. :)

    6. Flirty*almost*30 February 26th, 2009 at 00:01

      What timing! I JUST made a similar goal, to keep food from going to waste after reading a great article online at Granville magazine (which, by the way, is free to subscribe to and they send you a great little magazine full of enviro and lifestyle tips quarterly!). One of their bloggers does a nice little blog on home economics from a green perspective and here’s her post that got me thinking http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/blogs/home-economics/2009/02/24/save-more-waste-less
      I recommend adding this blog to your roll! Lots of good tips on it. I’m considering buying a small freezer to put away some of the great produce we grow here as i’m trying to do more local eating, and it would also help reduce waste. Tonight we had an expensive organic broccoli head starting to look a bit sad so we chopped it up and threw it in the fridge freezer. I LOVE Dawn’s idea above to keep two zippies of for-veggie stock and for-beef stock! Thanks Dawn! I do try to make stock if I’ve got a leftover chicken but hadn’t thought of saving all the random bits. Homemade stock is so great!

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