Another Food Waste Friday

No picture... no food waste!

I actually ate the less-than-appetizing sauteed kale from a few nights ago in order to avoid taking a photo of it. I sauteed it again with olive oil and garlic, and added salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, parmesan, bread crumbs, and toasted pine nuts. The result? It would be a stretch to call it delicious, but it was tasty.

It reminds me of something my husband told me. Back in Alabama where he grew up, there was a women's dress shop called "Betty's Big Girls." He always got a kick out of their ad which was, "If you can't lose that weight, dress it up pretty." Well, I dressed that kale up pretty. And I'm going to consider today's lunch a successful experiment in behavior modification. And thanks to my husband, the Eat Me! section of the refrigerator has been entirely cleared out. Ladies and gentlemen, human beings CAN be trained to change their behavior. I give you Exhibit A (me) and Exhibit B (my husband).

I also have to thank my readers for helping me to avoid soy milk and fennel ending up in this week's photo. The soy milk made a couple of smoothies, and my husband ate the rest with cereal. And the fennel was delicious sliced up into a salad, which we ate two nights in a row. Thanks for all your great suggestions.

So why are hundreds, or maybe thousands, of people posting photos of their weekly food waste on their blogs? It's not a new aesthetic, found art, or a diet fad. It's a way of taking responsibility for what we buy, eat, and throw away. And making it public helps with our level of responsibility and commitment.

Kristen over at the excellent blog The Frugal Girl may have been the first person to use the method of taking a photo of her waste. Her Waste-No-Food Challenge now has many followers. And it all started with Jonathan Bloom over at Wasted Food, who is on a mission to stop food waste across the nation. Check out his blog to learn about why it matters that we all start thinking more about what we're throwing out.

And if you're wasting LOTS of food, keep this in mind. We all started there. When you're at the market, maybe you buy too much produce with the good intention that you'll eat it all. Maybe you buy snacks that end up being a meal instead of that fresh produce. The point is, once you start thinking about it and focusing on it, there are all kinds of tips and tricks to use the food you already have, to eat the produce while it's still fresh, and to avoid throwing food away.

So how did you do this week? Have you joined the Waste-No-Food Challenge yet? Please leave your thoughts, questions, anecdotes, and musings in the Comments section.