Oh dear. Not a stellar week at our house.First, those little sandwiches were the remains of the tea sandwiches my friend made almost three weeks ago to have with our tea while we were preparing for the annual Jane Austen Ball. I'll have a photo of that for you next week. Anyway, she made these delicious sandwiches, and we ate almost all of them but there were a couple left and we were in a hurry so I asked my husband to put them away for me. I didn't see them in the refrigerator the next day and assumed he'd eaten them, and then this week, more than two weeks later, I found them in one of the containers he uses for leftovers and they were very soggy. Definitely not edible.
The bag of greens I left for him to use for his sandwiches when I went out of town. He said he used some of it but couldn't eat it all. Are you seeing a pattern here? It sounds like "blame my husband" week.
The other greens were from the broccoli that instead of tossing on the compost I thought I'd use, but we had so many other greens to eat, and I didn't even know if these would be any good. And finally, the onion is a storage problem. It got really soggy and grew a green mohawk after only a couple of weeks, so I think I should store onions in the dark pantry.
On the bright side, all but the sandwiches went straight to the compost bin, so not much for the landfill. Which reminds me, we're producing a lot less trash these days. I think it took us three weeks to fill one kitchen bag the last time, and we could easily go at least that long between trash pick ups now.
So why do I care about our food waste? Because it's bad for the environment to send food to the landfill. You can find out more at Wasted Food. And check out The Frugal Girl to see how Kristen and other bloggers are wasting less by sharing their photos. Throwing away food is also throwing away money, and I've cut our grocery budget somewhere between $50 and $100 per month by being more mindful of what we buy and what we toss.
My favorite blog post of the week was this guest post on The Non-Consumer Advocate by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, about the options to buying new. When I read it, I realized the suggestions had become second nature to me, and that made me happy. Doing The Compact has become a normal and natural part of my life, rather than a wacky experiment.
How did you do this week? Please leave your tips and advice for avoiding food waste in the Comments section.
6 comments:
I noticed one of the onions is growing green shoots. Unless it is too slimy you could plant it, put it on the window sill and have greens, like green onions, to use in salads or what-have-you.
And I have a hubby that tends to put leftovers in opaque containers - and then in the compost.
I usually put the onion in soil and the shoot will grow into "spring onions". Most Chinese recipes have it as garnishings for soup or steam fish.
If the onion is not soggy u can slice it into small pieces and fry them. Good for garnishing blanch vegies toss with oyster sauce. I usually have a pot of fried onions on standby. It keeps for months.
Awesome that you are using the compost... I want a worm compost but can't find any worms here in cairo... I'll work something out!
Thanks,
Forest.
http://frugalzeitgeist.com
Unfortunately the onion was very soggy, but thanks for the tips because we love green onion and I'll do that the next time I get a sprout.
Good luck Forest Parks!
I just wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to source my local organic food delivery company and I am receiving my first box of mixed organic fruit and vegetables tomorrow.
I enjoy reading your blog.
Vanessa
Vanessa- That's great! Thanks for telling me- I can't wait to hear how you like it.
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