Food Waste Friday, plus a Freebie and Favorite Blog Post of the Week

It's Food Waste Friday, but I don't have a photo to show you due to a combination of camera malfunctions and computer problems. A bad tech week!

But unfortunately, we did have some waste. Here's what it was:

*Whipped cream! Yes, a strange thing to waste. There wasn't much left, and neither of us ate it after the dessert I made it for was gone.

*About a cup of chicken stock from a Tetra Pak.

*A couple of bites of salad that my husband said he would eat the next day but didn't.

I would attribute our waste to my constantly changing schedule. It's hard to plan meals when you don't know where you'll be from one day to the next, and my work schedule has been busy and erratic the past two months.

If you want to know why we're monitoring our food waste, it's because throwing out food not only wastes money, it's bad for the environment because food in a landfill creates harmful gasses. Check out The Frugal Girl where Kristen's experiment of documenting her family's food waste has inspired a lot of other people to join in the effort.

And while you're there, you might as well stay and check out this post about her 4-year-old daughter's birthday party, because it's hands down My Favorite Blog Post of the Week. What do you think of when you picture a birthday party for a 4-year-old? I think of a bunch of screaming kids jacked up on sugar, over-the-top gifts that must be opened and displayed, and gift bags filled with made-in-China plastic crap that will be in the landfill practically before the sun goes down. At Kristen's house, a child's birthday is a low key, family affair with a homebaked cake, a few modest gifts from siblings from Goodwill, a visit to the fish store to pick out two new fish for her aquarium, and a hodgepodge dinner chosen by the birthday girl (nutrition goes out the window for the day).

All this adds up to a birthday much richer than the blow outs some parents seem obligated to provide for their kids. And the pictures prove Zoe's birthday is everything she dreamed of. Just when you think you've seen the sweetest photo in the world, of her brother presenting her a ring she'd been eyeing at Goodwill, there are more adorable and funny photos still to come. And that's true even if, like me, you don't have kids and "cute kid" blogs aren't really your thing.

And finally, a FREE STUFF ALERT. It's the first weekend of March, and that means it's time for Bank of America's Museums on Us program. Just flash your debit or credit card to get in free to tons of museums across the country all day Saturday and Sunday. My brother and I took advantage of this last month and not only had a great time at the Pittock Mansion in Portland, we saved almost twenty bucks. Click here to find out which museums are participating in your area.