April 23, 2010

Food Waste Friday plus favorite blog post of the week

What's in the container? The rest of some delicious cooked beets that I couldn't get to before I left on vacation last week. My husband will eat almost anything, but he has a strict no beets policy. The beets in the last CSA delivery were so huge that I was eating these things for lunch and dinner for a couple of days. It's incredible that I would ever waste beets, I love them so much, but I'm not perfect.

My husband did better: he ate all the cilantro, lettuce, and radishes while I was gone. And I gave it my best with my attempt to use up some turnips with a Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie that I found online. It was horrible, and I don't think I'll be able to eat turnips again for quite awhile. We ended up scraping the mashed potatoes off the top and dumping the turnip stew underneath. So that was a bit more waste. The recipe was not a keeper, and the worst part was that I ended up spending almost two hours cooking it! I very rarely spend that much time on dinner, and when I do I expect it to be spectacular! But I do believe you have to keep trying new things, even though it doesn't always turn out to be a positive experience. At least I don't have a husband who throws a less-than-tasty dinner in the sink and stomps out of the house, as my mom claims her father did (!) when my grandmother would try something "exotic" like Chop Suey.

It's hard not to waste any food at all, but it's not too hard to waste less, with a bit of planning and effort. You can read all about how wasting less is good for the environment at Wasted Food, and check out The Frugal Girl for the folks who are documenting their waste in an attempt to do better.

And head on over to The Non-Consumer Advocate for my Favorite Blog Post of the Week, about how some folks seem to think being green is a competition with their "I'm greener than you" holier-than-thou attitude. It really got me riled up!

Are you watching your food waste? How did you do this week? Please let us know in the Comments section, and feel free to weigh in on the "green" controversy as well.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try making beet cake---it is moist and delicious and your husband will not even realize he is eating beets!

t said...

I second beet cake! probably the best chocolate cake I've ever had.

Katy Wolk-Stanley said...

Happy to have riled you up.

Although usually, I try to avoid riling up the beet ladies.

-Katy

Angela said...

Anonymous and t- Beet cake? I've never heard of such a thing? I'll have to look that up online. Thanks!

Katy- I made a comment on your post, but somehow it didn't show up. Or else I got distracted before I hit "submit," which wouldn't surprise me these days...

Cate said...

Sounds like dinnertime was fun at your mom's house! ;-)

It's always a bummer when new recipes don't work out, especially when you spend so much time on them. I love cooking and experimenting with new recipes, and I consider the failures to be a fair trade when I think of all the new recipes I love, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow when I inadvertently cook something gross.

Angela said...

Cate- Yeah, the one we always remember was peanut butter soup. We had to toss it. At my age, I always think I can spot a bad recipe, or one that will take too long, but I still get fooled now and then. I think we just don't really like turnips. No matter how you dress them up, they're still turnips. If we get them again, I'll probably give them away.