Kristen, over at the frugal girl hosts a weekly Food Waste Friday. She asks fellow bloggers to write about their own food waste, and rewards this with a week long spot on her blogroll. This will be my first week participating.
I have pretty much eliminated food waste from my home, but there’s still a thing here or there that keeps me from getting too cocky. This brings me to:
The tub of mysterious blue frosting!
I always make my kids’ birthday cakes from scratch. They’re never going to show up in a magazine, but I have yet to hear a complaint.
But here’s the crux — I have no memory of making a blue cake. I think I made a fake pizza cake, constructed from a huge round chocolate chip cookie for my older son’s October birthday, (the frosting would have been red) which means this is possibly from May 2008!
Eeeuw!
And the grossest part was it showed no sign of mold. Thank you frightening preservatives!
And I refuse to eat mysterious blue unhealthy food in the name of preventing food waste!
Food I did not waste this week:
Leftover whipped cream from pumpkin pie last Saturday. I scraped it into a cup of coffee, as I am willing to make any sacrifice necessary in the name of food waste.
Leftover refried beans which got tucked into tacos last night. The shells were slightly stale, so I put them in the oven for a few minutes, which perked them right up.
Hamburger buns pulled from the freezer became bread crumbs to coat some $1 per pound chicken thighs.
Half an orange got cut into wedges because the other half was moldy. It would have been easy to chuck the whole thing into the compost, but instead only half went uneaten.
Need inspiration to cut down on your family’s food waste? Then make sure to check out Jonathan Bloom’s wastedfood.com.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
P.S. Extra points for anyone who gets the Bridget Jones reference.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
tee hee – blue food. Love Bridget Jones! Blue soup, anyone?
I do the same as you…if a piece of produce is going bad, I just cut off the bad part and use the rest.
I’m so excited that you participated this week! 😀
I should add that I make pretty ugly homemade birthday cakes for all my kids, and they’re very happy. They always taste good, but my lack of artistic skills always shows when I apply frosting.
“…I am willing to make any sacrifice necessary in the name of food waste.”
“…I refuse to eat mysterious blue unhealthy food in the name of preventing food waste!”
Which is it, Katy??
Just kidding! I’d also stay far away from that radioactive, year-old blue frosting.
I have two pints of grape tomatoes and also 6 oz of crab meat. Any suggestions to help me not waste either? 🙂
Alison,
I would either freeze the crab meat as soon as possible or work to incorporate it into a meal. (Crab omelette?)
Two pints of grape tomatoes is harder, as they wouldn’t freeze well. You can either work them into a recipe, (pasta salad, perhaps with the crab?) or take an opportunity to share with neighbors.
Good luck on your no-food-waste journey!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
The Non-Consumer Advocate
To be fair, while I don’t know what exactly that frosting is made of, it seems safe to assume it’s mostly sugar and very little water, in which case it wouldn’t really need any preservatives to keep it from growing mold.