Happy Friday! It’s time for another edition of Food Waste Friday. We wasted very little this week after a bunch of waste last week. I’m happy to be back in the swing of less waste.
Every Friday I link up with The Frugal Girl and/ or Simply Being Mum for Food Waste Friday. I’ve been environmentally conscious about food waste since I was in college and this is a great way for me to keep tabs on what we waste in our house.
Here is how we did this week:
Food Waste Successes
1. Mixed Nuts and Date Granola Bars
After Christmas we had 2 pounds of dried dates in our house, and this was after eating a bunch. Apparently dates were a popular gift item for Christmas. We’ve been making our way through them slowly and I think Robert is officially tired of dates. I’d seen tons of recipes for granola bars using dates and I figured now would be a good time to use them. I modified our usual chewy granola bar recipe and used dates instead of so much honey.
Mixed nuts and dates granola bars
Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: none
Keywords: raw snack
Ingredients (16 bars)
- 3 cups of rolled oats
- 1 cup of mixed nuts
- 1/2 C. of honey
- 1/2 C. of nut butter
- 2 C. of pitted dates
- 1/4 C. of melted coconut oil (optional)
Instructions
Optional Step: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and roast the oats, mixed nuts and coconut oil for 10-15 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. This isn’t necessary, but adds a nice nutty aroma and taste.
Process the dates in a food processor until it is a consistency that can be mashed together to form a ball. It took me about 30-60 seconds.
Microwave honey and nut butter for 30 seconds to make it thin enough for mixing.
Line a baking dish with wax paper.
Mix the oats, nuts, dates, and honey mixture in a bowl. Combine well and press into the baking dish. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
Cut into bars.
I’m so happy we were able to use up all our dates! We’ve gone through these fast and I might need to buy more dates for another batch. I love when my food waste Friday experiments become staple recipes in our house.
2. NO moldy fruit or veggies this week!
This is a huge success for us! I hope I can keep the streak next week.
3. Repurposed an egg white
I needed an egg yolk for a recipe and forgot about the egg white. By the time I remembered, it had been in the fridge for 4 days. I don’t know how long an egg white is safe to eat, so I used it as a facemask instead and mixed it with honey. For more facemask ideas, check out this post and picture below.
Losses
4. Threw out some soup
I tried and tried to use up this soup. I even added it to Robert’s oatmeal, which he loved, but not enough to eat the entire carton. I wish they sold smaller cartons as Trader Joe’s. Next time I’ll have to freeze half before the expiration date!
I’m pretty happy with only one loss this week. Let’s just hope I can do this well next week too.
How did you do this week? Feel free to leave a comment or link up with The Frugal Girl or Simply Being Mum.
If you’re sick of dates, I just used ours up yesterday! Those granola bars look really yummy!
Food waste is something that we’re not great about at our house. This week we brought home leftovers from a family dinner and forgot to put them in the fridge when we got home. Such a waste!
I hate when that happens. I almost always leave my leftovers at restaurants. Drives me crazy!
That’s great! We had a lot of waste this week, so many leftovers! It’s hard for me to eat leftovers with this pregnancy, my tastes just change too fast. March is the month for less waste and less spending on food though. I am determined!