Happy Friday! It’s time for another edition of Food Waste Friday. 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. Repurposed a seafood feast
My good friend from college, Tiffany, came to visit and I bought all the fixings for a low country shrimp boil along with stone crab claws. As I was halfway finishing up the shrimp boil I received a call from Tiffany letting me know that she wouldn’t be in town until the next day.
Usually I would be livid! Especially with all these pregnancy hormones. Somehow I was able to keep my cool and figure out a way to repurpose our dinner for the next night. I think knowing that I could use the experience as blog material helped me stay sane. As you probably know, seafood doesn’t keep very long and cooked shrimp definitely doesn’t reheat well.
With some careful planning I was able to serve the shrimp cocktail style the next night and warm up the sausage, potatoes and corn as a side dish. The other half of the shrimp was fried and the stone crab kept well in the fridge because they hadn’t been cracked yet. I’ll share more details next week in a post dedicated to cheap and easy seafood dinners.
I’m so relieved I didn’t have to throw out $40 worth of seafood!
2. Ate a lot of bananas
We had a lot of bananas in the house this week. As in 25 bananas at one point.
I bought a bunch at Publix and then Tom’s uncle dropped off apple bananas from his yard. I love the Florida grown apple bananas and couldn’t refuse them. They are the best bananas ever. The only problem was I didn’t think we could get through them in a week without baking them or freezing them. I had to ask my Instagram followers for help!
Somehow, we managed to eat most of them without having to bake more than 4. I used those four in a banana bread muffin recipe and the rest were eaten with the exception of the long lost banana mentioned below in my losses.
Food Waste Losses
3. Zucchini muffins
Seems as if Robert is over his “cupcakes” for breakfast phase. Now he wants oatmeal with “sprinkles” (chia seeds). I tried to eat the last two zucchini muffins only to find out that they did not taste good anymore. I guess they went bad? I don’t usually store them in the fridge but this makes me wonder if I should. What do you think?
4. Long lost banana
I found this guy hiding on the couch, under the pillows. Now clue how long it had been there. I keep fruit at Robert’s level so he can get bananas and apples without asking me for help. I always thought this was a good idea until now. I’m rethinking this because I don’t want to find half eaten fruit all over the house. It makes me wonder if there are other apples and bananas rotting away. I hope not!
5. 2 more moldy strawberries
Strawberries are finally $1.66 at Publix this week! This also means most containers have at least one spoiled strawberry. I found 2 in my cartons when I got home. I think that is the price of cheap strawberries!
How did you do this week?
Great job on keeping your calm and being able to save your seafood! I would have been annoyed without the pregnancy hormones, hahaha.
I’ve never heard of nor tasted apple bananas. I did spy some bananas growing on public land just a block down from my house and I’ve been pondering about going to harvest them.
I think it’s cute your kid wants “sprinkles” in his oatmeal but doesn’t mean sugary sprinkles!
I posted my Food Waste Friday post this morning too. We had a pretty food week (which would have been better had I not dumped a whole gallon of milk in the parking lot of Aldi on Wednesday, I’m still mad at myself about that!). Have a great weekend!
Thanks Nathalie! I’m on my way to check out your Food Waste Friday too. I’m still not sure how I kept my calm about the seafood.
The banana in the couch is funny. Only because that would happen in my house too. I love the Zucchini muffins, great idea. #FeatureFridays
It’s great that you can find ways to save food!
Ugh, I hate when you buy strawberries and a couple are bad when you get home. I feel like they spoil the rest of the strawberries if you don’t catch them fast enough. I had to get rid of four strawberries in the most recent container I bought. I just hate having to throw out strawberries more than any other fruit, especially since we usually get organic and they are more expensive.
I have to admit that I’m over-concerned about food waste. There are way too many people dying of hunger on the planet for me to waste stuff. It is hard sometimes to keep track of everything. :(
I need to find some recipes to avoid waste…
Great linkup!
We waste so much food in our home. I can’t stand it. We always over cook. I’m trying to get this problem of ours under control
It is tough to get it under control. I feel like I have been working on it for years. It’s definitely a work in progress.
I believe you can do it though! Join us for Food Waste Friday each week and see if documenting helps you make a change.
This post has inspired me to actively try to reuse our leftovers. I feed a family of five with fluctuating appetites. Sometimes there is nothing left…sometimes I remind myself that I will gain 20 pounds if I eat all of the left overs myself. Hopefully it will save us money as well as my sanity. Thank you for this feature!
This is great! I’ve always tried to stay conscience of the amount of waste in our home, but never this detailed.
We tend to have lots of wasted fruits and vegetables, mostly because my kids like to juggle the fruit. Bruised apples, crushed bananas. I’d like to get better at controlling and tracking the waste.
p.s. I’d definitely start putting those muffins in the fridge. I like to bake a large batch or two and freeze them individually, a minute or so in the microwave and they’ll be like new.
I’ll definitely start putting them in the fridge! The freezer is a great idea too, thanks!