Week 2 recap

There were a few moments this week when I looked at the leftovers in my fridge and felt a little stress. Kris had brought home some leftovers from my mom's that I had left on purpose and now had to find a way to use them. We do well with her leftovers, but what we always were throwing out was the salad. My mom makes a big salad and sends it home with us. If it's not eaten in the first night or afternoon it's no good to anybody. This means I had a big bowl of salad for breakfast this week. I followed that with a big bowl of Chinese food, so you could say it is all balancing out.

The only thing that is left in the fridge is a big container of gravy. This is a large amount so, I am thinking I should make a shepherd's pie. Kris asked me if it was the beef barley soup my mom made and I said yes. He almost ate it, but he doesn't ever eat gravy, so I felt too bad to let him.

Tip: Freeze gravy in small baby food containers and thaw out as a treat for the dog.

If you haven't figured it out yet, most of my food is coming from my mom's house. She is a chronic over cooker and I love it. She has been more thoughtful of her food waste this month. I went to her house for the day and we had the same meal for dinner as we had for lunch. I have NEVER had leftovers at her house before. This was a big step! When Evy pointed this out, my mom said she was embarrassed that she was serving the same meal again. lol Joking, but probably a little serious.

The good: Kris isn't really fully participating, but I left him some 4 day old yogurt and told him it was his job to eat it. He put it in a smoothie, good boy!

The bad: Some small spoonfuls of my avocados were brown and Wyn wouldn't eat them (just kidding, I didn't try to make her) I threw out the gross looking leftovers that Kris brought home from my mom's. They looked old when we got them and I can never be too sure how long they were in her fridge. I don't consider this a fail.

Another rule I have decided over the last month. If the food was purchased in 2010 I am allowed to throw it out. It just means I should have done a better job of cleaning out my cupboards prior to this challenge. There was some junky baby cookies in the cupboard that I was not going to feed either of the girls, so in the garbage they went.

Suggestions please~
What to do with this container of gravy?
What to do with a box of raspberry shortbread cookies?

Ooooh that just fell on the floor

Day 1 and already questions and rules popping up. I dropped a bit of a tart on the floor. Decision: I am not eating that. Last nights festivities included a selection of dips on the counter. Decision: Technically, because it was on Dec 31 that it was left out I am going to toss these.

I thought this would be very easy for me to eliminate the waste. I think I was more concerned about the big things: a full cucumber, a container of leftovers. It's the little things that are going to be tough, but will just take some getting used to for me. Sarah and I were making scrambled eggs and I told her to add one more. In the end there was about one egg worth leftover. Dangit! Now I have to eat that at some point. Lesson 1 learned: if we finish all the food at a meal that is ok. It has occurred to me that this resolution was going to make me eating everything in site in an effort not waste food. But after breakfast this morning, I think it will actually mean that I make less, buy less and in turn eat less. Hmmm I like that.

So what did I do with that tiny amount of scrambled eggs?

Tip: I had a leftover tart shell that I sprinkled with cheese and ham and added the eggs.

Laying in out

So why am I setting my sites so high? Well, because I can. I try not to waste food and do a pretty good job of it most of the time, so how can I do better? Zero waste.
Now there are a few rules I have been setting:
1) I am not going to eat the scraps on either of my children or my husbands dinner plates, that is just 20 pounds my butt doesn't need. I will help my kids with serving sensible amounts on their plates.
2) I am not looking to eliminate all food waste. What I mean by this, is my goal is not to compost my banana peels, turn my peanut shells into craft projects or the like. I want to stop throwing out perfectly edible food before it spoils.
3) More rules are allowed at a time when I decide a blanket exception needs to be made. (Because I was sure I had a couple more in mind)

For anyone who knows me, I am the leftover queen. It's crazy to me that people in my family actually refuse to eat day old food. Boggles the mind. This means I already start with a large amount of 'second hand' food to start with and I will have use a small amount of planning to make sure this gets used up. Tonight we are having a New Years Eve party and making a big dinner. I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, but tomorrow morning there will be a fridge full. Challenge on!