2012 No More Wasted Food Challenge

**wunsagin** · 01-07-2012, 02:58 AM

So far, no wasted food this year

Tonight we had lo mashed potatoes and lo green beans. I do have one over-ripe tomato that will probably get tossed unless anyone has a suggestion for one squishy tomato.

**AspiringToBeFrugal** · 01-07-2012, 03:06 AM

Staying honest: I had to drop two half-eaten bags of rice cakes (different flavors) into the trash today as they were ten steps past stale! I'd purchased them in 2011 and DS (2) must've opened both packages and then stuck them back in the cabinet! UGH!

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-07-2012, 12:22 PM

We had some waste last night. Pulled out about two pounds of Jumbo Shrimp from the freezer that was starting to get freezer burn. I bought tons of fish and shrimp immediately after the BP oil spill in the gulf because I was expecting prices to rise. This was the last of the seafood from that purchase. We estimated about 1/3# was tossed right off the bat and at $10.99# I figured $3.66 was tossed. *Also, because it was on its way out, we decided to cook it all and eat what we could. We put a good dent in it but there's still some left. I had some cold for lunch and am thinking I will pick all the breading off what's left and serve with some cocktail sauce for a poor-man's Shrimp Cocktail before dinner tonight.

**Palooka** · 01-07-2012, 08:44 PM

First wasted food. Some chicken and rice I made for dh and a few grape tomatoes.

**Mamaw** · 01-07-2012, 09:21 PM

A TON of waste here today. Cleaned fruit and veggie drawer and tossed 5 plums, 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit. also 2 cucumbers that were squishy... On the plus side, I cooked up a bag of snap peas and a few slightly old carrots to eat tomorrow. And I cooked up apples that were getting past their prime for HM sauce. I bought produce and fruit at the market today, shared some with my Mom and am working hard to commit to using the rest with my weight loss strategy. Working on it anyway

**NikoSan999** · 01-07-2012, 09:24 PM

Nothing thrown/tossed today but a couple days ago hubby took a bunch of mushy produce out of the back fridge to the trash can. I forget about stuff when it's put back there. I really need to go take a look at whats in there. There's probably more.

I fixed a large ham that was given to us at Christmas and had been in the freezer. I'm going to have to find a way to use it up besides taking for lunch next week. Also have leftover peas and corn from tonight.

Maybe I should dig out one of those many cookbooks and combine this challenge with the other challenge of new dishes.

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-08-2012, 10:10 AM

Niko, I just made Ham Balls (whiz ham in food processor to shred and mix with equal amounts of ground pork, some bread crumbs, seasonings and an egg or two, form in balls, cook and cover in sauce...I made a typical sweet and sour with pineapple) and Ham Fried Rice to use up some Christmas Ham. Never had either of them before and both turned out pretty good. At least it wasn't another ham sandwich!

**auntie2many** · 01-08-2012, 10:22 AM

I am thinking of quitting buying fresh produce and just use frozen and canned. Fresh produce (mainly veggies) is really about the only thing that I throw away on a regular basis. Would it be damaging to ones health to just eat frozen and canned produce? I like salads, but the guys don't really care too much for them.

**pollypurebred39** · 01-08-2012, 10:23 AM

Niko, I make this

HAM CROQUETTES
2 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
1 c. milk
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2 c. ground ham
Melt butter and blend with flour. Gradually stir in milk. Cook until thick. Add ham and lemon juice. Cool thoroughly. Shape into croquettes. Roll in bread crumbs; dip in beaten egg. Roll again in bread crumbs. Fry in deep fat.

I allow to dry off in the fridge for a few hours or overnight

CREAM SAUCE FOR CROQUETTES:
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
1 c. milk
Melt butter; add flour, salt and pepper. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly. Cook slowly to desired thickness.

I add peas to the cream sauce and make creamed peas

Then I make augratin potatoes. This recipe is exactly what I do, but no onion.

Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes Recipe - Allrecipes.com

My family thinks they died and gone to heaven

I also make ham salad, which is just ground ham, a bit of relish, and mayo mixed together. I make sandwiches and salad.

**NikoSan999** · 01-08-2012, 05:36 PM

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'll be trying some of them!

For today I was the only one home so I polished off the 2 pieces of shake & bake chicken at lunch. The kid called and she's bringing home pizza tonight so that will probably pretty much be it. Hubby is working on the trailer so he will probably grab something while there. If anything else gets used I'll post.

**Mamaw** · 01-08-2012, 06:05 PM

Made bread crumbs today with bread that was getting on the stale side. Better than wasting it....
Eating the fruit I bought this week also....

**MakeADollarHollar** · 01-08-2012, 07:02 PM

Polly! Seriously LOVE the Ham Croquette suggestion!! They sound delicious!

Only a tiny bit of waste tonight but since it contains mayonnaise, which is getting ridiculously expensive ($5.35 a jar these days), I'm going to count it. I tossed a few tablespoons of Fry Sauce (it's a Utah/DH thing) that we used to dip our homemade fries in from Friday as well as a tiny bit of homemade Tartar Sauce from Friday night that I used to dip some Shrimp in. I estimated the waste at 25 cents and updated my siggy.

**Something just occured to me...I'm just shy of $5.00 worth of waste and only 8 days in to the year. That's averaging 61 cents a day. At 365 days that would be over $222.00 of waste a year.

**pollypurebred39** · 01-08-2012, 07:44 PM

They really are crazy good, Makeadollarhollar. You will LOVE them, but you MUST make them with augratin potatoes. The cheesy potatoes and the ham croquettes marry perfectly, and it really is a super easy supper.

**auntie2many** · 01-08-2012, 08:57 PM

I used 2 lbs. of ground beef from the freezer, 2 cans of mushrooms, a onion soup packet, the rest of the chipolte BBQ sauce, the rest of an open jar of ketchup, a corn muffin mix box, a pkg. of mac-n-cheese, 2 eggs, some milk and lots of oats. That was just dinner.

Lunch for me was the last piece of Chinese chili chicken. Dh had a can of chicken noodle soup.

Breakfast for me the last two slices of a loaf of bread except for the heels. I will eat those tomorrow and dh had a liquid slimfast shake.

I feel really good with all that we used up and also the fact that there were no cooking flops today. I winged it, instead of following a recipe.

A2M

**mama2James** · 01-08-2012, 10:46 PM

A small apple got tossed today, too bruised and it seemed too tiny to bother cooking up...probably because I wasnt hungry for a cooked apple lol. Also dumped a large can of pineapple juice. I had used a small amount for a recipe and then forgot about it. I am happy about how much food has been saves from the trash around here lately..we've been finding ways to use up cheese, carrots, eggs, bread..all kind of things