Food Waste Friday

Thanks to The Frugal Girl, another blog I've been following, I've decided to try and keep track of food that goes to waste in my house.  Whether it's because it goes bad BEFORE I get a chance to use it or the LEFTOVERS go bad before they get eaten.  I am doing this in hopes that it helps me not to waste any food, and in turn, not waste any money that I have spent.

While I do not believe this is a really BIG problem in my house it does happen sometimes, and it annoys me when it happens.  I'm hoping by blogging about it, it will help me be more aware and figure out creative ways to make sure this doesn't happen.  And of course while "Food Waste Friday" is a clever title, and already used,  I doubt I will always do it on a Friday.  I may just do it when I find something that has gone to waste.  Please feel free to share with me your stories of waste or what you do to help you NOT waste something.

So with that say....here goes my first edition.

 Leftover Tomato Soup that was cooked last Saturday for dinner and while some of it got eaten on Sunday it got pushed to the back of the refrigerator and unfortunately forgotten about.  I don't know how long cooked soup is good for in the refrigerator but my husband and I think one week is too long to be eaten.

Now these are the items that ANNOY me and EMBARRASS me the most.  Really CANNED FOOD gone bad.  I know there are A LOT of people who say the date on the can is a sell by date not an eat by date.  Yes I believe this to be true, especially with all the perservatives in most canned food, but I think MULTIPLE years past their sell by date, or even 6 months past, is long enough to keep them around.

Now I will say this.  The canned Asparagus is not eaten by myself, my husbad or my kids.  It was bought when I had other family visiting and they never ate it (and they obviously didn't take it with them).  The 3 cans of creamed corn where for a recipe that I obviously haven't made in a while and my kids REFUSE to eat corn, canned or otherwise.  And once again they got pushed in the back of the cabinet, which I must admit is not that large, and yet they still got overlooked.

One of the reasons why these canned items got overlooked is because I don't by many canned veggies anymore.  We eat fresh or frozen which is MUCH better for you!  So YEAH us!

I also have to add that about 1/3 of a head of lettuce got thrown out by my husband when I wasn't home and hadn't thought about doing this yet, so no picture of that.  This lettuce just plain got forgotten about, I can say that definitively since I bought a new head this week at the store for BLT's and salads because I didn't think we had any left from the last head I bought.  I was obviously wrong and didn't check the vegetable crisper before I made my grocery list, NOTE TO SELF: Check vegetable crisper BEFORE making grocery list.

So some things I'm taking away from this first blog about Food Waste are this:

• I am going to try my hardest to make sure I NEVER again have a canned food on this topic but as life happens so does this.  
• I am going to continue trying to not waste any food but if I do I will be glad to "confess" it here for all to see.  
• I feel more like a true blogger now because I am posting about something that is embarrassing to me - I mean really CANNED food to waste.  UGH!

I am hoping this will encourage others to do the same.  If you want to read more about other people's Food Waste go check out the site I mentioned at the beginning of this blog.  The Frugal Girl I'm glad I did.