A while back I noticed that one blogger participating in Food Waste Friday, liveandlearn, went through her pantry on Food Waste Friday, which I thought was a great idea! Kristen at The Frugal Girl also recently cleaned out all of her kitchen cabinets. So for this Food Waste Friday I'm posting some of our pantry waste.
I did waste some canned spinach, but I don't have a photo. It was a pretty small amount (there is never much spinach left after you squeeze out all of the water!) I've actually never eaten spinach from a can before, but I honestly thought it was awful. I attempted to make some spinach and artichoke hummus (I've made hummus twice quite recently), but I think the canned spinach ruined the taste. This might just be because I'm used to using frozen spinach in dips and other recipes. I'm also not a huge fan of vegetables from a can as it is, and the spinach rudely reminded me of this.
But on to the waste with pictures. . .
First I have cereal gone bad. The corn biscuits were bad when we got them--they expired in 2010. The Crispy Rice was opened quite awhile ago and had a funky taste, so I composted both of them.
This one made me really sad. I wanted to use some of this flour, but the "Best By Date" was July 2009. It looks fine, and was stored inside another container, but I'd be scared to cook with it.
I know flour has a lot of uses aside from baking--I'd use it to make PlayDoh if I knew any little kids that'd want it, but I really don't. I've yet to compost it because I'd like to find some use for it. Do you have any ideas? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have!
We often use old flour for craft projects. If you can't use it, try putting it on freecycle for a teacher or parent for papier mache' or for salt dough maps, ornaments, etc. It's great for that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas! I wouldn't have thought to put it on Freecycle. I don't have a whole lot of craft needs, so that may be a good option!
DeleteSpinach and artichoke hummus sounds good. Maybe I'll try to make some with frozen spinach. What recipe did you use?
ReplyDeleteI used this recipe:
Deletehttp://allrecipes.com/Recipe/hummus-iii/detail.aspx
It's a good base recipe, and you can't really mess it up (unless you use canned spinach lol). I've made it successfully two other times--once with olives, and once with artichokes. I also wrote a post about it here: http://simply-alexis.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-kitchen-experiments-yogurt-and.html
The post on hummus gives a little more detailed information on the recipe and my experience with it. Let me know if you try it and how it works out for you!