Food Waste Friday: Saving a Fork and a Banana

I haven't touched my blog in almost a week! After posting so frequently the week before, this feels very wrong. Anyway.

Today is Friday, and I wasn't planning on writing a post today. To be honest, I've felt overwhelmed this week, especially with getting my classes in order. I'm running into a similar problem I had last semester, and I thought it wouldn't happen again, so it's been frustrating. However, I was inspired tonight to write about my food waste after a few unique occurrences.

I went to dinner at the DC (Dining Center) with my friend Tami. Afterwards, they were having an a cappella concert in the lobby area, where I got to see my friend Miriam sing (I actually have two friends named Miriam who are both sophomores in a cappella groups--pretty awesome!), which I really enjoyed. As we walked towards our dorm after the concert was over, Tami noticed a fork sticking straight up in the ground.

Haverford students, why do you do such silly things?

We plucked the fork from the ground and returned it to the DC. While rescuing a fork isn't exactly the same as preventing food waste, it is preventing waste. Students are constantly removing cutlery, plates, cups, bowls--you name it--from the DC. This costs the school money, because they have to replace it. This requires the DC to spend money replacing silverware instead of providing food. Maybe if students stopped removing such items, the DC could increase the quality of food with the money they'd save. Just a thought.

After returning the fork, we set off once again. I had to stop by the library, and we saw something interesting in the entryway: a banana and a cup of cereal sitting on the floor. I find this very strange. I understand you aren't supposed to take food in past this entryway into the main library, but is it necessary to leave it lying on the floor? Put it in your bag, backpack or something. So I snatched it up.

The banana looked decent, so I kept it. Tami pretty much disallowed me from eating the cereal--and all her talk of bacteria convinced me. However, I did decide to sprinkle the cereal outside for the birds and squirrels and recycle the cup. Much better than letting this stuff go to a landfill.

When I got back to my room and read Kristen's Food Waste Friday post, I was inspired by an extra call to action she included at the end of her post, urging others to think about their own waste. I loved the analogy she used, commenting about how a snow drift is made up of millions of tiny snowflakes. Little things add up to be big things. Every action you take to prevent food waste counts.

I wasn't planning on mentioning my small food failures this week, but Kristen reminded me that small things do matter. I dropped a piece of my broccoli on the floor in the DC. I refused to eat a mushroom I found in my mixed vegetables. I bit into a rotten apple and had to throw it away. I had to toss that cereal. On their own, none of these things seem like a big deal. But picturing these bits of food in a pile,  it'd add up to a quantity equivalent to good sized snack. And thats just this week.

Some people have implied that it's silly I even bother to write about my waste--In comparison to many Americans, I waste very little. But to me, food waste matters. If even slightly alter one person's thinking on the subject, I will be happy.

Food Waste Friday: Storage Issues

With all the craziness of the holiday weekend, I made few blunders when it comes to food waste. Before I went to Virginia, I got a couple of bagels and kept them in my room for when I got back (I got back Saturday evening but the Dining Center didn't open until Sunday evening). Though it is hard to tell in this picture, the bagels actually molded between Wednesday and Saturday. I have no idea why--normally bagels keep at room temperature, but maybe I should have refrigerated them. Or maybe I should have kept them in plastic containers rather than plastic bags. I'm not really sure.

I also attempted to freeze these bananas in my mini fridge, but they never quite froze, and eventually they just turned bad. It has worked before, but for some reason it didn't work this time. I think my best bet is just to do this at home in a regular freezer.

Most of my problems this week were misjudgments relating to storage. Do you have any suggestions for me? Any similar stories about food waste? Comment in the box below!

Haverford Christian Fellowship Retreat

Hey everyone!

I know I haven't written anything in awhile, and I missed my regular Friday post. But I was extremely busy this week doing extra homework so I could afford to take some time off. This weekend I went to the Haverford Christian Fellowship Fall Retreat!

Though I wasn't sure what to expect, I ended up having a great experience. Friday I was having a bad day and didn't feel very well, but the retreat gave me exactly what I needed. It gave me time to stop and breath. It gave me time to focus on things other than work. It gave me time to get to know my bible study mates better. It gave me time to have fun. It gave me time to refocus myself and my priorities on God, and I learned a lot about myself.

As far as the structure of the retreat, students from Haverford, as well as Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, spent the majority of our time intensely studying God's word. It's hard to describe how this could be relaxing, but I think for the most part the change of pace from the college grind did the trick. We studied the stories of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. We took small passages one at a time, beginning with the passage that helped me get through my exam a few weeks ago, Luke 10:38-42. Though it's only 4 verses, we 2 hours dissecting this passage! It was hard to believe, but we did.

This is typical of InterVarsity, the Christian college ministry that organizes the retreats. We had several other sessions on Saturday of similar length. With each session, we began the next passage in the story. These included Lazarus' death, his resurrection, and Mary pouring the oil on Jesus' feet and washing it with her hair. They printed out the passages on plain paper double spaced so that we could annotate them. We had time to study the passages alone, in small groups, and with everyone together. It was really amazing what there was to be learned by looking at passages in so many different ways!

We studied intensely, but we also got to have fun too.

We played an Amazing Race game, where we had to make M&M elevators, spray a can of whipped cream into a bowl and eat all of it as a group, pass a frozen banana down a line with our feet, make a marshmellow toothpick tower (above), and much more.

Overall, I had a great time!

How are your bible studies going? I hope learning as much from them as I learned this past weekend!

(pictures taken by Erin Kennedy!)

Food Waste Friday: A Good Week and Rescued Bananas!

Hey everyone!

This week has been fall break for Haverford Students, so most of my classmates are gone. This means that the dining center is closed and I've had to fend for myself this week--I really don't mind, but it is a bit hard to eat well when you have no access to a kitchen.

Thank goodness for microwaves and mini fridges! We have a microwave on our hall and an anonymous person from back home donated two lovely mini fridges to Lacey and I. Though they were a bit dirty when we got them, the fridge has been a life saver this week.

This is all of the fridge food I have left from grocery shopping this week. I've been fortunate that I've let none of it go to waste. I was slightly concerned that I had way more overripe bananas than I could eat, but I solved that problem with a tip I learned from The Frugal Girl blog. She slices and freezes her overripe bananas for smoothies or banana ice cream, but they also taste great by themselves. I eat frozen bananas like candy, so I'm grateful they are much more nutritious!

TIP: Don't freeze your bananas with the peel still on them. You will spend precious time struggling to peel a frozen peel, and your banana will probably suffer in the process. I learned the hard way! You can leave them whole--just make sure you peel them!

I actually love frozen banana ice cream (essentially frozen bananas with milk in a blender), and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. But play around with it--I found that just bananas and skim milk has a slight after taste, so I add peanut butter and it's awesome. You can add a lot of other ingredients too and generally it will still be much cheaper and healthier than any ice cream you can buy at the store. If you want to try it, there is a great one at a website called Pennies on a Platter. I actually don't remember whether someone posted this recipe on The Frugal Girl Blog or if I found it on Google. But if someone did suggest it to me, I'm very grateful!

Let me know if you try any experiments with frozen bananas!