Food Waste Friday... But I'm Not Taking the Blame for the Milk

It's Food Waste Friday (see The Frugal Girl for my inspiration), which means that it's time to post all of the food that I am throwing away this week. It's an effort to hold myself accountable for the food that I have wasted (while attempting to save money and do something better for the environment). See my first post on this topic to learn why this is important.

This is bad... I thought we had a close-to-perfect week. And then I found these three steaks in the back of the freezer. They're from Dream Dinners, which is a place where you can go and do your meal prep, and take home some delicious, easy to put together meals. The problem is, I haven't been there in a very long time. If you look closely, the label says May 2007. Yes, those steaks have been in my freezer for MORE THAN THREE YEARS. They're well-sealed, but that just seems waaaaay to old. (Actually, this reminds me of an argument with a former roommate about when meat goes bad in the freezer. I don't remember how long it takes, but I know it was far less than three years.)

We almost wasted an avocado. Despite the fact that I am mildly allergic to them, and Jake refuses to eat them, and Brody only likes to mush them between his fingers, I bought one to serve with chicken tacos last week. I thought we were going to have guests in town, and it would be a nice addition. When I turned out to be just us, I honestly forgot about the avocado. Until I noticed it a couple of days later, and realized that it was extra, extra ripe. At that point, I was going to give it away, and had put it next to Jake's lunchbox so that we could bring it to school and ask which family wanted it. But then Jake noticed the avocado, and decided to play catch with it. Which I noticed after he dropped it (loudly) onto the floor. Figuring a slightly bruised avocado would still be okay to give away, I told him to put it back where he found it. Which I don't think he did, because a little while later, I found the same avocado in Brody's hands, along with some holes where he poked his fingers through the skin. That, I figured, would not be okay to give away, so instead it got packed in Chris's lunch to take with him to work. Yep, plain avocado, scooped out with a spoon. At least it didn't get wasted.

I did however dump some 2% milk down the drain. It still had three days left before the "Use By" date, but it was starting to look curdled and I am told that it didn't smell good. (Not being a big fan of milk myself, the idea of smelling possibly sour milk makes me nauseous, so I made Chris smell it instead. If Chris says it's bad, then it's definitely bad.) So, I wasted some milk. Sorry, cows, but I'm blaming the people stamping the "Use By" dates on the cartons.