Each week I participate in Food Waste Friday hosted by The Frugal Girl. Monitoring my food waste, and documenting it with a picture, keeps me accountable and motivates me to remain vigilant in my goal to minimize, if not eliminate, food waste in my household.
I planned so carefully this week to use up all the leftovers in the refrigerator, so I do not return from vacation to science projects. I made changes to our menu when I realized we had a lot more greens than I realized i.e. pizza night became an all you can eat salad night. So I was very disappointed to find a very old, expired bottle of walnut oil, while doing the deep cleaning that I feel compelled to do before the house sitters arrive. This bottle expired in August of 2007. It was pushed behind some canning supplies and has been overlooked as I reached for the olive oil. It is a shame as it is quite good in dressings and marinades. It is definitely a case of out of sight, out of mind.
We will be eating salads for lunch and dinner tomorrow trying to finish off all of the greens. I have one container of plain yogurt that will expire while we are gone. I might use it to bake some cornbread tomorrow, but if I don’t have time does anybody know how it will fair if I freeze it?
This post has been linked to Food Waste Friday at The Frugal Girl.
Alea says
Thank you Struggler. I did not toss the bottle yet, so I will try it as furniture polish.
Struggler says
If you have any special wood items in your home, you can use the walnut oil to give them some nourishment. We have a good friend who made us some small items out of a diseased tree we had to chop down, and he recommended the walnut oil to polish & feed those items from time to time. Just a thought!
Alea says
Thanks Alison, I will be putting this tip to use! I usually only get a couple batches of yogurt out of a container, then have to use it up before it goes bad. This will save me money as well as reduce waste!
Alison says
I actually freeze my yogurt starter as a standard practice. I buy a tub of yogurt and separate it into 1 Tbsp. cubes in an ice cube tray and then store in a ziploc once they are frozen. Then I just pull out however many I need each time I make yogurt (2Tbsp. per quart). I don't even defrost them before using, because I'm lazy and rarely plan ahead. As soon as the yogurt reaches 130 degrees I add the yogurt cubes. HTH! Have a great time in San Diego!
Alea says
That if my kind of meal!
fireweed says
We used some greens last night in semi-home made tomato soup. I had one can of Campbells someone had given me. I started by simmering 2 huge tomatoes I had frozen when it was clear they were going to get soft before I ate them; all I did was let them defrost slightly and smashed them into a pulp and put them in one cup of chicken stock. I added one wilted, finely chopped scallion and then the can of commercial soup with a can of milk. As that was heating, I very, very finely chopped up a bag of mixed greens—spinach and two kinds of lettuce that I had found for sale for 50 cents the day before. I added them to the soup and let it all simmer. It tasted great and, best of all, my husband who does not like greens decided he could eat greens in this form. It produced three large bowls of very nutritious soup…AND NO WASTE THIS WEEK!
Alea says
Thanks Jo, that is actually what I was asking, though not very clearly as I wrote this post late last night. I usually use it as starter to make yogurt. I am going to go ahead and freeze it and try making yogurt when I get back. Thanks again!
Jo says
I have tested freezing plain, no-additives, full-fat yogurt for a short period (about a week), and after defrosting it was fine…alive enough to use as a starter to make more yogurt.