Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Apr. 12, 2013

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This week's Food Waste

I threw away the remainder of these dishes.

This has been an unusual couple of weeks as far as food is concerned. My father passed away and I was gone for a week to be with my mother and other family. I left food in the fridge that I didn't feel comfortable eating when I came back because I thought it was too old. So out went some potatoes and green beans. Luckily, just by chance, we froze extra ham we had the day before we left. I don't think there is any more new waste, but I haven't given it a good look.

This Week's True Food Confessions

We are still trying to get into the swing of things food-wise after our return from the trip. Hopefully, next week we will be able to focus more in this area. In the meantime, here's a bit about the food we had while visiting my mother.
 

The comfort food started to arrive at my mother's house just a few hours after my father passed away. First came ham, deviled eggs, yams, and green beans with apologies that they didn't know how to cook any way but country. No need for apologies here. Next to arrive were freshly baked raisin bread, a bean salad, potato salad and a vegetable tray. Somewhere in there fresh fruit arrived, and the next knock on the door brought more freshly baked bread and a rice salad. This was followed by chicken soup, another ham, and chocolate cake. The next morning a crock pot full of chicken and dumplings was added and that afternoon an apricot salad* was delivered. (Still to come were the sandwiches offered by the church ladies after the services.) Soon the refrigerator was full. But not to worry. Fourteen of us had made it into town by this time and despite our sadness, we were hungry.

When something painful happens to another, it's human nature to want to make them feel better. But often there's not really anything tangible that can be done except to feed them. That was what was done for my family and for that I am truly thankful because it really did make us feel better.

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*Interestingly, the neighbor who brought this salad had to spend the day with a friend who was in the hospital and didn't have time to make it. She took her special recipe to the local deli and had them make it. Something I would never would have thought of doing.