Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--May 10, 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

1/2 glass of milk

Wally found a glass of milk that had been sitting out overnight. He poured it out and then told me about it so I could include it with Food Waste Friday findings. Milk waste is a rare occurrence in this house because the Carnivores in the family also love their dairy. Until I see a trend, I'm not going to worry about this.

This Week's True Food Confessions

You may remember last week, I felt a call coming for take out pizza. Well, I made that call the next night. Ward made that call again Wednesday night while I was out, and he and Wally were quite happy with the supper they "fixed" . (Have I mentioned that we love pizza at our house? Wally had pizza every day for lunch when he was in first grade.) Also, last weekend we went out to celebrate Ward's birthday. Let's just say that the Carnivores were happy once again. (Actually, I was too. I had a very nice apple, walnut salad.)

We ate the rest of our meals at home. Some of the things we had were stir fry, pot stickers, baked chicken, sloppy joes, and zucchini-mushroom casserole. These dishes provided us with adequate leftovers for a couple of meals.

Also, this week I tried a new recipe for Mushroom-Zucchini Casserole--a recipe of my own creation. I started out to make a tuna casserole and it quickly morphed into something entirely different. I'm not sure how that happens, but it seems to happen a lot when I get in the kitchen. Basically, it is  a casserole made of mushrooms, zucchini, cheese, pasta, and greek yogurt. I think it turned out pretty well. The others said they really liked it without any prompting and had 2-3 servings each. However, when formally asked about the dish, Ward said that he would add more cheese, Wally would add more mushrooms, and I would use yogurt with more fat in it. However, once again, it was a big hit. Below is the recipe as I made it. Be creative with it. Maybe it will turn into tuna casserole. :)

Happy Eating In or Out. Until next time...
 
Mushroom Zucchini Casserole

Ingredients:
1 cup macaroni, cooked al dente 
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
2 small zucchini cut into 1/2" cubes
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt to taste. (I used about 1/2 teaspoon.)

Preheat oven to 350° F
-Cook macaroni according to directions
-Cook vegetables until crisp tender. (I did mine in a skillet with a little oil. I like my mushrooms this way.)
-Mix yogurt, cheese, and spices together in large bowl.
-Add pasta and vegetables to yogurt mixture.
-Put mixture into medium size oven dish and bake covered for 30 min. or until bubbling.
-Remove from oven and if desired, sprinkle cheese on top of casserole and let melt before serving. (We do this after it comes out of the oven because Theo doesn't like the texture of baked cheese.)