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Just having returned home from vacation this week, there’s nothing in the house – foodwise – that is wasted. 🙂
Having emptied out the fridge before leaving helped. We do have some food items that made their way home with us on the airplane though – especially with the cost of airport food which is very limited and sometimes of poor quality. But I think the few hard boiled eggs, cheese strings and healthy muffins (thank you Trader Joe’s!) will be eaten over the next day or so and yes, we did have a cooler bag with us.
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
It’s no secret that we have a Keurig machine – which we love – but slowly, as I continually visit the coffee store to replenish the darling hubster’s supply…I usually take the free box for myself and pick a flavoured coffee. For some reason I find it justified since I wouldn’t normally buy a box of flavoured K-Cups. I have no clue why my logic is this way. So after a few visits, I found myself in a predicament of too many bulky boxes taking up way too much prime real estate in/on our drink station.
I thought long and hard about how I could organize it and still have easy access to the K-Cups. I also didn’t want to buy anything. After a while, I decided to use these drawer separators from Ikea – tell me who doesn’t love that store – and though it’s unconventional, it totally works. I decided to nest 3 of the smaller containers into a larger one thus making a divided cube. Now keeping in mind that the separators are made of soft nylon, I didn’t want to risk having a rip followed by a K-Cup explosion but the cups seem to be light enough even when it was full of 96 K-Cups. Yes, that’s a lot. The equivalent of 4 x 24ct boxes.
Take a gander…
Sorry about the mis-matched colours, I used what I had.
Close up of the nesting action.
Since having the Keurig machine, a friend kindly pointed out that there were these ‘brew over ice’ iced tea cups available but again with my logic…I never bought them. Then WalMart had them on clearance and they were less then $5/box so I figured ‘Why not?’. I had a basket laying around and it was pretty deep so I decided to try to see how many cups I could get in there. To my surprise, I was able to fit both boxes! (regular iced tea & lemon flavoured) Total of 36 cups. Take note my homemade divider…how’s that for crafty?
Continuing on with my decluttering/organizing of the drink station, I had to find a spot to put my tea’s – remember, I have a tea hoarding issue? Click here to refresh your memory 😉 Again, using what I already had – this container came from the dollar store many, many, many moons ago. With homemade dividers, I was able to set out a few different flavours instead of forcing myself to drink all of one flavour before moving on to the next.
Who doesn’t love variety?! I have individually wrapped teabags as well as loose leaf tea’s that were gifted to me from David’s Tea – I must say they do offer very yummy sounding flavours…but alas, I’m not allowed to purchase anymore tea. *le sigh*
Glamour profile shot!
Lastly, we use another tiered stand to house the darling hubster’s stash of K-Cups. He knows where to find them without any confusion as to which flavour it is. ( He despises flavoured coffees.) The bonus – its grab and go, no pulling out baskets to grab a cup.
Purdy ain’t it?
(Yes I took over the top tier with more tea *blushes*)
So tell me, have I gone a lil OCD do you have a Keurig? How do you organize your K-Cups? 🙂
Still away….hope you’re enjoying the blog in my absence. Still no waste here 😉
How’d you do this week?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
Happy (US) Thanksgiving!! 🙂
For Thanksgiving dinner (Canadian of course) I was asked to contribute something. Since I am the sibling that bakes the most, it was on me to provide dessert. I decided to try my hand at a pineapple upside-down cake. I compared several recipes and then tried to tweak it to be gluten free so my sister could enjoy it as well. One dessert for one family – makes sense right?
All of these ingredients morphed into a beautiful masterpiece!
Look at it! Mmmm….
The plan was to drop off dessert at my sister’s in the morning before heading out for an afternoon of fun with just the hubster and dad ending with a nice roast turkey dinner with all the fixin’s at my sisters. Well to sum it up, hubs, dad & I had a nice quiet buffet dinner down at the Fallsview Casino due to some unforeseen circumstances.
So how did my gluten free pineapple upside-down cake taste? According to my sister, it was ‘good’ and ‘sweet’. I think I’ll try my hand at making this again in the future but with regular cake AND eating some of it here, at home.
It sure does look purdy though don’t it? Not bad for a first attempt.
Lately, I’ve started to notice a not so subtle white film starting to appear on the door of the HE washer. Having an idea of what it is but not quite sure how to really get rid of it, I let it stay and continue to build up. When it turned into this (see pics below) I decided it was time to take action.
Ick right?
It’s kind of hard to see but its on the outer ring on the glass portion of the door.
One last grungy pic. *shudders*
So besides doing the obvious – cleaning it, I took the time to do a quick Google search. Apparently its laundry detergent residue. And its totally natural for this to occur.
Common causes of residue build up: too much detergent, constant cold water washing, use of non-HE detergent to name a few. While being guilty of using non HE detergent from time to time, I always make my final wash of the day a load of towels using HE detergent on the EXTRA HOT setting.
Suggested ways to help get rid of the residue – run a hot wash cycle with a HE cleaning product. Wait, what? You want me to wash soap with more soap? Not being happy with that answer nor being willing to fall victim to some marketing ploy, I decided to look for alternate solutions.
You could run 3-4 empty hot wash cycles with vinegar, then bleach, then nothing to give the machine a good rinsing. Waste of water and electricity if you ask me.
None of these seemed ideal for me. I mean my machine doesn’t have an odd ‘odour’ as mentioned while Googling. And my clothes didn’t come out with any funky or musty smells. Another tip for those of you that do have a problem with the smell: after your last load, leave the door to the washer open for at least 24hrs so it can dry out. Same thing with the lil laundry compartment door.
Instead, what I chose to do was give the glass portion of the door as well as the rubber seal (and underneath the rim) a good wiping with straight vinegar while also inspecting under the rubber rim for foreign objects and mold. Both of which I am happy to report that I had neither. Not impressed with the results, I gave it another go with MUCH more (and very unmentioned) elbow grease. Still wasn’t happy. I decided to bust out my method all purpose spray cleaner – great for cutting grease & grime – and voila! We had a clean glass door and a very clean smelling washing machine.
Look at how clean that puppy is!
Seriously shiny!
I think the next time the door starts to show any film/residue build up, I’m going to just give it a quick wipe down with the method all purpose spray cleaner. Much easier and my that makes me a happier gal 🙂
Has anyone else ever experienced this film/residue issue with their HE washer? How often do you clean your washing machine?
I’d like to say that this is the fourth week without any waste (and it truly would be) but I won’t count it as such. You see, we’re on vacation!! How can you waste food at home when you’re not there right?
Don’t fret – I’ve got some posts scheduled to keep you entertained while I’m away. Knowing myself, I’ll prob pop in with some sort of an update too 😉
So how’d you do with the food waste?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
Met up with my girlfriend for lunch back in October (sorry this post is a bit late!) and we decided to hit up Jack Astor’s since we haven’t been there truly in eons. Apparently they’ve gone from the casual neighbourhood bar feel with the usual bar food offerings as well as a few nicer things on the menu for those seeking the refuge of a ”date night’.
Bonus points for those that remember when they had huge garbage pails full of self serve peanuts in the shell for noshing on while in the bar area.
So after scoping out the new frou-frou fancypants menu offerings – which still include their tried and true pan garlic cheese bread, wings & burgers – I decided to try out their lamb kofta’s. Yes, that’s right – I went to the “neighbourhood bar & grille” for ethnic food. Knowing this, I didn’t expect the same wonderful excellence you’d find at a local ethnic hole in the wall type restaurant but something decent & similar. That’s all one truly asks for when they make the leap to try something different right?
This is how the lamb kofta’s came plated. Looks promising right?
Now just a head’s up…I am not a lamb type gal. I know one must keep trying something they don’t like about 20-30 times to truly be able to say they don’t like something. You know what, I’ve tried it more then that amount and I don’t exactly *hate* it but its usually not an option for me. Apparently that day, I decided to give lamb another go.
Without launching into a rant of how poorly executed this dish was, I’ll just give you the hi-lights: WAY too salty (and I LOVE salt). When you cut into the kofta, it was glowing red – like sweet & sour sauce/red dye #5 type red. Mmm right? And lastly, there was NO lamb taste at all and being a non lamb gal, I think I’d notice the taste stat.
The accompanying sides were delish: salad with middle eastern type seasoning (not really a dressing), pita’s with spicy versions of both tzatziki & hummus. Ok the hummus was iffy as well.
This was what my girlfriend chose for lunch as well, doing the same thing I did: throw caution to the wind and order something ‘different’. She lucked out.
Jerk pork chops w/grilled pineapple salsa with rice & beans
Overall….I knew it wouldn’t be top notch ethnic food but didn’t think it’d be THAT bad. Will I go back? For sure but definitely not order this dish again. The only saving grace for this lunch date, the cheddar beer soup that I ordered as a starter. De-freaking-lish! 😉
How do you remember & find Jack Astor’s?
This will be our third week of no waste. Woo-to-the-hoo! I’m really excited and happy because it means I’ve actually been saving money. We really haven’t been picking up a lot of produce items this week despite all the shopping we’ve been doing. I guess we’re keeping it real.
I will admit, I have a few taters starting to give me googly eyes, tons of onions that might start a revolt and a few peppers that thought they could hide in the back of the drawer with the carrots. Lil do they know, we have this invention called *cue dramatic music* a crockpot! 😉 I’ll be souping up those babies this weekend. Literally!
How’d you do this week?
On Friday’s, I share what food items that I have ‘wasted’ by letting spoil during the week from forgetfulness and/or neglect. Kristen over at The Frugal Girl has inspired me to publicly post in hopes of reducing waste. (Food Waste Friday is now being co-hosted every other week with Simply Being Mum – pop on over to take a peek!)
I’m thinking there’s a new trend for the fall theme these days. Owls. I mean, everywhere I’ve been shopping are owls. These are only a few of the owl sightings I’ve seen recently.
This post is dedicated to all you owl lovers out there. Enjoy 🙂
This one was very striking being all shiny and turquoise.
Um….I got a feeling that someone’s watching me?
Love the eyes!
This one is absolutely beautiful.
An owl made out of a pumpkin and feathers.
Hehehe – the last pic is of a decorative candle holder that I found while cleaning and purging through a box. Figured I’d put it to use then realized all the owls out there saturating the market.
While out at the grocery store, I couldn’t help notice the ready made cake displays which then set off a lil reminder bell in my head. I was in the grocery store chain that sells cakes from the same bakery that made our wedding cake.
Aren’t these lil novelty cakes cute? Too bad I’m not a fan of icing *lol*
These would’ve totally filled that need if I was. 😉
Finally! After a few minutes of looking through all the cakes available I found what I thought was our flavour of wedding cake. Close but no banana. Lemon actually and very similar but not quite the same. I guess our flavour doesn’t come in cakelet form.
The reason that I was so excited about the cake: After tasting our wedding cake, I deemed it to be THE BEST lemon cake ever and that I’d buy it annually for each anniversary. Since we went on a mini weekend getaway with both my dad and sis for our one year anniversary, I was unable to buy the cake. Since then….its kind of been on the back burner as a want vs a need.
Maybe for Christmas, I’ll specifically order one to celebrate. Better late then never, right? 😉
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