i am ocd or whatever about food waste so it rarely happens to us, it used to
until i started really watching it, food is one of the few places you can
actually save money in your budget, its work but it can be done... the dh
will eat almost anything as i can if needs be.

a small side comment, one of your issues, from your writing seems to be the
expiri dates on packages, that is a selling gimmick/legal protection for the
producers/sellers, most foods are fine well past their labeled date, you
must use your nose/eyes to eat these foods but honestly its really not
critical to keep by them, if it tastes fresh then it is... bear in mind i
say this selling food... much of which has these dates and i am prohibited
from selling it, but i often bring it home and we eat it or give it away and
its all fine as long as the package is sealed...

the most stunning example of this is yogurt, its good forever and if still
sealed can be a generational thing, lol, Lee
"Julie Bove" > wrote in message
...
> At my parent's house it always seems to be chicken. My mom will buy it or
> take it out of the freezer and then for one reason or another they keep
> going out to eat instead of cooking the chicken. And then it is expired
> and then she has to throw it away. That doesn't happen to me with meat.
> If I have meat in uch a situation, I will just cook it and stick it in the
> freezer. If it is hamburger I may give it taco seasoning. The meat then
> may or may not get eaten from my freezer, so yeah, it may still get
> wasted. But we do try to eat it at some point.
>
> This week? It's pasta salad. I went through my cupboard where I keep
> pasta, rice, instant mashed potatoes and some packets of cheese sauce
> powder which I have never used. It is a small cupboard. I could have
> sworn that I went through it at the start of school but in it was a box of
> Life Cereal that I had bought for my husband. Expired in 2010. He no
> longer eats cereal of any kind so I thought I had gotten rid of it all.
> It was essentially an empty box with only crumbs left in it. I did have
> to throw out a small amount of stuff which I could swear that I purchased
> since the start of school. Perhaps it was close to being expired or
> expired when I bought it. It did come from Big Lots. That was only $2.00
> worth of food so no great loss.
>
> But I do have some things that are going to expire in a few months. And
> there was a box of quinoa pasta with no expiration date on it but I know
> it is at least a year old because my health food store no longer sells it
> that way. They buy it in bulk and package it up. I knew I needed to use
> it so planned to make pasta salad for tonight and tomorrow night.
>
> But then Angela got sick. Started last week on Thu. I assumed it was
> only a one day thing. She seemed better on Fri. and Sat. although she
> said she did have a little of the big D on those days but apparently not
> enough to bother to tell me.
>
> But Sunday? We had purchased a gluten free taco pizza from Garlic Jim's.
> We sat there while they made it. Angela heard them talking about it and
> was pleased that they told us they couldn't put the normal chips on there
> because they weren't gluten free. She was happy that they were being so
> careful with her food. But then about 2 hours after she ate it she got
> the big D again and I do mean BIG! This lead me to believe that maybe it
> wasn't really gluten free. Or it somehow got cross contaminated. Because
> that is one of her symptoms when she eats wheat. She was convinced that
> it was fine because she watched them make it and the crust didn't look
> like a wheat crust. We have gotten pizza from them for my husband so we
> know what it looks like.
>
> Monday and Tues. she was no better. She missed school. Took her to the
> Walk In Clinic after I had my mammogram and that Dr. felt it was just
> gastroenteritis because a lot of that has been going around in the school.
>
> She got better but then late last night it struck again! She had to go to
> school today. School has been all messed up what with them missing a week
> of school due to snow. She missed a math test yesterday but can't retake
> it till Fri. due to her math teacher being out for an emergency type
> operation on a broken arm due to playing soccer. Oh joy! And she had
> very important paperwork to turn in to her gym teacher about a schedule
> change and also the makeup sheets of her physical activities for the days
> she missed due to whooping cough. The end of the semester has been
> changed due to the snow so all of this had to have been done by Thu. Not
> sure about the math test but I guess that will all be sorted out.
>
> I did tell her if she had the big D at school to call me and I would come
> get her. She only needed to make it through till lunch. Well...
> Apparently she did have at school and didn't call me. Grrr... And now
> she is very sick again. I may have to take her to the pediatrician.
>
> Anyway... I made her the pasta salad last night but don't dare give it to
> her now because of all the veggies in it. And I am not so sure how easily
> quinoa digests. I gave her turkey breast and plain rice and I also bought
> more applesauce, some lactose free yogurt and bananas. The Dr. was
> concerned about her BG but did say this was the best sort of diet for her
> to eat. So now I have this big container of pasta salad that probably
> won't get eaten. I didn't feel like eating it tonight. I need to do my
> taxes so just bought myself a sandwich while I was at the store. I am not
> too thrilled about sandwiches but I can eat it while I work. And I really
> just didn't feel like eating pasta salad.
>
> There is a chance if she gets better she can eat some of it tomorrow and I
> will eat it. But the rest is likely to go to waste. I am not sure how
> long it will keep. Assuming she is going to dance on Friday, we will go
> out to eat after and then grocery shopping. And Sat. we spend with my
> parents who go out to eat. I suppose if it makes it till Sun. we could
> eat the rest of it then. But I don't know if it will. At least I only
> made 4 servings. I didn't put everything that I normally put in it
> because that would just make too much. But it just seems like such a
> waste of my time to make it all and then not have it get eaten. Plus the
> cost of all the veggies that went into it. When I make this I use mostly
> veggies and just a little pasta.
>
> So does this happen to you? I'm sure it would happen to everyone at some
> time or other but... It seems to happen to us more times than I would
> like. Perhaps because I am so careful to plan out our meals. I want to
> make sure we have enough food for the week but not too much food. And
> because it is fresh food it just doesn't keep.
>