To ask for the rest of the chicken?

[startwig1982]

I recently went over to a friend's house after dinner and she and her DH had had roast chicken plus the trimmings.

While she was making cups of tea, she started to bag up the rest of the chicken and the carcass to go in the bin! There was at least half a chicken left and so I expressed my astonishment at her throwing it away.

Apparently she never keeps leftovers and always bins whatever is left, even if it's half a roast!
So I asked her if I could have it instead. She said yes but was a bit about it, but I couldn't bear all that going to waste when you could get another 2 meals out of it. So WIBU?

The digestion of the chicken in your stomach and intestines is more efficient than its digestion in landfill Computer!

I buy a chicken crown from the butchers (never super market as they are mostly water) and it lasts us for one meal for 3 of us and i scrape as much off as possible for the cat.

I'd say that was normal too. But you're not eating a whole chicken. You're eating a crown. There's a lot left on a whole 2lb chicken once you've fed three people and a cat. Enough for sandwiches for two packed lunches and nibbly bits for the cat.

I've boiled down the carcass for stock but that was in my domestic goddess phase and I don't do that any more. I still wouldn't chuck cooked meat though.

Maybe I should care more about landfill but mostly it strikes me as a waste of money.

You haven't met my DP, Sukey

If the chicken ended up in landfill, something else would end up in your stomach so I'm being daft. I feel the need to build a speadsheet to model this. I also need to get out more...

OK limited. And the chicken?

Sorry SukeyTakeItOffAgain but I don't understand.

You were talking about your laundry habits. I thought you had the wrong thread and was being a bit lighthearted.

Think nothing of it :)

I would have asked but I don't actually think I know anyone who would think throwing away half a chicken was acceptable in the first place!

It wasn't technically "leftovers" at the time the OP asked for it. If it was going in the bin anyway then I don't see what is wrong in asking for it. If her friend was going to keep it for her own leftover meals then that will be rude to ask.

Sorry Sukey. I didn't understand you. I am on the right thread this time but sometimes I'm not.

I don't understand why people chuck things away or use energy, like in laundry when they don't need to, for instance. Admittedly that's from a tightwad point of view, not an environmental one. But if it adds up to the same thing, we're getting somewhere, aren't we?

I can also be not unreasonably extravagant in my way.

as long as I wasn't harvesting spat out gristle, it passed my food hygiene test.

limited

Yes we're completely on the same page there limited. I can't understand willful waste either. "I pay for it and I can afford it and no one else is affected" is not a valid reason IMO.

I'd like to think I'm close enough in my friendships to be able to ask for left over food if I can make use of it without said friend thinking I'm weird. If it was someone I wasn't that comfortable with I wouldn't ask. I can imagine with my closest friend- she would do same for me and I would be glad it went to a good home.

! can't understand willful waste either. "I pay for it and I can afford it and no one else is affected" is not a valid reason IMO.

Can you honestly not understand? What about if someone chooses not to recycle anything ever, or buys new stuff all the time and chucks the old stuff in landfill, or keeps their heating on all the time yet leaves their doors and windows wide open, or leaves their car running for half an hour in the morning before they drive off in it, or uses bottled water for all their drinking and chucks every single bottle straight in the bin. Do you not get why their behaviour might be about more than them and their immediate "I can afford it so why shouldn't I?" Or is none of it anyone else's business?

Depends on what type of friend. I may have said 'that was so yummy can I take some home for the kids to try (if they'd not been to the dinner), for sandwiches tomorrow, for the dog etc. It is a waste to throw meat away especially.

One summer after the school fete I took all the partially defrosted sausages home that could not be re frozen and we had them at cubs on the following monday rather than bin them. The BBQ ladies always give me the burnt stuff for the dogs.

I hate food waste.

What about if someone chooses not to recycle anything ever,,,

No it's not being discussed admittedly! I'm just saying that things like that do generally provoke an opinion or a judgment other than "it's none of my business".

Lots of things e.g. what someone wears is none of anyone else's business. Other things are. We live in communities.

Again, I'm not just talking about this specific chicken...

Wasting food is obscene.

And, actually, I see nothing wrong with " "eat yer dinner, there's kids starving in Africa "". It's true. Although the concept could be expressed with a little more sophistication.

My neighbour used to invite me over to eat a Sunday dinner with him and his kids and he'd give me the chicken leftovers because it was daft to just bin it as it was like, half a damn chicken!
I used to babysit his kids when needed and I'd always cook everyone a stew or corned beef hash every Saturday.

I never thought anything of it.

These days I wouldn't want chicken for myself but wouldn't think twice about requesting it for my cat. Or even just saying it was for a cat if I did want to eat it myself.

The people with no qualms about chucking food away don't have Irish family, I take it.

I would be genuinely delighted if someone wanted to take something that would otherwise be chucked. Literally no one loses in that situation. Beyond me why you'd feel awkward about it. We save our egg boxes for a farmer mate and it makes me feel at one with the earth every time I make spaghetti carbonara.

I do think though, it's company's food waste that's the real problem. Individual efforts feel a bit futile in the face of them.

"I just don't see why people have to give a reason, or why folks would expect to be given a reason, it's no one else's business if you don't fancy eating the rest of your chicken and bin it, or use your tumble dryer often. Wasteful and daft as it may be, I don't expect people to justify to me how they chose to live."

Bluntness because we all live on the same planet, with finite resources. So, yes, if I see someone being wasteful, I feel offended because it does impact on me.

We all have a responsibility to look after the environment. I also take a pretty dim view of people who have so little respect for animals.

IMO, saying "food was doesn't bother me at all" is a bit like saying "it's fine to be rude to old people because it doesn't actually hurt them" or "I'm ok with vandalising buses, they still run, what's the problem?"

My mum was put out at her cheeky neighbours adding their rubbish to her wheely bin. She was further outraged when she discovered a load of wasted food. She picked out some grapes and put them out on lawn for the birds but drew the line at a packet of ham.

Thinking about it. I have also eaten grapes from a bin. I was aghast at a wasteful overpaid work colleague numbing them. They'd only been in there for a couple of seconds mind

#binning

I ALWAYS ask - my dogs love it when we bring meat home for them, most family members do it without even asking me now! If there is nothing wrong with the meat like the chicken you mentioned then why not eat it, I hate waste and especially when an animal has died for it!!!

There's a special place in hell for food wasters....

I grew up with a Grandma who smuggled leftover food out of restaurants and cafes in jam jars she kept in her bag.

YADNBU- I'd have asked too.