I spent a week rescuing food from the trash. This is what I ate.

Food waste and I have a history.

One childhood memory, from the family dinner table in Mumbai, still plays in my mind: “Don’t waste your food,” my mother warned daily. “Too many starving children everywhere,” my father would say.

Decades later, now that I live in New York City, I still can’t throw those leftovers away. At least not the way some of my friends do, with cool nonchalance, or the way restaurants and shops regularly do when they’ve overprepared.

So I decided to try Too Good To Go, one of several apps that connects diners with unsold restaurant food. It claims to have 12,000 businesses, such as restaurants and markets, that offer surplus meals, often at a discount, to around seven million users worldwide.

The goal is to save money, fear and certain greenhouse gases. Wasted food is responsible for food worldwide 8 to 10 percent of global warming emissions. That’s because rotting food produces methane gas, which traps heat.

This is what I got during my week-long experiment, all over Manhattan, trying to keep some of those meals out of the trash.

Sunday January 28

• Two quart cans of soup: chicken and rice and a creamy tomato
• Potato chips
• One focaccia sandwich with mozzarella, tomato and fried mushrooms
• One croissant

Total spent: $11

Most meals in the app are sold as ‘surprise bags’, usually at the end of the day, and you often have no idea what you’re getting. That makes the experience something like gambling. And it can be strangely addictive, just like gambling. At least for me.

This first day’s pick came from Remedy Diner in the morning and Rent Money Lounge in the afternoon, both on the Lower East Side.

Monday January 29

• A croissant
• A blueberry muffin
• A slice of gluten-free banana bread
• Two six-packs of frozen Chinese rolls: one with sour cabbage and tofu, the other with plain cabbage
• One cube of seasoned dry tofu
• One bag of frozen, vegan tuna made from non-GMO soybeans
• A tuna salad wrap sandwich
• Six ham and cheese sandwiches
• A large piece of chocolate cake and six cannoli pastries

Total spent: $17

On this day I made three stops: a cafe chain called Bluestone Lane, Lily’s Vegan Pantry in Chinatown, and Gourmet Garage in the West Village.

It was a huge amount of food for so much money. Lily’s vegan snacks, such as the sandwiches and tuna, were a wonderfully pleasant surprise. The Gourmet Garage bag, on the other hand, left me disappointed. How about some fresh produce, guys? Still, I kissed like a bandit.