Tuesday Tip | Prep your produce
I know you already KNOW you should do this.
So I'm not imparting information so much as I'm reminding you. And myself, let's be honest.
There's some produce that should just be left alone until you're going to use it, because cutting it up/washing it will speed the mold-growing, rotting process.
(Leave your raspberries alone until right before you eat them!)
BUT.
There are a lot of cases where prepping your produce can help you actually eat the produce instead of letting it go to waste in the fridge.
And common though it is, throwing food away is kind of the exact opposite of frugal.
Humans like easy, right? So if produce is easy to grab and eat, you and your family will eat more of it.
And more produce is always a win.
If there's a whole cucumber sitting in the fridge, no one will touch it. But cucumber slices in a bowl on the counter or in the fridge? They'll be gone in a few hours.
If there are raw beets in my fridge, I pass them right by. But if I roast and slice them, I'm quite likely to throw them in my skillet when I cook some lunch for myself.
A whole head of broccoli feels like too much of a pain to grab for a snack, but if I slice up a head into florets, I'll add them to my lunch skillet or dip them in hummus.
Chopped and sauteed carrots, onions, and peppers make a a great side for scrambled eggs, and if you make a bunch at once and refrigerate them, they're super easy to heat up in a skillet when you're frying an egg.
My kids aren't going to be likely to pick up a whole cantaloupe and cut it up, but a bowl of cantaloupe chunks will disappear pretty quickly.
I don't do this perfectly, of course, but boy, every time I take the time to prep some produce, I am always happy that I did!
Go get your cutting board and knife out, friends. 😉
Yup yup. This is particularly true for me and lettuce. I never (ever) buy the bagged chopped lettuce, so I have to wash and spin dry my lettuce a bunch at a time or I will not make salad much. That salad spinner seems like an insurmountable obstacle at 5 p.m., but if I do a couple of bunches of lettuce all at once, they keep in the fridge for at least a week and I can make a salad very quickly. Especially if I make a lot of vinaigrette to have on hand at the same time.
Oh, and a p.s.: I often grate carrots to have on hand to toss into things. It cooks much more quickly that way.
Ugh. Lettuce. Yesterday I was working in my raised bed. I planted my lettuce too thickly, so it really needed thinned. And, since I want to be frugal, all of those thinnings came inside. For me to wash. And sort. And wash again and again. And pick out all the pieces of grass that were in it from the lawn mower. It took forever. But. That lettuce is totally prepped and ready to eat.
Garden lettuce is way more prep for sure, but SOOOOO much better. Plus, no e.coli possibility. I'm sad I won't have any this year, as moving precludes gardening. Enjoy all of yours!
We HOPE no E. coli, or salmonella, etc., but since these microorganisms are all over an outdoor environment, no guarantees. Wash carefully!
I have never heard of anyone getting sick from their homegrown produce, though maybe it just doesn't get reported because it's not a widespread issue. Washing doesn't get rid of all the pathogens anyway, right? So I guess if we want to be 100% certain, we all have to cook our lettuce. Which is . . . not appealing. 🙂 Actually, romaine is okay cooked, but butterleaf lettuces? Yuck. Slimy mess. I'll live on the edge and take my minuscule chances with the pathogens on raw lettuce, I guess.
Any time I buy berries (any kind!), I come right home and fill my sink with cold water, then add acouple of glugs of white vinegar and let the berries soak a few minutes, before putting them back in their container (I use it to scoop them back up, so it gets rinsed too!) It makes the berries last at least twice as long, and no, they don't remember sun a vinegary flavor. 🙂
My roommate says he can taste the vinegar but I don't. Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't rerinse them, then all the berries will be mine, mine I tell you!
When I rinse the vinegar off, all is well...one rinse seems to do it. Do you need to do two rinses to get the taste off?
I do the vinegar wash, and then slice them up and put them in my Tupperware bowl with the colander in it. It's the only way they won't rot in my fridge, because when my kids are whining for lunch I'm not going to take the time to wash and slice strawberries.
Same for our household. If I don't wash the grapes or cut up the watermelon or cantaloupe, they would probably rot in the fridge.
I usually cut the watermelon in batch do that I don't have to do that every day. It's watermelon season!!!
I learned just last year that my colorblind husband can't tell the green and orange parts of a cantaloupe apart! So lesson learned, I cut that up immediately to make sure it gets eaten and tastes best!
That's hilarious!
My husband is colorblind, too, and it makes for some interesting issues. He used to run a large agency and people told me they were able to tell when I was out of town because he would come in wearing mind-bending color combinations. Reading maps, subway guides, and traveling to countries where the traffic lights are horizontal rather than vertical make for some hair-raising adventures! Worse, my husband tries to fix electrical problems and I have to stand there so that I can answer when he puts grey and purple strands of wire near each other and says, "Do these match?"
I had a big green pepper fail this week, so this tip is perfect.
I think especially those fruits and veggies that aren't the favourites are easier to eat and use when they're ready to go.
(Beets are my other struggle to use for some reason... do you roast them with the skin on? Or do you peel?)
Kristyna, I can tell you that I roast them whole with the skin on and they peel easily once they are cool. The exception is when I cook them cut up -- I go ahead and peel them before roasting, then.
This is so true! I find that if I cut up and roast a sheet pan of veggies on Sunday afternoon, I'll use them during the week, but when I'm rushed after work, am I going to scrub, peel, chop, and roast veggies, which take a while to cook? No way.
I don't always prep fruit ahead, but when I cut into a melon, I go ahead and cut it on up and put it in a bowl in the refrigerator.
I've started cooking greens ahead, too. So much easier on a worknight to have them sauteed and ready to re-heat, because they take so much washing at the start.
I'm going to try the vinegar rinse thing on my fruit. We usually eat up berries and grapes before they go bad, because I'm such a fan and eat a ton of them myself, but this sounds like a good idea.
I use the fine mesh washable produce bags, and I find that if I store mushrooms in them, they last longer.
Now I'm inspired to make very sure I waste no fresh veggies.
Washing fruit and veggies has definitely helped us eat healthier. However, it never occurred to me to roast a sheet pan of vegetables on the weekend. JD, thanks for the suggestion!
I also use the Vinager rice &Have found putting the berries in many smaller [ I do 4 or 5 lbs. At a time] containers &eating 1 at a time makes them.last a ton longer.
YES! I am also at that stage when the kids are pulled into help! Yesterday I had one of my 13year olds trimming the tops of strawberries and peeling and grating carrots while I chopped lettuces for a huge bowl of salad!
I prep romaine hearts (cut, wash, spin dry) and pack into canning jar. I seal them with my Food Saver Jar Attachment and VIOLA - salad for a week! I learned this trick from SaladInAJar.com
The romaine keeps for a week in the jars and does not turn brown. It is the vacuum seal that keeps it fresh.
Agreed! There's something about having pre-processed foods that make it easier. I love pre-cooking bacon, sausage patties, and cubed chicken for easy meals, too. For snacks, I loooove having homemade pre-popped popcorn. I just take out a handful when I'm hungry and it's super easy. 🙂
I do think keeping a fruit bowl out with oranges, bananas, and apples also encourages healthy, fast snacks.
I try to prep vegetables for cooking right after lunch to streamline dinner. The convenience of pre- chopped veggies in the store but cheaper and fresher!
I like the idea, but I think there's very little room to use it. Most fruits and veggies are badly impacted by this pre-preparation. Grapes, for instance, have their good to eat lifespan cut in half by being removed from the vine. Lettuce also turns red or brown much faster when cut, in which condition my family won't eat it. In general, other than melon (which improves from time sitting in the refrigerator cut up), I don't prepare produce more than a day ahead of time because if I do, we won't eat it.
Did you get a gigantic bok choy in your produce box? Any tips on prepping that?
I did not! But one time before when I got bok choy, I used it in a stir fry. I believe I've thrown it into green smoothies as well.