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Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!
It’s so frustrating to me to open my fridge or pantry and realize that there’s produce on the shelves that needs to be used immediately or it’s going to spoil. Couponing and buying loss leaders is good for your budget, but throwing food away isn’t, especially healthy food! Our family is trying to eat healthier, so we’re buying more and more fresh produce, but I need to have a plan for overripe produce so it doesn’t end up going to waste.
What do you do with overripe produce? Do you plan your meals around what you need to use? Do you have a system in place to keep track of the produce you buy, so that you know when you must use it? How do you store your produce to keep it fresh longer? Do you wash your produce when you get it home from the grocery store, before you store it?
Join the discussion — add your two cents to previous Ask DSM Readers questions too!
Lesa
when fruit is getting close, I clean it and cut it into pieces and put in freezer bags in the freezer, great for smoothies later and no ice needed to be added to smoothie receipe, veggies I do the same only then I will treat them like frozen veggies that I can buy from the store, keeps them from going bad,
Cathy
I chop salad fixings at the beginning of each week. At the end of the week, the unused produce goes into a huge stir-fry! Even spinach and romaine can be thrown in at the last minute of cooking. It is a favorite in our house!
Kristin
Cathy-
I would love to know what you chop up for salad fixins….we love stir fry and salads so this is something I am interested in knowing more about.
Cathy Kramer
Romaine, Spinach, Parsnips, bell peppers (all colors), broccoli, carrots, onions(all varities), fennel, celery, tomatoes (i chop tomatoes as I go through the week), parsley. I cook alot of chicken at the beginning of the week for chicken salads, so I always have chicken ready for the stir fry too! My husbands fav is a mix of soy sauce, woshtershire and hot buffalo wing sauce (a little of each, and low sodium if you can find it.) I use Brown Instant rice.
Cathy Kramer
Oh, zucchini and squash too!
Cathy Kramer
Buy the whole carrots! They require peeling and slicing, but there are not rinsed in clorine, so they last longer:)
Cathy Kramer
My spelling is horrible today ;)
Tamara B-H
I agree with the freezing- plus certain veggies and fruits (sweet potatoes, bananas, squash, carrots) can be shredded and mixed into sweet breads/muffins and used as healthy desserts and snacks when they are no longer appealing to eat but not yet spoiled :) I also use cabbage or lettuce/spinach in burritos or tacos when it is started to wilt.
Tamara B-H
Almost forgot (and we just did this this week) tomatoes/ onions/ peppers get chopped up into fresh salsa with some lime juice and cilantro that stays good for 3-4 more days.
Coreen
My produce doesn’t go bad. In fact it stays fresh for weeks. How you ask? Buy the fridgesmarts from Tupperware. I sold TW years ago and that’s all I use. You know the saying you get what you pay for? Well if you pay $15 for one fridgesmart and your bite size carrots, cucumbers, lettuce etc. stays fresh for weeks then you will buy more. I’m not kidding. My lettuce has been in a fridgesmart for a week now and there’s nothing wrong with it. Buy all kinds of sizes bec. you will need them. If you can’t afford them then buy one a week or month or something but in the end you will be very happy at all of the money you’ve saved by not throwing away the produce.
The reason why your produce goes bad is bec. you probably keep it in plastic bags. Most vegetables are full of water so by keeping them in those bags they get more water in them and that is what makes them go bad. The fridgesmarts act like a terrarium. The water gathers on the cover & the bottom. The bottom is ridged so the produce doesn’t sit in the water.
Also does your lunch meat and cheese get slimy within days? That’s bec. it doesn’t like plastic bags. Buy the stackable trays by TW (I can’t think of what they are called) and put your meat in them. When you wash one put it back in the stack in the refrigerate. bec. you don’t want to put cold meat in a warm container bec. it will grow bacteria. You will be surprised at how long your lunch meat will last.
Hope that helps you guys.
eM
Do you purchase the Tupperware online? I am interested in purchasing some now that I read your comments on the product!
Amanda
I second Coreen’s comments! I love the Fridgesmart line-it sounds crazy but the veggies and fruits actually do keep longer, and sometimes they even come out looking better. For example-floppy celery will crisp up.
Lesa
love the stir fry idea cathy, I will have to try that, sounds yummy, what day did you say you do it and what time should I be there, lol, :0)
Cathy Kramer
Mondays while the kids are school! I don’t have to think about all that prep work the rest of the week. We have sports throughout the week, so salads are our go to meals. Come on over!
jessikaw
i puree whatever i can before its bad and then freeze it in ice trays. i throw the “veggie ice” in labeled ziplocs. then when i cook and the kids aren’t looking i throw some in. they get the veggies they need and don’t even know it. :)
Jenny
We do this too. I am so happy to be throwing away less food and sneaking in so many more nutrients!
enielsen
I try to freeze whatever I can (overripe fruit, green peppers, vegetables, etc.). We do also try to plan our meals around produce that is on its last leg. If the lettuce is on its way out, then we have salad for dinner. There’s just two of us now, so we often end up with extra produce. If I don’t freeze it, it would likely expire before we could eat all of it.
Maria
I do what jessikaw does. I got my idea from The Sneaky Chef cookbook. This Spring/Summer I also use overripe bananas to fertilize my roses and tomato plants. I’ve read they like the potassium, and it seems to work. My family doesn’t like banana bread. (I do, so if I made it I’d have to eat it ALL!)
Andrea
I always clean it right as I bring it home.
If it is getting close to the end of it’s life, I try to freeze it.
Moriah
Veggies like zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes and peppers freeze really well… Not only do I chop and freeze them in baggies when they are going bad, I also buy extras at roadside stands during the summer and freeze them for the winter months when produce is more expensive. I steam the broccoli for a couple minutes and let it cool and dry before freezing it. This way it holds it color and flavor better. Then any of the frozen veggies can be steamed or thrown in pasta sauce, casseroles or soups. Shredded zucchini added to a chocolate cake batter (or spice cake!) not only adds fiber, it also makes the cake more moist!
theresa
-blanch and freeze most veggies in meal sized portions
-cube and tray freeze most fruits for smoothies or baking into quickbreads, adding to pancakes
-stir fry little bits, crockpot larger amounts
Kristin
Freeze, Freeze, Freeze, just like eveyone else is saying. That last handfull of bluberries, wash and throw them in a plastic bag in the freezer and just keep adding more to it. I always have a fruit bag from frozen fruit to just reach in and grab some for smoothies.
Maria S.
The produce that goes bad the most here is fresh spinach. Since there is no way I’m going to eat it warm and soft, I only like it fresh/crisp and now use it instead of regular lettuce, I just looked up a recipe for spinach bread.
The first search option that came up was garlic and spinach, and that just didn’t sound good to me, but the second one was Cheese and Spinach, sound much more tasty.
Here’s the link…
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spinach-Bread/Detail.aspx
Now to clean the cobwebs off the bread machine I have stored somewhere.
Jennifer H.
I freeze also. I love to freeze fruit for smoothies. It tastes great. We all so have a juicer so we can make some really health juice blends from fruits and veggies.
sona
It is about the gases they give off, not particularly water.
https://www.vegetariantimes.com/resources/produce_storage_guide/ Scroll to blue block
Ale
I love to make fruit leathers with my fruit that is going soon… I also make shakes and ice cream with them.
For the vegetables I use them in creative ways. You can always freeze them, or here is an idea on using everything from a broccoli that I really enjoy : https://howicook.com/2010/02/broccoli/
christina
with fruit, I’ll throw it in the blender with some yogurt and maybe ice and kiefer and a little milk to make a smoothie.
caroline
I haven’t had a use for it lately. Now I make soup, but when the little ones were eating baby food, I usually boiled or cooked anything and everything, especially if it was (fruit or veggie) and then pureed it.
Linda C.
I just have to share this…it really REALLY works! I read somewhere that Martha Stewart says to wrap your celery in aluminum foil before storing it in the fridge and it will stay crisp and fresh. OMG it does!! For weeks! I just wrap the whole stalk in a big piece of foil. Nuts!
susan
When I buy lettuce (romaine or leaf), I leave it in the plastic produce bag, stick a paper towel in with it, twist the top of the bag and put it in my veggie drawer in the fridge. Seems to last longer this way. Also, when lettuce starts to wilt, you can stick it in ice water for a few minutes and it will perk back up.
Angie W
We buy loads of extra fresh veggies in the summer to blanch and freeze for winter use. I also make big pots of soup when we have veggies to use, then freeze in big bags. Then on a busy night or weekend, I just grab a bag of soup out of the freezer, warm it up and add rice or noodles. Instant meal.
Also, spinach freezes easily in a plastic bag in the freezer. I take a handful out and mix it in pasta sauce or lasagna. Yum!
MommyPaine
Thank you so much for this topic. I (gasp) throw it away and never even thought of doing any of those things mentioned above. I guess I better use my Ziploc coupons for the freezer variety!!!
Suz
Don’t forget about Green Smoothies too! I’m super picky about fresh spinach or fresh lettuce in salads (none of that limp slimy stuff! no thank you!) so as soon as spinach or lettuce is about to go bad, I make it into a Green Smoothie. It sounds nuts, but they are really tasty! I drink one everyday. There are dozens of varieties out there, but here’s a pretty basic one:
1/2 of a frozen banana
1/2 cup of Orange Juice
a couple frozen strawberries
a handful of spinach
Blend it up in the blender and it’s great! You can use any fruit or juice combo, just make sure you have a strong flavor (like the Orange Juice or the berries….because you need something to overpower the spinach flavor!)