I admit it. I have had to resort to eating beans out of a can with a stick (Okay maybe it wasn’t a stick). No, this isn’t a weird new diet fad it’s just late in January. About that time you start to realize how much money you spent over the holidays. Things tend to get a bit tighter this time of year as far as the old pocket book is concerned and saving money becomes a big priority.
When it comes to your health and wellness you are probably aware that you need to eat real whole food as much as possible. The problem is, fresh foods can spoil pretty quick. This is a good thing because it means the food contains more biological value compared to a packaged and processed item which will basically never spoil.
How then can you prevent food from spoiling so quick, so you’re not wasting money and having to constantly go to the grocery store? Let’s have a look at some food storage tips.
We Throw Away A Horrendous Amount Of Food
I’m sure you’ve been there, you open the vegetable crisper expecting to see bright sparkling vegetables and instead you see a lump of slimy browning garbage. Into the garbage it goes, and we repeat this process every month. The average North American household is throwing out around 20 pounds of food per month.
This equals around $2000 a year. That’s the cost of a pretty amazing giant 4K t.v, or 3 organic apples from Whole Foods.
So how do you keep this food spoilage under control? Well, it has to do with how you are storing the food in the first place. Certain items do better in various forms of storage. Let me show you 10 quick tips to keep your food lasting longer.
- I’m sure you usually store all your fruit together in one place but start keeping your bananas separately. Bananas give off a gas called ethylene which causes other fruit to ripen a lot quicker.
- Store asparagus in a vase with water in the bottom like you would with flowers to keep them fresher for longer.
- Instead of keeping tomatoes in a plastic bag, which makes them spoil quickly, keep them in a single layer on a cardboard tray. Small cardboard flower planters can be good for this. Basically, avoid piling tomatoes up on each other.
- Back to bananas, you probably notice how they can go from green to overripe mush seemingly overnight. To keep them from overripening put plastic wrap or tin foil over the crown of the bunch and it keeps them for days longer.
- Mushrooms also don’t do good in plastic or the containers you bought them in but last longer, and stay fresher, when stored in brown paper bags.
- Celery, broccoli, and lettuce can be stored in tin foil to greatly extend their life
- Ginger is incredibly healthy but also can dry out and spoil pretty quick. Try storing it in the freezer which actually extends its life indefinitely and is still able to be peeled and grated easily
- Milk stored on the door of your fridge can spoil faster as the door opens into the room continuously exposing those items to the warm air. Store milk in the back of your fridge to keep it at its coldest and freshest.
- Use some lemon juice on a half an avocado to keep it lasting longer
- You know once one berry goes, the whole container goes. Mix one part vinegar to ten parts water and swirl berries around in it. This helps keep them from going moldy and soft. You won’t taste the vinegar but the berries will last longer.
Wrapping It Up
It’s hard to eat healthy on the best of days. When you have good intentions only to be met by spoiled food, it’s more likely that you’ll turn to something out of a box or package. Storing your food in the best way possible will make you more likely to keep on top of healthy eating. It will save you money and you won’t have to be making as many trips to the store.
Just don’t mind me, I’ll be in the back stocking up on beans.
Featured photo credit: katja wagner via flickr.com
