Are you tired of opening up your fridge just to find that nothing in there is fresh? Are your 3 am snack runs not fun since all your fruit has gone stale? Well, you are not alone. We all want to experience the joy of biting into that crisp, soft, fresh food. However, what we get is the exact opposite. Unsavory and unappetizing snacks and fruits litter our entire kitchen.
Fortunately, you can save yourself from this sad situation. All you need are everyday items either found inside your homes or easily available nearby. In three easy-to-follow ways, you can relish the excitement of freshness whenever you want.
Refrigerating Food
“Duh” is what most of you are probably thinking. Although we all refrigerate our food, most of us do not use it effectively. Bringing your groceries in and shoving them in the fridge is not the optimal way to keep your food fresh. A few steps and precautions must be taken beforehand. You need to be aware of your fridge’s temperature and moisture settings. Furthermore, it is beneficial to understand what are the optimal conditions for some fruits and vegetables.
Here are a few tips that may be useful for you when storing certain types of fruits and vegetables:
Avocados
Avocados are expensive. Therefore, we do not want you to watch them go stale. To optimally keep avocados fresh for long periods, store them outside the fridge until they are ripe. Once they have ripened, cut the avocados in half. Make sure to keep the seed inside one of the halves. Next, you should rub the edges with lemon juice and wrap them in plastic wrap. They are now ready to be refrigerated.
Strawberries
You must wash your strawberries as soon as you bring them home. However, you should not wash it with just normal tap water. Take a plastic container. Add three parts water and one part vinegar into this container. Wash your strawberries with this mixture. Once you have thoroughly washed them, dry them completely using a paper towel. Now store them into a container and put them in your fridge.
Herbs
Herbs are another precious commodity in every household. They are used in almost all recipes. To ensure that your herbs retain their freshness for the longest time, store them in a cup of water. Once you have arranged your herbs in a cup, cover them with plastic wrap. They are now ready to be stored in a fridge.
Additional Tips
Some vegetables, such as bell peppers, should not be washed until they are ready to be used. Most vegetables also get spoiled if they are refrigerated after cutting. Therefore, try to avoid eating excessive vegetables and use only as much as you need.
Buy Canned Food
Another way to avoid having to deal with unfresh, spoiled food is to buy food cans. These convenient, cheap packages provide the best bang for their buck. They are easy to store. You are also able to have out-of-season food readily available. Despite these advantages, you do have to be careful when buying them.
Check Contents
Be sure to check the nutritional facts mentioned at the back of these cans. We do not want you to buy something that does not fit your diet plan. Check the ingredient list thoroughly. Make sure you are not allergic to any of the ingredients. Some companies tend to use heavy, sugar syrups instead of a fruit’s natural juice. Be vary of such items as they do not taste good, nor provide the fruit’s actual taste.
Check Container
Food cans undergo a lot of stress. They are packed, unpacked, and moved to various locations. These conditions may cause the food cans to misshapen. When you are buying your food cans, make sure that you thoroughly check the can. Avoid any food cans that might have visible dents or chipped lids. A few companies invest in high-grade machinery. Such companies opt for dependable can seamer suppliers to ensure the best packaging of their products. A good practice would be to buy products manufactured by these companies.
Growing Your Greens
What could be fresher than something you plucked from your garden? People shy away from growing their veggies because of the time commitment. However, growing your greens does not involve that much effort or care! Nowadays the culinary world has been taken up by a storm called microgreens. These tiny, table-top crops give you all the benefits of the yummiest herbs but require minimal effort to grow. Microgreens include some daily used veggies such as mustard seeds, wheatgrass, radish, and broccoli.
Growing your very own microgreens provide you with tons of advantages. Firstly, they are alive and fresh until the very moment you harvest them. You can pluck them out and throw them straight into your dishes. They are as fresh as they can be!
Furthermore, the growth of these crops does not require a lot of work. They can be grown with or without soil and do not take up a lot of space. They only needed to be sprinkled with water once or twice. However, the best part is that these greens grow in seven to ten days!
Lastly, these provide you with a cheaper alternative to the expensive herbs present at your local grocery stores. They have the same, if not more, nutritional value. Their growth is also supervised by you so you can be sure no harmful preservative or insecticide was used.
To conclude
We all have a right to unspoiled, fresh food. However, our busy day-to-day lives prevent us from attaining this right. However, with just a few simple steps that hardly take any time, we can enjoy the freshness and buzz of our food.
