Its happened to all of us. We read about eating healthy, we get inspired, we go to the grocery store and pile our grocery carts with all sorts of stuff we’re not familiar with, getting ready for our new life…and 2 weeks from now, we’re tossing rotten tomatoes, spoiled romaine lettuce, and the butternut squash is still sitting on the counter because we have no idea how to cut it open.
Eating healthy is not cheap and it becomes way more expensive and frustrating if we’re throwing our money in the trash with wasted food. Here are some tips to get you started this week, whether you’ve done your weekly groceries or not.
1. Don’t buy everything at once: You may read 3 different recipes you like and go out and buy all the ingredients for all of them. Chances are the way life is, things will come up during the week that will prevent you from making all the recipes you initially intended…and then you don’t know what to do with the ingredients. So they spoil. Avoid this common mistake. Buy ingredients for one recipe. Let’s say you want to make smoothies. Don’t buy kale, and collard greens and watercress. Simply buy a bunch of Kale. Buy some frozen berries, and check if you have any other fruits in your house that you could use, such as bananas or mangoes, or apples..etc.
2. Use your ingredients for different recipes. Start by trying the kale in the smoothies. You may also want to try Kale chips, or any other kale recipes to see if you like the vegetable cooked in different ways. Once you finished your bunch, you may opt to buy more for the next week or move on to your next option such as watercress or collard greens. Or if you bake sweet potatoes and have leftovers. In a couple of days make a sweet potato mash.
**If you have kids or babies, I’ve learned that there are a ton of ways to give them the same meal. If you make a soup for example, they can eat the soup the day you make it. Then with the left overs you can puree the soup and give it to them as a puree, and then another day make a puree and put it on a bed of germinated brown rice or quinoa. Or keep it as a soup and pour it over some zucchini pasta. Your options are endless!!!!
3. Eat what spoils quickest first. You’re dealing with perishables now, so its important you understand that there is timing involved when preparing your meals. If you buy apples, blueberries, butternut squash and mushrooms as an example…take the time to learn what spoils first. In this example, the blueberries and mushrooms will spoil the fastest so make sure you include them in your meals during the earlier part of the week. Squash will keep for a while so you can keep that for when you’re out of other vegetables.
4. Keep a running list on your refrigerator. Sometimes the fridge is so full of stuff, we forget what we have. Especially when you have a household full of people to feed and you routinely store leftovers. Whether its a magic board or a piece of paper taped to your refrigerator, As you start stacking the fridge with all the delicious things you bought, take the time to write the items down on the board or paper in a list format.
Example: 8/6/12
- blueberries
- strawberries
- cantaloupe
- pineapple
- asparagus
- sweet potatoes
- kale
- spinach
When you’re done with the blueberries scratch it off, etc.
Do the same with leftovers. If you make cabbage soup, Add it to your list with the date next to it.
This practice is excellent for choosing what you’re going to cook during the week, what snacks you have available and what leftovers you can take for lunch that week.
5. If its going bad, use it or freeze it right away. If you notice your bananas are turning black, you can either put them in your smoothie that morning or simply take the peel off, put them in a ziplock baggie and freeze them. You can use them later instead of throwing them away. Or if you use half a pear in your smoothie this morning and tomorrow the other half is sitting in the fridge turning brown, slice it up and put it in your salad.
Because you are committed to buying less boxed items and more perishable items, it is important that you learn to work with these kinds of foods. The goal is to buy less but use more.
Do you have any tips you can offer our community to maximize our healthy eating???? Please reply in the comment box and let us know!
Have a wonderful Monday!