Food Storage Tips

These are just a few food storage tips that I’ve learned over the years that help to reduce food waste and/or make life easier.

Make fresh fruits and vegetable last longer by lining the bottom of your refrigerator fruit and vegetable bins with paper towels. The paper towels reduce moisture and help to keep them from molding or browning so fast. Change the towels about once a week.

For small things like cherry tomatoes or grapes, put them in a paper bag before putting them in the fridge. This has the same effect as the paper towels.

Lettuce will last longer if you core it and tear it into pieces instead of leaving it whole. I try to do this for lettuce as soon as I get home from the store. You can easily core lettuce by holding the head of lettuce with the core facing down and then slamming it on the counter. Pull out the core and then pull off the leaves or tear them into pieces. Put the lettuce pieces in a colander or spinner to rinse them off. Then let the pieces dry and put them in a large zip lock bag before you put them in the fridge.

Keep brown sugar from getting hard and clumping by putting it in an airtight container or a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid instead of leaving it in the bag.

Keep salt and white sugar from clumping by placing a saltine cracker in the shaker.

Save money on minced garlic by buying whole garlic cloves instead of the minced garlic in a jar. Mince the cloves yourself, and then put them in a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Put just enough olive oil in the jar to cover the minced garlic and store it in the refrigerator. It will keep for several weeks.

Keep sliced apples from browning by drizzling a little lemon juice over them. You can also put a little lemon juice in a bowl of water and put the apples in it.