Bad Grocery Shopping Habits? - Fixing Food Fright
No one's done a study on this that I know of, but there's something about a bag of grapes that consistently makes me waste most of it. I eat some of them the day I buy the grapes, but after that they sit in the fridge and rot. Some therapist somewhere might tell me that it has to do wth some grape-related trauma that I suffered as a kid, but I've only being doing this for the past 4 calendar years. I find that my mother does the same thing with cucumbers, almost without fail. I do the same with cucumbers, but to a lesser degree.
When I realized how much money I waste on foods that I like but for some reason don't eat, I had to do something about it. If you have similar odd food-related habits, here are a few suggestions for reducing your food-fright related waste. I am specifically referring to any raw ingredients that you find yourself wasting.
(1) With fruits, set aside a portion that you'll eat the same day. With the rest, make yourself a smoothie or milkshake or fruit juice, and store in an air-tight container. If you don't plan to consume your luscious drink soon, freeze it.
(2) With most vegetables, you can make a soup out of them, then puree them and store in air-tight containers. Again, if you're not going to be indulging right away, freeze the containers. You can also make a salsa with many raw vegetables.
(3) Obviously these tips don't apply to meat, cheese and certain other items. However, if you have a slab of meat, trim it and remove any bones. Now cube the meat. Using a food processor, grind up the meat. You many need to add a touch of cooking oil to lubricate the blades. Do not use a blender or you'll end up with a meatshake :S Now you can store the ground meat in freezer bags. (I always put the meat in a low-quality freezer bag, seal it, then place the bag in a higher-quality freezer bag. This way, I can reuse the good bag for non-meat items, if necessary.)
Alternately, you can mix the ground meat with salt, black pepper, a bit of soya sauce or worcestershire sauce, a bit of sesame oil, finely diced onions or green onions, and mix it all together, then form burger patties. Separate the patties with parchment paper cut to fit, then freeze them. If you want to save time and electricity, you can also first partially cook all the patties on both sides (3-4 minutes each side) at the same time, then freeze them. Later, when you want to eat just one, you can finish cooking it. This takes less time and electricity than if you cook each patty separately from the raw state.
(4) With whole fish, unless you're good at filleting, get your fishmonger to do it for your. You can ask for the fillets to be packaged separately so that some of it can go in the freezer.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash
When I realized how much money I waste on foods that I like but for some reason don't eat, I had to do something about it. If you have similar odd food-related habits, here are a few suggestions for reducing your food-fright related waste. I am specifically referring to any raw ingredients that you find yourself wasting.
(1) With fruits, set aside a portion that you'll eat the same day. With the rest, make yourself a smoothie or milkshake or fruit juice, and store in an air-tight container. If you don't plan to consume your luscious drink soon, freeze it.
(2) With most vegetables, you can make a soup out of them, then puree them and store in air-tight containers. Again, if you're not going to be indulging right away, freeze the containers. You can also make a salsa with many raw vegetables.
(3) Obviously these tips don't apply to meat, cheese and certain other items. However, if you have a slab of meat, trim it and remove any bones. Now cube the meat. Using a food processor, grind up the meat. You many need to add a touch of cooking oil to lubricate the blades. Do not use a blender or you'll end up with a meatshake :S Now you can store the ground meat in freezer bags. (I always put the meat in a low-quality freezer bag, seal it, then place the bag in a higher-quality freezer bag. This way, I can reuse the good bag for non-meat items, if necessary.)
Alternately, you can mix the ground meat with salt, black pepper, a bit of soya sauce or worcestershire sauce, a bit of sesame oil, finely diced onions or green onions, and mix it all together, then form burger patties. Separate the patties with parchment paper cut to fit, then freeze them. If you want to save time and electricity, you can also first partially cook all the patties on both sides (3-4 minutes each side) at the same time, then freeze them. Later, when you want to eat just one, you can finish cooking it. This takes less time and electricity than if you cook each patty separately from the raw state.
(4) With whole fish, unless you're good at filleting, get your fishmonger to do it for your. You can ask for the fillets to be packaged separately so that some of it can go in the freezer.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash
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