How many time have this happened to you that you buy veggies for the whole week and most of it turns bad before you even decide to eat it? You forget about the foods, veggies and fruits that you buy and it just sits in your refrigerator and turns bad. Do you realize the simple reason behind this? To save yourself from this nightmare, you just need to spend a few extra minutes while storing your foods in the fridge. This will not only allow you to eat healthy and fresh food, it’ll also save you a couple bucks.
Following mentioned are some tips and tricks that’ll help you organize your fridge for the whole week and help you towards healthy eating.
1. According to the correct temperature:
- Doors – since the doors are the warmest place in your fridge, your condiments, juices and water can go there.
- Lower Shelves– This is the coldest place in your refrigerator. So the foods that require cooking should go in the lower shelves. People usually store eggs and milk in the doors but the lower shelves are the best place to store them. Uncooked meat should also be stored there in its original packaging.
- Upper Shelves – The temperature in the upper shelves is the most consistent although not coldest. So it’s the best place to store leftovers. Also the ready to eat foods, drinks, and herbs should be kept in the upper shelves.
- Freezer– There’s no secret here that freezer is meant to store frozen foods. But there are some other foods too that can be stored in the freezer. Stating the obvious, frozen veggies, fruits, meat, and ice can be stored. But you can also store bread, sauce, stock and eggs in the freezer. The trick to storing foods in the freezer is that you need to pack the foods tightly. So plastic containers work the best in the freezer.
- Crisper– This part of the fridge is meant to store veggies and fruits. But make sure you store them separately. Now if your fridge doesn’t have a crisper, the lower shelves are the best place to store your veggies and fruits.
2. Tips for storing foods:
- If you have some ready to eat foods such as a frozen pizza or bread, or foods about to go bad, store them all in one place so you don’t miss it.
- Use plastic baskets to store foods. The next time you look for something in your fridge, it won’t turn into a treasure hunt. They slide out easy and reduce the mess in your fridge.
- Foods such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and squash need not be refrigerated.
- If you use small containers to store similar foods together, try sticking small labels on them. For example use a basket to store all your meats. It’ll be so much easier the next time you want to cook eat.
- If you worry about spillage in the fridge, spread fridge mats on all the shelves. The next time your kid spills some leftovers, all you need to do is remove the mat and put on a clean one.
- If you have leftover salad, the best way to store it in the fridge so it stays fresh the next day is using Mason Jars. These glass jars will seal in the freshness of your salad.
So besides, how to refrigerate foods, another big question is whether certain foods need to be refrigerated or not in the first place; Nuts, Nut butters, Nut flours, whole grain flours and natural oils can be stored in or outside the fridge. So we hope these organization tips help you eat healthier foods and save some money as well.