Easy tricks to make your grocery haul last

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Hola fellow food lovers and welcome to another nutrition blog! Up this week we have a few tips and tricks to make that big grocery haul last. From how you store your fruits and veggies, to planning your meals around ingredients, I hope that you all will take away something that will benefit your culinary endeavors. 

Let’s start things off with some things to keep in mind before you even go grocery shopping. First, take inventory of the food you currently have in your fridge and pantry that could be put towards a dish. There are a few dry staples that last a long time and are quite versatile: beans, grains, pasta and nuts. Once you know what you’re working with, you can start planning out your household menu for the week. This will not only minimize food waste but also maximize your dollar. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy but spending some time to think of three to four dinner recipes, breakfast staples and lunch fixings will serve you well. 

Generally I eat the same thing for breakfast every day, as I’m sure many of you do too, so this one is easy- stock up on your breakfast essentials (oats, fresh fruit, eggs, cold cuts, bread, etc). Lunch is a bit more varied. Some of you may work in an office and eat out with your colleagues. If this is the case, great, one less thing to think about while at the store. If, however, you prefer to bring your lunch with you then you have two options as I see it. 

Option one: buy a few ingredients that can be easily assembled for lunches during the week (fruit, nuts, sandwich materials, prepared foods, etc).

Option two: leftovers!

Option two leads me nicely into dinner. If you’ve already planned out what you are going to make for dinner during the week (I like to think of 2-3 meals), then those leftovers make for the perfect bagged lunch. Boo ya! Now 2-3 dinners may seem like too few, especially if you have kids, so please adjust accordingly. This works for me because I like the food I make to be super fresh, don’t typically enjoy eating leftovers older than two days, and I also really enjoy grocery shopping so I often look for reasons to go back to the store :) 

A typical grocery list for me would be the following:

  • Eggs (2 dozen)

  • Rolled oats

  • Bananas

  • Kiwi

  • Apples

  • Spinach or kale (depending which looks better)

  • Almond milk

  • Frozen berries

  • Proscuitto

  • Bread

  • Potatoes

  • Zucchini

  • Chocolate

  • Peanut Butter

  • Ingredients for Thai Green Curry

  • Ingredients for Spaghetti Bolognese

  • Ingredients for Potato and Leek soup

These are pretty much my household staples though the ingredients could vary a bit depending on what is in season, what is on sale, or what looks good in the store. The meals themselves could also vary again depending on what the store has. For example, it’s happened many times that I’ve wanted to make a green Thai curry with shrimp and when I get to the store they have sad looking herbs, no shrimp and no coconut milk. So, we pivot. Take a look around the store and let your inspiration run wild. I’ve found that it helps to work within the flavor palette of a particular cuisine- Mexican, Indian, Italian, etc. If you’d like to see how to successfully combine these flavors to make a delicious dish I suggest you check out the series on food prep Pro Home Cooks made on his channel beginning with this video. His channel is extremely informative and full of creative ways to teach you how to work with food, breaking down all of the intimidation around cooking. 

Now, once you’ve done your grocery shop and are loaded up to the rim with fresh food, I’d like to share a few ways to help that food last [1]: 

1. Don’t put your tomatoes in the fridge. This one might surprise you if you put your produce in the fridge out of habit but you could make your tomatoes last a lot longer by keeping them just on the counter. The cold air of the fridge actually prevents the tomatoes from ripening so if you bought tomatoes that are perfect then feel free to keep them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process, though if you’ve bought hard tomatoes then just let those babies relax on the counter :)

2. Put an apple with your potatoes [2]. When researching for this part of the blog this tip really surprised me but the reasoning seems to stand. Apples emit a gas called ethylene which helps the potatoes stay fresher and firmer longer. Who knew?

3. Keep bananas away from everything. Like the apples in the tip above bananas emit ethylene which helps fruit ripen when in close proximity. If you have a hard avocado or kiwi that you’d like to eat asap then, by all means, leave them next to the bananas. If however, you’d like your fruits to stay good longer then keep them well away from bananas. 

4. Store lettuce with kitchen towel. If you store your lettuce in the fridge in the designated veggie section then you may be familiar with the condensation that the veggies release after a few days. Wrapping your lettuce in a kitchen towel helps to absorb that condensation, keeping your greens fresher, longer. 

5. Wash berries in vinegar. Berries are notoriously expensive and are only in season a few months a year so if you do splurge and bring the fruity jewels into your home it’s a good idea to do all that you can to make sure they stay as fresh as possible for as long as possible. One way to do this is to wash them in one part vinegar to three parts water. This will remove any bacteria on the surface and help to slow mold production. Additionally, placing the berries in the fridge can also help to slow the natural ripening process.

6. Treat herbs like flowers. This is a wonderful tip that I recently started practicing that has led to much longer laster herb bouquets. Not only do fresh herbs look great in the kitchen but they can spruce up any dish in just seconds. Like flowers, you can trim herb stems and freshen the water after a few days to get even more use out of them :)

7. Remember that best before is different to use by. The ‘best by’ date is just a recommendation by the manufacturer for when the food is in its prime. The ‘use by’ date is more of a safety precaution. Most foods are usually ok a few days after the ‘best by’ date though it might be best to exercise caution with things like meat, fish, and dairy. 

Thank you all so much for stopping by this week for another blog and I hope that you picked up a few food hacks to add to your repertoire. If you all liked this kind of post and would enjoy seeing more like it just let me know down below :)

Until next week!

Xoxo,

Alexandra 

Sources:

1. Aszkenasy, Jess. “How to Keep Food Fresh for Longer.” Save the Student, 26 June 2019, www.savethestudent.org/save-money/food-drink/keep-food-fresh.html 

2. Jones, Eleanor. “14 Genius Hacks to Keep Your Healthy Food Fresh for Longer.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 27 Mar. 2018, www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/diet-nutrition/a38816/keep-your-healthy-food-fresh-for-longer/