Fresh Food

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I'm in need of some advice and hoping other people have dealt with this and might have some tips.

I live in an apartment with two cats, but no other humans. I like to eat fruits and vegetables, but I have problems organizing and remembering to do things.

When I buy fruits and vegetables, they tend to either be eaten very quickly, and then I don't have any for a while; or I'll forget about them and they wilt in the refrigerator and then I can't eat them. Sometimes I forget to buy any when I haven't got any at home, because I forget to put them on the list, or forget to look at the list, or just leave the store before I finish getting everything on the list.

The problem with fruits and vegetables (and other perishable items--mostly milk; cheese and yogurt last long enough that it doesn't matter so much) is that they just don't last very long, so getting them and keeping them, without wasting money and having them spoil before I eat them, is pretty tricky. You can't stock up on fresh food like you can everything else. You can't have a closet full of broccoli and lettuce and pears like you can have a closet full of canned soup, pasta, and jars of peanut butter.

I also don't buy any fresh meat at all, because preparing it is just more than I can manage. I buy frozen meat, but only if it is already cooked and needs to be warmed up. I know all too well how bad I am about keeping fresh food, and I don't want to end up eating spoiled meat by mistake. So, I get most of my protein from beans, peanuts, and frozen ready-to-eat meat.

I've been resorting to canned and frozen food, which keeps a long time; also, dry milk. That's how I get most of my fruit and vegetables. But I do like fresh ones, and for some reason I just can't seem to get into the rhythm of buying enough but not too much, and eating them fast but not too fast.

Any ideas?

I would try to get into a habit of eating exactly X amount of fresh fruits and vegetables a day. Then take X and multiply it by the period of days you go to the store, and that's how much fresh produce you should buy.

Fruits and vegetables can be kept at room temperature. Keep them out in a basket where you'll see them and remember you have them.

Hmm, that's a good point, Foxy--maybe I forget I have them because I can't see them...

You mean you don't keep your fruit in a basket? I never would have thought not to do such a thing.

I have the same problem, too. Try to build a routine. Like always go to the produce store every Friday after work. Snack on fruits and veggies every afternoon or maybe in the evening. If you can make it a habit then it's much easier to manage. My mom eats fruits after each meal and have them for snacks, too. I think she consumes 3-4 lbs every day.

If you had cats to whom round, shiny objects were immediately seen as playthings, I think you'd keep your fruit in the refrigerator, too.

I do have cats. But that can easily be remedied.

This sounds very similar to me when I was living on my own!

Some fruit/veggies, like bananas, are easier to deal with I think. When bananas start turning brown/black you can still use them for banana bread instead of throwing them away (the best banana bread is made with these 'bad' bananas as they are much sweeter). Bananas are one of my favorite fruits because of this feature, if I forget to eat them I can just put them in the freezer and when I have time use them to make banana bread.

It is probably also worth researching the best way to store fruits and veggies. When you go to the grocery store you usually put things in plastic bags, but this is not always the best way to actually store them. Onions and garlic should never be stored in plastic bags for instance. Also it might be a bad idea to store some fruits/veggies right next to each other as well. I tend to use baskets to store fruit and veggies in.

There are also a few meals I can think of that are pretty much designed for fresh food that is getting close to going bad: omelettes, soups and oatmeal. Omelette's can contain pretty much anything that is edible, if you can flip the omelette (its pretty hard sometimes) you can just make scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese... its the same thing! Soups are pretty much the same way, just take some stock and put in whatever you want... just be careful with potatoes, uncooked ones will make your soup look kind of pinkish grey because of the high levels of starch they contain (still tastes fine thoug). Oatmeal is good for fruit when I make oatmeal I usually add fruit and nuts... you can put the fruit into the water while it is reaching a boil to cook them and then add the oatmeal to the boiling water with the fruit already in it!

So I had this exact problem. Threw away ridiculous amounts of money on dead fruit / veggies.

Get a food dehydrator! If you dehydrate under 108 F almost all of the nutrients and enzymes remain, and it lasts much longer. And it tastes great, there are so many great recipes for really good stuff.

Also oranges, they last for ever.

My solution to that problem was to make up a menu and do my shopping on the weekends and then kind of rigidly stick to it throughout the week. So I don't buy produce on a whim anymore, it's all for recipes or desserts or planned snacks. Also, I eat a lot of huge salads and stirfrys so it's really not hard to use up veg.

If you find stuff going a little past its peak, you can blanche and freeze most fruits and veggies and use it later. It might take a little experimentation.

I have this problem too. I end up throwing out a lot of food, which I hate because I hate wasting money. I don't think I ever actually finished a container of milk without it going bad the entire time I've lived at my apartment. But I recently switched to a dairy-free diet and almond milk lasts a lot longer than cow's milk, so I haven't had that problem lately. I don't go shopping on a regular basis either, just when I'm literally out of food. Apples last forever. One time I remembered that my mom got apples last time she made dinner for me at my place (which was 3 months before) and I went to the fridge, terrified of what I might find in the produce drawer, but they were still perfectly good. I try to make sure I eat fruits and vegetables whenever I eat at school.

I know exactly what you mean about fresh produce spoiling before having a chance to eat it and have had this problem many times. I have devised strategies to deal with it and would like to share them with you and hope you find them useful.

Whenever I buy fruits and vegetables, I make sure I have a couple of items on hand first.

1. Ziplock or Hefty slider bags. They come in sandwich size and also a convenient freezer bag size which is larger. Depending on how much food you want to store or if you want to store single servings or everything in one bag will determine which size bag you'll need. It helps to have both sizes available. I find the slider type bag the easiest to close.

2. Plastic storage containers with lids. They come in several sizes, too. I have a couple of rather large ones and several smaller ones.

I have found it almost impossible to store any kind of fresh fruit or vegetable in the fridge for very long without these two items.


Let's start with salad or spinach. I find it lasts at least a week in the Ziplock slider bag. I buy a bag of spinach at the store then put it in a large slider bag when I get it home. If I want single servings or am out of the larger size bag, I put it in several smaller bags then in the fridge it goes. This really helps me get mileage out of salad or spinich because it wilts so quickly and gets gross fast.

Apples- I like to buy the apple slices in the bag. I find these last a really long time in the fridge and I don't have to put them in a container or slider bag because they come in their own self closing bag and it keeps them from turning brown. Apple slices tend to last me about a week.

Baby carrots- These tend to have a lot of staying power which is why I like to buy them. They can keep around two weeks and I don't have to put them in a bag or a container. I think they are a good buy because of this.

Pineapples - I buy a whole one at Aldi where they are pretty inexpensive this time a year, take it home, take the outer layer off, core it, then slice it up and put it a large plastic storage container (can be found at Wal Mart or Dollar General at a reasonable price on the aisle with the kitchen stuff or somewhere close by.) It lasts about a week before it gets brown, longer if you squeeze some lemone juice on it. Anytime you want to keep fruit free from browning longer use lemon juice. The fresh pineapple is so much better tasting than the canned, imo.

Strawberries - I have to be picky about because there's a lot of people selling bad containers with mold on the berries. I find Dole to be the best but, so far, only see them in large family sized containers. It's a bad idea to put strawberries in anything airtight. Best to leave them in the fridge in the container they came in, not in any plastic bags or anything like that. They don't last as long as other fruits but the Dole ones taste wonderful.

Grapes- The green ones go bad really fast. The red or purple ones don't brown as quickly and stay firm longer. Like strawberries, they do better on a shelf in the fridge exposed to air, not in any containers unless it's the container they came in with the holes. If you put them in airtight containers or bags they go bad, like, within a day.

Bananas- I get mine at Aldi because they have Del Monte green bananas in plastic bags. It takes a few days for these bananas to ripen up at home so they don't go bad nearly as quickly as the yellow (ripened) ones I find other places. I have to wait a couple of days before I can eat one, though, because they are too green to peel.

In conclusion, the general rule I follow is most the time use Ziplock slider bags or airtight containers except with berries, grapes, stuff like that and look for the types of veggies and fruits that last longer.
Cucumbers, carrots, asparagus, potatoes, sometimes tomatoes, last a bit longer than, say, kiwis or strawberries. Certain squashes, like yellow and zucchini do, too. The bigger squashes like eggplant and butternut tend to go bad quicker. Pumpkins can go bad really fast unless the air is cool and dry. Only get a few bananas at a time and make sure they are green unless you want to eat them soon after you buy them. Put bananas on the kitchen table in a plastic bag until the peel turns yellow, then put them in the fridge. Oranges tend to last at least a week, so they are a good bet if you are looking for fruit that won't quickly go bad.

If the main problem is salad or leafy greens wilting, always put them in a Ziplock slider bag and they last a lot longer.