Monday 12 November 2012

Food Tips!

Today Derek and I did some grocery shopping. Now, you have to know something about Derek and I and food. We both love food. We really, really enjoy it... and at the same time, about half of the perishable items that we buy go bad before we get to them. I'm not really sure how it happens. But it does. And it sucks. We've definitely gotten better at eating the things that we get, but there are times when we pull out mouldy vegetables or mouldy cheese, rotten fruit, etc. Not really my favourite. I'm not a fan of gross, mouldy food. And I'm especially not a fan when it's stuff that was in our fridge - and, most importantly, what we paid for.

So, today when we went to grab some groceries, I decided that I was going to do everything I could to make them last as long as possible - aka, until we actually eat them. I've been doing a lot of pinning lately about things like freezer bag cooking, recipes for the average family, lists of meat marinades, and twenty-seven ways to make groceries last longer. And so, when we picked cheese, green onions, and ground beef, I decided to try some of the suggestions.

First, I cut the long block of cheese in half, and then cut one half in half again. I then took one of the two quarters, and wrapped it in paper. The website said to use parchment or cheese paper... but we didn't have any, so I used tissue paper, since we had a huge excess of it from moving (I used unused paper, just to keep it sanitary.


Then I put the wrapped up cheese in a plastic bag, and put it in the warmest part of the fridge - the vegetable drawer (if you have a cheese drawer, that works great too!).


I took the second quarter and grated it up into a container that we have (specifically for grated cheese; it has three lids, one regular and two with grates - it was a wedding present, and we love it). I then put the last half of the cheese (wrapped up in paper, and in a plastic bag) into the freezer. Cheese apparently can be frozen for up to three months; after the three months, it gets super crumbly. 


For the green onions, I chopped them up entirely, separating what we needed for our meal (nachos with our friends, Lana, Anja, and Jerome! Delish!) from the rest of it. The leftovers, I put in a small plastic container (after making sure they were dry - don't want freezer burn!) and threw them in the freezer. The website said to put them in a plastic water bottle, so that you could easily sprinkle them out, but we didn't have any. So, I figured that our plastic container would work *fingers crossed.


And finally - though this wasn't something on the website, I thought it related - I split up the ground beef. We buy it bulk (when we have the freezer space) and extra lean. We get the extra lean, even though it's more expensive, because I really don't like the greasy texture that I find comes with even the lean meat. Besides, it's more healthy. Anyway, I split up the huge package into three regular sized tupperware containers, because dang! it's annoying to have to try to separate meat when it's frozen. Honestly, there've been times when I'm lazy when we first buy meat - and I always, always regret it.


So those are some of the tips that I've gleaned about food. I'll let you know how it works out?

No comments:

Post a Comment