Quick Tip: extend the life of your berries

A few weeks ago I talked about how I had just bought approximately two metric tons of fresh fruit from Costco and I was thinking that my healthy eating habits had hit a tipping point.  [Side note: we did in fact make it through almost all the fruit we bought, just working through the last few apples now]

Well 5 days later I got up early for a 6:30am hot yoga class with a girlfriend and after class immediately went to the nearest Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and donut with sprinkles. 

So... maybe that tipping point is a bit farther off than I thought.  That's what I get for blogging about my healthy eating habits! 

Anyway, I bought the fruit intending to try out a new vinegar wash that I found on Pintrest.  Fill a bowl with a mixture of one part vinegar to ten parts water (white vinegar or apple cider vinegar is best).  Dump the berries in and swirl them around to dislodge dirt, mold spores, etc.  Because the vinegar in the solution is so diluted you can either drain and put the berries right in the fridge or rinse them in fresh water.  The tip says you can pop them right back into the fridge but I was worried that leaving them wet might be problematic so I dried mine on a kitchen towel covered with a paper towel for about 30 mins. 

Drying my blueberries and washing my strawberries

Does this give you two weeks like the Pintrest tip said it would?  Not really.  But it does extend the quality of the berries quite a bit in my opinion.  I've done this twice now and I've lost zero berries to mold or soft spots.  Sure they still get a bit wrinkly but they last much longer than most out of season berries do.  I feel a lot less guilty buying pricey produce knowing that I'm going to get my money's worth.

Any other tips for extending the shelf life of produce?

Fruit & Veggie Resolution Update - week who knows...

It's been awhile since I posted an update on my 2012 resolution to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.  Last time I checked in I confessed that the novelty had worn off in February and due to work commitments and being up to my eyeballs in busy, I expected March to be a wash.  And it kind of was.  I did my best to eat fruits and veggies when I could over the past few weeks but I gave up counting servings. 

Surprisingly, when my last event ended last Thursday and I came out of the fog... I found myself craving the good stuff.  When I wanted a snack, I found myself looking for apples and blueberries and bananas.  Sure I was craving nutella to go with the apples and bananas, but it's a big improvement!

In a moment of weakness and at the suggestion of that friend I mentioned earlier this week (Hi Helber!), I ended up at Costco with a cart that included:

• 18 ounces of blueberries
• 2 pounds of strawberries
• a dozen Gala apples (weighing in at 5.5 lbs)
• 10 lbs of grapefruit

FOR TWO PEOPLE.

Please note this is in addition to the grapes, asparagus and tomato/cucmber salad I already have sitting in my fridge. 

All joking aside, it appears as though my eating habits have finally hit a tipping point.  It took 3 months to turn this from work into a habit.  It no longer requires as much thought and effort, the choices are becoming more natural.

Back to my fruit binge... I want to tell you I saved a lot of money given that it was Costco.  But I saved about $1.20 on the apples and probably $2-3 on the grapefruits.  At the very least, I had a great time eating the samples after work and I'm glad that I won't have to go back to the store every 2 days to stock up again. 

I'm fortunate in that I have a great fridge which keeps fruit very fresh so the apples and grapefruits should be ok. 

The berries could be another story though.  We'll have to see how long the berries last.  I purposefully bought a boat load and then gave them a bath in a mixture of 1 part white vinegar to 10 parts water per a tip I saw on Pintrest.  Supposedly it removes dirt, mold spores, etc and berries will last much longer.  I'll update you on the outcome next week and let you know if the tip is a good one.

Till then, the fruit and veggie resolution is alive and well, even if it is covered in nutella!

Hide & Seek with Vegetables - Week 4 update

I just wrapped up week 4 of my 2012 fruit and veggie resolution.  I'd like to say it's gotten easier but while some of these changes are becoming habits (like eating a healthy afternoon snack) others are starting to see their novelty wear off (like counting my daily servings).  I'm still trying to get a grasp on what constitutes one cup of all these fruits and vegetables.  And then I'm working on raising the motivation to actually CONSUME a cup of carrots or grapes or whatever - on a repeated basis. 

I'm averaging about 4 servings a weekday (calling it a cup might be a stretch).  A lot of it is pairing the healthy foods with the other foods that I love (chocolate, cheese, crackers), working to make these choices a habit, and then hiding vegetables where I can.  For example, loading up my spaghetti sauce with extra veggies, making fresh banana bread, putting peppers and onions in with my chicken enchiladas, and adding fresh tomatoes into pasta dishes.

I'd say it's working out well so far.  But it still requires weekly planning to make sure I have the right food in my house and then focus during the day to make sure I'm not making an impulse grab but instead going for the fruits and veggies.

I know I'm going to have to get more creative to keep this rolling for the next 4 weeks.  I have the added challenge of a very busy March coming up so it will be interesting to see how this progresses.

For now, here are some of the things I've been eating to keep the fruit and veggie count up.

For snacks...

• Apple and Cheddar - where has this combo been all my life!  I'm loving sliced apples and cubed cheese.  I typically grab prepackaged cheese sticks at the store so I can just throw them in my bag.  Super easy.
• Cheese, grapes and Rosemary Garlic Triscuits - speaking of those cheese sticks... grab one with a handful of Rosemary Garlic Triscuits (thank you Carey for bringing those into my life, they're DELICIOUS), and then a handful of grapes. 
• Banana Nutella Toast - this is really good when I'm craving something sweet and chocolatey.
• Guacamole and Chips - avocados are full of good fat and Lord knows I can eat enough guacamole to make this count as a serving.

For dinner...

• Spaghetti sauce - add chopped bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions to your normal sauce.  I'll post my version of this later this week. 
• Chicken enchiladas - add chopped bell peppers and onions to your normal chicken and cheese mixture.
• Stirfry - pick your favorite fresh veggies or grab one of the bags of pre-chopped frozen veggies at the store.  A 12 ounce bag of chopped red bell pepper, broccoli, onion, mushroom and watercress is $1.99 and cheaper than you could possibly buy everything fresh.  And so easy!
• Veggie meatloaf - I have an amazing recipe from Bobby Flay that I'll share soon, it's got balsamic vinegar and is not your momma's meatloaf!
• Chicken Nachos - making it completely acceptable to eat nachos for dinner and still have a balanced meal.
• Make your own pizza - Bobboli dough, canned pizza sauce and whatever veggies and toppings you prefer.  Switch it up and use BBQ sauce, red onion and chicken for a different take.

My Quest for Veggies - 2 week update

Every January my body comes out of the holiday food coma and begins craving healthy food again.  This year in addition to filling the fridge with healthier stuff, I started paying attention to what I was actually putting in my body.  The great realization is that I'm not getting as much balance as I should be.  So I decided to make my quest to eat more fruits and vegetables an official resolution. 

5 cups of fruits and vegetables each week day. 

I picked the number 5 after some haphazard research.  ChooseMyPlate.gov says I need 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables a day.  So I'm calling it 5 and taking whatever mix of fruits and vegetables it turns out to be.

After 2 weeks my key learning is -- this is hard!

Seriously, try it.  Spend the next few days tracking the fruits and veggies you eat.  Prior to this little challenge I was probably consuming 2 to 3 cups.

After focusing on this for 2 weeks I find that with thought and focus, I'm averaging about 4 cups/servings a day.  But that 5th serving... it eludes me. 

So here's where I am:

• Have a veggie or salad dish made and on hand.  Something that makes 6-8 servings and requires no prep after the first time I make it, so I can easily tack it on to my lunch or eat it as a snack between conference calls.  It has to be something I WON'T be eating for dinner, that way I don't get bored or overdo it.  Week one it was tomato and cucumber salad.  Week two it was broccoli slaw.  Week three I'm going for a greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta and olives.
• Effort is required. You already know this, but you have to make the effort to buy fruit and veggies and prep them in advance.  I'm already fighting my urge to eat something salty and decidedly non-fruit and veggie like, so the healthy option has to be super easy to grab.  I usually do my big grocery shopping on Sunday so I spend an extra half hour to wash and prep everything.  I typically take care of this while I'm waiting for dinner to cook.
• This requires planning.  Nothing over the top, but enough to make sure that you've got necessary supplies in your kitchen and enough opportunities to get 5 cups over the course of the day.  For me, this means a bit more thought before I go to the store so I can be sure to get enough to last the week.  And consciously thinking about what my "daily tally" is a few times a day so I can adjust or make a different decision.
• Cheat.  Thank goodness for V8 juice!  I'm using that to get me to 5 servings while I retrain my body to enjoy fruits and veggies more. 
• Hide veggies where you can in dinner.  More on that in my next update post.
• This isn't cheap.  Fresh fruits and veggies are expensive.  But someone made a great point recently - we spend tons of money to dress our bodies, decorate our homes, own nice things.  Why wouldn't you spend money on the things that you're putting INSIDE your body.  To me that made perfect sense, so I'm trying to pinch pennies on the dried goods and take advantage of sales.  Eat what's in season and use frozen when you can, that also helps cover the gap.

Right now, here's what a good, organized, planned day looks like, where I'm getting 4-5 cups a day -- half a cup of OJ (100% juice counts!) and a banana with my breakfast, some kind of salad or fruit with lunch, a small can of V8 along with whatever else I'm grazing on during the afternoon, and then a veggie and salad with dinner. 

It seems really easy written out like that, but not everything is a full cup and this assumes I have everything on hand and ready to go.  It also assumes I can resist the urge to eat something salty at 3pm.  Not every day is going to run so smoothly.  Sometimes the fridge is empty, I'm traveling, or it was a really, terrible, awful, very bad, no good day and dinner is going to be Taco Bell drive thru thankyouverymuch.  Those days wind up with me eating closer to 2-3 servings.

Now I'd love your help.  Any good veggie or salad recipes I should make?  I know I'm going to get bored in the next 2 weeks and I've got to have some other ideas in my back pocket.

And does anyone have a good broccoli slaw recipe??  I'm looking for a vinaigrette style dressing and also maybe a few key details on whether or not you're supposed to cook that stuff :)

New Year, New Rules & New Resolution

New Year:  I love a fresh start!  One of my favorite things growing up was the night before the first day of school.  New outfit, fresh binders full of clean ruled paper, new pens, and a year full of possibility.  I still get that excited when I open a new notebook.  And I love the inspiration that a new year brings for tackling your personal to-do list.  Not the one for work, the one full of fun stuff like:

• Practicing yoga and photography
• Satisfying my addiction to Dexter by watching the next 5 seasons on Netflix
• Traveling
• Digging even deeper into food with some cooking classes and a few new cookbooks

Unfortunately all this new year business plus a kind of ridiculous workload for my job means less time for blogging. Which leads me to...

New Rules:  I spent a lot of time marinating (haha, lame food pun intended) about this blog before finally jumping in. I've told you all my culinary history - what on earth was I thinking, a food blog!?!  But I spent time reflecting on my food point of view and thinking about how to make it work and I took the plunge and put myself out there. 

I have to say, it's been a pretty cool experience!  I reconnected with old friends, uncovered a shared passion with new friends, and learned not to apologize for who I am. Opening up my kitchen and recipe books to you all virtually has been a wonderful experience.

But it's time for a change. The process of food blogging is crazy labor intensive. To post on a weekly basis I have to cook new stuff on a weekly basis, AND it has to be good enough for me to share.  Then I have to snap photos of everything in my kind-of-ill-suited-to-be-a-photography-studio kitchen, upload the photos, edit the photos in Lightroom and upload the final pictures to PhotoBucket.  Then it's time to write the post, attempt to be witty, proof the post (who are we kidding, I hate proof reading), preview the post, sleep on it, make adjustments, and then publish the post.  And if I have time, share it via social media.

I'm tired just thinking about it. 

But I'm not ready to throw in the towel on blogging yet.  So new year, new rules.  Less pomp and circumstance, less focus on trying to "grow" my readers, and less formality and pressure.  More stream of conscience, more straight out of the kitchen photos (so I can eat dinner while it's still hot), and more ideas and thoughts.  Like a personal letter.  Hopefully you guys will bear with me and this will work out better for both of us. I can't guarantee I'll be posting weekly but I'm hoping for once or twice a month and with more content. And finally...

New Resolution:  I don't really do resolutions. Instead, around my birthday I typically pick one or two things about myself that I'd like to work on and I make that my goal for my __th year. Stuff like being a more confident leader, better managing my time, ditching the unnecessary pressure I tend to put on myself, getting more exercise, being more receptive to feedback, you get the point.

I've been making a point to eat more fruits and vegetables in the new year and I decided to make it an official resolution. I'm going attempt to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.  Ok, each weekday  :)

I'm always inspired to eat healthier in January so it seemed like good timing for this kind of challenge. I've been at it for a few days now and so far the only result is that I'm much more conscious of what I'm putting in my body. I think I've hit 5 servings all of once in the past week.  Do you know how hard it is to abide by those guidelines!?!

Ok, that's a lot for one post.  But I'm looking forward to the new way of doing things in 2012. 

Anyone else making big changes or resolutions in 2012?