I've read here and elsewhere a lot about making food ahead of time in the fridge for lunch. For those of you who are cutting up a week's worth of vegetables, how do you maintain freshness? Wilty or slimey salads, while packed with the best intentions, will be replaced by burger and fries when it comes down to having to eat it.
Thanks for your help.
I find that most lettuce or spinach keeps okay if you chop it once you buy it and seal it in a big Tupperware container. Carrots and celery can be chopped and put in water to keep them fresh. Broccoli, cauliflower and bell peppers keep pretty well sealed in Tupperware without water. The only things I chop in the morning when I am making lunch salads are onion, tomato, eggplant and cucumber -- they spoil pretty quickly.
It's too hot for soup right now, but when I was behaving myself last year, I made a great tortilla bean soup and a white bean chili. I like the frozen stir fry idea. I'll try that. I do really like salads when they are fresh. My mom told me to put a paper towl in with the lettuce to keep it fresh longer, but I often forget to do that. I could probably feed a small country with the vegetables I've had to throw away because they went bad for I used them. I hate that.
I really wish I could get more into the "food is fuel" mentality so that I could just eat the same thing everyday and not care. The "I don't feel like eating xxx" is what has gotten me in trouble
Jill said just about everything, but I'll reiterate that I don't eat the same thing everyday, I think I would have quit by now... but I use a lot of the same strategies she does. Planning ahead for all sorts of occasions really works!
Ilene , 07-16-2006 11:44 PM
Jill -- You're post had some great ideas, no wonder you lost all that weight with that planning ...
When I wash my romaine lettuce and spin it dry I always wrap it in paper towel and put it in a bag, it keeps quite long....I clean and wrap everything, brocolli, celery, cauliflower in the same manner. I find that it's the moisture that makes the vegetables go limp or slimmy...