food
By Jodi Brown
Kitchen Tips From The Ultimate Kitchen Commando So
you’ve done all the right things. You’ve gone out and purchased fresh produce, and your bags are overflowing with big, beautiful bunches of greens, fruits and veggies. You feel invigorated and excited about it until you unpack it and try to put it all in the refrigerator. Suddenly you have one of those “what was I thinking?” moments. Don’t fret. Here are some tips on how to deal with some of our more common market purchases. Much of our conventionally bought produce is picked long before ripening and shipped thousands of miles before it actually hits the produce department of your local grocer. The end result is dry, tasteless and oftentimes mealy items that not only lack flavor but have little to no nutritional value. We are blessed to be living in Florida and to have so many great year-round crops. Buy as much as you can of locally grown produce. They stay on the tree or vine longer and bring much more value to a meal from a flavor and nutritional perspective. If you want your kids to eat more fruits instead of junk
food, put quality items in front of them. They will eat it if it has an opportunity to become what it should be. How you store your purchases will give them a longer life and make them easier to use when you want to throw a quick nutritious meal together in little time. Nothing discourages good food choices like a long preparation time. What stays out on the counter until it’s ripe: tomatoes, bananas, avocados, apples, pears, all citrus, grapes, melons, pineapples, stone fruit, (apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines), and garlic. Put these items in a basket or ventilated wire/plastic bowl. If you put citrus next to bananas, the bananas will ripen more quickly. If you want to speed up your avocado’s ripening, put it in a bag with some bananas and close it up tightly. They will both ripen faster. When they start to get soft, put them in the fridge to extend their life a few more days. Ripe fruit is sweeter and tastes better.
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