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If I have to wash and chop veggies on a daily basis, eating my veggies ain't gonna happen. Trying to figure out a way to make sure I have a salad every day at least. I have washed and chopped lettuce and kept in a tupperware, and have kept carrots bits in water in a tupperware, but can you do the same for cucumber, green peppers, or other salad fixings? I don't want slimy veggies! Any ideas for how to ensure a good intake of veggies and salads daily would be appreciated. I don't work outside the home but I have twin infants and right now I'm in survival mode!
I make individual salads every day for my family. I haven't had much luck cutting veggies up in advance - they get "old" pretty quickly. So I almost always do my peeling/slicing/dicing right before meal time.
I use bagged lettuce and/or spinach and slice some baby carrots, cucumber, tomato, pepper into each bowl. Prep time is probably 15 minutes max.
When the kids were little and I was very pressed for time, we would sometimes get one of those premade veggie trays from the store. Those stay fresh in the fridge for a couple of days.
I wouldn't suggest pre-processing your salad makings. Remember though that there's no rule that says you have to eat your veggies in a salad. Scrub them with a clean scrub brush, trim off the ends, and bite down. I use my radishes, cucumbers, and peppers like many eat chips. Your babies will learn to like eating their veggies if mom is eating them, too.
Munch away.
If that doesn't work for you, toss them into a food processer and make a fine puree to use as a soup base. My S-i-L snuck her kids their veggies in their spaghetti sauce. They never knew.
I prepare a lot of my salad fixings ahead of time. I wash and spin dry my lettuce, kale, any other greens. I then store them in big baggies, separately. (freezer bags, they work much better than regular big baggies.)
Also, for processed and chopped carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers,etc, I store separately in glass snapware containers. They stay nice and fresh in there for up to a week. But try to use within 4-5 days for ultimate freshness.
I wash and spin my greens and prepare my salad. I then place all the prepared greens in a Food Saver vacuum jar and vacuum the air out. I keep it in the refrigerator, take out what I want, and re-vacuum the jar. You may not believe this but I have kept salad greens with this method up to three weeks. (The only reason the jar was in the frig that long was because I went on vacation and forgot about it). I also clean and cut up carrots and celery in this manner with similar results. It has cut my waste to almost nothing. My Food Saver more than pays for itself.
Someone told me salad would keep better in a stainless steel bowl, so I bought a big, high, narrow bowl to take up less room in the fridge.
I put cut up lettuce, red/purple cabbage, onion, green pepper, celery etc. in the steel bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.........stays good for about 5-6 days.
When I fix a salad, I get my "mix" from the bowl, then add tomato, pickled beets, croutons etc. to top off the mix.
Thanks everyone. I have a Food Saver vaccuum pack system and never even thought of using that. Thanks!
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