Caribbean travel tips and tricks

Better Ways to Keep Your Leftovers Fresh

We all have the best intentions – we make a large dinner and then put the leftovers in the refrigerator to be eaten later. The main problem is that the next day, the leftovers are a little stale and not so fresh, so we toss them out because no one wants to eat stale food. There has to be a better way to keep your leftover foods fresh – and there is. The main ingredient in keeping your leftovers fresh is fridge storage solutions.

There are many storage solutions for your leftovers. These range from the typical plastic tubs to more complex storage items which allow food to air.

Some fruits do not need to be kept in the fridge and fare better if they are stored on the counter. To keep your bananas fresh, look at purchasing a banana hook. A banana hook hangs the bananas up off the counter, preventing age spots and bruises – mimicking the natural habitat of bananas – hanging from a tree. A fruit basket that is open aired (usually made of metal wires) is a great idea for your other fruits and produce. You can put apples, grapes, oranges and more in an open air fruit basket to keep your fruit fresher, longer.

For produce that needs to stay in the refrigerator, look for a produce keeper with a water reservoir and air vents. These features control the moisture that your produce is exposed to and prevents wilting and browning. A produce keeper can keep your produce items fresh for weeks longer.

Another option for produce and left over foods is a vacuum container. With the proper seal, your food can stay fresh much longer than if it is not sealed. Vacuum containers are dishwasher and microwave safe, and can be used in the refrigerator or freezer. Make sure to purchase a clear container so that you can easily see the foods you have stored.

You can even keep your pies as fresh as they were out of the oven with a pie keeper. A pie keeper helps your pies stay fresh and intact, without crushing them during transport or stacking.

Keep your cereals and snacks fresh with a snack dispenser unit. These dispensers are air tight to provide maximum freshness for all your cereals and snacks.

If you have left over bread, be sure to keep it fresh with a bread container. A bread container keeps your loaf of bread from getting moldy. Bread typically becomes moldy when it is exposed to air. A bread keeper is adjustable to hold any size of bread loaf without crushing it.

In order to keep your left over foods fresh as long as possible, be sure that you are storing them appropriately. It is best to store each type of food individually so that you do not have any cross contamination, or soggy foods. What one food needs for moisture, another may not, and therefore you may end up with foods that have too much moisture.

Another important step to keeping left over foods fresh is to package them into the fridge as soon as possible after you have completed your meal. The sooner you can get them into refrigeration, the better. This lessens the amount of degradation that your foods may have by sitting out in the warmer, open air of your home.

Freezer solutions for left over foods are also an option – freezing leftovers into containers is a tradition that has been passed down through the generations. “Waste not, want not”, was the motto of the 30s, and these practices of everything having a use should not be lost today. If you are positive that no one is going to want to eat more turkey again this week, why not store it in the freezer in a freezer safe, air-tight container? That way, in a week or two when you are once again in the mood to eat turkey and you are looking for a quick meal idea, you can pull the left over foods out of the freezer. This allows you to serve them as fresh as they were on the day they were cooked.

Left over foods do not have to be stale, they can be foods that both you and your family enjoy eating as much as you did the day you cooked them. With the proper storage solutions for the refrigerator and freezer, you can store your leftovers and make use of them instead of throwing them away in the garbage.

You too can be a ‘waste not, want not’ family by utilizing your left over foods instead of throwing them away. Throwing food away is throwing money away. Many stores have storage solutions for your leftovers. The containers that you purchase can be used time and time again to save your food and save you money!

Shawn Thomas
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/better-ways-to-keep-your-leftovers-fresh-717711.html