Is your refrigerator the most hazardous place in your home for you and your family? Don’t worry you aren’t alone. I will help you create an amazing roadmap to success.
The lineup: When looking at the BIG picture of your refrigerator you want to store your foods in the following order. Moving down the refrigerator from top to bottom you want to keep your cross contamination to a minimum by storing your lowest risk foods at the top and working your way down.
Top Shelf: Low risk such as take out foods.
Down a shelf: Medium risk such as eggs and milk.
Down a shelf: higher risk such as raw meats.
I store my raw meat in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator to keep it away from all of my other foods. If you get this ONE piece correct you are on a better path.
The Container: The first thing you will need is containers that will stack well. They should be made of non-absorption plastic or glass. You never want to use metal in your refrigerator to store food. Aluminum being the #1 no no storage medium which can leach hazardous metal into your food and cause many proven health issues. Once you find a storage container that you love you will want to have various sizes on hand to choose from for each type of food. You will also want to make sure the containers have tight fitting lids.
Mark everything: You want to mark everything you put in the refrigerator. As you prep your food for the week you want to get a piece of masking tape and a marker and mark your food. Mark each item with the date and the item name at a minimum. This is super critical so you can rotate and make sure you are not eating toxic foods.
Accessibility: This one is KEY especially if you have children. You want to put all of your food that you have prepped for meals on a higher shelf and foods that are for snacks on a lower shelf so little hands can access them. Don’t worry I will give you some ideas here in just a minute. 🙂
Toss it: Oh my gosh! I have seen some NASTY things in refrigerators. I am going to give you the basic rule of them and it is liberal. LIBERAL. If it is open and it isn’t a condiment it gets tossed after 7 days. Lunch meat: 7 days. Cheese: 7 days. Open dairy products: 7 days. Prepped food: 7 days.
What is in your fridge Chrsitina? I know many of you are asking yourself… Well… What is in YOUR fridge? It wasn’t always like this but right now it is pretty top notch, safe and inviting.
On my kid accessible shelf right now I have the following:
* Oranges sliced into wedges.
* Grapefruit sliced into wedges.
* Cleaned berries: Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. Make them little finger friendly.
* Cucumbers.
* Various cheeses: Cheese is the only dairy I eat and we love gourmet cheeses so you will find exotic crazy cheeses in our fridge… Always.
* Cherry tomatoes.
* Cubed pineapple.
* Cubed watermelon.
On my meal prep shelf:
* Grilled chicken.
* My brussel sprout roast recipe.
* Tons of steamed kale.
* Fresh prepped salad.
* Clean spinach.
I know this may seem like a lot of work but as you do it consistently it becomes second nature. In the beginning it will seem a bit overwhelming. At least it did for me. The beautiful thing is your refrigerator will be inviting and you will love going to get a healthy snack instead of it being a train wreck that causes you stress.
If you have questions or you would like more help organizing food I am always here to help. Feel free to ask me anything by contacting me. Also I can come to your home and help you execute a perfect refrigerator. It is one of the many services I offer. |
