Here’s how I save time in the kitchen each week when cooking and preparing: When I get home from the grocery store, I wash and chop *most* of my fruits and veggies. Of course you can’t do this with *all* of your produce, but do it with the ones you can. I do it with my celery, carrots, tomatoes (wash not chop), apples (wash not chop), pears (wash not chop), plums (wash not chop), and peaches (wash not chop). I also wash the strawberries immediately. If you wash your strawberries immediately, make sure you thoroughly dry them before storing. If you want your berries to last longer (over 1 week), don’t wash them until you are ready to eat them. We usually eat our berries within two days of purchase so usually there isn’t enough time to go bad. You’ll save time each week in the kitchen with a little up front preparation. Do you do this? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Video Transcript:
Hi guys. It’s Alejandra. And I am standing here in my kitchen and I thought it would be a cool video idea to show you guys how you could save a little bit of time when you’re doing some cooking in your kitchen or making whatever you’re making in your kitchen.
So one of the things I do when I get back from the grocery store and I do this with most of my fruits and my produce is I’ll come home and I’ll wash everything before it goes into the fridge. It just saves a lot of time. It saves a lot of time to do all your washing at once as opposed to wash each individual thing like as you use it, if that makes sense.
So you do all this pre-work right when you get back from the grocery store like spend one hour, it’s probably going to take you at least an hour to wash everything, chop things, and then you don’t have to wash and chop things later in the week. You could just kind of grab things and go or grab things and start cooking.
So I have lots of fruits here that have all been washed when I bought all this stuff this week at the grocery store. So I’m going to show you how fast it is to make a smoothie. I’ve been on this like smoothie kick ever since we’ve got one of those fancy blenders, the Blendtec from Costco and it has been on our wish list for a long time now and Costco or Blendtec was having their Costco road shows so we went there and bought the blender. So I’m going to make a smoothie and just show you how easy it is once everything is washed and chopped.
And of course, some things you can’t immediately chopped right away like a pineapple or like a honeydew or watermelon. Some of the things, you have to wait until it gets ripe. OK. So, I have my blender and I have strawberries here. So these are strawberries from Costco. All I do is I save the clamshell packaging and I just take all the strawberries out and I wash them and then I put them back in here and I keep the stems on them until I actually eat the strawberries. So these are already washed and ready to go.
Things like celery and carrots, I’ll go ahead and wash them right away, chop them if they need to be chopped and then put them in bags so we can just grab these if we’re running on the road and we want a snack to bring with us or if we’re just working in the home office and wanted a quick snack. So these are already bagged.
And the same thing with the grapes. OK. With the grapes, I will wash everything immediately and then I’ll put them into a container. Now, you can take them off the stems just to make it a little bit easier. Like yes, it requires some pre-work but it’s worth it when you can just come inside this container and just grab a handful and then put it in a bowl and eat it or whatever.
OK. So I have grapes, I have strawberries, celery, and then pineapple. So like I said, the pineapple, you have to wait time for it to get ripe. But once it gets ripe then immediately chop it and put it into an airtight container.
OK. So to make my smoothie, I’m going to add some water into the blender. OK. So I’m going to grab some strawberries. Like I said, these are washed and ready to go. So I’m going to grab my strawberries. Just put them in the blender. I’m going to grab some pineapple and put them in. I love this time of the year because all the fruit is so sweet and like flavorful and fresh. This pineapple is delicious.
OK. I’m going to close my pineapple and close my strawberries. And I’m going to try throwing in some grapes into this. I don’t know how well it’s going to go with strawberries and pineapple but I’m sure it’s going to be very good. OK. I threw some grapes in. Close up my grapes. And then I’m actually going to add some spinach to this like these blenders blend spinach and lettuce like I was going to say to threads but to liquid. They blend the spinach and lettuce to liquid and just add some more nutrients to the smoothie. So I’m going to grab some spinach. OK. So I have some spinach. I’m just going to go ahead and put just a little bit in just to give it some green.
OK. And I think we are ready to blend. And I’m actually going to put some blueberries. So these are frozen blueberries. OK. I’m just going to throw these blueberries in here. And actually, I’m going to add a little bit of milk. OK. Just a little bit, just like that. OK. I think we are ready to blend. OK. This is going to be really loud. OK. So that took about 40 seconds to blend. OK. I think that’s good. I think it’s ready. All right. That doesn’t look that appealing but it’s probably going to be really good. I’m going to try just a little bit. I think it needs more ice. But I’m going to go ahead and add that in a little bit.
So the point of this video is to tell you that when you get back from the grocery store, put everything away in the fridge and the pantry but with all your produce and fruit, you want to cut it up if it’s ready to be cut up. Of course, wash it first then chop it up and then put it into an airtight container or some kind of container that’s going to keep it fresh and make it a little easier for you to eat.
A lot of times when we open the fridge door and we see like a big piece of fruit that needs to washed and cut, we’re less likely to eat that piece of fruit and we’re more likely to grab something else that’s easier to eat, maybe it’s junk food or a snack or whatever and then we sometimes let that piece of fruit go bad because we don’t want to chop it up and then it gets thrown away and it’s a total waste of money and it’s a waste of food. So to save you time and to save you money, wash everything right away, chop it up, and it’s going to make cooking a little bit easier for you.
I also do the same thing with apples. So if I get apples, I’ll come home and I’ll wash them right away and I’ll put them back in the fridge clean and ready to be eaten.
So what you want to do is next time you go to the grocery store and you buy produce and fruits, you want to immediately come home, wash your fruits and veggies, chop them up and put them in airtight containers or put them in little baggies for like a grab and go snack for lunches or just to grab to bring in the car or to bring when you’re running errands.
And of course, you can’t chop up everything like a pineapple because you have to let it get ripe but the things that are ripe, you can go ahead and wash and chop up.
So anyways, that’s my tip for the day. I am going to go give Ed some of the smoothie and see how he likes it. I’ll see you guys soon. Bye!
