There was a time in my life when my schedule demanded that everything I ate was pre packaged. After 24 years of that, I couldn’t wait to dive into this new lifestyle. The total opposite lifestyle, with the goal to create simple habits to keep me eating a paleo diet. No more pre made salads, no pre cut and packaged fruits or vegetables, not even anything frozen. I tossed aside all convenience and also made one more step towards eliminating my use of wasteful plastic packaging.
Over time I plan to show you the little hacks that have helped me create these new habits. It wasn’t easy and it takes more time for sure, but really when you think of it, aren’t we worth our own time? Once I started to make this time, I felt more gratitude towards the food I was going to eat and more inspiration about the different dishes I would be able to create with ease.
The first of my hacks is going to cover my fruits and veggies. This first picture is what it looks like as I pull everything out of my bags and onto the counter to start to put everything away.
Now I take my time taking all of the stickers off the produce. While I am doing this I am able to take a good look at each piece, I take note if any of the pieces got damaged or bruised in transport from the store to me. If so, I would put that piece aside to be sure I would use it first.
Now I divide the produce in half. I put half in my fridge, unwashed. I have found that produce will stay a bit longer of you don’t watch it before you put it in the fridge. I wash it right before you I am going to use it. So now I am down to half of the produce. This is the half I will start to work with.I take this half and properly clean all of the produce. I use ceramic knives to cut my veggies, I keep the knives & the board clean between cutting different veggies while I fill my glass containers with freshness.
I pre cut the vegetables I eat every day. I cut everything that I put in my smoothies, my salads, etc. Celery & Cucumbers are so refreshing in a veggie smoothie.
I season some of my veggies to allow them to marinate in the fridge and give some extra flavor to whatever I may add them to! (that is a variety of 2 types of heirloom tomatoes)
I take some basil and put it in with my red vine tomatoes.
This takes me about 20 minutes, but saves me so much time through out the day. At any time I can have a smoothie in less than 5 minutes, a quick salad or I can throw some veggies in with some browned ground chicken or turkey. After all is said and done these cut veggies will last me anywhere from 3-5 days. Opening my fridge and seeing this just makes me happy! Try this to keep you eating your veggies with ease! #Paleo
