Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Keeping track of produce

Bob eats bananas all the time – but for the rest of us it may take a bit more work to make sure we’re eating our fruits & vegetables. This week’s tip, shared by niemansj, puts the “produce” in “productive” by suggesting a list to make sure you eat it before it goes bad.

Moving to a big city has made fresh produce and meats much more available to me, but it’s easy to forget about certain items and find them after they’ve gone bad. :(

To prevent this, I created a list called “Perishables”.

Every time I get home from the store, I take a minute to create a task for each perishable item I bought.

The due date is set to the expiration date. Many fresh veggies don’t come with a date, so I do a quick google search to determine the average shelf life and set it to one or two days before just to be safe.

I tag each item with its location in the fridge or the cabinet or the countertop, and I use the notes to include the link to any recipe I might be using it in. If there’s ever a certain recipe I want to make quickly due to it involving things that will quickly go bad, I set it to high priority to bring it to the top of my list.

From here, I regularly check this list to make sure I’m choosing my meals while keeping expiration dates in mind. It’s a very useful reference as the items are ordered by date which allows me to cook things in the right order and avoid forgetting about my produce!

Thanks for sharing this tip, niemansj! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.

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