Dish Drainer of a Veggie Hero

Yup, this is often what's in my dish drainer. Lots of fruits and veg. This is an odd post today, but I thought I'd share this food prep tip.

See, when I do a grocery shop, I always wash all the fruit/veg that I buy straight away (with the exception of lettuce/greens). I used to find it tedious to take a bell pepper, for example, out of the fridge and have to wash it before using it in a salad or recipe. Oh, and then I'd need some cucumber, and then I'd have to wash that too. argh!

No more. Now, I wash them all at once with just a smidgen of natural dish liquid. Rinse them up, pop them all in the dish drainer. Once dry, I put the fruit and veg away, things needing refrigeration go in ziploc bags (unzipped but in bags and in the produce drawers mostly), and the fruit in baskets (except apples which I keep cold, as well as very ripe fruit).

Yes, it takes more time to wash it all at once, but only about 10-15 minutes, and then you have easy food prep ALL week!! (Oh, don't leave all the fruit & veg sitting overnight in your drainer - some veg like cukes, celery, carrots need to chill out!)

Speaking of odd stories, my mom used to keep her fruit in our dishwasher! Guests would open up the dishwasher to put in a cup and find... fruit! Now, this woman had six children (all girls - yikes!), and there were always dirty dishes. But, she found it easier/faster to hand wash the dishes and she found the dishwasher helped ripen the fruit. Sure, it ripened those bananas, but there were always a few poor specimens impaled in the process!

Speaking of fruit and veg - I'm a Veggie Hero! Gosh, wish I had a veg apron! Check it out - I'm wearing a turkey! Well, at least I'm not eating the turkey!! I've worn this apron for cooking demos at food festivals and I joke "well, at least the turkey is alive"!!

Thanks Jill for posting my veggie hero profile... oh I forgot to add fresh basil to my list of favorites - can't get enough of that beautiful herb! I'll never have just one favorite food!