I usually like to buy groceries once a week because i dont like to go often and want to get everything i need for the week. Such as chicken breast, salmon, brocooli, boy choy, cucumber, strawberry/rasperry/blueberry etc.
Sometimes i go twice a week as well but i prefer once a week.
Many times my food spoil b/c i buy too much of something. The reason i buy a ton of it is b/c i dont want to go to supermarket more than 1 time a week. Many times my food after say 4-5 days go bad. Such as chicken breast… it would have a horrible smell and i read thats when food goes bad. So when i come back, i usually put the meat… salmon/chicken breast in freezer and few of them in fridge… issue is my freezer is very very small so i cant put that many things there.
I also like to buy 2-3 cucumbers a week b/c i like to juice it but after few days, 2 of my cucumbers seem to go bad. Such as the end of it is you can see its rotten and mushy. However that is only one end of it and the rest of the cucumber looks OKAY but it seems little discolored. I then cut it and then try to eat the other side of it but thing is there seems to be a bit sour. Does that mean i should never eat it?
Also i buy a ton of broccoli usually like 5 of them a week, i eat 1 in a day divided into two meals. After few days, the brocooli would turn brown/rotten in certain areas but the other areas look fine. Is it safe to eat the areas of that broccoli that seem okay or just throw the whole thing?
Also i read rasperries in shelflife.com last only 2-3 days but for me… i put it in fridge for over a week and still it taste good and doesnt show any signs of rottenness. Does that mean its perfectly fine to eat it?
Its really frustrating for me b/c i only want to do grocery shopping once a week but it seems like if u buy chicken breast or broccoli/cucumber, you have to go twice a week at least it seems if you want to not have these food spoil?
Is there any tricks to keep these food last longer and not go bad? I read cucumber dont put it in fridge so i dont do that but still after 4-5 days or so, it seems to go bad. I just want to know if its fine to eat it if the other 80 percent of the cucumber looks fine but it does have a minor sour taste.
I’m with you on the frequency of grocery shopping. For me it’s a matter of time management, I’ve got so much going on I really don’t want to be spending more time on routine chores than necessary.
Your strategy of putting those items in the freezer is a good one, but a small freezer is a problem here. Any chance you could buy a larger freezer? One of those small chest freezers might do the job for you. It would also allow you to take advantage of special sales as well/
I’m a little confused by this - an intact cucumber shouldn’t be going bad that quickly. You should finish one cucumber before cutting or peeling the next. When was the last time you cleaned and sanitized your vegetable drawer or wherever you keep them? I like to use a bleach solution to clean my refrigerator when it needs it. Use unscented bleach, instructions for making a cleaning solution should be on the bleach bottle. Cleaning the refrigerator interior will remove mold and fungus spores that contribute to food rotting.
How are you keeping your cucumbers? I find that keeping them wrapped in plastic makes them go bad faster. I usually put them bare in the crisper drawer and just clean the exterior prior to cutting and peeling. I’ll “cap” a cut end with plastic wrap, but that’s the cucumber I’m going to eat in the next day or so, I just slice the end off and use the rest.
As long as the broccoli isn’t turning white and fuzzy (indicates fungus) or liquifying I would cut the brown/wilted parts off and use the rest. Assuming I was using fresh broccoli, I usually buy a bag of frozen broccoli and use it as desired but then, I’m guessing my freezer is larger than yours.
A lot of the on-line web sites discussing how safe it is to keep things are very conservative because you never know what sort of slobby conditions a reader is keeping their food in. The website people also don’t know if the reader has some medical issue that makes him or her more susceptible to food borne illness. If the berries you buy are fine after 5 days or a week (not fuzzy white, not mushy, etc.), taste fine, and you haven’t had a problem with eating them sure, you’re most likely OK to keep them that long.
If you’re a healthy adult with an intact immune system, you aren’t pregnant, and so forth you’re likely OK to got a little longer than those websites say as a guideline.
I hit the store twice a week for 2 reaons: cucumbers and banannas. It’s much easier to have good ones on hand that way. And while we’re on the subject: cilantro. Even the smallest bunch of cilantro is still a pretty big bunch. I can’t use that much in a week, and can’t preserve longer than that either.
The other factor is that the vegetables and eat you are buying are not particularly fresh. They’ve been shipped all over the country and maybe the world.
I joined a farm share (buy direct from the farmer; they have lots of them in NYC) in which I receive vegetables tuesday night, that were picked on monday. I was shocked to learn that cucumbers actually keep three weeks and more, loosely stored in a large ziploc bag. Broccoli would likewise keep at least 3 weeks packaged the same way. Greens usually go bad pretty fast no matter what you do, but if its actually fresh even Swiss Chard and most lettuces can last more than a week.
Basically the food you’re buying is already 90% rotten. You’re better off buying from a fruit stand than a local grocery store – at least the fruit stand guy goes to the Hunterspoint wholesale market every couple of days. There’s only one grocery store in my neighborhood where I will even consider buying meats or vegetables (fresh nonpackaged nonsterile goods) because all the rest are pretty disgusting. Since I went to farm share, though, I don’t need to do that at all.
The Debbie Meyer Green Bags really do work on vegetables. Fruits, especially bananas, not so well. They are available in the grocery store now, and are reusable.
Keep your green vegatables dry, dark, and cool. Don’t put them in plastic bags, they need some air circulation to stay dry. They don’t need to be in the fridge if you have a cool enough spot elsewhere. Grocery stores treat vegetables horribly, they look good on the shelf but their decaying rapidly while they’re there. Darkening of green vegetables is generally not harmful, just remove those parts because they may not taste good. Chicken you can’t do much about, it’s usually in bad shape by the time you buy it. I’d say freeze if you don’t eat it in 48 hours, but I’m a little picky about food freshness. You can’t expect it to last long though, it can be several days old by the time you buy it, and it isn’t kept in consistent conditions as it’s packaged, shipped, stored, and the displayed in some open case in the grocery store.
Instead of cooking chicken and other meats you can cook them a couple of days after you get them and then keep the cooked food in the fridge to reheat later. That should extend the life of the food by a couple of days.
Just a few points on some food: Once bananas start turning brown, put them in the fridge. They can last a week there. The skin may turn black, but the flesh will still be good. Problem with bananas at Costco: They put them in a plastic bag with the UPC on it. Bananas need to breathe. Take them out of the bag ASAP. Blueberries will last a week in the fridge but other berries (blackberries and strawberries - I know that’s not a true berry) spoil within 2 days. Methods for freezing them are available. I buy the frozen berry and frozen fruit bags at Costco. I do not have much room in my small freezer. I usually take out the ice cube trays to make more room for frozen BOGO deals and frozen fruit bags.
Generally speaking, when food “spoils” it is usually an aesthetic (taste/smell/appearance) issue rather than a dire health issue, as long as we are talking on the order of one week in the fridge, rather than several months forgotten.
We shop just once a week and deal with the same issues. There’s only 2 of us so it’s hard to have a variety without waste.
We keep produce cold and dry. Put bananas in the fridge. They will turn brown on the outside but still be fine on the inside. Keep potatoes & onions in the pantry. We use poultry quickly but if it’s a few days old you can trim the skin and fat off and rinse it well in cold water to eliminate the sliminess and slight odor. You’ll be cooking to high enough internal temp that there’s really no danger. Beef is good even when the surface is brown. Eggs boil better near their expiration date. Scrape the surface of slightly rancid butter and the rest is still good. That’s when it turns a darker yellow. Same with cheese, just scrape the white. Squeeze the air out of the bag of bread before closing it and you can freeze bead & quickly thaw if you don’t eat it quickly. Milk is always a challenge for me. One week I drink a lot of it, next week I might not touch it. Buy the small containers so at least what’s left is still closed. Same with OJ.
Couple more things… Dig around on the store shelves to find the most distant expiration dates. You might have to move several rows of product. If the meat is all picked through and only stuff with a couple days is there, you can ask the butcher to package some fresh stuff for you in the exact amounts you need. No extra charge! And, find out what days of the week the store resupplies each department and shop when you’ll have access to the freshest.