How Does Your Fridge Stack Up?

After recently viewing a video posted on You Tube by Erin Huggins, I decided to show you what’s in my fridge after a recent trip to the grocery store. I love getting my week started knowing that I’m well prepared to fuel myself with delicious and wholesome foods.

Let’s take stock of what I have in there! I’ll go through each shelf from left to right:

• organic kale
  (stored in a plastic bag with water inside, this keeps it crisp for a long time)
• organic strawberries
• organic raspberries
• organic fair trade coffee
  (yes, I still drink it…not ready to give it up just yet)
• organic bacon
• organic chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
  (in brown paper)
• organic grass-fed rib eye steak
  (in brown paper)
• Applegate farms organic roast beef
• Brita water filter
• organic cauliflower
• mushrooms
• organic tomatoes
• scallions/green onions
• organic mixed greens with spinach
• organic zucchini, organic stringbeans
• organic rhubarb
• organic tangerines
• organic apples
• organic yam, celery root and shallots
• organic grapefruit, lemons and avocado
• raw organic almonds

Okay now to the door:

• organic butter
• organic, free-range eggs
• coconut juice
• coconut milk
  (This version in the carton borders on a non-food to me because of all of the additives, but I wanted to give it a try. Typically I use a can of it and mix it with water.)
• organic, wheat-free tamari
  (this is soy sauce and I use it very sparingly maybe twice a month on sushi)
• gluten-free mustard, dijon on the left, regular on the right
• bacon fat
  (gold cap, re-using a glass jam jar)
• organic, grade B maple syrup
  (simple white label, I buy in bulk and re-use containers at Rainbow Grocery)
• organic dried cranberries, pineapple and mango, organic tahini and peanuts
  (in the drawers you can’t see into!)

Want to start fresh with the right foods in your fridge? Here’s a checklist to follow!

1. Remove everything from the fridge and clean out the drawers and shelves.
2. Sort the contents that you just removed. Anything that seems to last for months and months, put aside for review.
3. Of the long-lasting items, chuck out old bottles of sauces and dressings that may be filled with artificial flavors and preservatives. Also toss any low-fat or fat-free dressings. These are going to be loaded with sugar and preservatives to give them flavor. One or two home-made dressings should be enough. The one I made isn’t in the fridge so you didn’t see it!
4. Put items back into the fridge so that you can SEE the best, healthiest, REAL food ingredients front and center! If you bury the kale and broccoli, you’ll never see them when you stand in front, trying to decide what to make.
5. Keep higher priced produce stored properly and visibly! You don’t want those organic raspberries going bad on you before you get a chance to eat them. Even if you down them in one or two sittings, I always say that the food is worth the price if you eat it. If you let it go to waste, it wasn’t worth a penny!
6. Before you shop again, take stock of what you have on-hand. This will alleviate over buying and then wasting ingredients.
7. Make your fridge look like a beautiful “store” of healthy foods. When you open the fridge, it should be colorful and appealing- without brightly colored packages. Let the nutritious food have the best real estate and sell itself to you.
8. Remember that shopping the perimeter of the grocery store is how you’ll end up with a fridge full of healthy, real foods. Most of these foods have little to no packaging and can’t scream to you how great they are for you. Let their voices be heard and don’t be lured by the masses of packages of other “edible products” (as Erin calls them).

We’ll talk about tackling the grocery store another time. For now, start with your own fridge!

About the author

Diane Sanfilippo BS, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach is a New Jersey-based Holistic & Paleo Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone, Skype consultations and nutrition seminars nationwide. Author of “Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle.” Creator of The 21-Day Sugar Detox, a program designed to help you bust sugar and carb cravings in 21 days with the help and support of a community who is all in it together! Co-host of The Balanced Bites Podcast, a weekly radio show about all things health and nutrition.

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