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Fridge Makeover with Celebrity Nutritionist Kathy Kaehler
When celebrity trainer/nutritionist Kathy Kaehler offered to show us how to give any refrigerator a healthy makeover, we jumped at the chance. With an impressive track record of incredibly in-shape clients including Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Cindy Crawford (to name just a few), she's clearly doing something very right. Below, her easy, no-nonsense tips for a top-to-bottom revamp, just in time for the big July 4 weekend stock-up. Freezer: Make sure you take out one shelf at a time and check the dates on what you've stored. Online, you can find sites like AllFoodBusiness.com that let you know how long you can keep something. Always, always remember: If in doubt, throw it out. To help with that moving forward, from now on use a pen to date all items that go into the freezer. As for things to add: If you don't have frozen veggies in the freezer, stock up next time you're at the market. These are great as a snack, or an add-in to almost any dish. Since they're frozen very shortly after harvest, they're an excellent source of nutrients. I like to keep green beans, soy beans, white corn, carrots and spinach on hand. Lastly, for already-open boxed foods -- which can get freezer burn when you don't close the packaging tightly -- place them in an easy-to-seal Ziploc bag. Veggie Drawer: Do you fall victim to soggy, drippy, yellowing produce? It's all too easy to put fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables in here and then absolutely forget about them for days, if not weeks. Here's an easy way to fix that: Don't use this drawer for produce. Instead, re-purpose it for extra containers of eggs, yogurts, and other things you can easily pull out once the one you're using is finished. Interior: This is a great place to store your produce -- it'll be right in your line of vision when you open the fridge. We tend to go for the first delicious thing we see, so keeping things like shiny apples or a bowl of plump red cherries as visible as possible will stack your odds toward great health. Along those lines, when you come home from the market, take your produce right to the sink. Wash, rinse, trim, cut, chop, dice or do whatever else you need to do to get your fruits and vegetables in "ready to use" state. Display it all in glass containers so you can really see them. Fill up the remaining space with yogurts, eggs and milk. Deli drawer: Here again, do a date check. As you restock, be sure to add some low fat cheeses and lean deli meats like turkey and chicken for easy, healthy sandwich-making. Look for brands with the American Heart Association stamp of approval for guaranteed low-fat and low-sodium content. Door shelves: This is where most of us keep our condiments, so it's a doubly important spot to do a date check. You won't believe how many items you have that may be over a year old. For unhealthy things like mayo, opt for the smaller jars. You'll be less likely to grab them repeatedly if you have a small amount to ration. What you do want to include here are healthy, flavorful things like mustards, pickles, and low-fat yogurt-based dressings. Also, if you're keeping eggs in the door, take them out and place them on a shelf in the refrigerator. This will keep them colder and make them last longer. When it comes to beverages, juices and waters go great here. But milk, like eggs, will do best if it sits inside the main part of the fridge. Most common fridge mistake: Often, people will just keep adding to what is in the fridge and things get forgotten, pushed back, and lost until something starts to smell. It's also easy to forget to cover foods properly. Four foods to have on hand: Greek yogurt, eggs, fresh baby spinach and black beans. Three to push way back in the corner: Sugar, mayo and butter. |
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