February 2016 - Dominique Rizzo | Bespoke Food Tours

Make you fridge the sanctuary of your kitchen…

To me a healthy, organised and clean fridge means a healthy body and an organised kitchen! If you have stumbled with your new year’s resolutions of starting the year on the right foot and making some changes in your eating and lifestyle, and your fridge is still full of left over pizza, soft drink and something unrecognizable growing in the vegetable crisper, then I am here to help. These 8 tips for organising your fridge will have you on the way to cooking with ease, eating a wider variety of healthy foods and give you all the pleasure that you will need from your chilled kitchen companion.

Start by going through all those little bottles and jars in the fridge door, check the use by dates and decide if the ones thatyou haven’t used in the past 3-4 months are ever going to get used…if not then I hate to say but its time to say goodbye. Those of them that you use regularly, sit them where you can see them and if you have two or more of the same product open, then combine them into one jar and think where you can incorporate the relish, mustard, condiment in your next dish, it could be added as a marinade for grilled or barbeque meats, as a condiment to have on the side of your next roast or mixed with olive oil and a little vinegar as a tasty dressing for your salad.
Home made salad dressings are so easy to have on hand and can use up the bits and pieces of left over herbs that you have lying around as well.
Keep all your dairy items together and incorporate a wide variety including yoghurts, cottage cheese, hard cheeses, quark (a German cream cheese – very low in fat and extremely versatile for dips, desserts and spreads) ricotta, cream cheese.
For quick snacks and even quicker dinners have your celery, carrots, capsicum and any other vegetables that you enjoy, prepped, peeled and cut into batons, store them in containers that allow the air to circulate and stay fresh, that way they are ready for you to dice, slice or simply munch on when you get hungry.
Keep a variety of cherry tomatoes, round and gourmet tomatoes for salads, sandwiches and adding to vegetable or side dishes.
Instead of having whole fruit in the fridge which I find boring at times to eat, buy one each of your favourite fruits and make a container of fruit salad, keep it stored in an airtight container and it will last the week, that way you have a wonderful mixture of flavours and colours as a high fibre low fat snack to take to work, for the kids at school of for a simple dessert with ice cream or yoghurt.
When you buy your lettuce whole, wash it and break it up into leaves storing it in a lettuce crisper so that it’s easier for you to toss together a delicious salad.
Along with your basic vegetables commit to buying 3-4 other vegetables that you haven’t tried and change them weekly to give you variety. You will eventually make it through all of our wonderful vegetables we have on offer and build up your repertoire of recipes. Aim to cook a different vegetable dish every night using up to 4 different vegetables.

Taking on these 8 tips for organising your fridge you will notice a huge difference in the way you feel, and the ease of which you can prepare your meals. Aim for a clean out the fridge day every week or fortnight depending on when you go shopping to use up the leftover fruit and vegetables, that way you will not only keep your fridge fresh, you will save money, save on wastage and you body and wallet will thank you.

So lets start from the beginning and Get rid of kitchen clutter

With the festive season and Australia Day out of the way, we can all finally breath a sigh of relief that again we have made it through another season of celebrations. Although it should no longer come as a surprise and I am not sure why we all seem to get so stressed and exhausted by it all. It happens every year! We should be used to it and have the whole festive season running like a well-oiled machine. Well, with my handy tips you will.

So now what? We have re-worked the leftovers with the handy tips from foodie magazines and chefs alike, put away the decorations and are back to work, back to school and back to life as it was before the holidays.

A new year has always been a fresh start for me. I take the whole New Year’s resolution very seriously, although not so much a resolution but some thoughts on what can I do this year to de stress, de-frazzle and delight my life and I think I have found it.

Get rid of the kitchen clutter with these eight tips.

1. Prepare containers and labels

• When organising and cleaning out the pantry stack cans, jars and packets with labels facing forwards so they are easy to read.
• Stack like items with like so all your tinned tomatoes, tinned vegetables, legumes, dried flours, nuts, in the same areas that way you can see clearly what you have making it easy for restocking and shopping.
• Take foods out of open packets and boxes and store in airtight containers and jars for better storage and more space.

2. Spice up your life
• Spice jars always seem to get lost so use split level handy storage shelves to give you more space.
• Spice racks on doors or walls assist with organising and storing smaller jars.
• Sort alphabetically or by popularity of use
• Store them in a cool area in airtight plastic or glass containers.
• If you only use spices occasionally, buy them in small quantities or buy whole spices to roast and then grind them fresh when you need them as they will last longer and roasting them gives you better flavour.

3. Rethink that deep back corner in your cupboard:
• Depending on your style of pantry or food storage cupboard, corners can be like black holes where you completely forget about what is in there.
• Store larger bulkier items that you don’t use on a daily basis there.
• Use trays or containers in the corners so that it is easier to pull out the whole tray than a lot of individual items.

4. Plan recipes around current pantry items:
• Aim to cook 2-3 meals a week using at least 3 items from your pantry so that you keep all your pantry items rotating and fresh.
• Look up recipes that you wouldn’t normally cook with ingredients that you bought thinking “one day” and create that one-day dish.

5. Reorder when restocking

• When restocking your pantry, make sure that you bring all the old items forward and place the new items at the back if you have several of each item.

6. Recycle or ditch
• Recycle old jam jars, condiment jars and bottles for use in your pantry for spices, homemade dressings, grains and legumes, label with a sticker, write with permanent pen or place a small labelled piece of paper into the jar.
• Any items that you haven’t used in the past year, you will never use so if they are still within their use-by date, drop them off at a food bank for someone else to enjoy or throw them out.

7. Clean and refresh
• Pantry moths love cardboard, paper and thin plastic bags so transfer your cardboard items into plastic or glass containers or jars sealed tightly either with a lid or with clamps or rubber gaskets;
• Clean down the shelves once every 6 months with eucalyptus oil mixed with a little water to prevent moths from laying eggs, as they seem to dislike the smell.

8. Update your online calendar for a reminder
• To reorganise your pantry every 4-5 months.

8 Tips for organising your fridge

Get rid of the kitchen clutter! Here are my fantastic tips on how to clean up your kitchen life, save money, save time and breeze into 2016 with a smile and a happy household.