Are you throwing away your fruit and vegetables often? Have a read of the blog below on some tips to make your fruit and vegetables last longer, and ways to use them up if they start going bad!

Wastage.

I often hear how un-affordable it is to eat healthy, but did you know Kiwis throw away a large amount of fruit and vegetables every week, almost a third of food wasted by households is fruit and vegetables and this is mainly due to their short shelf life and bad storage choices.

Below are some tips to increase your vegetables shelf lives giving you more time to eat them. As its much better to make small changes, creating less wastage and in-turn save money!

Avocados.

If you only decide to use half an avocado there is a good chance the other half will be thrown out. There are lots of methods out there on how to keep the other half fresh. I find keeping the stone in and tightly wrapping it in cling film will keep it fresh for another 2 days!

Broccoli.

To store broccoli and get an extra 4 days from it. Run it under cold water then shake it to remove the excess. Then wrap it in a paper towel.

Salad greens.

Remove all salad greens from plastic bags and put in air tight containers instead, this will increase their shelf life for an extra 3 days

Carrots.

As a favourite snack and the best to dip in hummus, carrots seem to get soft and flimsy quickly try keeping them in an air tight container, lined with a paper towel if whole. If they are cut store in an airtight container filled with water.

Celery.

If uncut wrap the base of the celery in paper towels. For cut celery store in an airtight Container with paper towels ling the bottom

Iceberg Lettuce.

A salad crisper is a good place to store the iceberg lettuce, however if you don’t have one you can create your own by wrapping the lettuce in a paper towel and storing it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Pumpkin.

Once cut the most successful way to store pumpkin is to wrap it in cling film and keep it in the fridge. Keeping the seeds in or removing them makes no difference.

Just like Vegetables Fruit is highly wasted as well this use to be the case in my household to until I started doing these few things. Now I have little to no wastage saving me around $20 a week. Try some out to see if you can start saving money too!

• When your fruit is just about to turn, put it in zip lock bags and freeze them. These are great for making smoothies when you are in a rush at a later stage.
• Blend the fruit together spread on a baking tray and bake at a low heat, this will create fruit leathers great for the lunch box
• If you have a juicer this is another way to use up old fruit. Drink the juice and add the pulp to your favourite cereal or yogurt.
• Berries can be heated, then mashed to make sauces or salad dressing.
• Bananas are great to make bread with, also adding extra ripe fruit like apricots and peaches to baking is a great way to use them up.

Making small changes today will greatly impact you tomorrow.

Let me know if you have any other great ways to use up old fruit and vegetables!