I know me…and I also know that when things are busy, it is much easier to just grab something to eat. If you have to clean/prepare it first…probably not happening. Enter…Food Prep.

I do not usually do this the same day I go to the grocery. It’s usually just too much for one day. Normally it is the day after. I clean and prep ALL my fresh produce, boil eggs for the week, and my husband always fries my turkey bacon for the week for me. (I hate frying bacon, it takes…forever…He, however, loves it! Says it is relaxing for him. Far be it from me to hinder his relaxing time! LOL)

Eggs. We buy our eggs from a local neighbor, and they are THE best eggs ever! I just boil 6 or 8 at a time peel them, and keep in the fridge. I normally eat one with my breakfast. Sometimes I just feel the need for some extra protein and can grab one. or it’s just a handy “grab food”.

Turkey Bacon. I found nitrate free Turkey bacon at Costco. 4 packs in a pack. I generally eat about 2 slices at breakfast. so 2 packs last me approx. a week-10 days. It is much cheaper than other turkey bacon I have used in the past, but other options are Applegate Turkey Bacon. I am still eliminating MOST pork as of right now. I am still not sure if it is bothering me. I know I can do occasional sausage, on pizza or something like that, and nitrate free ham seems to be fine, but outside of that, I am being slow to reintroduce pork…hence the turkey bacon. IF you use pork bacon you need to look for nitrate, gluten, sugar free. Check your labels!

Produce. So I generally shop for fresh produce every 2ish weeks, or sooner if I run out before then. I wash EVERYTHING in Young Living’s Thieves vegetable/fruit wash. 1-2 capfuls in the sink full of water. I usually can do all my produce in the same water. If it gets too yucky I will change it, and depending on how much I have left to do probably only one capful. This bottle of cleaner will last for quite a while! I will TRY to remember when I get a new bottle to mark the date on it and see exactly how many uses I get out of it….

I have pretty much got a system down, and USUALLY at least one or more of my “men” (husband, or 2 sons) 😉 are here to help me. Hopefully I can make this make sense in type…I clean my sink. Fill it with cold water, cause you don’t want to cook your veggies, add 2 caps of cleaner. Depending on what I buy that week, I usually start with things like asparagus, celery, green onions, things I don’t chop BEFORE cleaning. I do one at a time, or else you have to sort them later…more work. I leave them in for a few minutes…maybe 5. Put 1st veggie/fruit, in a strainer/collander in the other sink, rinse them off and let drain. Then put my next veggie in the cleaner sink. I then will cut one of my “chop before cleaning veggies. When that is done, I pull first strainer out of sink, put a 2nd strainer in and move veggies from cleaning sink to strainer, rinse and let drain. I will put my next veggie/fruit in the cleaner sink. I now have a pretty good rotation started. I now chop if needed and bag the first clean veggie/fruit. I then repeat this system until finished. If I have helpers…One will usually chop things for me, one will usually help me bag, and one will run my salad spinner when greens are cleaned. (I like one of my men running the spinner, because they do a much better job with getting the spinner going fast, and my greens are much dryer and last longer.)

I will break down each fruit/veggie below, but before I do that, I want to add. I put paper towel or I like the Norwex “paper towel cloths” that can be washed and reused. I just don’t have enough of them so I still have to use some paper towels. I put them in the bottom of my ziplock bag, or glass dish, depending on the veggie and what it is going in. We have found sulfer veggies seem to get a smell in plastic bags and have started putting them in glass dishes and we have not noticed the smell so much. Also, I don’t necessarily do all these veggies, fruits every time, but when I do this is my process:

Clean before chopping: (following is the process after they have been cleaned and strained) I put paper towels or Norwex cloth in the bottom of all my clean produce containers, except prepared “wet fruits” like kiwi etc.

Asparagus. Asparagus will naturally break at the stalky point, so if you hold it at each end and bend it will break at the natural spot. I keep the stalky ends and throw in a gallon bag that I keep “veggy scraps” in for bone broth. Zip lock bag or glass bowl.

Celery. I pull the stalk apart, I usually cut of the leafy ends, and put those in my bone broth bag. I then slice up the remaining stalks and put them in a ziplock bag. I do not normally just munch on celery…I still haven’t been able to adjust to that taste yet…so I mostly cook with it or add it to salads. If you like to snack on celery, make celery sticks and put in ziplocks or glass containers.

Green onions. I cut off the “root end” and any wilty tops. I then just chop these small and put in a ziplock bag. (I don’t usually keep any of this for my bone broth, mainly be I just add onion to my bone broth.)

Spinach, Kale, Chard, Romain, Greens. Unless I know of a recipe that I specifically need to keep just Spinach for I generally buy the organic containers of greens from Aldi. I usually get 2 or 3…depending on my week. I normally just dump them all together in my water and mix them up. Unless I need some spinach by itself for something then I will keep some of it seperate. After it strains, we spin it as well as we can. I put it in a gallon zip lock bag.

Radishes. I cut off the ends. throw them in the bone broth bag, and slice the remaining. Ziplock bag

Grapes. Pull off vines and put in a bowl…(mostly so they don’t get smashed and leave uncovered or they tend to grow mold quickly

Berries. AFTER my greens are done I use the spinner insert and dump my berries in it. I then set the insert in the cleaning water. (I learned to do this after fishing berries out of freezing cold water for like…ever…) I then just pull the colander out and rinse them in it. Strawberries, I may or may not slice depending on what I want them for. I usually ziplock bag berries.

Kohlrabi. peel and chop kind of like french fries. you can also eat the leaves of the kohlrabi. I was not as crazy about the leaves, but you can cook them as well. we love kohlrabi, raw or roasted! zip lock or glass bowl

Chop before cleaning:

Broccoli. I don’t like to keep the big stalks in my broccoli, so I cut the heads off. I keep the stalky parts, but I pre-chop my broc. Then I just dump it all in the water. After straining I put the stalks in my bone broth bag. Broccoli gets put in a glass dish.

Cauliflower. Same as broccoli, only I also do not keep the leaves.

Brussel sprouts. I cut in half, fourths if they are really big. glass bowl

I feel like I am forgetting something, but I think you get the jist here. If everything is cleaned and prepped, it is so much easier to grab a snack or even just throw some dinner together. We do A LOT of roasted veggies. We love them! You can do a variety!

Also, there are a few things that I do not pre-clean. Mushrooms, some fresh herbs…I clean right before I am ready to use them.