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How To Store Salad Greens

FitSugar — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:45:00 -0700

The vegetables of summer are amazing, making it so easy to eat healthy.

I love to buy baby lettuce and freshly harvested mesclun from local farmer's markets and vegetable stands. They taste amazing, and they're so crisp, but if you don't eat them within a couple of days, they can turn soggy and slimy.

Here's a great little trick I learned from a farmer friend on storing precious fresh salad greens:

Place greens in a plastic bag, close the top of the bag lightly with your fist, blow into the bag and fill it with air (carbon dioxide). Then seal the bag by twisting the top a few times before closing it firmly with a twisty-tie. Place it in the fridge and your greens are good to go.

Pretty simple, huh? The bag might take up a little bit more room in your fridge, but the loss of space is totally worth it. Your greens will stay bright, crisp and flavorful, so you can enjoy healthy salads all week long.

Fit's Tips: This tip works for all leafy greens - basil, parsley, cilantro, oregano, spinach, kale, and arugula.

Herbs in a Tube - Don't Even Bother

FitSugar — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 07:30:00 -0800

Let me give you some friendly advice. When you're cooking with a recipe that calls for fresh oregano and you go to the store and all they have is oregano in a tube, just forget it. Skip the oregano.

I was at the store looking for the fresh herb for my grandma's famous lasagna and I found Gourmet Garden's tubes next to the space my oregano should have been. They were all out of the fresh stuff, so I thought I'd give the tube a try, thinking it must be better than using the dried herbs. I was sorely mistaken.

I should have known the moment I squeezed it out - yup SQUEEZED. There's something seriously wrong with that statement - nothing fresh about it. Yeah, maybe it tasted the same, but the texture was pretty much disgusting, and not at all like the real deal.

The ingredients listed on the back of the tube make me think that this is a product better suited for long sea voyages rather than my gram's famous lasagna.

See for yourself though. Look for these tubes in the produce section. They have 10 herbs and spices including Basil, Cilantro, Dill, Garlic, Lemon Grass, Ginger, and Parsley.

Relax Already: At Home Smudge

FitSugar — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:30:00 -0800

Smudge your way to happiness.

Sage is one of the most sacred herbs among indigenous North American plants. The broad leaf sage, which is prized for its strong aromatic and clean burning properties, is used in the energy cleansing ritual known as smudging (or purification). Smudging basically means the smoke would attach itself to the negative energy of the area and cleanse it. And with the holidays rapidly approaching, who couldn't use a little help getting rid of extra negative energy?

Buy yourself a mini-bundle ($1.95) here.

Fit's Tip: When playing with smoke and fire, please be careful. To be sure that you even like the scent of white sage, you may want to test it outside first.