Kichen Tips: Prepping/Storage

I wanted to celebrate my 100th post (HOORAY!) by posting about some of the tips and tricks that help to keep my kitchen and household running smoothly. I think I have plenty of simple tips that I never shared with anyone before because I always thought they were so obvious. Looking back they weren't always obvious to me so I figured I would commemorate this special post by starting with my favorite kitchen secret: prepping!

One thing that I always make sure to do when coming home from the grocery store is to cut, wash and divide all of our fruits and vegetables into individual containers or Ziploc baggies. I also usually tend to do this with anything I am going to be making (i.e. chopping ingredients ahead of time) and other things like potato chips.  Measuring things is usually something I do if I have time but half a Ziploc baggie or one of the containers (shown above) is usually one serving of a fruit or vegetable. Sometimes I also cook the vegetables well ahead of time so I can just heat them up and eat! Broccoli is one of my absolute favorites but my husband will not eat it so I'm the lucky gal that gets the entire head of broccoli to myself!

Procedure:

When you get home from the grocery, put all your food away except those that need to be divvyed up. Get a large cutting board and knife to cut everything with. Start with the less potent items (like fruits) and work your way to the things like onion, which will probably leave a hint of it on the knife. Always rinse the knife in between items .. you don't want to have blueberry/strawberries (although that does sound wonderful). Once everything is in a baggie or tupperware then place in the fridge so that it's not hidden from sight. This way you remember what you have for snacks or side items with your lunches. Remember: out of sight, out of mind. Make sure it's visible!

Another tip that I have is to make your own seasonings with what you have. Part of this means saving the leftovers; let's not be wasteful when on a budget! I usually put seasonings in a Ziploc baggie or airtight container and place in the pantry for future use. As you can see above, I write on the baggie what the seasoning is and the date in which I put it together. Who knows how long it will be until you use it again so just to be safe, that is a good idea. I label what it is because .. well .. all the seasoning mixes look the same to me.

Hope these tips will be useful to you and I will have plenty more to share!

Spicy Baked Catfish

Even though I recently have quit my job, I feel like eating healthy is still something I can do on a budget. Tip one: eat less portion sizes. Tip two: buy and cook only what you NEED for dinners instead of anticipating leftovers. I will have many more shopping/coupon-cutting/money-saving advice in the coming entries. This was the first grocery trip for me being on a budget and I spent $65 at Whole Foods (seriously, is that even possible?) for two people for a weeks worth of food! I didn't get milk and a handful of other items (probably totaling $10-20) only because I'm not spending three times as much money for the exact same product. Now that I will have more time and less money, I think I will be shopping around several stores for what is on sale and not ignoring those ads that flood my mailbox each week.

As for the catfish, it is no longer allowed in our house unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, I love catfish .. a lot .. but we found out after I ate this that I am mildly allergic to catfish. Hopefully it's not all seafood, but we'll test that out another time when my throat recovers. Speaking of budgets, I got four filets of this catfish at Whole Foods for a mere $7. Absolutely amazing! Despite my unfortunate incident with this recipe, my husband absolutely devoured and enjoyed every bit of it. I will miss you catfish!!

Edit: I found out I was actually getting strep throat so no allergy worries with catfish!! YAY!

Spicy Baked Catfish

Adapted from: Kelly's Kitch original

4 thin, boneless catfish filets

1/4 cup Jamaican Jerk rub*

4 tbsp Italian salad dressing

1.5 tsp lemon pepper

Place catfish filets in 8x8 glass baking dish and slather on half of the jerk rub and dressing. Flip filets over and spread the remaining sauces on top, coating evenly. Then, sprinkle the lemon pepper on and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until catfish is white and flaky (cooked thoroughly).

* You can purchase this at Williams-Sonoma in the store. Otherwise you can substitute for any similar Jamaican sauce you can find at your local grocery.