Tips & Tricks: Keeping fresh herbs fresh

I can never go back to dried herbs. The incredible flavor fresh herbs add to a dish is impossible to match -- that's just the truth of the matter. Dried herbs are great and they serve a purpose, but fresh herbs ... well ... there's just no comparison.

But fresh herbs cost more and they usually go bad -- fast.

So how would a money-conscious, conscientious cooker go about incorporating fresh herbs into their everyday cooking (try saying that 3 times, fast)?

Allow me to demonstrate.

I can't remember where I learned this trick, but it really, truly works. I use it mostly for my parsley, cilantro and asparagus (I know asparagus is not an herb). Basil and green onions apply the same principle, but they do better outside the fridge and in the sun. I kid you not -- with this method I can get two weeks out of my parsley and cilantro. Basil and green onions will last nearly indefinitely.

So here's the magic:

1. Take your fresh herbs and cut off the very end of the stems. Remove any rubber bands or twist-ties.

2. Fill a small cup or container with cool water and place the herbs stem-down in the container, just like a flower in a vase.

3. For cilantro or parsley, lightly cover the cup or container with a plastic produce bag (use the one you brought the herbs home in) and put herbs in the least cold part of your fridge.

For asparagus, you don't need to cover with a produce bag. Step 2 is all you need to do before putting it in the fridge.

For basil and green onions*, put the container on a sunlit windowsill or counter. Check every other day or so to make sure the water isn't gone.

*I buy my green onions at the grocery store. When I initially use them, I cut them down to where it starts to get white. I put the remaining little white bulbs in the water and the green onions regenerate. Yes, they grow back and in about a week, you can cut them down again! 

It's really that simple, folks.

Go.

Live your dreams of fresh herbs in every meal.

Tips & Tricks: Wanna eat more produce? Try this.

I am a creature of convenience. I'm sure most of us are, in some way or another.

But there's this thing about convenience -- in most cases, it will cost ya. Because convenience costs. Whether it's pre-packaged, pre-washed, pre-cooked, pre-cut, pre-served or preserved, it's gonna cost you extra. Convenience costs because someone, somewhere, is taking on part of your work. Just because you don't have to do the washing and chopping, doesn't mean those things magically pop out of the ground or off a tree that way. Nope. Somebody grew those carrots. Somebody plucked them out of the dirt. Somebody drove them to a baby carrot making place. Somebody ran those carrots through a machine that washes, peels, cuts and baby-fies them (seriously, though. I toured the central kitchen for BYU once while writing an article for the Daily Universe -- there are such machines). Then somebody gathered and packaged those baby-fied carrots. Somebody loaded them onto a truck. Somebody drove that truck to the store. You get where I'm going with this? All of those steps toward "convenience" cost something. And guess who's paying for it? You and me, baby.

Convenience can also interfere with healthier choices. I'm speaking from personal experience. Most of the time when I open the fridge or pantry and decide there's nothing to eat but granola bars (so I choose the granola bar), it isn't because there isn't anything to eat. It's because there's nothing easier to eat than a granola bar. Granola bars are a great snack when you're on the go. When you don't have other options. But let's be honest here -- granola bars are sugar (or corn syrup) and oats. Not very filling. Not incredibly nutritious. Not horrible for you, but an apple would be a lot better.

So this is something I struggle with: forgoing convenience in favor of healthful eating options.

Here's how I deal with it: I take a little extra time in the BEGINNING to make healthier options the more convenient choice.

Before I go grocery shopping, I clean out my fridge. Discard expired items. Wipe up spills. Make sure there's space for your new haul. I realized how much I appreciate a post-shopping clean fridge when I read some tips my friend Nicole posted over at First Comes Love.

When I get home from the grocery store, I put everything away except [most of] the fresh produce. Then I do a vinegar soak.

Vinegar soak for produce

• Begin by cleaning the sink and surrounding area. For a food-safe clean, use vinegar. 
• Fill one sink 1/2 way full of lukewarm water.
• Add 1 C white vinegar while sink is filling. 
• Remove any stickers from produce.
• Place produce in vinegar and water solution. 
• Soak produce for 10 minutes.
• Remove produce from sink and rinse under cool water. 
• Set produce on paper towel laid over a clean surface and allow produce to dry. 
• Cut up or divide "snack" produce into plastic bags or containers. 

Not only does this soak keep your produce fresh for (in my experience) up to two weeks, it makes produce the convenient choice. 

There is NO vinegar taste. Just fresh, clean, ready-to-eat produce. 

I've used this rinse on squash, melons, berries, grapes, cherries, apples, oranges, lemons, limes, pears, peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, carrots, lettuce,  bell peppers, and more. 

I have not tried it with broccoli or cauliflower (or similar items), because I'm not sure how I would rinse it well enough (although some sources say it's fine). 

This will keep your berries from molding for over a week. It's amazing. I've had strawberries in the fridge for two weeks without the slightest hint of mold.

Deconstructables

I love my boys. My boys love food (and me, of course). But they don't love ALL food (actually, pretty sure one of them does love ALL food. Can you guess which?).

Honestly, cooking for kiddos is a bit of a rollercoaster ride (anyone out there who can relate?!). One day, they love everything they can get in their little mouths. The next, they won't touch anything you offer them.

Here's how I try to avoid mealtime mayhem and/or monotony: Deconstructables.

(Don't mind my super cheesy Paint rendition)

What are deconstructables? Exactly what it sounds like -- things that are able to be deconstructed.

When I was a freshman in college I took a nutrition class. It had nothing to do with my [undecided] major, I just thought it would be fun. And it was. One thing about children's nutrition that stuck out to me most was this concept:

Don't force your kid to eat foods he or she doesn't want to eat. Encourage them to try everything, but don't get mad if they don't. Provide several options at each meal, but make sure you include at least one thing you know they'll eat. If they don't like something, don't force it on them -- but reintroduce the food after a few days. Eventually, they'll try it and/or like it. 

Makes sense, right? But it also sounds like a lot of work. How am I supposed to provide several options when I'm only making one meal?

The answer? Deconstructables.

Here's a simple example: I want a Greek-inspired cucumber salad for lunch. My salad includes cucumber, cherry tomatoes, sliced red onion, feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. I assemble my salad and deconstruct the kids'. I get a scrumptious and beautiful cucumber salad, the kids get a little stack of diced cucumbers, a few cherry tomato halves, a sliver of sliced red onion (in case they're in a palate-expanding-mood [and I don't mean braces]), a pile of crumbled feta, and some dressing on the side. Throw in a piece of fruit and you have a meal. I get my salad, and the kids get a variety of foods to pick and choose from.

If it's something the kids haven't tried before, I start with a small amount of everything and encourage the kids to try the new foods, using the additional "liked" foods as bribery. I can almost always get them to taste everything this way. If they don't like it, they're allowed to spit it out and they still get the other "liked" foods for trying. Most of the time, they don't spit it out.

On a larger, dinner scale: I'm making Vegetarian Chili with a side of cornbread. I know the kids will eat the cornbread, but the chili might have too much kick for the little guy (actually, the bigger little guy. Little guy is a Texan and can handle the heat. Bigger little guy spent his formative first four months in Utah and hasn't finished acclimating to spicy foods). If I'm worried about the spice, I'll (a) set aside a couple pieces of each vegetable as I'm chopping and nuke it with a little water in a bowl with a vented lid, or (b) spoon some chili into the colander and rinse it with cool water, effectively cooling the food in more ways than one.

And that's that: Chili deconstructed. Kiddos get to try beans, squash, zucchini, corn, onion, red and green peppers, and tomatoes -- all in one go. I usually give them a little bit of the cooked meal, too, so they can try it and eventually be okay with just eating the cooked chili.

There you have it. Deconstructables. Just about any meal can be deconstructed to give your kid plenty of options and broaden his or her palate.

What I love about Sundays: Family dinners & resilience

A few years ago, I took a PR class called, "Communications 416: Media Advocacy and Social Change." Part of the class required us to complete a social advocacy project. My group chose to focus on the benefits of family mealtime and it's accompanying movement, and as part of the project I wrote several blog entries on the subject:

Cooking with the Condies : Resources Everywhere
Cooking with the Condies : Why I Love Family Meals
Cooking with the Condies : Family Day
Cooking with the Condies : The Benefits of Family Dinners

When I started this project I had been married for about 8 months. I was very-soon-to-be pregnant with Peyton. And I had no idea how impactful this project would be on my life.

One of many benefits family dinners offer is a greater sense of resilience (The Family Dinner Project).

Resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Resilience is something I've thought a lot about recently. It's also something I've had to work hard at, even as an adult.

In the Ensign article entitled, "Raising Resilient Children" (which I encourage EVERYONE to read. It's amazing), Lyle J. Burrup writes:

We know two things about adversity and resilience: First, there is “an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11). Second, obtaining anything of great worth often requires great sacrifice. 

As children become resilient, they understand and accept these two facts. They see life as challenging and ever changing, but they believe they can cope with those challenges and changes. They view mistakes and weaknesses as opportunities to learn, and they accept that losing may precede winning. 

As children develop resilience, they believe they can influence and even control outcomes in their lives through effort, imagination, knowledge, and skill. With this attitude, they focus on what they can do rather than on what is outside their control.

Couldn't we all use a little (or a lot) of resilience? Can you imagine having the ability to look at every mistake and weakness and say, "I can really learn from this! I might misstep a few times, but sometimes you have to lose before you can win."

Sometimes I focus on the things I can't change, when I should be focusing and working toward changing the things that I CAN control.

One thing that hinders the development of resilience is a misunderstanding of the commandment to be perfect (see Matthew 5:48) ...

This misunderstanding may also stem from what society teaches our youth: that their worth depends on talent and performance. In schools and communities, sometimes even at church or at home, youth see their peers get acceptance, admiration, approval, and praise for being talented at something. So they try to measure up. As they do so, they start to fear failure and mistakes. They choose what to do based on how successful they think they will be. They procrastinate when they do not feel confident. They worry about what others will think if they make mistakes. They fear loss of approval. They view their performance as the measure of their worth. Their perfectionism becomes a mean taskmaster, and it wears down their resilience.

I'm not a child or even a youth, but I still feel this way. I still feel like my worth depends on my talent and performance. Just this week I was filling out my mormon.org profile, and I started to feel down.

"What can I possibly put that would make people want to read about me? I'm ordinary. I'm stereotypical. I haven't accomplished anything outstanding or incredible. I'm average."

This is NOT resilient thinking. This IS a misunderstanding of the commandment to be perfect. This is not how God views us, and it's certainly not how I should view myself.

I'm extraordinary. I'm a child of God. Daughter of a King.

Burrup provides several suggestions for teaching our children resilience. I read the suggestions twice -- once for my kids and once for myself.

• Pray to understand your children’s strengths and how to help them with their weaknesses.
• Be patient and realize that children need time to develop resilience.
• Strive to understand that mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn.
• Allow natural, logical consequences to serve as the disciplinarian.
• Respect children’s decisions, even if their poor choices lead to lost privileges.
• Refrain from berating children for breaking the rules.
• Do not discourage effort by criticizing harshly.
• Rather than praising accomplishment, encourage and praise effort.
• “Praise your children more than you correct them. Praise them for even their smallest achievement” (President Ezra Taft Benson [1899–1994], “The Honored Place of Woman,” Ensign, Nov. 1981, 107).

• Pray to understand your strengths and for help with your weaknesses.
• Be patient and realize that you need time to develop resilience.
• Strive to understand that mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn.
• Allow natural, logical consequences to serve as the disciplinarian.
• Don't dwell on your decisions, even if you make poor choices. Learn from them and don't make them again.
• Refrain from berating yourself or your worth when you make mistakes.
• Do not criticize yourself harshly.
• Rather than praising your accomplishments, encourage and praise your efforts.
• “Praise more than you correct yourself. Praise yourself for even your smallest achievement” (President Ezra Taft Benson [1899–1994], “The Honored Place of Woman,” Ensign, Nov. 1981, 107).

Now we can add, "eat dinner together as a family" to our building-resilience list. And we can use that mealtime as an opportunity to practice many of the above suggestions.