Fringe Restock: Solo Edition
April 22, 2023 11:47 PM Subscribe
Is there a way to realistically achieve a full fridge as a single person who tends to have limited time & energy to do a lot of cooking? Bonus: am in Australia.
I have gotten deep into the fridge restock rabbithole, though even before that I've tended to prefer the feeling of a full-enough fridge: an empty fridge feels sad to me, like I'm lacking in nourishment. (I don't have any ED history, but I have struggled with situations where I've been too stressed to eat, which then makes me sick, cycle repeats). Full fridges feel satisfying and I want to replicate that!
My fridge is relatively small, even by local (Australian) standards, and has a small freezer compartment. (You would think this would make the challenge of filling it up easy, but alas.) I live alone and tend to do my groceries every week and a half or so. I have my usual breakfast standards (normally toast, though I did spend a month on a granola kick), and dinners usually involve me making a big batch of something easy (stir-fries, pastas, curries using pre-made sauces, etc) and living on that through the week. Lunch is a bit of a mixed bag - sometimes it's dinner leftovers, sometimes it's noodles + random stuff, sometimes it's a charcuterie board deal, who knows honestly. Sometimes if I know I'll be strapped for time, I'll get a bunch of ready meals (like frozen dinners, soups, frozen dumplings, or instant rice/noodles/etc) - they're also really handy when I'm sick, which is relatively often. I am particular when it comes to fruit, don't eat pork at home, and am the sort of lactose-intolerant person that goes YOLO and eats cheese as a snack, but generally I have an open palate and like adventurous things.
I've got a stable job for the firs time in possibly ever - it doesn't pay gangbusters but it's enough to live on modestly. This also means a regular schedule, though between my work and other things it is getting pretty full (so my window for a big meal prep cook is limited).
My concern is that even if I start filling up my fridge with All The Things, I won't get through them fast enough or forget that they're there (thanks ADHD) and then they rot. Frozen veggies are amazing but there's only so much of them I can fit in my freezer, and I've found that while market produce is cheaper than supermarket produce, they also rot faster. The fridge restock people often get like 5 different types of meat, but meat here is expensive suddenly and also where am I going to store them all before they rot?! They also have a lot of canned drinks - I have my favourites, but I don't buy them so often that it warrants turning my fridge into a vending machine. Buying bulk anything for me is tricky as I don't have a car.
Are there some staples I can invest in to put in my fridge that will not go off so quickly and give me time to make use of them? Anything Australia-accessible that I should know about? What would be nourishing both for my body and for the Full Fridge Restock experience? What's in your fridge??
I have gotten deep into the fridge restock rabbithole, though even before that I've tended to prefer the feeling of a full-enough fridge: an empty fridge feels sad to me, like I'm lacking in nourishment. (I don't have any ED history, but I have struggled with situations where I've been too stressed to eat, which then makes me sick, cycle repeats). Full fridges feel satisfying and I want to replicate that!
My fridge is relatively small, even by local (Australian) standards, and has a small freezer compartment. (You would think this would make the challenge of filling it up easy, but alas.) I live alone and tend to do my groceries every week and a half or so. I have my usual breakfast standards (normally toast, though I did spend a month on a granola kick), and dinners usually involve me making a big batch of something easy (stir-fries, pastas, curries using pre-made sauces, etc) and living on that through the week. Lunch is a bit of a mixed bag - sometimes it's dinner leftovers, sometimes it's noodles + random stuff, sometimes it's a charcuterie board deal, who knows honestly. Sometimes if I know I'll be strapped for time, I'll get a bunch of ready meals (like frozen dinners, soups, frozen dumplings, or instant rice/noodles/etc) - they're also really handy when I'm sick, which is relatively often. I am particular when it comes to fruit, don't eat pork at home, and am the sort of lactose-intolerant person that goes YOLO and eats cheese as a snack, but generally I have an open palate and like adventurous things.
I've got a stable job for the firs time in possibly ever - it doesn't pay gangbusters but it's enough to live on modestly. This also means a regular schedule, though between my work and other things it is getting pretty full (so my window for a big meal prep cook is limited).
My concern is that even if I start filling up my fridge with All The Things, I won't get through them fast enough or forget that they're there (thanks ADHD) and then they rot. Frozen veggies are amazing but there's only so much of them I can fit in my freezer, and I've found that while market produce is cheaper than supermarket produce, they also rot faster. The fridge restock people often get like 5 different types of meat, but meat here is expensive suddenly and also where am I going to store them all before they rot?! They also have a lot of canned drinks - I have my favourites, but I don't buy them so often that it warrants turning my fridge into a vending machine. Buying bulk anything for me is tricky as I don't have a car.
Are there some staples I can invest in to put in my fridge that will not go off so quickly and give me time to make use of them? Anything Australia-accessible that I should know about? What would be nourishing both for my body and for the Full Fridge Restock experience? What's in your fridge??
Honestly, I recently got a bar fridge in a new flat, and it’s a temporary arrangement, but it’s the best! I have stopped lying to myself about the food that will not be eaten.
posted by chiquitita at 2:58 AM on April 23, 2023
posted by chiquitita at 2:58 AM on April 23, 2023
Response by poster: tl,dr can the freezer be your fridge?
Barely enough space to keep regular freezer stuff as it is.
posted by creatrixtiara at 3:11 AM on April 23, 2023
Barely enough space to keep regular freezer stuff as it is.
posted by creatrixtiara at 3:11 AM on April 23, 2023
Response by poster: also I'll stop threadsitting, but a different fridge is not within my means at the moment.
posted by creatrixtiara at 3:12 AM on April 23, 2023
posted by creatrixtiara at 3:12 AM on April 23, 2023
Best answer: I think a lot of this is a very personal decision around the extent to which you are comfortable ignoring use by dates, use within x after opening instructions…
Clearly fresh meat, leftovers and half of an opened package/tub of stuff will spoil. But many, especially unopened things won’t.
A lot of dairy keeps really long in the fridge - a lot of cheeses, yogurts, UHT milk and cream, sour cream, especially if you haven’t opened the package. I’ve had unopened natural yogurt that was in my fridge for two months without ill effects and it was fine taste and texture wise.
All the condiments are fine even after opening.
Pickled and fermented things.
Dried meats.
Vacuum sealed cooked, ready to use veg - I can buy cooked unpickled beetroot, pumpkin etc - as long as the package remains unopened it seems to keep for months. I have a packet of pumpkin coming up to 4 months for soup I have yet to get round to making but I see no reason to toss it.
Grapes seem to keep for ever as long as they are kept dry/air can circulate, they just start to dry/shrivel and become raisins.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:28 AM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Clearly fresh meat, leftovers and half of an opened package/tub of stuff will spoil. But many, especially unopened things won’t.
A lot of dairy keeps really long in the fridge - a lot of cheeses, yogurts, UHT milk and cream, sour cream, especially if you haven’t opened the package. I’ve had unopened natural yogurt that was in my fridge for two months without ill effects and it was fine taste and texture wise.
All the condiments are fine even after opening.
Pickled and fermented things.
Dried meats.
Vacuum sealed cooked, ready to use veg - I can buy cooked unpickled beetroot, pumpkin etc - as long as the package remains unopened it seems to keep for months. I have a packet of pumpkin coming up to 4 months for soup I have yet to get round to making but I see no reason to toss it.
Grapes seem to keep for ever as long as they are kept dry/air can circulate, they just start to dry/shrivel and become raisins.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:28 AM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
The major supermarkets do a range of precooked meats that you finish off in the oven. Example
They tend to have long expiry dates, very possibly because of preservatives and added sugar, so you can have a pack sit there a bit before you have to "cook" it. Watch out for specials!
Possibly not what you're after but I have a lot of stuff in my fridge that can't be eaten for meals (or at all). Eg medications, various sauces, rapid antigen tests (you can pick them up free here), an open container of bicarb to absorb smells. My main shelves are maybe half full but my fridge overall still looks decently full.
posted by pianissimo at 4:52 AM on April 23, 2023
They tend to have long expiry dates, very possibly because of preservatives and added sugar, so you can have a pack sit there a bit before you have to "cook" it. Watch out for specials!
Possibly not what you're after but I have a lot of stuff in my fridge that can't be eaten for meals (or at all). Eg medications, various sauces, rapid antigen tests (you can pick them up free here), an open container of bicarb to absorb smells. My main shelves are maybe half full but my fridge overall still looks decently full.
posted by pianissimo at 4:52 AM on April 23, 2023
Best answer: Since you said you don’t always have time for a big restock, I’d do the following(based on my guesses about the size of fridge you have):
- make one column (so you’d only be seeing one can) of drink/soda and stack those towards the back. You can also use this in a defensive way if there are spots of your fridge that tend to freeze produce (note, I’m just talking about them standing up, not one of those dispenser things)
- figure out a fridgerated snack (normally I’d say yogurt, but idk if that really works for you) that is easy to grab and you can also stack. This might also be something like a granola bar. It doesn’t really matter that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, it’s just about making food you’d want to eat when hungry and not in a place to make decisions easy
- put a plate/small tray with whatever fruit or veg you’d eat as a snack on its own (apples, capsicum, cucumber, whatever). Again this is to make it like you’re taking something from a display case fridge at a shop. If you have more that you keep in a fridge drawer- great, but this will help remind you it exists
- if you are able to meal prep/have leftovers get some Tupperware that is square and about 1 portion size for you that stacks. You can get the cheap plastic kind or reuse stuff that was formerly other packaging, but it needs to be see through. Stack these in a way that makes one easy to grab
- if you still feel like you have too much space leftover, fill up a carafe of water to keep cool (and helps temperature regulate your fridge) and I’ve even seen people put in a vase of flowers. While obvi they aren’t a snack, they would help keep the fridge from looking empty.
-remember that the goal isn’t necessarily to have a million and one ice cubes, but to display the food in a way that makes you remember it and want to eat it (yes I know some restock videos are about having a full vending machine of drinks, but that’s not your goal).
posted by raccoon409 at 5:08 AM on April 23, 2023
- make one column (so you’d only be seeing one can) of drink/soda and stack those towards the back. You can also use this in a defensive way if there are spots of your fridge that tend to freeze produce (note, I’m just talking about them standing up, not one of those dispenser things)
- figure out a fridgerated snack (normally I’d say yogurt, but idk if that really works for you) that is easy to grab and you can also stack. This might also be something like a granola bar. It doesn’t really matter that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, it’s just about making food you’d want to eat when hungry and not in a place to make decisions easy
- put a plate/small tray with whatever fruit or veg you’d eat as a snack on its own (apples, capsicum, cucumber, whatever). Again this is to make it like you’re taking something from a display case fridge at a shop. If you have more that you keep in a fridge drawer- great, but this will help remind you it exists
- if you are able to meal prep/have leftovers get some Tupperware that is square and about 1 portion size for you that stacks. You can get the cheap plastic kind or reuse stuff that was formerly other packaging, but it needs to be see through. Stack these in a way that makes one easy to grab
- if you still feel like you have too much space leftover, fill up a carafe of water to keep cool (and helps temperature regulate your fridge) and I’ve even seen people put in a vase of flowers. While obvi they aren’t a snack, they would help keep the fridge from looking empty.
-remember that the goal isn’t necessarily to have a million and one ice cubes, but to display the food in a way that makes you remember it and want to eat it (yes I know some restock videos are about having a full vending machine of drinks, but that’s not your goal).
posted by raccoon409 at 5:08 AM on April 23, 2023
I'm a single person with the opposite problem - my fridge is similarly small and is often TOO full (I belong to a very active farmshare). I've been intentionally trying to empty it out as much as possible because the farmshare starts up in a couple months and I'm getting ready.
But I get the mindset, and I can be this way - but I'm this way about my pantry, and I think that may be a bit more achievable for you. Because the stuff in your pantry can stay there way longer, and it's often the stuff that turns the stuff in your fridge into a meal, you know? Like, all I have in my vegetable drawer right now is some carrots, celery, and one sweet potato, which would be an okay meal on their own. But if I steamed up some of one of the grains in my pantry and had that with the carrots, celery, and sweet potato, suddenly it feels like I have A MEAL.
So my fridge and freezer are only partially-full these days (some vegetables in each, a half a package of smoked sausage, some condiments, milk and eggs and butter, and some grab-and-go packages of leftovers for quick meals and a couple cheeses) but my pantry is downright lavish: eight kinds of dried beans, 3 different cans of beans, 5 different whole grains, 3 kinds of pasta (including one box of the tiny kind that works perfectly in soup or in homemade macaroni and cheese), a couple cans each of tuna, salmon, and shellfish, 4 kinds of crackers, a couple boxes of cake mix, 5 different kinds of flour and 7 different kinds of sweeteners for baking, an entire CABINET of spices - and around the corner on the counter (because there's no room in the cupboards) there's also all the cookies and crackers and candy plus a bowl of limes and lemons and a box of onions and a little bowl of garlic. It can all live there as long as it wants and as long as I want to let it, and it is enough of a foundation that I could feed myself off just the pantry if need be.
And sometimes, because of that lavishness and because I've also had some food-insecure times, I will sometimes open my pantry and just look at it and breathe a happy sigh about how much is in there.
So I wonder if maybe the answer is to shift to a pantry restock mindset. (Those kinds of videos exist too, happily.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:12 AM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
But I get the mindset, and I can be this way - but I'm this way about my pantry, and I think that may be a bit more achievable for you. Because the stuff in your pantry can stay there way longer, and it's often the stuff that turns the stuff in your fridge into a meal, you know? Like, all I have in my vegetable drawer right now is some carrots, celery, and one sweet potato, which would be an okay meal on their own. But if I steamed up some of one of the grains in my pantry and had that with the carrots, celery, and sweet potato, suddenly it feels like I have A MEAL.
So my fridge and freezer are only partially-full these days (some vegetables in each, a half a package of smoked sausage, some condiments, milk and eggs and butter, and some grab-and-go packages of leftovers for quick meals and a couple cheeses) but my pantry is downright lavish: eight kinds of dried beans, 3 different cans of beans, 5 different whole grains, 3 kinds of pasta (including one box of the tiny kind that works perfectly in soup or in homemade macaroni and cheese), a couple cans each of tuna, salmon, and shellfish, 4 kinds of crackers, a couple boxes of cake mix, 5 different kinds of flour and 7 different kinds of sweeteners for baking, an entire CABINET of spices - and around the corner on the counter (because there's no room in the cupboards) there's also all the cookies and crackers and candy plus a bowl of limes and lemons and a box of onions and a little bowl of garlic. It can all live there as long as it wants and as long as I want to let it, and it is enough of a foundation that I could feed myself off just the pantry if need be.
And sometimes, because of that lavishness and because I've also had some food-insecure times, I will sometimes open my pantry and just look at it and breathe a happy sigh about how much is in there.
So I wonder if maybe the answer is to shift to a pantry restock mindset. (Those kinds of videos exist too, happily.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:12 AM on April 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: We have a small fridge. It's good.
On the top shelf are all the condiments and things like curry paste, miso and avjar, it is completely full of stuff.
In the veggie drawers are carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, celery and often beets. There will often be other durable vegetables, like courgettes, fennel, pumpkins, broccoli, mushrooms, often romaine lettuce, often cabbage whatever.. Ideally, there would be one drawer for fruits and one for vegs, but because we have a lot of vegs, lemons, limes, oranges and green apples are on the bottom shelf.
Vegetables and fruits that don't keep well are on the kitchen counter, so we don't forget them.
The door holds oat milk, milk, juice, bottled water, tomato paste in a tube, butter and cheeses. And anchovies.
We always have eggs.
In between are the random stuff, right now I have made some pastes: hummus, taramasalata, pesto, You can buy those too. They keep well and are good for a simple meal with some bread or pasta. I have a package of bacon too, which mainly goes into a quick pasta sauce with tomatoes, chili and garlic. I never use a whole tin of tomatoes, so often, there is a container with half of a tin of tomatoes. Right now, there is a bottle of passata because there was a good bargain.
We shop good deals, so there is no fixed plan. If someone sees a fine offer on artichokes, they will be in the fridge. Due to inflation, we pay attention to deals on butter, and we might have five packages. We have cut down on meat because of the climate, but if we see an offer on a sustainably raised chicken, it will be bought and either cut up for several meals or roasted, cut up and used for several meals. Both ways, the carcass goes to stock.
The freezer always has spinach, peas, haricots verts and homemade chicken stock. Someone (not me) manages to fit in some ice cream there too, sometimes.
The whole concept of our fridge and pantry drawer is that we can always cook a good meal for any number of people. Or for one. We shop when we have the time.
We can always make some form of pasta, or some form of rice and a stir-fry, or a spread of cold stuff and bread. No one will starve here ;-)
posted by mumimor at 5:44 AM on April 23, 2023
On the top shelf are all the condiments and things like curry paste, miso and avjar, it is completely full of stuff.
In the veggie drawers are carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, celery and often beets. There will often be other durable vegetables, like courgettes, fennel, pumpkins, broccoli, mushrooms, often romaine lettuce, often cabbage whatever.. Ideally, there would be one drawer for fruits and one for vegs, but because we have a lot of vegs, lemons, limes, oranges and green apples are on the bottom shelf.
Vegetables and fruits that don't keep well are on the kitchen counter, so we don't forget them.
The door holds oat milk, milk, juice, bottled water, tomato paste in a tube, butter and cheeses. And anchovies.
We always have eggs.
In between are the random stuff, right now I have made some pastes: hummus, taramasalata, pesto, You can buy those too. They keep well and are good for a simple meal with some bread or pasta. I have a package of bacon too, which mainly goes into a quick pasta sauce with tomatoes, chili and garlic. I never use a whole tin of tomatoes, so often, there is a container with half of a tin of tomatoes. Right now, there is a bottle of passata because there was a good bargain.
We shop good deals, so there is no fixed plan. If someone sees a fine offer on artichokes, they will be in the fridge. Due to inflation, we pay attention to deals on butter, and we might have five packages. We have cut down on meat because of the climate, but if we see an offer on a sustainably raised chicken, it will be bought and either cut up for several meals or roasted, cut up and used for several meals. Both ways, the carcass goes to stock.
The freezer always has spinach, peas, haricots verts and homemade chicken stock. Someone (not me) manages to fit in some ice cream there too, sometimes.
The whole concept of our fridge and pantry drawer is that we can always cook a good meal for any number of people. Or for one. We shop when we have the time.
We can always make some form of pasta, or some form of rice and a stir-fry, or a spread of cold stuff and bread. No one will starve here ;-)
posted by mumimor at 5:44 AM on April 23, 2023
Eggs, pickles (and not just of the cucumber variety; carrots, onions, chutney, salsa, etc. will keep a long time even if opened), vacuum packed meat in small portions (eg: these smoked meat packages usually have expiry dates 6-8 weeks in the future and are usable past that; smoked fish lasts for months), cheese but buy small packages to minimize mold, sour cream, small packages of salad will last several weeks if not opened.
posted by Mitheral at 6:22 AM on April 23, 2023
posted by Mitheral at 6:22 AM on April 23, 2023
I'd add a variety of nuts and dried fruits (great for snacking or your charcuterie board lunches). If you are going for that restocking aesthetic get a bunch of matching smallish containers to put them in.
posted by mcduff at 6:55 AM on April 23, 2023
posted by mcduff at 6:55 AM on April 23, 2023
Response by poster: EmpressCallipygos: my pantry (a makeshift bookshelf, I am in a tiny kitchen) is STUFFED but it's like 90% seasonings/sauces/spices with one shelf for rice/lentils/flour/grains. So not really a full meal per se.
posted by creatrixtiara at 8:19 AM on April 23, 2023
posted by creatrixtiara at 8:19 AM on April 23, 2023
my pantry (a makeshift bookshelf, I am in a tiny kitchen) is STUFFED but it's like 90% seasonings/sauces/spices with one shelf for rice/lentils/flour/grains.
Right, and so was mine about ten years ago; but then I got to a point much like you are now, where you're considering trying to restock your fridge. I just gave my pantry an overhaul and I use that as the thing I keep full instead of trying to do that to my fridge, that was my point.
And as for the fridge, I actually had to train myself out of the habit of stuffing the fridge with things that I couldn't eat through fast enough; throwing things away actually contributed to that feeling of deprivation ("aw, crap, I never finished that chicken; shit, now I'm going to just have to go buy more, dammit").
But that said, there are some things that do hang in there in the fridge; cheeses and cured meats (bacon, hard sausage, etc.) seem to do well. Smoked sausage and cooked ham are pretty damn versatile and you can throw them into lots of things. Olives, capers, and anchovies are flavor bombs that keep for a long time, and they often come in nicely compact jars.
Speaking of jars - another thing that helps me keep pantry AND fridge organized is a regular sort of cleanout and exploration. I've saved jars from storebought things in various sizes once the contents got used up - spice jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars, jam jars, you name it. (About 20% of my pantry storage containers used to be spaghetti sauce jars from when my roommate lived off Wegmans' "Grandpa's Pasta Sauce" during the pandemic.) And then I regularly decant things from bigger to smaller containers as I use them up, because
* It reminds me what I've got (and helps re-emphasize that "oh hang on, there's a lot in there, cool"),
* The stuff is less exposed to air inside the container so it stays a little fresher a little longer,
* It looks all organized and pretty-like, and
* It frees up space for me to add more things.
I literally just spent the last 2 hours doing that in my fridge and now there's room for the quart of vegetable stock and the big pot of white beans I made for meal prep this week. And yesterday I did that in my pantry, which will make room for some more dried beans and pasta that I'm getting later this week. And during that cleanout I discovered some things that got me thinking "oh hang on, I can use all this for a quick soup and live off that for a while."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:29 AM on April 23, 2023
Right, and so was mine about ten years ago; but then I got to a point much like you are now, where you're considering trying to restock your fridge. I just gave my pantry an overhaul and I use that as the thing I keep full instead of trying to do that to my fridge, that was my point.
And as for the fridge, I actually had to train myself out of the habit of stuffing the fridge with things that I couldn't eat through fast enough; throwing things away actually contributed to that feeling of deprivation ("aw, crap, I never finished that chicken; shit, now I'm going to just have to go buy more, dammit").
But that said, there are some things that do hang in there in the fridge; cheeses and cured meats (bacon, hard sausage, etc.) seem to do well. Smoked sausage and cooked ham are pretty damn versatile and you can throw them into lots of things. Olives, capers, and anchovies are flavor bombs that keep for a long time, and they often come in nicely compact jars.
Speaking of jars - another thing that helps me keep pantry AND fridge organized is a regular sort of cleanout and exploration. I've saved jars from storebought things in various sizes once the contents got used up - spice jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars, jam jars, you name it. (About 20% of my pantry storage containers used to be spaghetti sauce jars from when my roommate lived off Wegmans' "Grandpa's Pasta Sauce" during the pandemic.) And then I regularly decant things from bigger to smaller containers as I use them up, because
* It reminds me what I've got (and helps re-emphasize that "oh hang on, there's a lot in there, cool"),
* The stuff is less exposed to air inside the container so it stays a little fresher a little longer,
* It looks all organized and pretty-like, and
* It frees up space for me to add more things.
I literally just spent the last 2 hours doing that in my fridge and now there's room for the quart of vegetable stock and the big pot of white beans I made for meal prep this week. And yesterday I did that in my pantry, which will make room for some more dried beans and pasta that I'm getting later this week. And during that cleanout I discovered some things that got me thinking "oh hang on, I can use all this for a quick soup and live off that for a while."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:29 AM on April 23, 2023
I have gotten deep into the fridge restock rabbithole ,
At least in the videos in that link, a few things stood out to me. First, very clearly most of them were about stocking a (very large, in some cases likely secondary) fridge specifically for children's snacks. Second, a surprising number of items that they were putting in there didn't actually need to be refrigerated at all (like the shelf-stable meat sticks, say). And, aside from veggies, luncheon meats, bacon, and milk, much of what they showed was very long-lasting.
In other words, you could imitate the aesthetic mostly with highly stable products, which removes the time pressure to eat them quick before they spoil, and by repackaging things you buy into matching plastic containers.
That said, when I'm living alone, I mostly do the opposite. Food wastage makes me feel bad, so I try (not necessarily successfully) to shop very selectively for things with a short expiry date. If I buy meat, it's for a specific meal, not to keep a bunch in the fridge and then decide later, for example. Like the EmpressC, I cook more from the pantry, supplemented with fridge items. And, I don't eat much in the way of prepared snacks in general, so my fridge is never going to look like the fridges in that video.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:29 PM on April 23, 2023
At least in the videos in that link, a few things stood out to me. First, very clearly most of them were about stocking a (very large, in some cases likely secondary) fridge specifically for children's snacks. Second, a surprising number of items that they were putting in there didn't actually need to be refrigerated at all (like the shelf-stable meat sticks, say). And, aside from veggies, luncheon meats, bacon, and milk, much of what they showed was very long-lasting.
In other words, you could imitate the aesthetic mostly with highly stable products, which removes the time pressure to eat them quick before they spoil, and by repackaging things you buy into matching plastic containers.
That said, when I'm living alone, I mostly do the opposite. Food wastage makes me feel bad, so I try (not necessarily successfully) to shop very selectively for things with a short expiry date. If I buy meat, it's for a specific meal, not to keep a bunch in the fridge and then decide later, for example. Like the EmpressC, I cook more from the pantry, supplemented with fridge items. And, I don't eat much in the way of prepared snacks in general, so my fridge is never going to look like the fridges in that video.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:29 PM on April 23, 2023
A vegetable suggestion...consider purchasing fresh veggies that also work well cooked (e.g. yes to spinach, no to iceburg lettuce). Not only do leafy green vegetables tend to cook down to practically nothing, they will taste fine cooked when they are a bit past the ideal stage of consumed while raw. So if the week's salad plan was a bust, add some spinach to curry or pasta sauce later in the week and/or embraced the steamed greens. The Wirecutter has some suggestions re produce.
You may not be in a position to address this immediately, but it's helpful when your pots 'n pans, and food storage options work with (and not against) you and your space.
A longer term suggestion... maybe pick up a small second hand cooler? I'm thinking that this could be useful for keeping drinks cool, and might be useful when the electricity goes out / when traveling/ when going grocery shopping. There is also an entire world of passive cooling out there, but that might be too fussy for what you are looking for.
I also think there's a time and place where grocery delivery (and/or a taxi home from the market) is a reasonable option.
posted by oceano at 4:28 PM on April 23, 2023
You may not be in a position to address this immediately, but it's helpful when your pots 'n pans, and food storage options work with (and not against) you and your space.
A longer term suggestion... maybe pick up a small second hand cooler? I'm thinking that this could be useful for keeping drinks cool, and might be useful when the electricity goes out / when traveling/ when going grocery shopping. There is also an entire world of passive cooling out there, but that might be too fussy for what you are looking for.
I also think there's a time and place where grocery delivery (and/or a taxi home from the market) is a reasonable option.
posted by oceano at 4:28 PM on April 23, 2023
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What keeps for a good long time in the fridge: condiments, mostly. Besides that it's temporary greens / pantry / freezer. The fridge is the leftovers that will get eaten in time.
tl,dr can the freezer be your fridge?
posted by away for regrooving at 12:17 AM on April 23, 2023 [3 favorites]