What fruit/vege/bread is best kept in the fridge etc?

[soon2befamilyof4]

Hello. I never seem to have much luck with fruit and vege as it always seems to go off quite quickly and I only go shopping every week or 2 so it is becoming quite annoying and we are resorting to frozen veg a lot of the time which I would rather not do.

What fruit and veg should be stored where? And stuff that doesn't go in the fridge, can I put it in my plastic draws or will that make them go off quicker? I am re arranging my kitchen so just trying to work out what to put where!

Would be gratfull of any replies!

I store all fruit (not bananas) and veg in the drawers of my fridge,it all stays fresh for at least a week. Bread stays fresh also,although i don'tstore this in fridge as we use it so quickly being a family with 4dc!

I dont keep apples, bananas, satsumas, etc in fridge. I do keep grapes, strawberries, peppers, mushrooms,etc in there. I dont put bread in the fridge as that makes it go stale quicker

Bread keeps well in the freezer, especially if you pre-slice it, then you can just pop it in the toaster if you're making toast. It defrosts really quickly too. Potatoes, carrots, and other root veg are best kept somewhere dark and cool but don't need to go in the fridge. Neither do tomatoes (unless they are already really ripe) or squashes, or any fruit that's not soft (i.e. berries or plums).

I keep in my fridge salad stuff, mushrooms (make sure they're not wrapped up in plastic as this makes them go off quicker, they might dry out a bit but will still be fine), peppers (although I usually use frozen pre-chopped ones for cooking), courgettes, aubergines etc.

If stuff is starting to go off, I will cook it up and then freeze it, i.e. wrinkly apples become apple sauce, old veg get cooked up with tinned tomatoes and frozen for using with pasta, brown bananas become banana bread, old tomatoes get dried in the oven overnight and preserved in olive oil in the fridge, etc.

wow, you sound very good in the kitchen sts!

Thanks for this.

thread hijack...STS how would you dry tomatoes int he oven- what temp and how long? would love to try this.