How Do You Have Your Kitchen Set Up?

[eat~to~live]

I am going raw again since I did it last year and I just wasn't doing it right. I was prepareing everything all the time in small batches and I just wore myself out!

So, If you all could share some thoughts on how you have your kitchen set up I think that would really help me to visualize and do better.

I read somewhere that one of you makes up bigger batches of dehydrated crusts, sauces and dips to freeze and use when needed, that is great!

My nuts used to go bad, so do you in general keep them in the freezer? Maybe only the nuts you use less often in the freezer and the more often ones on the counter?

Also, as a rule of thumb, when you are storeing dehydrated items, do you keep them in the fridge?

Plus, any other advise on how you "Plan" a menu for the week. I am trying to get my kids on much more raw than they are now. Tonight I made a salad with shredded lettuce, diced cucumber from the neighbors garden (So nice!) tiny bits of cubed marbled cheese with sunflower seeds and I coated it with ranch dressing and tossed. They ate it all up and loved it! :) Way easy too.

I now have all my lettuce washed and in baggies so It's easy to make a salad or use it for a roll up with some pate.

I know you have some great advise,
Thanks,
~Nicole

[papajoe]

I am going raw again since I did it last year and I just wasn't doing it right. I was prepareing everything all the time in small batches and I just wore myself out!

So, If you all could share some thoughts on how you have your kitchen set up I think that would really help me to visualize and do better.

I read somewhere that one of you makes up bigger batches of dehydrated crusts, sauces and dips to freeze and use when needed, that is great!

My nuts used to go bad, so do you in general keep them in the freezer? Maybe only the nuts you use less often in the freezer and the more often ones on the counter?

Also, as a rule of thumb, when you are storeing dehydrated items, do you keep them in the fridge?

Plus, any other advise on how you "Plan" a menu for the week. I am trying to get my kids on much more raw than they are now. Tonight I made a salad with shredded lettuce, diced cucumber from the neighbors garden (So nice!) tiny bits of cubed marbled cheese with sunflower seeds and I coated it with ranch dressing and tossed. They ate it all up and loved it! :) Way easy too.

I now have all my lettuce washed and in baggies so It's easy to make a salad or use it for a roll up with some pate.

I know you have some great advise,
Thanks,
~Nicole

I keep all my nuts in the fridge. Some in vacuum bags. I get a lot of fresh and ripe produce and I keep them in Evert-fresh green bags
www.evertfresh.com Bananas I peel and put in gallon baggies in the freezer. strawberrie I wash and freeze also peaches,grapes (kids will love these, minnie popsicles to pop in your mouth. I use them when I am coming off a fast.)I buy whole pinapple cut it up freeze the fruit and juice the rind, I do about three at a time. Whenever I want to make a smootie I just pull out the fruit I need. I buy those bananas on the discount rack at the produce section. the ones that other people wont buy with the brown spots. Right now I have about 15 lb of bananas in my freezers. I also make up banana leather 8 racks at a time. I Cut it up into squares that fit into Quart zip-lock bags. I have kept some for over a year in the fridge. I also make up the filling for alsissa's crepes and have mailed them to a friend ,who just adds the sauce. The filling keeps well in the fridge. I make stawberry, pinapple, blueberry, and peach sauce for the crepes. Any ripe fruit you have can be put in your food processor for fruit leather I just cut out the bad spots and grind it up. you can mix it. A friend of mine runs a food kitchen and gives me the fruit they can't use. I make it into fruit leather and give it back to her to give out with the meals as a treat.

[Raw Joy]

I'm planning on reorganizing my kitchen. It's fairly small and I have some counter space but not a lot. Anyway, here's what I was planning:

Moving the microwave to the basement. I only use it occasionally to thaw something or DH uses it to warm up leftovers. Three or four trips down a month to use it won't be that big of a deal. This will free up space so that I can have all of my appliances on the counter in one place. Right now, all I keep out is the food processor and eveything else is stored in cabinets.

My dehydrator is already in the basement, for space reasons. It really isn't that much of a hassle.

I'm going to put my appliances in one spot, along with a medium cutting board, my knives, and a small, shallow bin (like an in-box in an office) that holds my oils, ACV, etc. I'm going to rearrange the cabinets just above the appliances to store my nuts, spices, dates, flax seeds - stuff I commonly use.

I'm going to start keeping all of the cooked stuff in the refrigerator on one shelf (butter, milk, left-overs).

I want to set aside either a shelf, or part of a shelf in the refrigerator for prep stuff. Like I know I want to fix a green smoothie before work in the morning. Before I go to bed, I'll put the fruit, nuts, flax seeds, and greens in one spot in the refrigerator, maybe in a container. The next morning, it's all there and I don't have to go digging through the refrigerator/cabinets to find what I need. Do the same with the ingrediants for whatever I'm planning for supper that night.

I'll let you know when I get it organized and how it works. Hope this helps.

RawJOY

[LearningDaily]

I'll admit that I'm a compulsive grocery shopper. I've always been this way, and it's much worse when I'm raw.

I over buy produce like crazy and end up freezing most of it because it will go bad if I don't. So, I have tons of fruit in my freezers that I use for smoothies, shakes, or just eating. Green smoothies have been a life saver as I seem to actually run out of greens as opposed to tossing tons every week.

I buy nuts in bulk and store most of it in the freezer. I have small and large mason jars in my pantry that store the more common nuts. The rest are frozen and once I use what's in the jar, I'll refill it. The exception are soaked almonds...fridge.

I have an insane amount of counter space, so my appliances are always sitting on the counter.

As for meal planning....I could never do that with SAD food, let alone raw. I can't help you with that.

[eat~to~live]

Thank you so much! This really helps me, more than you know! I have already put my microwave in the basement and my dehydrator is there too except it is unfinished & dusty down there, so I need to find a cleaner place for it.
I already see where I need to make spaces happen and how I need to clean out the kitchen to make this fun and stick with it! Thanks again, everyone's welcome to chime in, keep these comming!