A Healthy Kitchen’s Best Accessory

I kicked off my Sunday with my favorite routine. First, I headed over to yoga for a sweaty/challenging/exhilarating class (thanks Geri!) There’s no better way to start the day or the week. Apparently 40 or so other Chicagoans thought the same thing when they woke up this morning. It was fantastic—our mats were inches apart and there was plenty of shakti to go around.

Still surfing that high, I made my weekly pilgrimage to Whole Foods (who am I kidding? I go there about three times/week). For people who have been going to WF for years, this is no big deal. But I love it. And when I lived in Vermont, the nearest one was 157 miles away. Needless to say, I didn’t go. Now I live less than half a mile from WF and still feel like a kid in a candy store whenever I do my shopping.

There, I stocked up on heaps of fresh fruits and veggies—red leaf and butter leaf lettuce, pineapple, yellow squash, cantaloupe, string beans, beets, grapes, watermelon, carrots, peppers in three different colors, and so much more. I think I may need to recruit some friends to help me get through the bounty this week.

When I got home, I unpacked my Baggu bags and proceeded to peel, slice, and dice my way through my purchases. Which brings me to the point of this post: Stocking your kitchen with reusable plastic containers may be one of the healthiest things you can do.

We all know that we should eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. However, I have spoken to lots of experts—particularly in the realm of cancer prevention—who say that that number should really be closer to 10. Yes, 10 servings of fruits and vegetables. I’m not sure that I regularly hit that mark, but I try to get as close as possible without making myself absolutely sick of plants.

The thing about produce is that you can’t just tear into most of it like you can a bag of pretzels. Sometimes you have to remove the skin, other times you have to cook it, and most often you at least have to cut it before eating. So, once I got home, I spent almost an hour prepping nearly everything that I purchased so they’re ready to munch when I want them. (Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it was the yoga buzz, but I find this process extremely meditative. I know my Mom and sister would agree--they're likely to be found peeling and slicing on a Sunday, too.) Once cut, everything goes into plastic Glad containers. I pre-cut most vegetables—carrots, cucumbers, and peppers—into sticks so they’re available for a quick snack with hummus, or I can give them one more chop and, voila!, they’re salad ingredients. I even pre-wash berries so I can throw them into my yogurt in the a.m.

It all comes down to convenience—when you make the healthy stuff as readily accessible as the not-so healthy stuff, you have no excuses when it comes to making each of your 200-plus food decisions every day. So this is why I crown the humble Glad container the healthy kitchen’s Jimmy Choo—its hottest accessory.

Is there anything better than a freshly stocked fridge?