Eat - April 6, 2019

What’s In My Fridge…

They say a peek into someone’s refrigerator can tell you a lot about them. I guess that’s why I received so many requests for a tour of what’s in my fridge and probably why refrigerator reveals were the most loved moments on MTV Cribs. Remember that? Before I get into the inside of my fridge though, I wanted to share with you how Café Appliances allows you to get a peek of someone’s personality from the outside.

As many of you know, we’ve been renovating our newest New York City apartment for about eight months now. My kitchen is my meditation den (you’ve probably heard me say that before), so I’ve been super anxious to make it my own. We’ve finally gotten the appliances installed, and I’m so happy with how everything turned out. Back in October, I headed out to Kentucky to learn all about a new customizable appliance line. Café Appliances offer culinary-inspired performance with design choice and personalization. Just like picking out which jewelry to wear with an outfit I was able to personalize the visual elements on my appliances so that my kitchen would truly reflect me and my style. This was by far the most fun I’ve ever had choosing kitchen appliances.

Initially, I wanted the brushed bronze hardware, but after my trip to Kentucky, I realized the brushed black would complement our black and white kitchen best. Just in case though I have the brushed bronze and can quickly change all the hardware on my appliances with a simple allen key wrench in about 10 minutes flat. That’s right! You can change all the handles and knobs on your appliances yourself. No technician required and hardware comes in four different chic finishes. You can see them all here.

Ok, so let’s get into what’s in my fridge…

I don’t think anyone is surprised that there are a ton of fruits and vegetables in my fridge. As a plant-based family having these readily available at all times is a must. Remember it’s easiest to eat what you already have at home. So if you fill your fridge with junk food, then that’s what you’ll be eating. On the flip side, if you pack your fridge with only the healthiest of things, then you’re guaranteed to eat well all of the time.

I also think as a mother it’s important that when your children open up your refrigerator, the choices they see over and over again are fruits and vegetables. The more you make consuming whole foods common in your home, the more natural it is for your children to gravitate towards whole foods when they need to make food choices on their own. My daughter will go in the refrigerator, see a cold-pressed juice and get just as excited as a child who sees soda. Why? Because soda isn’t even an option in my house. She has no idea what it is. Kids love what they know and what they don’t know can’t hurt them.

I reserve the top shelf for drinks. I used to do this solely because I thought it made for the best looking fridge. Now that I’m a mom I realize the higher I can keep the liquids the least amount of spills my daughter can get herself into.

I like to keep several healthy drink options around. A bunch of different kombucha flavors for the whole family, ginger beer to aid my morning sickness, coconut water, Yerba Mate (hubby’s energy drink of choice for the gym), cold-pressed juices for everyone and then a few different types of non-dairy milk. I still make homemade nut milk for my little one but we use store bought almond or coconut milk for hubby and my smoothies and a barista almond milk blend for coffee.

I love how the first two shelves of my new refrigerator are split in half, allowing me to move either side of the shelf to accommodate differently sized of items. I always put all the larger drinks on the right side of the fridge because I think it looks nicer.

The inside of the french doors gives me plenty of room for all our condiments like mustard, ketchup, dressings, and hot sauces. Other random items I keep in the doors are nut butters, fermented cabbages, pickles, olives, a large bottle of chlorophyll and CBD oil.

I love that I can fit much taller drinks like large bottles of sparkling water (my favorite), wines and champagnes in the doors as well.

We go through such a large amount of fruits and vegetables that we don’t usually worry about any going bad, so I keep everything easily accessible. I don’t prewash any of my produce because fruits and veggies naturally hold onto moisture and if they’re washed and then stored they will most like spoil or wilt fast. Berries, in particular, are prone to grow mold if washed and then left in the fridge, so we wash everything right before we need it.

I’ve been into celery juice for the last couple of months, so obviously, I keep a ton of celery to juice every morning.

I love to have purple lettuce and an array of peppers on hand to make vegetarian tacos which are my go-to “no time to really cook” meal.

I might have a purple or yellow cauliflower that I’ll use for a lunch or dinner meal but also have regular cauliflower in my fridge that we can use to make smoothies.

My entire pregnancy I’ve been craving a simple salad made from tomatoes and cucumbers with lots of lemon and salt, so I stay stocked up on those.

Two items we seem to eat with every meal consistently are kale and avocados. I try to keep enough kale on hand this way we don’t have to keep running out to the grocery store. I’ll buy about eight avocados at a time, keep some in the veggie crisper and a couple of ripe ones on the countertop.

Other items like beets, carrots and oranges are great to keep on hand to make a fresh juice, throw in a salad or roast for dinner.

Broccoli, brussels sprouts and asparagus are my daughter’s favorite veggies, and they’re easy to roast quickly for her school lunch or dinner.

We always keep two to three cartons of eggs in the fridge. Eggs are the only animal product my daughter eats and hubby eats eggs every morning.

Lots of lemons in my fridge always—it’s a Greek thing.

The very last drawer I use to store tortillas, gluten-free bread, and Beyond Meat vegan sausages and vegan burger patties.

When it comes to sweet goodies, our must-haves are healthy chocolate bars and vegan ice cream.

Two small features in my new refrigerator that I’m obsessed with are the drop-down tray and the divided freezer.

The tray under my chocolate stash pulls down for extra storage space, and the divided freezer has been life-changing. Hubby and my little one usually make a huge mess of the freezer rummaging through all the frozen goods to get to the ice cream. Bags of frozen fruits and veggies end up all over the place, they open and sometimes spill everywhere. Now I can keep the ice cream options and hubby’s large cocktail ice right on the top. Push that top drawer back, and you’ll find all the frozen food options and frozen dog food. This is organization at its finest!

 

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Photography - Xin Wang
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