Living Healthy: How to Pick the Best Fresh Produce

 

Welcome back to DealDash Blog’s Living Healthy series. Today’s blog is all about the tips and tricks to choosing the best produce items at the supermarket.

 

I don’t know how many times I have gone into the supermarket, and picked out some great looking produce, got it home, and it tastes…Not bad, but tastes like nothing, like cardboard. This was happening to me way too often, so I started doing a little research to figure out how to get the best produce at the supermarket that I was able to find.

Of course, the number one way to get the freshest and best tasting produce is to buy things when they are in season where you live. If you’re somewhere warm like California or Florida, you’re in luck! Not only are there some great things grown right in your own home state, the distance that other things have to travel up from Mexico or South America is considerably shorter than someone who lives in Maine or Montana.

Here are some quick and easy tips on picking great tasting produce at the supermarket even if the items are actually in season:

Apples: Choose fruits that are deeply colored, firm, naturally shiny, and heavy for their size.

 

Artichokes: Choose globes that have tight leaves and feel heavy for their size. The leaves should squeak when pressed against each other.

Asparagus: Choose firm, smooth, and brightly-colored stalks with compact tips. Avoid limp stalks. Choose stalks of equal thickness to ensure even cooking times.

Avocados: Choose avocados that feel slightly soft to the touch. Firmer avocados may be ripened at home, but avoid rock-hard ones. Also avoid avocados with cracks or dents.

Bananas: Choose bright yellow bananas to eat right away or green bananas to ripen at home. Avoid fruits that are bruised or split.

Blueberries: Choose berries that are firm, dry, and blue (not red or green). A white sheen is natural. Also check the bottom of the basket to make sure there aren’t any crushed or spoiled berries.

Broccoli: Choose broccoli with firm stalks, tight florets, and crisp green leaves. Avoid yellowed or flowering florets.

Celery: Choose firm, unblemished stalks. The stalks and leaves should be green, not yellow.

Corn: Choose corn with bright green husks and moist but not slimy silk. Peel back the husk to ensure the kernels are plump and not dry.

Cucumbers: Choose cucumbers that are uniformly green (not yellow).

Grapefruits: Choose fruits that have smooth, thin skins and are heaviest for their size. They should feel firm but slightly springy to the touch. Don’t worry about color.

Grapes: Choose fruits that are firm, plump, and heavy for their size. They should be firmly attached to the stems without wrinkled or brown spots.

Lemons and Limes: Choose fruits that are fragrant and heaviest for their size. Avoid fruits that are shriveled.

 

Lettuce, Spinach, and Other Leafy Greens: Choose greens with fresh, crisp leaves. Avoid any that are wilted or slimy.

Mangoes: Choose fruits that are slightly soft to the touch and fragrant near the stem end.

Onions and Shallots: Choose dry, firm bulbs that feel heavy for their size. Avoid any with soft spots or green sprouts.

Oranges: Choose fruits that heaviest for their size and have firm, smooth skins. Don’t worry about color. For Mandarin oranges, make sure skins are firm, not shriveled.

Peaches: Choose fragrant, deeply colored (not green) fruits that are firm but slightly soft to the touch.

Pears: Pears are usually picked before they are fully ripe, but choose fruits that are free of bruises and look for any that are getting soft just below the stem.

Peas: Choose crisp, green pods. Avoid bulging, dried, yellow, or white pods.

Peppers: Choose firm, naturally shiny peppers that feel heavy for their size.

Pomegranates: Choose fruits that are heavy for their size. Cracks are a good sign that the fruits are bursting with plump seeds; just make sure there isn’t any mold in the cracks.

Potatoes: Choose firm, smooth potatoes. Avoid those with bruises, green spots, or sprouts.

Strawberries: Choose berries that are fragrant, uniformly red (not yellow or green), and shiny with fresh green tops. Also check the bottom of the basket to make sure there aren’t any crushed or spoiled berries.

Summer Squash: Choose squash with naturally shiny, taught, unblemished skin. Avoid squash that appear dull or have soft spots.

Sweet Potatoes and Yams: Choose potatoes with firm, unwrinkled skins and no bruises or cuts, as they are highly perishable.

Tomatoes: Choose tomatoes that are fragrant, smell earthy at the stem end, and feel heavy for their size. Avoid tomatoes with wrinkled skins.

Watermelons: Choose fruits that are firm and heavy and sound hollow when thumped. A properly ripened watermelon should have a yellow spot on one side where it sat on the ground

 

There we go! That’s the list! I personally made a copy of this list and keep it with my supermarket coupons so I know what I’m looking for when I am shopping for fruits and veggies.

Another way to be sure that you are getting great produce is to shop at the farmer’s market. The only downfall there is that you will probably only be able to find things that are in season. In my area, there is a farmer’s market going on in my town and every small town around me. When you go to the farmer’s market you are getting delicious fruits and veggies that are extremely fresh because they are grown locally. In addition to that, the prices are definitely better than any supermarket around, especially if there are multiple vendors selling the same fruits and veggies.

Hamilton Beach 70950 SaladXpress Counter-top Food Processor Electric w/ConesKitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, Apple GreenT-Fal Initiatives 18-Piece Nonstick Inside and Out Cookware Set

I hope this article has helped you learn how to pick the best produce! If you’re interested in getting some items to help you with cooking at home head on over to DealDash. DealDash has food processors, stand mixers, cookware, and plenty of other items that you can use. Check out the Kitchen & Appliances category and I’m sure that you’ll find something that you can use to make delicious things from your fresh produce. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

Cooking a Winter Stew with DealDash

 

I don’t know about you, but I know that my family eats differently in winter than in summer. Let’s take a peek at a wintery meal we can prepare with help from DealDash .

My family eats a lot of soups and stews during the cold and wintery months. It seems to be a common theme in cooking magazines, as well as with people I know. Not only are they filling, moderately healthy (depending on what you add), they are also something that you can make with just items that you have on hand in the freezer and pantry. That means if it’s cold and snowing outside you won’t have to leave your cozy little nest of a home to go to the supermarket.

One of my favorite kitchen items in the winter is my crock pot/slow cooker. I actually have 3 crock pots of different sizes – a huge one that can accommodate a roast, a medium one that’s great for a stew or for soup, and a smaller one that can be for a gravy or fondue. I get a lot of use out of these in the winter months, if you don’t already have a crock pot (or three!) check them out on DealDash, here.

Hamilton Beach 5-Quart Portable Slow Cooker

If you are just getting started with using a slow cooker, you might be interested in a simple stew recipe:

Simple Beef Stew

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups beef broth
  • 3 potatoes, diced
  • 4 carrots, sliced
  • 1 stalk celery, chopped

How do you do it? Simple!

  1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
  2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

That’s it! And really, one of the great things about a stew like this is if you are missing an ingredient, such as the celery or the carrots you can always exclude that item, or even swap it for a different item such as peas. Personally, since I am allergic to fish and seafood I exclude the Worcestershire sauce and add in a splash of soy sauce instead. It’s delicious!

Hamilton Beach 70950 SaladXpress Counter-top Food Processor Electric w/ConesKitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, Apple GreenT-Fal Initiatives 18-Piece Nonstick Inside and Out Cookware Set

I hope this article has encouraged you to try to make a simple winter stew with your slow cooker.  If you’re interested in getting some items to help you with cooking at home head on over to DealDash. DealDash has food processors, stand mixers, cookware, and plenty of other items that you can use. Check out the Kitchen & Appliances category and I’m sure that you’ll find something that you can use to make your kitchen better. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

What Will We Do With All of These Presents?

Let’s face it, as wonderful as Christmas is, the aftermath can be a mess! What are you going to do with all of your extra stuff? Let DealDash help.

First off, if you hosted your family’s Christmas celebration, I bet you have a lot of food left. So let’s talk about food storage first. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like it when my foods are stored sharing containers in the fridge. The flavors and smells kind of meld together and I just don’t care for it. So when I am hosting people in my home I make sure that I have plenty of extra food storage containers handy and ready to go. If you are in need of food storage containers check out DealDash’s Kitchen & Appliances section, there are a few different options that come up frequently for auction. I personally prefer the glass ones, but they do tend to be a bit more expensive than their plastic counterparts, and also get very hot to touch after you have heated them in the microwave.

Rubbermaid 40-Piece Food Storage SetPyrex Premium Glass Lids Storage Container Set (Set of 3)

How about all of those new DVDs, Blu-Rays, books, and video games that you or your kid’s might have gotten for Christmas? You might need to expand your entertainment storage a little bit by getting a new bookshelf or cabinet so you can display your new items. DealDash has a ton of different options, try browsing the Home & Office category on DealDash. I know that one of my husband’s biggest complaints is that we have too many DVDs and books just randomly stashed around the family room and kid’s playroom. That problem is easily solved by getting one of these great storage units.

Systembuild 9 Cube Storage - Resort CherrySouth Shore Storage CabinetSauder O'Sullivan Multimedia Storage Tower

 

Lastly, and probably the most prolific if you have younger children – toy storage! The Toys, Kids, & Baby section on DealDash has a ton, of course! There are different toy storage options for both boys, girls, and also in neutral colors. At my house we have one of each of these options – it’s a great way to be able to organize the toys that specifically belong to either my son or daughter, and then the neutral bins I store the toys that they like to share together, such as the Legos and other building toys, art supplies, puzzles, and other things.

Delta Children Disney Mickey Mouse Toy OrganizerDisney Multi-Bin Toy OrganizerTot Tutors Toy Organizer

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas together and got everything that you were wishing for! Good luck and happy bidding everyone.

 

Surviving the Holidays With Help from DealDash

 

As fun as the holidays are, some people just can’t get into the spirit. Here are some tips to help get through the next few weeks.

No matter what the reason, be it Seasonal Effective Disorder, baby blues, or just a dislike of the holidays in general you have a right to your feelings, and you’re going to need to find ways to keep yourself busy during the next few weeks. Here are some ideas to start off your thought process.

How about learning a new skill, such as cooking a specific meal or food item? Everyone else is baking Christmas cookies or planning on roasting a turkey, but how about you learn how to make home made pasta? It’s much more delicious than store bought pasta, and you can make it as healthy (or not!) as you choose. If you have a Kitchenaid stand mixer you can make pasta really quickly and easily. Here is a simple recipe you can follow:

Ingredients:

    • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour, sifted (plus extra flour for preparing)
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 4 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 Tablespoons water

KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Cobalt BlueKitchenAid Pasta Roller Attachment

Directions:

 

  • Place eggs, water, flour and salt in mixer bowl. Attached bowl and flat beater. Turn to speed 2 and mix for 30 to 60 seconds. Add more water if the dough is too dry, in 1/2 Tablespoon increments.
  • Change out the flat beater for the dough hook. Turn to speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. Remove the dough and knead by hand for 2 minutes. Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
  • Cut dough into four pieces before processing with pasta sheet attachment. Take one piece and flatten into a rectangular shape. Adding flour to both sides. Be sure to cover the other pieces. Attach the pasta sheet roller to your stand mixer and set it to #1. Turn on the stand mixer to speed 2 and run the pasta dough through the pasta sheet roller. While on #1, fold the dough in half and run it through again. Do this several times.
  • Adding a little bit of flour on each side of the dough again, change setting to #2 and pass the pasta dough through the sheet roller. Do this twice and then twice each on #3 and then #4. If you want thicker dough, don’t do the #4 setting.
  • Once again, add flour to each side of your long pasta sheet. Change the attachment to your spaghetti or fettuccine cutter and turn on to speed 2. Run the pasta sheet through and with your left hand, hold on to the pasta as it comes through the cutter. Allow pasta to dry for a few minutes before boiling.
  • When boiling your pasta, it only needs 3 to 7 minutes to boil.

You can get a Kitchenaid mixer and all of it’s various attachments on DealDash. Just click this link here and it will take you to the auctions. If pasta making sounds fun but maybe a little too ambitious check out DealDash’s Kitchen & Appliances section and perhaps you can find a fun new kitchen gadget that’s more your speed.

Rachael Ray Hard Enamel Cookware 10pc set (2-tone Red)Oceanstar 6 Piece Bamboo Cooking Utensil SetRubbermaid 40-Piece Food Storage Set

If cooking really isn’t your thing, how about using your extra time off from work (assuming you get holiday time off!) and do some of those extra projects around the house that you have been putting off for a while now? I can think of a few projects off the top of my head that need doing around my house, and I bet you can, too. If you’re really not much of a handy sort, how about getting a basic tool set from DealDash? You could get something like the Essentials 34 piece tool kit and have just about everything you need for a small project. You can find that auction, and other tool kit auctions at this link here.

Essentials 34-Piece Around the House Tool Kit with Screwdriver

If you’re more advanced in your handiness you could pick up something a little trickier to use such as a rotary tool set or even a hammer drill. Check out the Home, Garden, & Tools section here on DealDash and see what you can discover.

Of course, there’s nothing more fun than sitting down at your computer and just browsing all of the different areas on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

 

 

Throwing a Christmas Party? Get Help from DealDash

 

Are you throwing a Christmas party later on this month? There’s still time to get some assistance from DealDash!

 

Planning any sort of party can be hard work, especially Christmas parties, because I feel like there is more pressure put on to make the “perfect party” so much more so than a regular dinner party. My family gets invited to a few Christmas parties every year, and since weekend time is limited in December sometimes I find myself picking and choosing which party to attend. I can only assume that other families have this same issue, so if people choose to attend a Christmas party of mine instead of someone elses’ that year I feel obliged to show them a good time! Let’s take a quick peek at how DealDash can help make things a little easier when planning your Christmas party.

Have you decorated the outside of your house yet? This isn’t a requirement, of course, but decorating both the outside and the inside of your home in a tasteful and classic way can make your party seem much more festive to your Christmas party goers. There are both Target and Wal*Mart gift cards available on DealDash almost daily, and they are always shipped quickly and safely. If I was in need of more decorations I would bid on these gift cards and take advantage of some of the great sales that these places are running through Christmas and get some great decorations. You can find the gift cards at this link here.

 

Another part of having a great Christmas party is having great food, of course. If you have been paying attention to this blog in the past month or so you might have read my Thanksgiving blog. This blog can give you some pointers and ideas for making “real food” which can be found at this link here. However, in this blog I wanted to mention that it would be wonderful to bake some homemade Christmas cookies for your guests to eat at the party, or even make up small bags of them and send your guests home with cookies. Making cookie dough is infinitely easier of you have a great quality stand mixer like the KitchenAid. My daughter and I used mine this past weekend to make Christmas cookies, and even though I am 8 months pregnant and exhausted making the cookies this year with my KitchenAid was a breeze compared to last year when I had an inferior mixer. You can check out the different colors of KitchenAid stand mixers that DealDash has at this link here. I have the hot pink one! If you are in need of anything other kitchen supplies besides the mixer check out DealDash’s Kitchen & Appliances section.

 

 

I hope that these tips got you thinking about what an enjoyable and memorable Christmas party might entail. If you are looking for any more supplies for your party definitely check out DealDash – Don’t forget to get the mundane things such as extra paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues. Check the Home, Garden and Tools section at this link here, you wouldn’t want to run out while company is over! Good luck and happy bidding everyone!