I know I don’t usually post on Sundays, but when Fresh & Easy asked me to share my favorite cooking hack to be included on their “Hacks of Life" Pinterest board I thought you wouldn’t mind a quick ‘bonus’ post from me this week.

As you can guess, as a mom of three kids and a pretty much full time blogger and slave to social media, I am a busy lady.  So when I buy produce I like to get everything prepped in advance, so when the time comes all I have to do is pull something out of the fridge and serve it.  

An example of that is with lettuce.  I like to wash my lettuce ahead of time and then just pour it out into a salad when I need it.   I sometimes buy the ready-made salad mix that is supposed to be washed, but I really do prefer to wash it myself.  (Plus it is much more economical to buy a head of lettuce and put it into my own bags.)

So once I have prepped and washed my lettuce, how to make it last as long as the bagged stuff? 

Easy! The trick is to keep moisture away.  (Yes, that is counterintuitive, but it is true.)

Moisture on the outside of produce is what makes it start to break down and get slimy.  If you can keep the moisture away from the surface, you produce will last much longer. So here is my process for prepping lettuce in order to keep it fresh:


First I tear up the head into small pieces, wash it in cool water and use a salad spinner to spin off as much as the moisture as possible:

Next I line a plastic Zip-top storage bag (or plastic container) with paper towels:

I insert the lettuce pieces making sure to keep them out of contact with any of the surfaces of the plastic bag.

Seal it up and you will have fresh, crisp, non-wilted, WASHED lettuce for at least a week to 10 days (it rarely has to last that long in my house!) 
Easy right?

But that isn’t the only "Fresh" & "Easy" shortcut I’m going share with you today.  (See what I did there?)

I have written about my love for Fresh & Easy before and I am actually a shopper there.  I really do love the store.

Fresh & Easy’s target shopper are people who want healthy (anything with the Fresh & Easy label is guaranteed to be all natural with no artificial flavors or dyes) and wholesome yet EASY food. The fact they have high quality products that range in convenience from raw ingredients to heat-n-serve make them a great flexible option no matter how much or little time you have for preparing dinner.   I use their ready to cook ingredients frequently and have never been disappointed in the quality or flavor.

And now Fresh & Easy wants to help you save time in the kitchen and make life easier by rounding up dozens of time-saving cooking hacks and putting them on one big Pinterest board. Some of the hacks, like adding baking soda for fluffier mashed potatoes or grating frozen butter into cookie dough, are GENIUS!  (I immediately started following the board after they sent it to me, since there was a lot of cool stuff there.)

Plus, as a bonus, if you pin anything from that board and include the hashtag #HacksSweepstakes you will be entered to win a weekly prize of $150 in Groceries or the grand prize of $300 in cash (and wouldn’t groceries and cash make life easier?!) 

Now.. I’m not saying you should pin my hack or anything, but it is a good one! ;)  
You can pin as many hacks as you like, but only the first entry counts towards the Sweepstakes.  For more details on this giveaway see the Complete Rules