Refrigerator Makeover ~ Part 1

Happy Saturday all!  As part of March’s National Nutrition Month the AMAZING people over at I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter contacted me to ask if I’d like to to MAKEOVER MY FRIDGE and make it healthier.  I consider myself a fairly healthy eater, but, I know there is definitely room for improvement so I was up for the challenge!

There will be 3 STEPS to my Refrigerator Makeover and I will have 3 posts for you!

STEP 1 ~ Perform a Little Clean Out!  This includes getting rid of any not so healthy products as well as a deep cleaning to get rid of any lurking bacteria.

STEP 2 ~ Restock my fridge with fresh, healthy food that will most likely include a new recipe with the fresh taste of butter, the healthier way.

STEP 3 ~ Hold a Giveaway where ONE of my LUCKY READERS will have a chance to Makeover their fridge!!!!

Fun, right?!  Here we goooooooo……..Today was all about Step 1!

 

THE FRIDGE

It was totally hard for me to resist the urge to clean out and scrub my fridge down before I showed it to you all for the FIRST time.  But, I figured, in true MAKEOVER STYLE, I needed to be honest and show you as though you just walked in my house and opened the doors.  Since it’s the end of the week, this is probably the worst shape our fridge is ALL week 🙂

Door #1 contains all of our random batteries in a Ziploc or not.

Hot Sauces, Mustards, two types of milk and a little Vino (only used for cooking of course).

Door # 2 includes a bunch of marinades, BBQ sauces, Dressings, Vinegars.

Plus our fruit bins ~ I LOVE these bins!

Produce drawer # 1 ~ is our random salad mix & greens drawer.

Produce Drawer #2 is random herbs, onions, ginger, veggies.

The meat, cheese, chocolate and baking drawer!!

The “scary” insides!  I say that because now you all will know that sometimes I pack things for lunch (like the random egg) that do not get eaten, yet, I just place it on the shelf instead of in the container with the others.  Plus all our leftovers that I typically clean out each week 🙂

The next step was to bust out the cleaners for some serious DEEP FRIDGE CLEAN-OUT.  I really didn’t want to use anything HARSH because well I don’t want to have my new healthy eats hanging out chemicals, but, I also wanted to use something that was good for the environment too.  I picked up a bottle of Seventh Generation Natural Liquid Detergent.

I was really impressed by the fact that they list all the ingredients included on their label and that it was CHEAPER than regular soap (only $2.69 for this bottle at Target).

WOW ~ I seriously felt so Earth friendly when I read the “Did you know?” section because I had no idea how bad REAL dish soap is. 

I also bought two baking soda odor eaters, but, you could also just use an old box of baking soda.  I like to replace it every 1-2 months because it keeps any of your foods from tasting like each other ~ your apples won’t taste like onions, etc.

The grocery list magnet that ICBINB provided came in super handy so I could jot down things I thought I’d like to restock/change when I re-fuel my fridge with healthy foods.

As I took everything out of my fridge, I had 3 goals in mind:

1.  Get rid of anything with expired dates, that’s not healthy!

2.  Replace anything that contains ingredients I don’t LOVE, like High Fructose Corn Syrup, Trans-fats, etc.  I do my best to avoid these things but sometimes The Husband sneaks in a few items.

3.  See if there was any way I could make my fridge GREENER as in Earth Friendly!

I filled up a bowl of warm water with some Seventh Generation Soap and went to work.  I wiped the bottoms of each jar as I took them out.

Then, to show you all the details of everything, I snapped pictures as I loaded up our mini table 3 times.  Can you all identify the things I ended up setting aside as the outcasts?? Where’s Waldo??? LOL…kidding…but, I did have a pile of “outcasts”

I really have WAY too many sauces, but, what can I say, I LOVE lotsa flavor! 😀

I like to store my nuts in the fridge to keep them from going rancid ~ they last longer.

I definitely NEED more fruits/veggies in my life, but, it IS the end of the week & time to load up!

TIP: You can also store specialty oils in the fridge to extend their shelf life as well.

GREEN ALERT!!! I realized I could save the Earth little by using my own containers to put cut up produce in versus using ziploc baggies   Air tight containers work just as good and I am less wasteful.

The OLDEST thing I tossed was some Simply Fruit from 2008 ~ not sure how this survived staying in there that long!

TWO of The Husband’s products I want to replace.

I am pretty sure I can find some products tomorrow that are not made with High Fructose Corn Syrup or with ALL sugar.

This was a surprise to me because everyone LOVES Ghirardelli.

But, did you know that it has TRANSFAT ~ hydrogenated oils….Into the trash it went!

When I make Chocolate Chip cookies I like using 1/2 butter and 1/2 margarine ~ it’s all about the texture of the cookie more so than trying to save on fat.

I just now realized that the margarine I had was no bueno ~ transfatty too!  I will definitely be replacing this with some Trans-Fat FREE I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!

So, the not so good things made it to the trash and I rinsed out all their containers to recycle them (GREEN move) 🙂

Here is our fridge totally empty ~ it’s funny because I actually thought it looked clean until now.  I actually pictured little cartoon germ character’s dancing around ~  LOL.

After a good Seventh Generation scrub down!  I LOVE that stuff ~ it cleans so good and there isn’t a funky bleach or perfume smell – it has not smell.  i am totally checking out their other products!

I quickly put everything back into the fridge in an orderly fashion to make room for the NEW healthy restocking happening tomorrow 😀  I also put all those random batteries in a reusable container (GREEN Move!)

THE FREZER

Next, it was time to tackle my biggest “dumping” zone(s).  You all know I pretty much freeze EVERYTHING and I have TWO freezers to do it with.  Brace yourself!

The inside fridge!

It’s really not that much stuff ~ fruits, veggies, lots of breads, potatoes, VitaTOPS, Thrive Bars and a few treats.  I threw out just a few breads that I pretty much know I am not going to eat.

All sparkly and just like new!

I LOVE order ~ oh, The BLUE container is my frozen bananas for ICE CREAM!

The outside fridge is used for all my frozen soups, meals, meats and anything else I can’t cram in the inside fridge 🙂

The Husband’s nasty pizzas and Cool Whip disappeared, but, don’t tell him 😉

Order!  Poultry and veggies stuff on top (my section!) and Beef/Pork, Sausages, etc on the bottom (The Husband’s section).  I use the ice tray for rice packets 🙂

Plus those AMAZING focaccia breads, bagel thins and more bread!

So, there you have it ~ STEP 1 ~ complete!!!

Tomorrow I am tackling STEP 2 by planning out our meals for the week with some fun new recipes to try and re-stocking with fresh, healthy foods.  I am looking forward to the challenge of replacing a few items with new things that have a great ingredient list!

QUESTIONS:

1.  Did you see anything else in our Fridge/Freezer that you think we should toss out?

2.  What fresh, healthy foods should we RESTOCK our fridge now?

See you all tomorrow for more Fridge Makeover FUN ~ NIGHT!