Cook Smart

• Clear counters. Keep only a few appliances on your counters, if any. Store the rest in cabinets.
• Keep things you use often in easy-to-reach places. Move items you seldom use to upper cabinets or another room. Give away items you never use.
• Figure out how many of each kitchen item you need. Do you use more than one set of measuring cups at a time? Do you need five mixing bowls, or just two?
• Create kitchen zones for specific tasks such as food storage, food preparation, cooking, baking and cleaning up. Keep appropriate kitchen equipment and tools in each zone. You may want to add an information zone for coupons, menus and recipes.

• Post your menu where it is easy to see. (See Plan Your Meals in the Plan Smart section of this website.)
• Look ahead to see what frozen foods you need to move to the refrigerator to thaw.

• Cook once, eat twice. Double or triple recipes or cook two or more different meals with similar ingredients. Package meals in family-size portions. Refrigerate what you will use in a few days and freeze the rest.
• Cook and freeze ingredients for future meals.
  • Brown and rinse ground beef, and then freeze it in recipe-size portions.
  • Roast a chicken or turkey, then chop and freeze it. Make soup stock from the bones and freeze it.
  • Cook rice or dried beans and freeze them in recipe-size portions.
• Freeze muffins, bread and cookies.
• Wash fresh fruits and vegetables in advance. Store them in the refrigerator. Some fresh produce, such as strawberries and mushrooms, shouldn't be washed until just before serving.
• Shred cheese and refrigerate or freeze it for future meals. To help keep the cheese from clumping, you can add 1–2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the bag of shredded cheese and shake to mix.

• Try one-dish meals, such as casseroles. (Print out ideas for creating a casserole (PDF, 7 MB).)
• Prepare easy recipes.
• Use quick-cooking appliances such as the microwave, grill or stovetop.
• Use a slow cooker. (Learn more about slow cookers and food safety.)

• Wash hands and all surfaces often with hot, soapy water.
• Wash fresh vegetables and fruits with running water before peeling, eating or cooking.
• To avoid spreading germs to other foods, DO NOT wash meat and poultry.
• Wash lids of cans before opening them.
• Sanitize surfaces after washing them, especially surfaces that held raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.

To make a sanitizing solution:

1. Mix 3/4 teaspoon bleach and 1 quart water in a spray bottle.
2. Spray the solution on surfaces, let it sit for 1–2 minutes, then wipe the surface or let it air dry. Make fresh sanitizing solution every week.

• Find more ways to keep your food and home clean.

• Separate raw, cooked and ready-to-eat foods while shopping, cooking and storing foods.
• Keep raw meat, poultry and seafood in covered containers on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
• Use one cutting board for raw meats and a separate cutting board for foods that are ready to eat such as fruit, salad ingredients and bread. If only one cutting board is available, wash and sanitize it between uses.
• Wash and sanitize all surfaces that come in contact with raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs.
• Learn more about keeping foods separate and safe.

• Make sure cooked food reaches an internal (inside) temperature high enough to kill bacteria that cause foodborne illness:

• Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the meat, poultry, or fish or into the center of the container of sauce, soup, gravy or leftovers. Make sure the thermometer does not touch any part of the bones, fat or pan. Insert the thermometer into the side of hamburger patties.
• Hand wash the stem of the thermometer in hot, soapy water after use. Do not put the dial or digital display in water or wash the thermometer in the dishwasher.
• Learn more about cooking to safe temperatures.

• Refrigerate or freeze these foods within 2 hours (within 1 hour if the air temperature is above 90°F) to slow the growth of harmful bacteria:
  • Meat, poultry, seafood and eggs
  • Cooked food
  • Cut fresh fruits or vegetables
• Store leftovers in shallow containers no deeper than 2 inches.
• Allow cold air to circulate in the refrigerator by leaving some room between foods.
• Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below and the freezer at 0°F or below. Use an appliance thermometer to check temperatures.
• Safely defrost food in one of three ways:
  1. In the refrigerator on the bottom shelf on a plate.
  2. In cold water that is changed every 20–30 minutes. Cook immediately after thawing.
  3. In the microwave. Cook immediately after thawing.
• Use or discard refrigerated food regularly. See the Cold Storage Chart (PDF) for guidelines.
• See more about safely chilling food.

Quiz

Are you keeping your food safe? Take the following quiz to see how you are doing.

If you answered "no" to any of the statements, make changes to be more food safe.

Vegetables

• Add extra vegetables to scrambled eggs, soups, stews, casseroles, pasta dishes, stir-fry dishes, salads, muffins and some cakes.
• Make main-dish salads.
• Pile lots of fresh vegetables on sandwiches. Great options include lettuce, tomato, onions, cucumber and peppers.
• Add spinach or other greens to smoothies.

Fruits

• Add fruit to cereal and yogurt.
• Make fruit smoothies with fresh or frozen fruit, fruit juice, yogurt, milk and ice.
• Put dried or fresh fruit in waffles, pancakes, muffins or oatmeal.
• Top salads with fresh canned, or dried fruits such as pineapple, strawberries, grapes, raisins and dried cranberries.
• Try grilling fruit.

Beans and grains

• Add beans, lentils or dried peas to soups, salads and dips.
• Gradually replace refined grains with whole grains such as brown rice and whole-grain bread, cereal, crackers and pasta.

• Trim fat from the outside of meat and take the skin off poultry before cooking.
• Choose smaller portions of meat.
• Limit your use of high-fat processed meats like bacon, sausage and bologna.
• Bake, broil or roast instead of deep-fat frying or pan frying with a lot of oil or fat.
• Chill meat drippings and remove the hardened fat.
• Use less fat in baking. You can decrease fat by one-quarter or more in many recipes.
• Choose fruit-based desserts instead of heavier, high-fat treats.

Make healthy substitutions to reduce fat

Americans waste about 14% of their food purchases. That means a family that spends $175 weekly on groceries could waste $1,275 per year!

There are a lot of ways you can decrease food waste:

1. Start your menu planning with food you have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
2. Include leftover nights on your menu.
3. Pay attention to foods you throw away. Next time, buy less—only as much as you can eat while the food is still fresh.
4. After shopping, rotate older foods to the front of the pantry, refrigerator and freezer and use them before newer foods.
5. Store refrigerated food in shallow, see-through containers.
6. Dedicate an area of the refrigerator for leftovers. Train family members to look there for quick meals and snacks.
7. Freeze food for later use. Package or wrap it well and include a label and date.