Produce Prep - Lettuce

I'm one of those wacko people who really enjoys grocery shopping. Clothes, purses, shoes...meh. Food, I'M IN!! Nothing disturbs me more, though, than buying beautiful, fresh produce only to find it wimpy and sad in the refrigerator two days later. Who wants to eat that?? Not me! Thanks again to our friends on Pinterest and based on my own trial and error I've come up with a routine of produce prep that extends the life of my food drastically. "Lettuce" talk about lettuce, shall we (see what I did there)?

You've selected your lettuce of choice. I'm on a romaine kick right now and just can't help it! I start by cutting off the base, usually 1 - 2 inches depending on coloring. Use your own best judgement. By the time I got around to taking care of my lettuce this weekend it had browned a bit more than I would have liked so I whacked a little more liberally that I normally do (it's what happens when you start prepping when you should be going to bed).

I typically throw it all into a clean sink of clean water, after all you do want it to come out better than when you put it in, right? I allow it to soak just long enough to grab my container and lay a paper towel in the base of the dish.

 Begin removing lettuce from the water and drying briefly on a towel. Sometimes I do a leaf or two at a time by hand. Other times I lay the towel out and place a handful at a time down and pat dry (very gently). Once it has been dried layer it into your dish.

 Add another paper towel to the top for good measure.

 Put the lid on it stick it in the refrigerator! I've had my lettuce leaves last up to two weeks (seems to be relative to how much water I dry off before placing in the dish but I'm still studying up on that).

 PRO's:

• Clean lettuce, ready at a moments notice
• Can be chopped for salads, shredded for toppings (tacos, anyone??), or left whole for lettuce wraps

CON's:

• No more excuses for NOT having a salad! :)
• Bulky storage  **A quick note on this...I've seen people place their lettuce in a bag to be a bit more compact but found I was too careless and wound up squishing my lettuce more often than not. The storage container works best for me AND acts as an additional shelf in my fridge.