[nabs-l] Easy but Bad Re: Parishable Food Items

Sun Feb 27 08:36:00 UTC 2011

Just a friendly reminder that those easy-to-make microwave meals are often 
packed with sodium and other bad things. Not bad if you need something quick 
once in a while, but not the best thing to use as a main source of food. If 
anyone is interested in knowing how to make things in the microwave that 
don't just come out of a package, shoot me an email.

Nicole

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arielle Silverman" <nabs.president at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2011 10:49 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Parishable Food Items

> Hi all,
>
> I don't think you need to worry too much about expiration dates. Dairy
> products will give a telltale smell and/or taste signal when it's time
> to throw them away. In my experience, if the milk smells and tastes
> fine, it won't make you sick. For uncooked meats and perishable foods
> like restaurant leftovers, my mother's rule that I've always followed
> is to eat it or freeze it within 3-4 days of getting it. I am not sure
> if this rule is too strict but I have found it pretty easy to follow
> with a little planning. Once food is frozen it can be stored safely
> for a long time; just Braille your freezer bag or remember what it
> feels like. Generally, I think just using some common sense like
> keeping track of approximately when you bought something and paying
> attention to the texture and smell of foods will prevent most
> problems.
>
> By the way, I just learned about a website called
> www.directionsforme.com
> which contains a searchable database of food package labels. So you
> can easily look up the preparation instructions for frozen meals, easy
> mac, Ramen, etc. or even read ingredient lists and nutritional info if
> you are so inclined. They also have package labels for
> over-the-counter medications so you can verify how many Advil or cold
> pills you need to take, how often you can safely redose and any other
> pertinent drug information.
>
> Arielle
>
> On 2/26/11, Cindy Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I know exactly what you're going through. Mini fridges don't havev a
>> lot of space, and especially the mini freezers in the top of the mini
>> fridges don't always keep things frozen. And, being on a meal plan but
>> wanting to have food options for when the meal plan is not convenient
>> is hard to balance, because the meal plan was expensive, so you don't
>> want to spend a lot of money on other food let alone see that money go
>> to waste with food going bad. And that combined with the fact that a
>> meal plan causes you to eat your own food less often can make things
>> complicated. The previous advice is good. One thing that I have found
>> that might be unique to where I go to school is that the perishable
>> food found in the convenient stores on campus tends to expire sooner.
>> I think this is the case because it wouldn't be efficient to keep
>> ordering more stock when they don't sell it quickly, but purchasing
>> food at the convenience stores is convenient, because you can use
>> dollars from your meal plan. Like I said, especially at larger
>> niversities with more on campus students, this might be less of a
>> case, but if you've been having a problem with on campus stores, try
>> some off campus. Also, when you go shopping, you can ask whoever is
>> helping you to look for the latest expiration date available.
>> Sometimes stores will place food that is closer to expiration towards
>> the front of shelves which might hide longer lasting products behind.
>>
>> This might sound obvious, but if you bring home leftovers from a
>> restaurant, take it out of the crappy styrofoam and store it in a
>> sealable container. It will last way longer.
>>
>> And one thing that I have found for nonrefridgerated food such as
>> bread is that keeping it in cabinets helps. You can even keep bread in
>> the freezer for a while granted your freezer is big enough for a loaf.
>>
>> But I totally understand what you are going through, and for that
>> reason, I found myself not really buying fruit, but grabbing a few
>> extra pieces for the next couple of days when leaving the dining hall,
>> and mainly consuming nonperishable foods such as soup or easy mac in
>> my room.
>>
>> And you will probably notice that for money and/or convenience reasons
>> that you will become less paranoid about food. I'm not saying you
>> should do this with dairy products, but if pizza has been left out or
>> something, I definitely consider it a second meal before throwing it
>> out. I would have absolutely never done this before college. It is all
>> about judgment and your comfort level.
>>
>> Cindy
>>
>> On 2/26/11, bookwormahb at earthlink.net <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> Chelsea,
>>> That is a little hard to know. If you're in a dorm, why not ask someone
>>> the
>>> expiration date?
>>> If you go shopping every two weeks, you probably have nothing to worry
>>> about.
>>> Over time you'll sense when things go bad; as I haven't lived on my own
>>> much, living in the dorm with the new fridge was new to me too.
>>> Generally, things have a certain shelf life.
>>> Sounds like you mainly buy dairy products: yogurt, milk, etc. Maybe you
>>> buy
>>> lunch meat and bread and cheese to have in place of cafeteria food,
>>> sometimes.
>>>
>>> Well for milk, I heard it lasts a few weeks.
>>> You can smell or taste when it goes bad.
>>> For yogurt, I imagine it would smell bad too.
>>> Yogurt should last a couple weeks provided you seal the container tight
>>> after using it.
>>>
>>> Lunch meat lasts over a week.  Cheese sliced up lasts
>>> a week at least.
>>>
>>> One thing is I cannot tell if bread is moldy; it doesn't smell or feel
>>> different, unless its real gotten moldy, but just a little bit I don't
>>> know.
>>> So I've  just asked someone or relied on how long its been around.  Like 
>>> I
>>> had this bread six days, its still good.
>>>
>>> Hth,
>>> Ashley
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Chelsea Cook
>>> Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2011 10:58 PM
>>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [nabs-l] Parishable Food Items
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> One of the coolest things about college dorm rooms is ... the mini
>>> fridge! However, the stuff I put into mine sometimes gives me trouble.
>>> How do you guys manage milk and yogurt and stuff like that in terms of
>>> expiration dates? Usually, since it's just me, I go shopping about
>>> every two weeks and try to get items that will expire in the same
>>> window, but it's still tricky and I haven't gotten it down to a
>>> science yet. (Play on words, haha!) Anyway, any tips short of writing
>>> down everything would be helpful.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Chelsea
>>>
>>> --
>>> Chelsea Cook
>>>
>>> Virginia Tech 2015; Physics Major
>>> cook2010 at vt.edu
>>> "I ask you to look both ways.  For the road to a knowledge of the
>>> stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has
>>> been reached through
>>> the stars."
>>> Sir Arthur Eddington, British astrophysicist (1882-1944), Stars and
>>> Atoms (1928), Lecture 1
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Cindy Bennett
>> uNC Wilmington Psychology major
>>
>> clb5590 at gmail.com
>> 828.989.5383
>>
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>
>
> -- 
> Arielle Silverman
> President, National Association of Blind Students
> Phone:  602-502-2255
> Email:
> nabs.president at gmail.com
> Website:
> www.nabslink.org
>
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