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

Sun Feb 27 18:53:01 UTC 2011

Hi, nicole,
  That's a very good point. I'm in the process of learning to cook so
any suggestions/tips about what to make in a microwave other than
packaged food would be much appreciated. I'm sure others on the list
will benefit as well. Thanks!
   Katie

On 2/27/11, Nicole B. Torcolini at Home <ntorcolini at wavecable.com> wrote:
> 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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>
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