What’s In Your Fridge?

One question I get over and over again from blog readers is “What’s in your fridge?  What’s in your freezer?  What’s in your pantry?”

Oh, wait, that’s 3 questions, but whatever.

After I posted my raw vegan chocolate avocado pudding post last week which included a small glimpse into my fridge, I received some emails from people asking to get a better look.

In fact, that sneak peek into my fridge led to 33 emails from curious readers asking, “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE OH PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR FRIDGE!”.

And so, curious readers, I will oblige you, because I have to admit, I LOVE to look in other people’s fridges too.  Love it! I love when a blogger posts a photo of their fridge, because I find it inspiring and interesting to see how other people eat, and I love seeing all that wonderful fresh food to look at.

And I love to see what people place in their shopping carts, too.  I’m a total rubbernecker at Costco or Whole Foods when I’m in line to pay.  It’s like Shopping Cart Heaven!  All those carts to snoop in!

Is that weird?

Probably.

Well, I have my limits…I  don’t look in people’s medicine cabinets…couldn’t care less, in fact.  But, boy, let me peek in your fridge or shopping cart, and I’m a happy camper. What can I say?  I’m a foodie

So, I tidied the fridge, grabbed the camera, and flung open the fridge door to take a few pictures.

This is our main fridge in the kitchen.  With a big family to feed, we keep a second fridge in the basement.  We are a family of 7 whole foods vegans — mom, dad, and 5 young vegan children.  We don’t eat soy/tofu, fake meats, or non-dairy cheeses.  We try to eat a high-raw diet — in addition to plenty of fresh produce, we also regularly eat nuts, seeds, gluten free grains, and dried beans, all of which we buy in bulk:

Here’s the top half of the fridge:

How about I break it down for you by section; sound good?

Top shelf, left side:

• 2 cartons of organic mixed greens in the back
• bowl of organic peaches
• partial bag of fresh organic cranberries
• steel ramekin with some super hot thai chilis that hubby loves!
• behind the little steel dish is a bowl of organic beets from our garden (still clumped with dirt!), and they sit on top of a pyrex glass storage bowl full of leftover sweet potato fries from previous night’s dinner

Top shelf, right side:

• in the back are 4 large cartons of fresh organic raspberries (Costco) and 2 pounds of organic green grapes.
• the raspberries and grapes are sitting on top of lidded stainless steel storage containers that contain snacks for the kids:  one has homemade raw vegan blondie macaroons in it, and the other one contains homemade cashew cookie “larabars”.  Having snacks made up ahead of time makes it easy when we have to head out the door to an activity.
• in the front is a big bowl of organic brussel sprouts, cleaned and trimmed and ready to use
• the brussel sprouts sit atop a Pyrex lidded glass storage container that has leftover asparagus spears from a previous dinner
• and on the right is a bowl of organic tomatoes on-vine

Middle shelf, left side:

• bowl of organic Granny Smith apples
• bowl of organic fresh ginger
• tucked behind the apples and ginger in the dark recesses of the fridge are bags of organic leeks, parsley, cilantro, and cauliflower

Middle shelf, right side:

• in the back:  a big bowl of kiwis
• 2 pounds of organic baby bella mushrooms
• a bowl of organic pears
• a bowl of snap peas

Next up is the Nut and Seed Shelf.  We buy our organic nuts and seeds in very large bulk amounts and portion them.  We store all of our organic nuts and seeds in the fridge or freezer.  Fresh nuts and seeds tend to go rancid when left at room temperature, so we keep them in the fridge or freezer to preserve the freshness, flavor, and especially the nutrients.  We fill the jars for the fridge and store the rest of the bulk nuts/seeds in the deep freezer to keep them fresh.  I get my tall jars at the dollar store and they work well for this.

There’s 9 tall jars on this shelf so I’ll show them to you one row of 3 at a time.

Nut and Seed Shelf — Row #1: organic raw sesame seeds, raw macadamia nuts, and raw almonds:

That unlabelled jar of macadamias?  REALLY BUGGING ME.  So I grabbed the label maker and asked my wee helper to make a macadamia nut label for mama:

(Footie-pajamas make my heart sing)

She had a little trouble with the spelling.  It’s kind of a tricky word to spell.

Nut and Seed Shelf — Row #2: organic raw cashews, raw pecans, and raw walnuts:

Nut and Seed Shelf, Row #3: organic raw brazilnuts, raw sunflower seeds, and raw pumpkin seeds:

The avocado drawer (more avocadoes are on the counter in a bamboo bowl ripening slowly before being transferred to this drawer):

Citrus drawer — organic oranges, lemons, and limes:

Veggie drawer — organic cucumbers, yellow squash, celery, and carrots:

Shot of the bottom half of the fridge:

There is a little freezer above  the fridge and we store more nuts and seeds in glass jars in the door.  Here we have: an unlabelled jar of flax seeds (UN labelled!  ACK! Where’s my labelmaker and my cute little helper?), organic/shade grown/fair trade coffee, organic pine nuts, organic ch-ch-ch-chia!, organic hempseeds, organic flax meal (fresh ground in the Blendtec and then stored in the freezer), and organic dark vegan choc chips:

My tiny helper is STILL not done with those labels!

And she won’t give me back my label maker either.  Sheesh.

We don’t have a lot of fresh leafy greens in our fridges right now because…our garden is STILL producing!  It’s mid-November and we are still harvesting bushels of homegrown organic greens right now. This has been a fantastic year for growing greens for our family — a few packets of seeds has provided us with over 6 months of lovely leafies.

And I know I joke about forgetting to water the garden, but it’s true.  We’ve forgotten to water it for, oh…the last 6 months.  Hubby and the kids put part of the garden to bed for the winter, but we still have plenty of food growing.

The collard greens are still going strong, and they are ENORMOUS!  Taller than my toddler, these poor neglected greens are thriving, though I need to harvest and freeze them soon:

The chard is my FAVORITE and I dash out to the garden every day to pick some for our smoothies.  It is tender and flavorful and so delicious.  And right behind the chard you can just see the tops of beets — they’re still growing well right now too, and will be perfect in soups, salads, and beet smoothies:

We even have strawberries growing…in MID NOVEMBER !  In Ohio!  We’re picking a couple of fresh strawberries every couple of days.  And there are still new blossoms appearing regularly. Crazy.

So that’s my gardening method for you…plant it and forget about it.  Works like a charm!

Well, I was going to show you the door of the fridge, and our second fridge too, but this post is already so long that I’ve probably lost you by now.  We’ll save that goodness for another day.

And since I love to peek in other people’s fridges, why don’t you play along?  You can leave a comment telling us what’s in your fridge, OR if you feel like showing what’s in your fridge, leave a link in the comments section so that the curious can come have a peek.

I’d SURE like to snoop in your fridge.  Pretty please?

I promise I won’t rummage in your medicine cabinet.

What’s in YOUR fridge?