Meal Prep Ideas for Easy Cleanup

If you put off making a salad just because you dislike prepping some of those fruits and veggies, here’s help. This post from Women’s Health puts together smart mess-free meal prep ideas for some of your favorite fruits and veggies.

If you’re anything like us, you would eat a lot more beets, pomegranates, and kiwis if you could just figure out an easy way to prep them. Luckily, some of our favorite food blogs have come up with pretty ingenious ways to simplify the process. Take a look, then try these tricks for yourself:

Mandarin Oranges

“I love how peeling an orange gives me sticky hands,” said no one, ever. Which is why we’re obsessed with this mess-free method from JewelPie. Just use a paring knife to slice off either end, cut a slit in the orange peel, and roll the whole thing out in a strip. We can’t say for sure if this method works with other varieties of oranges, but you can bet we’re going to try it.

Beets

Raise your hand if you know how to cook beets. Yup, thought so. Well, get this: You don’t have to cook them at all. You can eat beets raw, just like carrots, as we learned after reading this post from TheKitchn. Simply peel the beets (it helps to cut off both ends first), and thinly slice them using a knife or a mandolin. You can also season them if you want to add some extra flavor.

Pomegranates

If you’ve ever cut a pomegranate in half, then you know that it gets the job done—but there are some casualties along the way (R.I.P., cute T-shirt that got stained with pomegranate juice). Instead, use this technique recommended by Wit & Whistle: Cut a small cone out of the top of the fruit with a paring knife (so you’re removing the piece sticking out). Then slice a sliver off of the opposite end, lightly score each of the ridges that run from the top of the fruit to the bottom, and pull the whole thing apart. The seeds will come out easily with no mess.

Kiwis

Here’s another brilliant tip from the geniuses over at TheKitchn: To make kiwis portable, just cut them in half and then eat the insides with a spoon. So smart! (And another fun thing to do with kiwis if you’re willing to do some advanced planning is freeze them and then eat them as push-pops.)

Avocados

Did you know that half of an avocado is only about 160 calories?  So while we’re on the subject of produce you can eat with a spoon, it’s actually kind of the perfect afternoon snack to scoop right out of the shell, like Lukas Volger’s Veggie Madness suggests. To switch it up, try sprinkling the avocado with salt and pepper or drizzling a bit of soy sauce on top first.

Source: 5 Fruits and Veggies You’ve Been Eating Wrong | Women’s Health Magazine