How to Prep Your Fridge for Summer Vacation
Set up a parent-approved fridge filled with healthy choices for the kids to make their own lunches and snacks this summer vacation.
Summer vacation with the kids home can often feel like you're doing nothing but feeding hungry people All. Day. Long.
Somehow those same kids that only eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the school year turn into hobbits that need second breakfast, elevenses, tea time, dinner, and supper.
This year, I'm ahead of the summer feeding frenzy. Our fridge broke last weekend and I'm turning that lemon into lemonade by starting over from scratch with how I use our space.
Here's a peek into our real family fridge and how I plan to use it for summer vacation with my kids home. And once your fridge is stocked like mine, you'll be able to make these easy summer lunch ideas any day of the week!
Rethink Fridge Storage
We are lucky enough to have a garage fridge and an indoor kitchen fridge. If that's not your case, I included some handy tips just for you at the bottom of this post.
When our indoor fridge broke, we moved as much as we could out to the garage extra-storage fridge so it wouldn't spoil.
Once my indoor fridge was fixed, I didn't want to go back to jam-packed chaos we were living with and I've been carefully moving only certain items back to the inside fridge.
I decided to use the spare fridge in the garage as the container for:
- Condiments: dozens of bottles and jars (jams, mustard, ketchup, and random ingredients for all the recipes I make)
- Dressings and Sauces: salad dressing, teriyaki sauce, chili sauce, etc.
- Bulk Items: Mostly from Costco
- Dinner Ingredients for TOMORROW and Beyond: When I meal plan, I keep only what I need for dinner tonight inside, everything else goes in the outside fridge.
- Most Beverages: Soda, selzer water, wine bottles, big bottles of juice, etc.
- Back Up Items: when there's a BOGO sale on items like packages of strawberries or baby carrots, the one we're eating goes inside, the back-up second one goes outside until we finish the first one.
The Only Items Allowed Inside
As far as our main indoor kitchen fridge, I've determined that the only things allowed inside it for summer vacation includes:
- Healthy Any-Time Approved Snacks for the Kids
- Lunch Prep Materials
- Leftovers that Need to Be Eaten
- Items Needed to Make Dinner TONIGHT
- Fresh Fruits & Vegetables
- Milk, Yogurt, Eggs: Just the 1 open container we're currently using, bulk overflow goes outside
- Anything that Spoils Quickly and Should Be Used: Fresh herbs, lemons & limes, etc.
- Short-List of Approved Beverages
Now let's take a closer look at what's inside . . .
Deli Prep Station
While my kids are home for the summer, I want them to be able to fend for themselves as often as possible but I also want them making good choices.
My hope is that by keeping the fridge paired down to these core essentials, it will be easier for them to see the things they can build their snacks and lunches from.
I started with a deli prep station that included:
- Pre-Sliced Cheese
- Deli Meat
- English Muffins
I'll be adding fresh sliced tomatoes and lettuce after my next grocery shop.
I bought this deli keeper on a whim so I would have a place to store hand cut bricks of cheese and keep it fresh. I ended up loving it so much, I ordered a second one that will hold the tomatoes and lettuce.
It is flat enough to fit right inside the deli drawer of our fridge so everything is easy to see.
Want to Save This for Later?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ready to Eat Veggies
Please tell me that my kids are not the only ones who will avoid eating veggies unless they are pre-washed and sliced and ready to go??
We used to keep our baby carrots in the bag they came in, stashed inside the veggie drawer.
I can't tell you how many half-eaten bags I've tossed that dried out because we forgot about them hiding under everything else in the drawer.
Instead, I opened up the bag of baby carrots and added it to my veggie platter container. I also peeled and sliced a fresh cucumber.
I'll mix up the fresh snack veggies in this container as we eat them up. Red bell peppers, celery sticks, baby tomatoes, broccoli spears, pea pods, we'll rotate through them all.
I love that the container is clear so the kids can see exactly what is inside. It also makes it very easy to grab and set on the dinner table for easy munching.
I got mine from Pampered Chef years ago, but these containers would work well too.
Easy Homemade Dips
Rather than buying premade veggie dip at the store, I love to make my own using dry seasoning packets and sour cream or plain Greek yogurt.
I feel a lot better about the simple ingredients and it keeps it very budget-friendly to rotate through some of our favorites because I can make small amounts at a time.
Some of my favorite homemade dips include:
Ready to Eat Fresh Fruit
My family will leave that package of strawberries in the fridge until it goes moldy. I call it my "good intentions" fruit and it makes me so sad every time I have to throw one away.
Now, I immediately wash and prep the fresh fruit I want them to eat and store it in clear glass containers so they can see it.
I placed these right on the top shelf of the fridge so it is at eye level for everyone who opens the door.
The heartier fruits like apples & oranges go in the fruit drawer below.
As soon as we finish off the container of fruit, I check the outdoor fridge for any replacements. Our store often does BOGO deals on packages of fruit, so we only have the first active one prepped and ready to eat if I can't fit it all into the storage container at once.
Hard Boiled Eggs
I do keep our regular raw eggs in the inside fridge for easy breakfasts like scrambled eggs or a breakfast quesadilla.
But for a quick grab protein, I do love to keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge, too.
To keep them separate from the raw eggs, I just popped them into a small bowl so I could set them in a different spot in the fridge.
I make just 9 at a time in our Instant Pot mini in just 5 minutes while I'm prepping other things for the fridge.
This has been such a popular snack with my husband and kids, I've had to replenish it twice in the last week alone.
Lemonade and Sweet Tea
As a special summer vacation treat, I bring out the giant beverage pitcher and we keep it filled with lemonade all summer long.
Last summer, my youngest developed a taste for flavored sweet teas so she can mix them with lemonade to make an Arnold Palmer.
I bought this cute mason jar pitcher to keep the sugar-free sweetened tea brewed and ready to pour.
I stock up on several flavors of the sweet tea to keep in my pantry. You can sample many of them in this variety pack. I love the strawberry and blackberry ones the most.
Dinner Prep Station
And perhaps the very best new use of our fridge has been what I've been calling my "dinner prep station."
I added a rimmed baking sheet to the fridge where I can gather all the ingredients to make tonight's dinner in one easy to spot space.
The rimmed sheet catches any dribbles from thawing meats or marinades and keeps the fridge nice and clean.
It also serves as a work surface where I could collect the condiments or sauces from the outside fridge that I'll need to use at dinner time.
I often prep portions of our dinner during smaller pockets of time in advance. This gives me a nice tidy spot to place them as I finish bits of the meal up ahead of time.
For example, last week I had a chopped pork loin marinating in my Cuban mojo marinade in a large bowl on the tray. Then I had all the veggies I needed to make the Cuban slaw to go with it right there. Once the slaw was prepped, I placed that container on the tray next to the marinating pork.
The dinner prep station habit makes it super easy to call home and ask your kids or partner to get dinner started if you're running late. I got stuck in traffic and was able to ask them to preheat the oven and grab the things needed from the dinner station to get it started before I even walked in the door. No arguing needed about where anything was!
How to Do This with Just 1 Fridge
I realize just how lucky we are to have a spare fridge in our garage. I know not all families have that extra space.
If you have just one fridge, here are some ways you could reorganize your space to do similar things as I have:
- Move Your Condiments: Empty out your produce drawers and place all those small bottles and jars together in one tucked-away spot. This will free up so much space in your door shelves.
- Prep First: When you get home from the grocery store, don't just stash everything away. Take the time to wash and chop your fruit and veggies first. This will reduce the space they take up in the fridge and make them easier to grab and eat for the kids.
- Shop More, Buy Less: It may seem counterintuitive, but if it is possible you should plan to shop more frequently during the week and buy less when you go. When your fridge isn't too-packed to see things, you'll have less waste overall. Challenge your family to eat up everything in the fridge before you do a restock and then only buy what you can eat in 3 - 4 days. I find I need one big shopping trip a week with one much smaller refill shop a second time.
Sample Easy Summer Lunch
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have spotted a peek at my lunch last week.
I was able to put together this "nibble plate" in just a couple minutes because all those items were prepped and ready to eat in the fridge.
Included on my plate was:
- Fresh Pitted Cherries
- Red Bell Peppers, Baby Carrots, Sliced Cucumbers
- A Dollop of Veggie Dip
- 1 Hardboiled Egg with a Seasoning Sprinkle
- Sliced Pepperjack Cheese
- A Handful of Wheat Crackers
It would be just as easy to have a bunch of fresh salad toppings prepped and ready and a big tub of salad greens.
Like last week, I made my favorite strawberry feta salad because the strawberries were washed and ready, the pickled onions were in the jar in the door, and the feta cheese was stored up in the butter section of the fridge.
I gathered together all my best easy summer lunch ideas for you!
More Summer Vacation Tips
Comments
No Comments