Sunday, April 15, 2012

LETTUCE WRAPPER

WARNING!!  No quilting in this post.

We are trying to eat more healthily these days and a book I have lists various foods along with their nutrient-density value.  The foods that rank 100 are romaine lettuce, collard greens, spinach, etc.  You get the picture.  So I have been eating a lot of romaine lettuce.  At first, after I washed and drained it, I would wrap it in paper towels and put it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  I discovered that the paper towels soon were wet and I would exchange them for dry ones.  I was using too many paper towels!

One day I had a lightbulb idea!  I made several fat quarter size pieces of muslin - I serged around the edges.  Using a piece of muslin for each "head" of romaine lettuce, I wrapped it up and placed it in the plastic bag as shown in the pictures.




It works like a charm!  It keeps the lettuce nice and crisp and I don't have to waste tons of paper towels.  I can wash the muslin when it needs it.

Besides a salad, this is one of the things I eat for breakfast.  Six leaves of romaine, each with a little bit of peanut butter spread on it and one banana sliced thin and placed on each leaf.  It is easy and I really like it!  (the recipe is in the book "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman, MD.  It calls for raw cashew butter, so my version isn't the pristine one, but I decided to substitute peanut butter.


The muslin FQs are also good for draining other type of vegetables such as bok choy that I use for another salad.  I just lay them out on the muslin, cover with another FQ and continue until they are all covered.  They dry much better than when doing it on paper towels.  

These will last for years by washing and reusing them, so it should save quite a bit of money spent on paper towels.  Maybe there are other ways to use the muslin FQs to replace paper towels as well.  Let me know if you think of any.

17 comments:

  1. Great idea! I need to do that to conserve paper towels too! That banana/romaine looks tasty! Have a great day! ---"Love"

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  2. What an EXCELLENT idea! I can see making me some of those...

    Thanks!!!

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  3. And you are making less trash!!

    Looks like a great breakfast!!

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  4. I also put a rolled hem on some squares of white cotton to use to clean my glasses. Those silky ones that you can buy just weren't doing it for me. Be sure not to use fabric softener when you wash them and Voila....clean glasses at last.

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  5. What a great idea, I will try it. I love dry crisp romaine. Your lettuce wrap breakfast sounded very polynesian to me. In and Out Burgers have a lettuce wrap hamburger. I don't eat bread so that's the way I can enjoy a hamburger at home.

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  6. That is a good idea; thanks!

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  7. That's a grand idea! Thanks for posting it Ruth. I love it!

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  8. Very clever, and very "green". Thanks for sharing the idea. Isn't it nice to have all this fabric on hand and be able to do such useful things with it? : )

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  9. Love your idea. I use as few paper towels as possible. I'll be getting out some muslin today.
    Lillian
    lillianscupboard.wordpress.com

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  10. Necessity (and no money to waste) is the mother of invention, LOL!

    Liri

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  11. What a cool use for muslin (which I have way too much of). I hate paper towels...waste of money and resources...but they have their place;)
    Happy Quilting!!

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  12. Tried over the week end to leave a comment but I couldn't for some reason. Anyway thought I would try one more time.
    I am going to try that breakfast and muslin is a great idea. Less paper waste.Thanks for sharing.

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  13. That's a great idea, thanks for posting it. I think I might give this a try!

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  14. Do you have toast with your lettuce? :-)

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  15. I read this a couple of days ago and tried it - works great! blessings, marlene

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  16. That is a great idea. I use an old smaller sized bath towel to wrap the romaine in, and it works great too. I try also to be careful about using too many paper towels.

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