Food and lifestyle expert Alejandra Ramos has the tips to bring old food back to life.
It’s estimated that Americans throw away more than $600 worth of food per person every year — but some foods considered beyond consumption can actually be revived.
Wilted and dry carrots may not be the most appealing item in the fridge, but food and lifestyle expert Alejandra Ramos says that's because they are dehydrated and just need some water to be revived.
“First you're gonna cut off the bottom and the top of the carrot, and you're going to put them in a mason jar, or any vertical jar that has been filled with ice water,” she told Inside Edition. “You're going to leave them for about 30 minutes."
After the half hour has gone by, simply open the jar and try them out.
The same tip applies when you're dealing with stale celery.
What about lettuce that looks ready for the trash?
“Lettuce wilts so easily, but it can also easily be brought back to life,” Ramos said. “So what you do is fill a bowl with ice water and you swirl the lettuce around in the water and this one is very quick because lettuce is so delicate and thin. It freshens right up.”
Bread can also get stale very quickly and like some vegetables, just add water.
To prove her point, Ramos ran a stale baguette under the faucet.
“Get it all wet," she said. "Now this is going into the oven — you want to preheat your oven to about 350, and you just put it in and you let it bake."
Ten minutes later, the bread is soft and ready to eat.
A similar method works when you're dealing with stale sliced bread.
“With a slice of bread you can use a paper towel," Ramos said. "You wanna dip that in the water. We'll wrap the bread in the paper towel and now this goes in the microwave.”
She put it in for a quick 10 seconds and the slices were soft.
French fries are the cornerstone to many American meals, but if it looks like they're on the old side, simply fry them.
“The instinct here is to always pop them into the oven but that's wrong because that's going to leave them dry and shriveled up,” she said. “French Fries are fried so you want to take them back to the stove and fry them up again.”
Warm up your skillet and add some oil. Then add the fires, but just do a few at a time to avoid crowding the pan.
Fry them up for about seven minutes.
“Once they're nice and golden, you just want to drain them on a paper towel-lined plate,” she said.
