We all know we need to eat more vegetables, and we all, at least occasionally, make excuses for why we don’t eat enough. One of the reasons we’ve been hearing a lot lately is that when you load up on vegetables from the grocery store or the farmer’s market, they never last long enough in our kitchens. This reason seems to be especially popular when it comes to things like celery, lettuce, and other leafy greens. After all, who wants to eat limp lettuce? Nobody, but friends? We’re about to take this particular excuse away from you, thanks to this veggie-storing trick from The Mama’s Girls. They call it: The Paper Towel trick.

Three Easy Steps

1. When you bring your vegetables home, wash them thoroughly and shake off as much excess water as possible.
2. Put the veggies in a gallon Ziploc or other closeable plastic bag.
3. Place a couple of dry, clean paper towels in the bag, close it up, and store. Check every few days and replace any soaked paper towels with new, clean, dry ones.

Why It Works

The enemy of your vegetables, the thing that’s making them go limp and unappetizing? It’s moisture, and the paper towels soak it right up. Of course, you could always wait to wash your vegetables, but we wouldn’t want to give anybody a new excuse not to grab those veggies and eat them up!

We love simple tricks like this one that help to make our lives easier and healthier. If you want to hear more from tricks from The Mama’s Girls, including their suggestion for the best way to keep your fruits fresh, head on over to their site. Have you heard of or used this “paper towel trick” before? How do you store your healthy foods to keep them fresh? What are some of your own simple tricks to remove convenience-based excuses to not eat your greens?