10 Things In My Fridge | Everyday Maven

Today my friend Alyssa from Everyday Maven is here to share what she keeps in her fridge on a regular basis. What’s always drawn me to Alyssa’s blog is her simple, family friendly and good-for-you recipes. She keeps things on the light side using whole foods and is always sharing something new I want to try (hello Italian Roasted Cauliflower with Marinara!). A couple things I noticed about Alyssa’s fridge right away – we have the same refrigerator and I just picked up a jar of Bubbies pickles last week. 🙂

Thanks so much for being here Alyssa!

Get to know Alyssa better through her blog Everyday Maven, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

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Hi Everyone! My name is Alyssa and I am visiting today from Everyday Maven to give you all a glimpse into our fridge! Everyday Maven is where I share my real food recipes made with clean ingredients. I am a mom and while I love good food and won’t sacrifice taste, it’s still got to be relatively easy.

I love this series so much – taking a peek into other people’s fridges gives such insight into what is going on in their homes and kitchens.

Taking pictures of my fridge wound up being quite stressful. The lighting in my kitchen pretty much sucks and since I have one of those side-by-side fridge/freezer combos, it’s not that easy to get a good shot of everything. I tried though and after taking way too many photos and having the fridge warning thing beep at me non-stop, I decided to go with these pictures and call it a day.

A lot of produce (avocados, onions, garlic, tomatoes, squash, etc.) and fruit (apples, pears, bananas, melons, etc.) never makes it to the fridge in our house unless it has been cut or cooked and needs to be saved. What is in our fridge truly changes with the seasons but these 10 things are almost always there…

1. Eggs – We eat eggs almost every morning and use them in everything from homemade mayo, to puddings and pancakes. Good quality eggs are always found in our fridge and there is usually a tub of hard-boiled eggs tucked in there as well.
2. Condiments and Misc. Flavor Enhancers – What food blogger worth their salt isn’t obsessed with condiments? Our most used condiments are mustard (spicy, Dijon and yellow), hot sauces (so many!), Asian ingredients like toasted sesame oil, fish sauce, coconut aminos, tamari, tamarind paste and Sriracha. Some other products I always have on hand to add flavor are Anchovy Paste, Tahini, Miso, fresh ginger root and grated Locatelli cheese.
3. Pickled and Fermented Things – There is never a shortage of pickled and fermented things. My husband and I try to add at least one fermented food to our breakfast and most recently it is Kimchi. Our local Costco has a great deal on this huge tub of Kimchi. Other than that, we always have Pickles, Olives, Sauerkraut, Pickled Herring and Homemade Pickled Jalapenos. I brew my own Kombucha but took a break over the winter. I plan to start back up in a couple of weeks!
4. Bacon – My son is obsessed with bacon. Obsessed. We always have bacon in both our fridge and our freezer.
5. Defrosting Tray – I keep a half sheet pan in the fridge at all times and use it as my “defrost tray”. This contains any leaks or mess when defrosting meat, chicken, pork, seafood, etc. and is a major time saver since I can just toss it in the dishwasher if something does leak instead of having to stop and clean out the whole fridge.
6. Greens and Veggies – We have two vegetable drawers. I use the top one with humidity control for salad ingredients and fresh herbs. There is usually lettuce of some sort or mixed greens, cucumbers, carrots and whatever herbs we have. The bottom drawer is for all the vegetables that become side dishes or part of our meals. We often have greens (right now kale), zucchini or some other vegetable for spiralizing, cauliflower for ricing and mashing and whatever else is in season or a great deal.
7. Citrus – I have been hearing that there is a lime shortage happening but luckily it hasn’t hit here (yet!). I love Trader Joe’s bags of Organic Lemons and Limes. At $1.99 a bag, I can always keep both lemons and limes on hand to add a burst of citrus to any dish (or beverage!).
8. Dark Chocolate – What more needs to be said? Everyone should have chocolate in their fridge!
9. Coffee – Living in Seattle, it’s pretty hard not to drink coffee all the time. We keep Organic, Fair-Trade coffee and my homemade creamer on hand but have been working hard to cut back a bit. Plus, some wine for good measure.
10. Freezer – What’s in my fridge wouldn’t be complete without talking about my freezer. We have a side-by-side fridge in our kitchen with the smallest freezer known to man. I use that freezer for storing leftover meals, flours, nuts, seeds and frozen fruit for smoothies. Other than that, it fits ice. We have a full-size upright freezer in our garage that is stocked with meats, frozen vegetables and homemade stocks.

Thank you so much for having me here today Aggie!