Keeping Food Fresh

There are many food saver appliances and gadgets available and they all work.  I purchased this one some time ago and just recently decided to use it, mainly because my daughter in law has something similar and was raving about it keeping the lettuce fresh.

This one from Ziplock is about as simple and inexpensive as it gets.  I paid around $8 for the vacuum and the bags are about the same price as regular zip lock bags, but they have a circle where you put the vacuum to suck out the air around the food inside.  The pump looks a little like a tiny bicycle pump, only instead of pumping the air into the bag, it sucks it out.  The first few pumps may not look like it is working, but suddenly, the bag tightens around the food. 

 

 

Here is a piece of an onion that I used the vacuum pump to remove the air from a saver bag.  The bag is so tight around the onion, you can even see the layers.  This keeps the air from spoiling the onion and keeps it moist. 

 

So when your kids just eat half an apple, you can save the other half for later.  These would also be good for storing dried foods that you've dried in a dehydrator, or that half a box of raisins that are drying out in the pantry. 

 

Unlike food systems that melt the plastic to seal them, these bags have the regular plastic zipper, so if you need to be extra frugal, you can rinse them out and reuse them because you don't have to cut them open.  I can think of tons of uses for these space saving and preserving vacuum bags.  Since air makes cut apples and avocado turn dark, this should prevent that problem too.  I'll be testing that theory soon.