Welcome to a new year! As I start the new year I have a goal to get back into the habit of preparing food on the weekend that I can take to work for lunch during the week. A new recipe on Spend Smart. Eat Smart. that I find perfect for this is Vegetarian Chili. I find this recipe easy to prepare since it uses canned tomatoes and beans and frozen corn. The only vegetables I need to chop are some onion and bell pepper. Using canned and frozen items means I can keep them on hand to have ready when I want to make the chili.

My colleague Beth from AnswerLine has some great tips to share about storing and using canned foods.

Canned foods are great to have on hand to make recipes like this Vegetarian Chili, but good management is important. When bringing home new cans of food from the grocery store be sure to keep similar foods together. This will help you keep track of how many of a certain type of food you have on hand.  Store older cans towards the front and put newer cans behind.

Dates on cans of food are quality dates. The manufacturers are saying the canned item will be best if consumed by that date. Canned food is still safe past that date unless the can is bulging, leaking, dented, or rusting since those compromise the safety of the food inside. However, there are limits to the shelf-life of canned foods and this information from the University of Minnesota Extension will give you some additional guidance.

So, keep canned foods on hand to make some delicious Spend Smart. Eat Smart. recipes. And if you have any questions about the safety of your canned foods give AnswerLine a call at 1-800-262-3804!