• The myth of ripe produce: Have you ever purchased supposedly "vine ripened" tomatoes or "ripe and ready" avocadoes, only to find they're not ripe at all? I certainly have and here's a piece from The Guardian discussing the problem.
   
• Great snack: Love this idea from Mademoiselle Slimalicious for spi cy roasted chickpeas. Canned chickpeas are cooked in a frying pan with some olive oil, coriander, cumin, garlic, thyme and chilli flakes. A great sounding snack.
   
• Desk lunches & egg sandwiches: Grea t piece from Mummy I Can Cook about eating lunch at your desk and the secrets to making a good egg sandwich. Eating lunch at your desk is not the best strategy, but as Shu Han says "sometimes there's no way round a desk lunch".
   
• Vegetables as instruments: Brooklyn musician j.viewz goes to the grocery store, buys some vegetables and then uses them to make music. What more could you want? Via Lemonpi.
   
• Why is everyone always giving my kids junk food: Interesting article from Professor Yoni Freedhoff, asking why every single social event and kids activity has to include junk food? He esimates his children are being offered an average of at least 600 (2,500kJ) calories of junk every week.

Have you spotted any interesting links recently?

My basic rule of thumb is:

• Use the greenery first. Spinach, watercress, mixed salad leaves, Asian greens, fresh herbs, anything with a soft green leaf will start to look quite sorry after a couple of days. So use these in your meals first.
• Always choose some long lasters. Potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, onions, garlic, leeks, cabbage, even beetroot and sometimes carrots will all survive a week. Some will be good for longer than that. So I always buy a couple of these and plan to use them at the end of the week.
• Use your judgement with the rest. The longevity of everything else lies somewhere between these two extremes, so plan to use them mid week, once the greens have gone.
• It helps to be a bit flexible. If something in you fridge is starting to lose freshness then use it up.