There's something in your fridge with a lock on it?

Medicine if you must know! That's the extent of your comments? Geez, thanks for sharing.

I can't decide! Between the fruits and veggies and the steak on the other post - it all looks so GOOD!

So do your fruit and veggies really last all week for you? If so that is so awesome! Maybe it's our older fridge but there is no way I could do that. :(

That looks great. Thanks again for sharing. I cannot wait for our kitchen to be done!

I'm with Autumn, I can't get veggies to last long. Washed berries have 24 hours in this house before they start mushing up, ewe.

Love all the colors, looks yummy.

Ps, I love the locked medicine container.

wow that is organization, and your kitchen functions beautifully for it. Love esp the hubby across the island keeping you company.

Wonderful KAW pics. Can I ask what sink you put in? It looks about the same size I spec'd in a Franke fireclay sink, and I'm hoping mine functions just like yours.

Wonderful pics. Also the quintessential pic for all those posters who say "I want my cooktop in my island cause it's sooo much more social to have it there". Whenever we give responses that it's better to prep on the island than have the cooktop there, they rarely believe us. We should just point to your wonderful set-up.

BTW, I love the huge fridge. Can you provide the brand and the size?

I'm immediately immensely jealous (and respectful) of someone who preps so well in advance. Occasionally, I'll figure out the next week's meals but... not nearly as often as I'd like.

Who's eating all the pears?!!

I do love prepping at the island as well. My main complaint is that (being a large horizontal surface) it's the primary dumping ground for all. My regular cleaning it off tends to involve a fair amount of melodrama (all on my part....).

Lovely seeing your kitchen at work. Especially loved seeing your backsplash in the other thread. Please keep posting your kitchen at work (and rest). That goes for everyone else too!

I would love to know your prep system, if you have one. I keep telling myself I need to prep fruit/veggies but I haven't figured out how to do it. DH does cut up green peppers which go in my dd's lunch. ds gets baby carrots. We cut apples fresh each morning for lunches, or grapes. Would like to be more prepared.

Also- what are your countertops? They look like they might be the quartz that I am looking at, but have been curious whether I will still like it in and expanse of counter rather than a small sample.

great pics taggie, thanks! Your layout has given me a lot of encouragement along the way since mine is so similar!

Your fridge is so tidy :)

Can I bother you for another question and that is how wide are your aisles (island to range and the other aisle island to fridge)? I'd much appreciate it.

Beautiful. After looking at this & your steak dinner, my husband would like to be married to you. I'm really hoping (and so is DH) that my new kitchen & appliances inspire me to cook. Going to the grocery store is almost painful for me. Gardening, I love. I'm going to make a file of all these KAW pictures & recipes. Thanks!

Wow, you have a great system going. I am really impressed with how organized you are. (And the lovely kitchen, too, of course.)

I like the idea of prepping over the weekend, but I don't think washed and cut produce would last 5 days for us. What kind of fridge do you have? Do you store all the prepped produce in Ziploc bags?

I agree how do you make them last all week?? Kitchen looks great and your organization is to be envied!!

Taggie- Your kitchen is beautiful and so functional! I can see why your island is a joy to work on and the sink and faucet do look made for each other. Great planning :)

What a smart way to get ready for the week...all your fruits and veggies ready to grab and go. I wish I had such a nice prep space! More ideas for the remodeling file....

Taggie - great pictures and great organization.
I find my berries keep fine as long as I don't add sugar

magsnj, first off, sorry for jumping down your throat with my initial comment. I guess you couldn't know that we're dealing with a seriously ill DH here, and to have the first comment bring it all back, on a post that was meant to be something completely different, just hit me wrong. Please accept my apology.

Now to the more fun stuff :-)

Autumn4 & chrissyb2411, yes they last all week with no problems. In large part it's due to the newer refrigeration technology and partly re. bagging them and getting as much air out as possible. I'd say it's 80% fridge technology though. My old 17 year old GE wouldn't keep anything fresh past a few days, but our recent bosch and now this kenmore pro both keep veggies well past a week, and many veggies up to 2 weeks, and fruits easily for a week or longer.

ck_squared & scrappy25, thanks!

mlweaving_Marji, it's a Kindred sink and the smaller (prep side) bowl is 16" x 10.5".

akchicago, I so agree! I love prepping facing the room; it's such a nice change from my old kitchen where my prep space was in a corner between sink and range. It was a nice big expanse of prep space, but facing the corner wasn't exactly conducive to socializing. The fridge is the Kenmore Pro all refrigerator, which I believe is a rebadged Frigidaire (or Elux .. not sure, I've gotten different answers each time I asked sears).

oldbat2be, LOL on the melodrama!! Are you sure you aren't my long lost twin sister? :-) PS. we'll eat those pears no problem ... that's only one a day each for the week, and we tend to have fruit for breakfast and lunch, and sometimes even after-dinner snacks. The miracle will be if they actually last out the week.

JessHS, just keep at it and you'll see it will eventually work itself out. You have a much tougher job to 'systemize' because the youngsters can be so picky. For us, I just buy mostly whatever's on sale / in season and make them into portions for the week. The trick for me is not to cut them up in advance. A portion might be an apple & pear in a baggie, then a snack-sized baggie of grapes for lunch along with a banana. If I'm on the road that day I'll just grab them up and stick them in my lunch bag with a bottle of water and it's as easy as that. If you have to cut up the apples or pears for your little ones, you necessarily have to leave it to the last minute. :) One thing you might at least try is getting those individual snack-sized baggies (they're smaller than the sandwich bags) and portion some baby carrots, grapes, cherries, etc for the week.... then see if your kids might eventually switch to eating whole fruits instead of having them cut up. I know, easier said than done, lol.

illinigirl, you will love the layout, i just know it! My measurements are 42" countertop edge to edge on the range side and 43" countertop edge to fridge door on the the fridge side. With handles factored in, it's 37" at the narrowest point where the range handle is across from the dw drawer handle, and 40.5" at the narrowest point where the fridge handle is across from the countertop edge.

romy718, OMG I am the total opposite of you. I wish I could garden but I just look sideways at a plant and it seems to wilt. And I know this sounds very weird but I actually like going grocery shopping ... somehow it's just my nice alone time if that makes any sense, haha, and I do get a little thrill out of getting a good bargain. You know you're getting old when the big Friday night excitement is checking out the flyers LOL!!

kaysd and ali80ca, I used to think that washing and prepping veggies would shorten shelf life, but experience has told me otherwise. Perhaps it's because I do baggie them in small portions, so it's not like a single stalk of rotting broccoli could affect the whole ... or a single moldy strawberry can't ruin the entire pint. I do "baggie" almost everything in sandwich bags or in medium-sized freezer bags (the latter are better sizes for broccoli & cauliflower so I use the freezer bags for those and sandwich bags for the rest. Things I don't put in sealed ziplocks are mushrooms and asparagus ... though I do pre-prep those. The mushrooms get washed and put in baggies but don't get sealed and they last a week no problem (I know you're "supposed" to leave them in paper bags, but with the newer fridges they can be pre-prepped no problem in my experience). I wash asparagus and put them in unclosed baggies with a wet paper towel around the bottom on the stems ... then at dinner time I just have to grab a serving, break the stalks, and go. Pretty much everything else except for squashes and the like gets baggied up and sealed though.

lavender, thanks for the nice comments and I know you'll get your dream kitchen one day, and hopefully sometime soon. Meanwhile you have your DH back and that is truly priceless. :-)

a2gemini, agree about the berries. No issues as long as there's no sugar added. They keep very well as long as they're bagged in smallish portions.

taggie-

Thanks so much for your detailed responses, both to my questions and everybody elses!

Is your countertop Alpina White silestone quartz?

Hi Jess,

The countertop is Caesarstone chocolate truffle.

Taggie - that is some set up you have going. Glad to know you are very satisfied with how the kitchen is working. Also, good to know the newer fridges keep fresh fruits and veggies longer. There is hope!!! Thanks for sharing.