Sunday afternoon has its own kind of quiet. It is a good time for one small reset: look at the fridge, cook a batch of something, put it away properly and decide how the week will move. Here is how that hour can run, using FDA and CDC guidance.
4:00 – Look before cooking
- Check the temperatures. The FDA says to keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below and the freezer at 0°F, and that an appliance thermometer is the best way to know.
- Look through the fridge. The FDA advises checking leftovers daily for spoilage, and it notes that a use-by date is a quality guide, not a food safety date.
- Its advice for food that looks questionable, or that nobody is sure about, is to throw it out.
4:15 – Cook once
The CDC says the only way to tell if food is cooked safely is a food thermometer. Its list: 165°F for all poultry, including ground chicken and turkey; 160°F for ground meats such as beef and pork; 145°F for whole cuts of beef, veal, lamb and pork, followed by a 3-minute rest; and 165°F for leftovers and casseroles.
5:00 – Put it away
The CDC says to refrigerate perishable food, cooked leftovers included, within two hours, and to package warm or hot food into several clean, shallow containers first. Thawing is a Sunday-night detail too: never on the counter, the CDC says, because bacteria multiply quickly in the parts of the food that reach room temperature. The FDA adds covered containers or sealed bags for the refrigerator.
5:30 – Pencil in the week
The CDC says adults can spread their 150 minutes of weekly activity out and break it into smaller chunks, and that muscle-strengthening belongs on two or more days. The HHS guidelines say aerobic activity is best spread through the week. A calendar with a few short loops marked on it does that job.
