Preserving my produce

I try to buy and use fresh fruits and vegetables every week. As I transition my family off of processed foods to healthy whole foods, I am discovering new ways to preserve/freeze fresh produce for future use.

When I find a fresh item on sale at a really good price, I try to stock up. Lately, this has been happening with potatoes, strawberries and onions (I got carried away with an onion sale at Aldi recently and wound up with 20 pounds of onions that I had to do something with!)

Below are items that I regularly cut up and freeze. These items can all be cut/diced and placed in a freezer bag for storage. Flatten out the freezer bag so that they don't freeze into a clump and it's easier to store
Onions - Go here to see my post about freezing onions without smelling up your freezer.
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Celery

Other items that can be frozen:
Corn on the Cob - Go here for the method I use for blanching and freezing the corn. It's a little time consuming, but after you do it once or twice, you get the hang of it and it goes much quicker.

Potatoes - they can be frozen, but they must be cooked first. Below are some links to recipes I use and then freeze the results. My favorite is steak fries - they're so easy to make and such great alternative to frozen frenchfries from the grocery!

Freezer Mashed Potatoes

Steak Fries

Twice Baked Potatoes (I leave out the bacon)

Strawberries - the best way to freeze strawberries is to cut them up. Lay them on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for about an hour or two, then take them out and put them in a freezer bag or plastic container. This way they do not freeze up into one big clump. They are great in all kinds of recipes like smoothies, desserts, etc. Right now is the time to do this because strawberries are very cheap. They have been on sale at Aldi for .99 cents for several weeks.

These are the items I've experimented with, I know there are many other fruits and vegetables that can be frozen.

This works for me, what about you? What have you frozen? Let me know!

This is part of Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

WFMW: Cooking & Freezing Dried Beans

My family does not eat a lot of meat. So we supplement with beans. I struggled with finding the best way to cook and store dried beans for a long time. The problem I kept running into was that if I had a recipe that called for beans, I would often not remember to start cooking the beans enough in advance for them to be ready by meal time. And then, I often did not cook them long enough. I tried soaking them, I tried cooking them. It was never the right texture. Finally I tried soaking and cooking! Hah! I finally found the right combination. Then I started to wonder, "what if I froze the cooked beans?". I tried it, they were fine in recipes after being frozen.

Here's what I do (I tried to take pictures of all my steps, but my camera flaked out on me and I only ended up with 3 -- but this is not rocket science, if I figured it out, you can too!):

Rinse the dry beans and pick out any bad ones, dirt or other things that shouldn't be in there (usually it's just bad beans).

Place beans in bowl and cover with cold water. Make sure there is at least 2 inches of water above beans.

Soak in refrigerator overnight.

Remove beans from bowl, rinse, and place in large pot on stove. Add clean fresh water to pot. Make sure at least 2 inches of water covers beans in pot.

Cook on medium for 90 minutes. Check the beans every 30 minutes to make sure the water hasn't cooked out. Add water as needed.

* Note: I've read that to cut down on the gas that beans supposedly cause people who eat them, you should scoop off the foam that forms on top of the water while cooking. I've done it. I can't say that it works or not because I never noticed beans giving us a lot of gas when I didn't do this. But if this is a problem for you, try it!.

Drain water

Let beans cool.

Measure out two cups of cooked beans.

Place 2 cups worth into Ziploc Freezer Bags and flatten out. This makes it easier to stack and store the beans in the freezer.

Wallah! You've got several "cans" worth of beans from one bag of dried beans. Depending upon the size bag I get, I can usually get the equivalent of 4 cans of beans from one bag. And, they are healthier because you know exactly what is in them.

So, now I store lots of cooked beans in my freezer. And I never worry about having beans done in time for dinner. I can remove them from the freezer and throw them right in the pot I'm cooking, like I used to do with canned beans.

This is what works for me! Do you have a tip or idea about food storage? Please let me know.

This is linked to Works For Me Wednesday hosted by We are that family!

WFMW: Freezing & Storing Onions

One of the things I have been doing instead of blogging lately is chopping and freezing onions - A LOT of onions! I got carried away last week when Aldi's had their 3lb bags of onions on sale for .69 ea. I bought 9 pounds of onions! I use onions a lot in cooking, so when I run across a good deal, I always stock up. I like to chop them and freeze them. It's taken a little time and some smelly lessons but this is what works for me!

I chop one whole onion. I do it the old fashion way, knife and cutting board.



Put the chopped onion into a labeled freezer bag. Make sure it's a freezer bag and not the sandwich bags. There is a difference, and you will want the thicker freezer bag. That's one of those lessons I had to learn.

Make sure you lay the bags flat and freeze flat so that you don't have a frozen ball of onions.

Now, this is the important part about freezing onions! Double bag the individual bags! Unless, you want your whole freezer (and refrigerator if you you don't have a separate freezer) to smell like onions, you Must put the bags in another bag. What works for me is to put the individual small bags into a larger Ziploc freezer bag. And then put another one over that. I just re-use the 2 big bags because they do not get dirty. I can store at least 10 small bags (laid flat) in these larger bags.

When I have a recipe that calls for onion, I can just pull one of the bags out and throw in the chopped onion. I cannot taste a difference.

This is what works for me! Do you have any food storage or shortcut tips? Please let me know, I'm always looking for more efficient ways to do things!

To find out what works for others, check out Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family