When I was first married and had to learn how to cook for two people instead of seven, I was always frustrated when I found recipes calling for half an onion, 1/3 cup chopped bell pepper, 1 carrot, etc. Most bell peppers and onions are sold whole. Then after having kids (yeah, it took me a while), I learned you could freeze a lot of different vegetables. Potatoes are a little tricky. But I chop and freeze the following on a pretty regular basis:
bell pepper (red, yellow, and green)
onions (white, red, yellow, sweet, and green)
celery
leeks
carrots
Chopping up leftover vegetables and freezing them saves time, money, and prevents waste. Living frugal is one of my favorite pasttimes. For a fun kid-friendly Valentine's Day Frugal Friday click here. For more Frugal Friday posts that I didn't write, visit LifeAsMom.
5 comments:
This is one of the best things I learned after marriage, too. I don't remember if Mom ever taught us this - don't know why. Anyway, I love it because not only can I make sure all my leftovers are put to use as much as possible but when amazingly cheap or free produce comes my way (since I am in farmland) I can prep it and freeze it. One of my favorite things to do is run onions through my food processor which chops them fine, chunky, or does slices and freeze in ziplocks. I get all the teary eyes and stinky smell taken care of in one day.
I too love to save the bits of vegies. At times I have a container in the freezer just for that!
My fiance thinks I'm cool because I freeze cooked ground beef, chicken and cubed ham, but the only vegetables I do are onions--that way I only have to cry once, you know?
I"ll have to tell him how much cooler you are for doing so many more veggies!
Marcy-
Sometimes I forget to freeze other veggies other than onions. It's usually when I'm throwing away a bag of mushy, forgotten-at-the-bottom-of-the-crisper-drawer veggies that I go, "Duh! I could've frozen this."
I freeze ground beef, chicken, and cubed ham too. And also bacon and sausage if it doesn't get inhaled before freezing. ;)
I have to say Nikki that you were the one who taught me to chop up 3-4, or more, onions and then put them in the freezer. I love it. I have it in the freezer in a Gladware container and they are just great. I scoop our what I need and put it back in. Great idea and keep the others coming.
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