Saturday, January 16, 2010

Freeze Vegetables to Reduce Your Grocery Budget


One thing I am trying to do lately is to freeze vegetables before they go super bad.  Like every vegetable.  I'll admit - sometimes I get giddy when veggies rot because that's more to add to my compost bin - but that's not very cost efficient of me, huh?  So my first freezer sensation this year was scallions.  I needed like 1/4 cup for a recipe but I got about 2 cups in the package I bought.  I don't use scallions all that much.  So I googled it.  I could just put them in a container and freeze them up to 2 months. 

Not only are frozen vegetables pretty much just as healthy as fresh vegetables, you prep them before hand - which saves time in the future.  It also ensures that you get more bang for your buck out of them.  I had just under a pound of carrots today that I thought would go bad before I could use them - so I blanched them, shredded them, and now have about 3 cups of shredded carrots in my freezer.  Good for that Easy Fried Rice Recipe and other dishes and soups as well. 

Here is a good list of how to blanch certain vegetables to prep them for freezing.  A lot of things I just throw in the freezer, but I do blanch carrots and potatoes.  I don't blanch things like broccoli and onions.  If in doubt though, google "Can I freeze 'whatever'" and you should get some semi-intelligent responses. 

2 comments:

Queenbuv3 said...

I love frozen veggies!! They are just as healthy if not more than fresh. I throw them right into soups, stir fries, etc. Quick and easy=more healthy eating for my family. They are on sale all the time and are pretty cheap when you combine them with coupons.

In fact I made my favorite lazy soup tonight-bag of frozen cheese ravioli, chicken boullion and frozen chopped spinach. Quick, delicious and healthy. Then I ate a fresh orange and some double stuff Oreos. The spinach and the orange cancel out the Oreos right?

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