The oranges got combined with some apples to make fresh juice; extra vitamin C for my croupy kids, my allergy ridden kid and my other kid with a swollen, itchy watery eye and congestion. (No one person can be sick at a time around here.)
The onions were my favorite find though. I use lots of them in cooking but I hate whipping out my food processor every time to chop them up. So I put on my kids swimming goggles (so my eyes wouldn't sting) and processed all those onions at once. Each onion went into a bag for the freezer. Next time I need a whole onion in a recipe all I have to do is run to the freezer and pull out one bag. I won't even thaw it, I'll just add it to my recipe.
The green chili's mean no more high-priced 4 oz cans of diced green chilies when I'm making Mexican food. Those will get diced and frozen too to save me time and money in the long run.
To read more WFMW ideas go HERE.
26 comments:
'bout wet my pants from reading the first line.
Ya crack me up.
What a great find! Thanks for the freezer tips!
I love the pictures (How old is that food processor? lol) but I'd much rather like a picture of you in the swim goggles!
What a good idea, I didn't know you could freeze onions and peppers. I am going to grow peppers this summer if I can freeze them! Thanks for the tip!
Ooh! I wish I had such a dumpster in my town. Maybe I do and just don't know it. hmm...
Anyways, I love to chop up all my onions at once as well and freeze them in 1 cup baggies. I'm going to have to try the swimming goggles tip though. lol
Dumpster diving! How funny.
I do the onion thing too... however I have not tried the goggles. I laughed when I read that. I got this mental image of you with the goggles and the onions, kids gathered around coughing, wiping noses and sipping on juice. Funny.
Thought you'd like that Sarah.
I should have had one of the kids take a picture of me wearing the goggles. The only ones I could find were tinted dark blue and I could barely see a thing. I was fantasizing about chopping my fingers off in my blindness and having to make an ER run. But hey....at least my eyes weren't stinging.
Michelle...that's my juicer... circa 15 YEARS AGO!
I have never thought about this but am going to do it as well! I might even try to do my mirepoix for soups. Not sure if it all would freeze well but it's worth a shot and would be a huge time saver!
thanks for the tip on on the onions, didn't know you could freeze them.
We have a farm share and freeze lots of onions and peppers in the summer too. You can also freeze them "loose pack" which means you put all the chopped onions in a layer on a cookie sheet and then once they are frozen you put them in a bag. That way they don't clump up so much and you can use just as much as you need at one time. We do the same thing with peppers and even berries when you can get a good price.
Thanks for sharing that. I think people have forgotten what our grandmothers did when they couldn't run to the grocery store every week for fresh produce.
Okay...I have to ask, being a Texas girl...
Are those green chilis or jalapenos? Down here they're two different things.
great idea!! I usually hand chop them and do this, why on earth did I not think of the food processor, dumb mommy moment I guess!! thanks will start doing that!
You go, girl!
You never cease to amaze my reading eyes!
~Blessings
Oh man, I MISS the dumpster diving days. Such great stuff to be found ... and NO you don't have to climb in the dumpster (rolling eyes) ... but those days are gone for the time being ...
Anyways, great finds ... love the red onions and jalapenos ... keep forgeting to do that with the ones I have growing and can't eat fast enough!
I love doing this for onions. Since we live in Georgia, we can get huge bags of Vidalia onions pretty cheap but they can go bad fast too, so I chop them up and freeze them. But I didn't know about the dumpster diving for veggies! I'm going to try that too!!!
How do you keep them from perfuming the whole freezer -- had one horrible experience when we were first married. I would love to try it again although this year our onions are keeping very well.
I'm a huge believer in freezing my veggies. They sell frozen onions at the grocery for nearly 5 dollars. I usually put a bag into two large zip locks for an extra seal. Then I pull out the big bag measure what I need and zip my bag up and put it back in the freezer. My husband thought I was a genius. lol
Way to go Gayle!!!! This is my favorite store too. Thanks for telling me about it. Berdie
WOW! What a great idea. I am totally going to have to try this. Thanks for the tip.
HOLY SHITAKE MUSHROOMS, BATMAN! Another onion freezing freak! I love it! Awesome post. I use TONS of frozen onions in all my cooking. If I have left over fresh onions, I dice and freeze, but otherwise I buy bags of already diced frozen onions and use them in pretty much, um, anything!
Hi Gayle -- had another thought when it comes to an abundance of onions. When I have a lot of them, I will make a large stock pot of French Onion Soup and can it.
I save my broth in the freezer from sauteing grinds until there is enough to make the soup.
We like the soup for dinner, but I use it a lot for pork chops and rice casserole as well as for other meals.
Thank you everyone for sharing. I just love the way God provides and dumpster diving can "unearth" a lot of treasures.
o.O well that's new.
From what I can see of your photo, those are jalapeno peppers, not green chiles. If you are just looking for a "hot" pepper, they will work okay, but they are quite different. Usually the cans of green chiles are very, very mild with little heat (~400 Scofield Heat Unit). Jalapeno peppers typically have a much higher Scofield rating of 3000-5000SHU unless of course the Jalapeno peppers you have there are "Fooled You" peppers which are very mild. The green chiles which are used for making canned green chiles are always mild (practically no heat) so be sure to try those before you use them in a meal. If your family loves *hot* peppers, you will probably be thrilled with them.
U can also take the chopped onions or peppers and put the amount u need in muffin tins and when they r frozen put them into ziplock bags.
i just had to delurk and say that i think you are brilliant. and beautiful. even if you don't go IN the dumpster. LOL
How to go about FINDING the dumpsters you can dive in (or next) to?
:)
Seriously...I want to know!
Post a Comment