I'm doing a little mini-series on what's inside my freezer!
I'm starting off with one of my favorite time-saving tricks- pre-cut celery and onions, and my veggie scraps bag!
Ever buy a head of celery, use 3 or 4 sticks, and then never get around to using the rest? Trust me, you can use and save every last bit it! Slice up the remainder of your celery sticks, lay them flat on a lined baking sheet, and freeze until they are solid. Then just transfer them to a freezer baggie or container.
The same can be done with onions! I'm not a huge onion fan, so when I find myself with a bunch of onions (from my Bountiful Basket) or I've only used half of one for a recipe, I chop up the rest and freeze those as well! I use this handy-dandy onion chopper, but you can certainly cut them up by hand. This one is nice because it makes chopping onions SO quick and easy, the pieces come out a uniform size, and you don't end up crying from the onion vapors!
I love having these bags of onions and celery in my freezer because SO many recipes call for them and I can just pop out a few and toss them in my soups, stews, chili, stuffing, gravy, casseroles, or whatever you might need them for! I just keep the same bags in the freezer and add to them as I acquire more celery or onions.
Next up is my veggie scrap bag! Remeber how I said that you could use every last bit of that celery head? Save the leafy tops and bottoms that you normally chop off and throw away. You can even use every last bit of your onion- top, bottom, and skin! Just rinse them really well and toss them into a veggie scrap bag or container to keep in your freezer. You can use these scraps to make delicious broths and stocks! Add them to water to make vegetable stock, or with chicken or other meat bones to make chicken/beef stock. I also keep carrot tops and peels in here, along with garlic skins, parsnip peels, and my newest addition: egg shells! The egg shells add extra calcium to your stocks.
And that's it! This really is a mini-series isn't it? Emphasis on mini. :)
Stay tuned for "A Peek Inside My Freezer: Part 2."
Check out Part 2
So cool! I need to start freezing my veggies because they tend to go bad since I get a 60lb boxful at Market on the Move.
ReplyDeleteQuestion about the egg shells: do they make the stock crunchy or do you just strain the stock so that the egg shells aren't in there?
I just strain them out. After everything has cooked down I usually pour it all through a fine mesh strainer or some cheesecloth to get out any little bits and pieces of everything. :)
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