A Veggie Palooza in My Freezer

I just asked my hubby and son what I should title this blog post and my hubby won - A Veggie Palooza in My Freezer. I asked how to spell Palooza and they both agreed that probably no one would know if I didn't spell it correctly! LOL...

Anyway, here is what happened in my kitchen today - I was a busy girl! Between veggies that I had bought and veggies that my sweet mother-in-law had picked up for me, my veggie basket and my frig overfloweth. I decided this morning that I needed to do something with all this bounty before it began to go bad. So, I pulled out my Vidalia Chop Wizard.

I use this handy little tool for onions all the time.  It is so quick and easy.  But today, I decided to use if for so much more and it did not let me down.

I chopped onions, carrots, mushrooms, celery, peppers, scallions, squash, and cauliflower into uniform, beautiful little morsels of tasty goodness.  I placed them in freezer bags and laid them flat on a baking sheet to freeze.  

Now there is a Veggie Palooza in my freezer and whipping up something delicious to eat will be super simple.  I can easily throw a handful of veggies into a stir fry, omlette, or whatever else I can come up with.  The mushrooms are perfect for making my low-carb Cream of Mushroom Soup, which is fabulous by itself or used in a casserole.  Yum!  The cauliflower can be used to make my low-carb Garlic Mashed Cauliflower.  So good! Or, I can use it in this small form to make Faux Rice, or Faux Fried Rice, again low carb and wonderful.

I also had a couple of pounds of Brussel Sprouts and I went ahead and shredded them to cook later in my Best Brussels Spourts Ever recipe.   

Aren't Veggies Just Beautiful - All The Colors and Textures!

I love how uniform everything is which I would never have achieved chopping by hand.

While I was on a role, I decided that I had a few too many tomatoes.  So I cut them up, yellow heriloom, grape and roma's, and placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet.  After a quick drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of Himalayan salt, and pepper  I popped them in the oven at 250℉ for about 3 hours.  Oh, they smelled so good roasting.  

After I removed them from the oven, I let them cool.  Then I layered them in a glass mason jar and covered them extra virgin olive oil.  Now, I can grab them out of my frig and pop a few in any dish or salad that I am making, especially those that call for sundried tomatoes.  These are so yummy.  I'll admit I popped a few of the grape tomatoes in my mouth instead of the jar.  But, nobody knows that but you.  Shhhh!

I also had quite a few lemons and limes and I noticed that a few were starting to get hard, so I pulled out 2 old ice trays that I have.  I labeled one lemon, so that I could tell them apart.  I juiced the lemons and limes into the trays.  About 1/2 a lemon or 1/2 lime will fill each section of my trays.  I popped them in the freezer and when they are frozen, I will put them in baggies and store in the freezer.  Then when I need lemon or lime juice, I just pull out 1 cube for each 1/2 lemon or lime that I need.  Brilliant, I know.  I have my moments.

I am excited about all of the bounty in my freezer.  We are going to have some good eats over the next few weeks.  I hope this has given you some ideas to make your cooking and eating healthy a little eaiser.

Be Blessed,