Saturday, April 3, 2010

Bountiful Baskets Pick-up and Strawberries

I've been trying to keep up with all of the produce I get from Bountiful Baskets . Every spare minute I have, I'm peeling, cutting, dicing and otherwise getting the produce ready to use. After I finished peeling, slicing and storing the cucumbers, son #4 comes into the kitchen and asks if we have any. Of course, I directed him to the proper container. There is no excuse for not eating veges when they are ready-to-eat!

Today was another pick-up day for produce. I got 2 flats of strawberries. Tonight, after son #4's chamber orchestra performance, I am going to get them washed and freeze them in a single layer on cookie sheets, then, when frozen, will put them into ziplock freezer bags. We like to use strawberries for smoothies in the morning, and these were such a great price at $8/case (8#).

I made some vegetable soup stock yesterday using some wilted celery, a couple of carrots, some zucchini and seasonings. I made 3 quart containers of soup stock, and it smelled and tasted fantastic. Making soup stock is a great way to use vegetables that are a little past their prime. Those are now in the freezer. It will come in handy for making risotto, soup, or for using in other recipes.

I also froze a bunch of greens for smoothies. They were washed, put into my lettuce spinner and then packed into ziplock freezer bags.

Finally, I baked all of the yams I had, and am using them tonight for a yummy sweet potato casserole. I'll share the recipe for that later tonight. I'm making mini turkey meatloaf to go with the casserole. I'll probably include a green salad.

Hope that you are having a fantastic Easter weekend!