Last week I posted about Chipotle Cubes and that seemed to have gone over really well. You guys seemed to have really liked that idea and I really want to say thank you for your support on that post!
The reason I bring that up now is I was going through my recent photos tonight trying to decide what recipe I want to post next and I realized I had another food preservation post I had planned to share with you. When I purchased the supplies for my Mushroom Spinach and Italian Cheese Quiche Recipe, I had posted on October 24th, I had leftovers from that and another dish I made for meal prep.
Sometimes I need carrots and celery for soup and that is it, I just need to sauté them or sweat them as a chopped addition of flavor and I end up having over 2/3 of the purchased amount left. You could easily just eat them fresh with ranch or repurpose them the same week, but that wasn’t the case for me that particular week. Also, sometimes it is cheaper to buy a large container of mushrooms and a larger container of spinach.
Here is what I do. I do all the prep work once and I store all the food away in freezer bags. I store the food in bags in accordance with what can cook with what at what cooking time. So I chopped and prepped my carrots and celery and placed them in portioned freezer bags for my next soup or maybe fried rice. Next I washed and prepped all my mushrooms, dried them and placed them in their own freezer bags because they get a little mushy when they defrost and get added on their own to a meal always. Next, I washed, dried and placed the remaining half bag of spinach in its own bag for a meal or maybe a smoothie later down the road. Spinach is super forgiving, it wilts when you cook it anyways.
Do you prep your food and freeze it like this? I find this so handy. I always have chicken in my freezer so if we aren’t feeling well, having a bag of pre-prepped veggies and chicken makes a super quick and easy Chicken Soup and no one had to leave the house. This not only saves you time, but this really saves you so much money. You are getting 2 to 3 times the amount of made food out of your already purchased ingredients, especially if you are cooking for yourself.
Truth be told, I have already used the bags of frozen mushroom and spinach…
And it was Easy Peezy Lemon Squeezy. <3