Our family is like many other families with three children and a pet. We don’t have a lot of time and our schedule can change at the drop of a hat. My husband has a job and works as a musician, our family is active in church activities, and of course there are family and school activities. It only follows that some of our fresh produce sometimes is not used. Instead of throwing it away we decided to freeze the produce we buy when it is in danger of spoiling. Today, my husband took two bunches each of cilantro and flat leaf Italian parsley, a green pepper, two onions, a bunch of celery, and a bulb of garlic and chopped them for freezing. Not only are we avoiding throwing away fresh produce but we are also preparing some traditional seasoning mixes for dishes we prepare regularly. We have friends from Puerto Rico who turned us on to Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice) and Arroz con Gandules (Rice and Pigeon Peas). These dishes both require sofrito which is a mix of olive oil, garlic, green peppers, cilantro, and onion. We made two batches of sofrito for the freezer today. We also tend to cook Italian dishes that use parsley, onion, celery, and garlic. We made two batches of this blend as well. We labeled them and stuck them in the freezer for future use. Just think about it – grocers sell frozen vegetables that are healthy and in high demand. You can make your own frozen vegetables and seasoning mixes with less common and even exotic ingredients. Frozen onions, celery, parsley, and cilantro generally aren’t available in the freezer section. We also peel and cut our own carrots for freezing as well as turnips and parsnips. Turnips and parsnips are only available in our region part of the year and freezing allows us to have them all year long. Canned vegetables are not our preference. Frozen vegetables are much better. Remember that potatoes can be frozen as well as other fresh produce that could go unused in your refrigerator. Chop your produce up and freeze it to avoid throwing it in the trash!
